What is a Christian?'s TestimonyWhat is a Christian?For My Friend------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 A NO-NONSENSE EXPLANATION WHY Introduction 2 The Bible 9 What is a Christian? 14 Conclusion 30 All Bible verses are highlighted in blue Italic text. By Lincoln Forlong For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 Introduction You're probably reading this because a Christian friend gave it to you. Whether you realise it or not, or even care about it or not, God wants to be at peace with you. Strangely, it seems that often the most important; life changing bits of information about God are withheld from us, just in case we find it offensive. However, as the truth of how God wants to intercept your life for His glory and your benefit is of far greater importance, I want to share God’s side of the discussion. Your beliefs of God have probably been influenced by life’s events and relationships. You may accept there is more to life than we can humanly know or understand, and you may have tried to get sensible answers to genuine questions. Your Christian friend, like you and I, was born as a non-Christian. Like you, we’ve reasoned through the whole God, Bible, Jesus Christ issues. Previously, we looked at life and God through the eyes of our personal history, which directed the For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 way we evaluated God. However, at some point we decided instead, to view life, ourselves, and God, as God sees it. Choosing to see things as God tells it in the Bible, this is what He calls faith. Be encouraged, you have caring friends who want the best for you. But most of all, God loves you and wants you to know Him personally. I'm going to bypass reasoning through popular ideas, current controversies, religious fads, philosophies, personal preferences, and your desires for this life. I won't attempt to answer your every question or explain every bad thing that happens in life. I simply wish to share what God says is of first importance (1 Corinthians 15:3). As my good friend Gerald regularly says; "Life is not a dress rehearsal, it's not a practice run." We all participate in this unchangeable fact, we only get one crack at life on earth, that's it. No rewind, no replay options, no restart button, no soul sleep or recycling, and no reincarnation. In the Bible, God writes in Hebrews 9:27 that ...man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment. A sobering thought that should grab our attention regardless For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 of personal religious persuasion. We need to be certain that we have the right understanding of life, death, and God - because this life is the only opportunity we have to reason through this responsibility. Everything I share in this booklet is based on two realities: 1) There is a knowable God; ...He (God) has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they (mankind) cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Every human has the innate awareness of God, even though we may not know what to do with this knowledge. 2) The Bible is God's written Word to all mankind. "If you want to hear from God, read your Bible. If you want to hear Him audibly, read it out loud." - Justin Peters (Strange Fire Conference 2013, Grace Community Church, Los Angeles, USA). Jesus Christ said that God's Word (The Bible) is truth (John 17:17). The apostle Paul told his young friend Timothy that "the church of the living God, (is) the pillar and foundation of the truth (1Timothy 3:15). Simply put, Christians are those For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 responsible for speaking about and maintaining God's truth found in God's Word, the Bible. Those people who live indifferently toward God, will often try to convince you that there is no God. Others will tell you that you hold the power to decide if, how, and when, you enter into a relationship with God, or not. Nothing could be further from the truth. Both of those ideas are exactly what the great enemy of God (Satan) wants you to think. You may just want to get on with life in a way that works for you, considering your particular background and history. You may have genuinely consoled yourself with neutral feelings toward God, thinking that will be good enough. You may be saying to yourself; "Surely, if God is loving, He will accept me."  You may be hiding behind a spouse, or family member who is a Christian, thinking: "God has to accept me because of their faith."  You may question: "What sort of God would send nice people to a place of torment (Hell) after death?" For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6  You may reason: "I'll put it right with God when this life ends. I'll sort it out later."  You may have convinced yourself: "When I die, that's the end, it's all over, the end of everything, there is nothing beyond the grave."  You may be cheeky enough to think: "I'll take my chances - it's all good."  You may realise that your life is a mess, aware of a deep sense of personal guilt. Thinking that you are beyond forgiveness, past restoration, abandoned to whatever fate lies ahead.  You may be deeply offended because God didn't deliver the goods in the way you wanted in the past. Disillusioned, you've told yourself that God has burnt any chance of winning your friendship.  