Yours For Life
Two feelings won't seem to go away, and we've all felt them. In the lonely moments, you know there's a relationship you don't have that you're supposed to have . . . and you think maybe it's a best friend . . . a boyfriend . . . a girl friend . . . a husband or wife . . . a close family. But every relationship leaves you with this hole in your heart where "somebody's missing". In a way, we spend our whole life looking for that person.
Then there's the other feeling -- "something's wrong" . . . with my world . . . with people in my family . . . with me. There's too much hurt . . . too much "me first" . . . too many masks.
Something isn't right, but we just can't find it or fix it. Someone is missing . . . something is wrong -- but it doesn't ever have to be that way for you again. Your Creator is the end of the search for answers.
Sound Intriguing? Check It Out!
Your life might never be the same again!
There's a relationship you're created to have..
The Bible, the only Book God ever wrote, tells us Who the "someone missing" is:
All things were created by Him (Jesus Christ) and for Him" (Colossions 1:16)
You were created by Jesus Christ and for Jesus Christ. You won't be complete inside until you belong to Jesus Christ. The one relationship you can't do without is a personal relationship with the God who created you. God loves you very much and He wants to be in a close and powerful relationship with you!
The Bible says, "All love comes from God . . . This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His Son into the world that we might live through Him." (I John 4:7,9)
But there is a big problem.
There is a reason why we don't have this relationship...
There's a relationship you don't have because of sin..
"Your iniquities (wrong doings) have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you."
Those are God's words in Isaiah 59:2 . . . they explain why we don't have a relationship with the God we need. Sin is a wall between God and you. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)
We're all missing God because of this monster called sin. Sin is the "something wrong" that is at the root of our selfishness and our loneliness and our dark feelings. Sin is really explained by its middle letter, "I". Day after day we make more "I'll be god" choices with our temper, our tongue, our sexuality, our relationships, our attitudes.
Because God is 100 percent sinless, we can't have a relationship with Him until our sin gets removed somehow. All the "I'll do it my way" choices of our lives have created this wall - and we cannot get to the Person we were made by and made for. We are trying to live without the love and the life that only God can give. If we die with that wall between God and us, it will be there forever.
" . . . the wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23) There is an awful price for sin - separation from God now . . . and forever.
"BUT THERE IS HOPE!
Thankfully, there is a way out!"
You can have a God relationship because of what Jesus did..
The sin-bill must be paid. Religion and good living cannot pay it.
"It is by grace you have been saved (from sin), through faith -- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works." (Ephesians 2:8,9)
Good does not repay bad. A death penalty cannot be paid by doing good . . . somebody has to die. And that's what Jesus did.
God loves you so much that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty for the sin in your life.
"Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous (that's Jesus) for the unrighteous (that's you), to bring you to God." (I Peter 3:18)
"God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)
You had the sin-debt with God, but Jesus paid for your sin when He died on the cross. No one else has ever loved you like that! God's Son was cut off from God because He was carrying your sin . . . cut off so you don't have to be.
But a dead man cannot be the savior you need. The good news is that Jesus Christ rose from the dead 3 days after He died. "You, with the help of wicked men, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross. But God raised Him from the dead." (Acts 2:23, 24)
JESUS IS ALIVE! The most important decision you will ever make is what you do with Him. The missing relationship becomes yours when the sin wall comes down. Jesus' death on the cross can bring you together with your Creator, and give you His power to conquer the sin that has always conquered you.
You're ready for God when you can put your name in the most famous verse in the Bible . . .
"God loved
(your name)
so much, that He gave His one and only Son, so that if
(your name)
would believe in Him, then
(your name)
will never die, but will have eternal life. (John 3:16)
"Now find out what YOU have to do
to make this relationship happen...
You have to choose this relationship with God..
There's no such thing as a one-way love relationship. God has done His part when His Son died for you . . . now it's your move.
Your move begins when you . . .
"Repent then and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out." (Acts 3:19)
Turning TO God means you are also turning FROM something. If you want to turn TO the sunset in the western sky, that choice will automatically turn you FROM facing east. You can't face east and west at the same time!
It's the same with Jesus and sin. As you turn to Him, you "repent", which means you realize you cannot give yourself to Jesus while hanging onto the sin He died for. That means turning your back on "my way" choices such as lying, sexual immorality, anger, etc. to begin doing things God's way.
What does it mean to "turn to God?" Here is God's personal description of the beginning of a personal relationship with Him . . .
"To all who received Him, TO THOSE WHO BELIEVED in His name, HE GAVE THE RIGHT TO BECOME THE CHILDREN OF GOD." (John 1:12)
A member of God's family - at last you can have a personal relationship with the Person you were made by and made for.
Believing in Christ is like a drowning person grabbing the outstretched hand of a lifeguard . . . it's grabbing hold of Jesus' outstretched hand and saying, "Lord, I am pinning all my faith, and all my hopes for forgiveness and rescue on you."
When you give yourself to your Savior, the sin-wall is gone and the hole in your heart is filled, and you are home.
Jesus said: "I have come that they may have life and have it to the full." (John 10:10)
Once you open your heart to Jesus, you have the relationship you were made for - with all the dependable love, the personal peace, and the inner freedom God wants you to have.
"In all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:37-39)
"Do you want this relationship with God?"
This relationship can be
YOURS FOR LIFE!
You don't have to live one more day without Him. You can belong to God from today on if you will tell Him with all your heart -
"Lord, I have been running my own life -- but I resign as of today. I was made by You . . . I was made for You, but I've been living for me. I'm sorry for that self-rule You call sin. But I believe your Son Jesus Christ paid my death penalty when he died on the cross. and right now I am turning from a life of "my way" and I am putting all my trust in Jesus Christ to erase my sin from Your book, to give me a relationship with You, and to get me to heaven. Lord, from today on, I am Yours."
Did you open your heart to Jesus? If you did, you are "in Christ" now and you are "a new creation! The old has gone, the new has come" (II Corinthians 5:17) You are one of those completed people "who believe in the name of the Son of God" and you can "know that you have eternal life" (I John 5:13)
Used with permission, Ron Hutchcraft Ministries.