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The Gospel - God's Good News For You
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God wants a relationship with you !
He wants you to know Him now, not only so that you can enjoy this life, but when we die He wants you to know that you will go to Heaven.
God has given everyone a choice - you can choose to follow God and receive eternal life in Heaven. The alternative is to live your life as you think is best, but you will spend eternity separated from God.
The only way you will go to Heaven is by believing that Jesus Christ died for your sins and trusting in Him now, in this life.
Eternal Life is a FREE GIFT
Did you know that God has given eternal life to you as a free gift?
The Bible says that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.
Maybe you are a very good person, have done lots of good things in your life and been nice to people, but none of these things will get you into heaven.
The Bible says that It is by grace (undeserved favour) you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no-one can boast.
This clearly says that you cannot earn a place in heaven.
Man
The Bible says that all of us have sinned and are not like God wants us.
You might think that sin is murder or bank robbery etc, but God says that sin is doing and thinking wrong things, not loving God, and not loving our neighbour.
Using Gods definition of sin, we can see we have sinned many times.
Even one sin will separate us from God - the Bible says Whoever keeps the whole law, yet stumbles at just one point, is guilty of breaking all of it - so even doing one sin is like breaking all of Gods law. It doesn't matter what we have done - all sin is the same to God.
God cannot look at sin. Suppose I invite you to my house for dinner, and cook you a meal made with eggs. If one of the eggs is bad so that it really smells, you would not be happy if I used that egg for your dinner! Just one bad egg would spoil the whole dinner. Sin is like that - just one sin can spoil us so we are not acceptable to God.
So, what does God do - isn't He supposed to love us?
God
The Bible says that God loves us, and does not want to punish us (by sending us to hell), but He is patient with us, and wants everyone to go to Heaven.
BUT God, like a judge also has a system of justice to follow, and so He must punish sin. The Bible says that the guilty will not go unpunished, and that we are going to die once and after that we will face God and be judged. This means that there is no such thing as reincarnation - we will die only once.
If I robbed a bank, and my crime was on camera - if I went to court and said to the judge "I'm really sorry - I'll never do it again, and nobody was hurt," he would not be a good judge if he let me go without any punishment.
God is like that - He must punish sin.
So, if we have all sinned so many times, and God cannot look at us when we have sin - and He must punish us, how can we ever hope to go to Heaven when we die?
Jesus
So, who is Jesus? You may have heard of Him before.
The Bible says that In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. What does this mean? What is "the Word"? The Bible says that The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. So, the Word is Jesus - Jesus is fully God, but He is also fully man.
Why did Jesus (God) become flesh and come to earth to live with us?
Jesus died for us - He had never ever sinned like us, and was not guilty of any crime, but God saw that His relationship with us had to be repaired - so that God would not look at us and see lots of sin. So, God sent His only son,Jesus to die for us.
Before Jesus came, when people sinned, they had to kill an animal, and God accepted that as payment for their sin.
The blood of bulls and goats though never took away sin completely - every year a sacrifice was made, and it reminded people of the sins they had done.
However, to take our sin completely, to take away God's record of sin, make our conscience clear and for us to have a perfect relationship with God, there had to be a better sacrifice.
This is why Jesus came - he took all of our sin so that God now sees us as having no sin, but remembers the sacrifice Jesus made. The Bible says that all of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on Him (Jesus) all of our sin.
When He died, the last thing He said was a Greek word used in the market place - Tetelestai - which means that the debt has been paid in full - he has paid fully for all of our sin - there is no more debt to God to be paid.
Jesus however, did not die, and that was the end of Him- because He had lived a life completely without sinning, and was not guilt of anything which deserved death, His grave could not keep Him there - but He came back to life three days later, and is now in Heaven again, and we will all see Him one day.
So, if Jesus died for us, and paid the price in full for our sins, we will all go to heaven - right??? No - that is wrong!!!
To get to Heaven, we have to believe that Jesus died for us, trust in Him to get us to Heaven, and follow His plans for our life.
Faith
How do we receive His gift of eternal life?
The only way to get to Heaven is by accepting God's gift of eternal life by faith.
Remember what the Bible says - It is by grace (undeserved favour) you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no-one can boast.
So, what is faith?
Faith is not just believing God exists - the Bible says that even the demons believe God exists - but they won't be in Heaven!
Faith is also not just trusting in God in difficult times either.
Faith which will get us to Heaven is trusting in Jesus alone for our salvation.
The whole Bible in one verse is this - for God so loved the world that He gave His only son that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but will have eternal life.
OK, so how do I accept God's free gift of eternal life with Him in Heaven? Well, all you have to do is ask Him, but there are some things you must know before you do.....
Implications
Before you ask God to be a part of your life, and to give you eternal life with Him in Heaven, you should know these things.....
You must transfer your trust to Jesus, and believe that only He can get you to Heaven. The Bible says Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.
You must repent (say sorry, and regret doing your sins) to God. This also means turning away from those things and not doing them any more. If you ask Him, God will help you. The Bible says that there is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. You have lived doing your own thing, but those things will lead to death - the right way is to follow Jesus.
You must make Jesus the Lord of your life - let Him guide you in what to do, what decisions you make and how you live your life. The Bible says that if anyone loves me (Jesus), he will obey my teaching.
These things will be hard if you have to do them yourself, but God will help you by His Holy Spirit. We cannot actually change by ourselves, nor do we have to change before God will accept us - He takes us as we are now. The Bible says that flesh gives birth to flesh, but the
Spirit gives birth to Spirit. In the same way that we have babies born in the world, our spirit is changed when we let God become part of our life - our Spirit now desires things He wants instead of the things we used to want.
You should become involved in a local church, if that is possible for you. You will be encouraged by meeting together, and you can pray for each other too, as well as learn more about God.
If you want to let God become a part of your life, you just have to say a simple prayer right now to God - you do not have to be in a church, or use some special language.....
Prayer
You can let God become part of your life, and you will be sure you have eternal life, just by saying this prayer, or one like it....
Dear God,
I know I have done wrong things in my life, but I am sorry for doing them and believe that Jesus died on the cross for me so that I
can have a relationship with you. Please forgive me for sinning, and help me to be more like you. I want you to be part of my life.
Amen.
If you have said that prayer, and really mean it, God will come into your life. He wants you to know for certain that you now have eternal life - Jesus said I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.
This does not mean you might have it, but you definately do have it!
Now that you have eternal life, and God is part of your life, He wants you to grow. Like babies need milk to grow, you can grow spiritually....
Growing
God helps us to grow by .....
His Living Presence - God is with us all the time wherever we go. Jesus promised us that He would be with us to the very end of the age.
His Written Word, the Bible - God can speak to us through His Word, and it is a guide for us how to live as He wants us to, and is best for us. The Bible says that the Bible is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path.
His Gift of Prayer - you can pray to God anywhere and anytime - He is always there, listening, and wants you to talk to Him - it is a relationship. The Bible says that until now you have not asked for anything in My name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy shall be complete.
His Loving Family - the Church - as we said before, if possible, you should try to join a church - you will learn more about God, and meet lots of other Christians. Make sure it is a good church - print this page out if you want to, and show them to the leader of the church. If the
leader agrees with them, you have found a church which believes what Jesus taught.
God has a plan for your life which he has prepared for you - no matter what age you are! You should also tell somebody else what God has done for you today.
Also, if you have let Jesus into your life today, we would love to hear from you - just e-mail usjust e-mail us.
God Bless You.
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