Or, you may think: "I simply don't care, leave me alone." We humans are quick to assume that whatever we conclude about God is right, and good enough. Typically, we fail to ask God what He thinks, or what He wants for us. For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 Fortunately for us God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). God, not being content with mankind's response toward Him, intervened in this world and our lives through His son the Lord Jesus Christ. Compelled by love, God created a way in which every human would have the opportunity through belief in the Lord Jesus Christ to enter into eternal life with Him. Often our spiritual conscience is so dulled, that we are not even aware that God is not at peace with us. We can ignore Him, rationalise Him out of our thinking, even work against Him. However, we can't change the facts of our separation from Him, His love for us, and His desire for us to know Him on His terms. My father had a sign which read: “I love Jesus Christ, ask me why?” He For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8 would place on a stand in public places, then, standing beside it, he would wait for people to respond. The obvious response was: "Why do you love Jesus Christ?" Following, you will read God's answer to Dad's question. As I share with you the "don't beat around the bush" issues of what it means to love Jesus Christ and call yourself a Christian, you will discover God's view: His truth for your life as He tells it from His Word, the Bible. For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9 The Bible As God is the one who created and maintains all things both visible and invisible, including your life, it is reasonable to accept that what He says is authoritative and final. Here, I briefly and simply want to establish the significance of the Bible to the entire Christian faith. The Christian's primary source of authority is the Bible, the Word of God. Because of this, Christians turn to what God says in His Word for knowledge of Him and answers for things we don't understand. The Bible lays out definitive, singular, knowable truth that is unchangeably absolute. The Bible was authored by God Himself through human penmen, "For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21). The Bible contains 66 books, written by 40 different inspired human authors, over a 1500 year period, in 3 different languages, from 3 different continents, with no historical or contextual errors For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10 or contradictions. The entire Bible, from beginning to end (Genesis to Revelation), evidences Divine inspiration. In the Bible, we see what God says about the universe and mankind. We see that the historical information is accurate, the scientific information is verifiable, and that prophetic predictions are being accurately fulfilled. Following is an excerpt from John MacArthur's book "You Can Trust the Bible", which adds greater clarity. Science The Bible also presents a most plausible, objective understanding of the universe and the existence of life. It presents a God who creates. That makes more sense than believing that everything came out of nothing – that nobody times nothing equals all things - which is essentially what the theory of evolution says. I have an easier time assuming that someone produced everything. And the Bible tells me who that someone is: God. The study of creation helps explain how things became the way they are from a geological standpoint. The Bible tells of a supernatural creation that For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11 took place in six days and of a catastrophic worldwide flood. These two events help explain many geological and other scientific questions... English philosopher Herbert Spencer, who died in 1903, was famous for applying scientific discoveries to philosophy. He categorized that which is knowable in the natural sciences as time, force, motion, space, and matter. However, Genesis 1:1, the first verse in the Bible, says, "In the beginning (time) God (force) created (motion) the heavens (space) and the earth (matter)." God laid it all out in the very first verse of Scripture. Prophecy There is no way to explain the Bible's ability to predict the future unless we see God as its Author. For example, the Old Testament contains more than three hundred references to the Messiah of Israel that were precisely fulfilled by Jesus Christ (Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah). Peter Stoner, a scientist in the area of mathematical probabilities, says in his book Science Speaks that if we take just eight of the Old For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12 Testament prophecies Christ fulfilled, we find that the probability of their coming to pass is one in 1017. He illustrates that staggering amount this way: We take 1017 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly... Blindfold a man and tell him… he must pick up one silver dollar... What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them come true in any one man. ([Chicago: Moody, 1963], 100-107). And Jesus fulfilled hundreds more than just eight prophecies! ("You Can Trust the Bible" by John MacArthur, 1988, Moody Press) The Bible is primarily God's revelation of Himself to mankind. He never asks for our opinion or approval. He doesn’t want us to interpret His Word through our human, distorted perception of life. He simply tells us objectively that the central, most significant person of the Bible is Jesus Christ! …he (God) has spoken to us by his Son… (Hebrews For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13 1:2). If you want to know God, you look for Jesus Christ in the Bible. Everything that follows grows out this truth concerning the Bible. For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14 What is a Christian? Christianity - you cannot inherit it from others, you cannot buy it, and you cannot earn it! You cannot negotiate a deal that is convenient for you and satisfying to God. You cannot bluff your way into God's family and you can't sweet talk God into giving you a break. Many think they are Christians because they claim to believe in Jesus, or they attend church. Some hang their hope on a 'decision' they made, or a 'prayer' they prayed at a church service. Possibly, they grew up in a Christian family, attending Sunday School, or some other Christian run program as a child, saying they have always believed the Bible and God. They may have been christened, confirmed, or baptised into a church organisation as a child. They console themselves with the idea of childhood Christian influence being sufficient to carry them for the rest of their lives. It's possible for such people to grow well into adult life, continuing in church attending Christian For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 practices learned as a child, yet without any authentic relationship with God. The questions we should be asking are:  What does God say in His Word (The Bible) a 'Believer’ in Jesus is?  Why does God say we need to become a Jesus believing Christian? First, nothing that follows will make sense without acceptance of this truth: We are all sinful, spiritually dead, and awaiting our appropriate eternal payment. God informs us in no uncertain terms, that we …all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). King David, from Old Testament Bible times, confessed that: "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me" (Psalms 51:5). From birth, we all sin and have disobedience in our hearts. All wrongdoing is sin (1 John 5:17a), and we all do plenty of wrongdoing. There isn't a single person able to pass the "Good Person Test" (Note 1). For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 I understand that this is a humbling realisation, especially when the world is telling us the opposite. (Note 1: You can take the test if you like, by going online to www.areyouagoodperson.org) Both personal and world history verifies that: There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins (Ecclesiastes 7:20). Until we take ownership of our sinfulness, we will resist God and His Word at every point. An attitude of spiritual belligerence will permeate every thought, every belief, every partial commitment we make, as we draw closer to a right understanding of God. God tells us that because of our inherent sin, we are dead in our transgressions and sins, and that we are by nature objects of wrath (Ephesians 2:1-3). God, being sinlessly holy, requires justice for our sin, and that justice requires the death penalty. The Bible tells us that the ...soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son... the For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17 wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him (Ezekiel 18:20). Our personal sin earns wages, which is death (Romans 3:23). Put simply, the most accurate reward for sin is death. This death penalty is not transferable, nor is it able to be shared with another, nor can it be erased by a fellow sinner. Our unbelief in Jesus Christ keeps us in our pre-existing state of guilt before God: ...whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son (John 3:18). We need to agree with God that ...everyone who sins is a slave to sin (John 8:34), accepting that ...because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed (Romans 2:5). I realise that accepting this is not comforting, leaving us in a fearful state of haunting expectation, that one day we shall stand before God condemned, guilty as charged, and without any excuse or redeeming qualities. Believe God when He says that ...the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18 the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars - their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulphur (Hell) Revelation 21:8. Understanding this is essential if we expect to know God as He wants to be known. Notice that in Revelation 21:8, there is no distinction between the severity of sin. We humans tend to categorise sin, ranking sin by its severity, in an attempt to present ourselves as being better than what we really are. To God, the liar is as guilty as the murderer. The unbeliever is as guilty as those who practice magic arts. Sin is sin, no matter how you cut it. All sin is worthy of eternal judgement - death. Being born a sinner myself, I know how we avoid coming to grips with this terrible reality. We find ourselves trapped by sin, yet we live in denial of it. We go to extraordinary lengths, attempting to find any belief, any alternative, anything that will offer hope apart from acknowledging our true standing as a sinner before a holy God. However, like you, I'm forced to deal with the reality of my life. I prove God to be truthful; I am a guilty sinner awaiting judgement. For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19 Finding ourselves in this incurable predicament, spiritually bankrupt (Matthew 5:3), without God and without hope (Ephesians 2:12), let’s consider God's solution to our dilemma. The Bible shows three non-negotiable components to becoming a Christian, a believer in Jesus Christ. These are: 1. To be a Christian you must agree with God about who Jesus Christ is. Jesus Christ is God in human flesh, fully God while simultaneously being fully human. The Bible says that ...in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form (Colossians 2:9). The apostle Paul, who wrote to Titus, stated that they were waiting for ...the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13). Again, Paul told the People of Philippi that Jesus Christ is ...in very nature God... (Philippians 2:6-7). Jesus was not simply a good man who inspired others. Nor was he a religious guru who swayed others to His way of thinking. He didn't come to fight for political reform or environmental protection. No, Jesus tells us Himself, "I and (God) For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20 the Father are one" (John 10:30) and if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins (John 8:24). The sin of disbelieving who Jesus is, is sufficient to qualify for spiritual death. God gives us a more detailed explanation of who Jesus is in Hebrews 1:2-3a ...in these last days He (God) has spoken to us by His Son (Jesus Christ), whom He (God) appointed heir of all things, and through whom He (God) made the universe. The Son (Jesus Christ) is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. Hebrews 1:2-3a details a most compelling truth for the human race; the one true God, who created and maintains all that exists in the cosmos, has made Himself known to mankind through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the only full and accurate expression of God. God is unashamedly non-negotiable regarding Jesus Christ being His exclusive path to both the knowledge of God and entering into a relationship with Him. If you want to know God, you must look to His Son the For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21 Lord Jesus Christ. There is simply no other way by which you can know God, although you may wish there were other ways. Others may attempt to convince you of other ways, but the fact is that, God emphatically says there is none. Jesus Himself said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). 2. To be a Christian you must believe in (trust in, depend upon) Jesus Christ to forgive you of the sin that separates you from God. Jesus alone was qualified to take our place in receiving our punishment because "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth" (1 Peter 2:22). No other person has ever been sinless, therefore, no other person qualifies to stand in our place of judgement. Therefore, belief in Jesus Christ is depending upon the fact that He (Jesus Christ) himself bore our sins in his body on the tree (The cross)... (1 Peter 2:24). God the Father vented His full justice on His Son, punishing Jesus with the death penalty for our sin. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22 world through him (John 3:17), therefore, Jesus is our only Saviour, the only sinless one who has given His all so that we would have the opportunity of escaping judgement. Believing in Jesus Christ means we abandon all ideas of ever being able to satisfy God's righteous requirements. So, we grab hold of the fact that Jesus Christ has already paid the price fully for our past, present and future sin by His death on the cross of Calvary. Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God... (1 Peter 3:18). Believing in Jesus Christ means we dependently put our trusting confidence in Him who ...was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification (Romans 4:25). Justification means that we are acquitted from guilt, deemed to be right before God purely because of Jesus death and resurrection which he did in our place. The crucifixion we should have suffered, He suffered in our place, carrying the full load of our sin which was placed in his body. For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23 3. To be a Christian you must love Jesus Christ as your Lord (Master). A Christian accepts Jesus words: If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching (John 14:23). The man who says, "I know him (Jesus)", but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him (1 John 2:4). The Bible calls this change of attitude toward Jesus "repentance". Repentance means to turn and go in the opposite direction. Therefore, a non-Christian should realise that to believe in Jesus Christ is to change the total direction of your life from living for self, to living for Jesus Christ as Lord. Jesus said: I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32). It's appropriate then, that a Christian produce fruit (behaviour) in keeping with repentance (Matthew 3:8), behaviour that is visible evidence that God has genuinely changed the direction of life. This is what God means when He says that all people ...must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus (Acts 20:21). For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 24 Jesus' Lordship is what distinguishes the pretend from the genuine Christians. At the heart of any decision to believe in Jesus Christ, is an open expression of a surrendered life. The apostle Paul explains: ...if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9). James, the half-brother of Jesus, explained how we can monitor the authenticity of our belief in Jesus by examining how we express faith, when he said ...faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead (James 2:17). Our newly obedient lifestyle is NOT what saves us from our sin, rather, it is what authenticates our belief in Jesus Christ as being genuine. A person doesn’t get to this stage of their understanding of God just to say a little prayer, using all the correct words, then go out continuing to live the same way they always have. Jesus declared His Lordship over anyone who genuinely wants to believe in Him by saying: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me" (Luke 9:23). Believing in For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 25 Jesus Christ means daily living in denial of selfperceived rights. It means living daily as if we were actually about to be crucified because of our faith in, and allegiance to, the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul explains the relationship between belief in Jesus Christ and Lordship in these words: For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live (Believers) should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). This attitude fuelled the Apostle Paul's confession that: "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21). Living as a Believer in Jesus Christ does not mean adding Him to your religious beliefs, and, it does not mean He is your fire insurance against eternal judgement and you carry on living life your way. No, Jesus takes over! Belief in Jesus Christ means total self-abandonment and surrender to His control as Lord. As Believers in Jesus Christ we say with the apostle Paul; If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 26 or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living (Romans 14:8-9). We do not take Jesus for a test drive. We do not have Him on a 90 day trial with right of return. He is not waiting for us to give a performance review of how well He's done at satisfying us. Belief in Jesus is total surrender, complete abandonment of self, a relinquishing of all personal rights to His supreme headship. Jesus takes over as Sovereign Lord. God's Word makes it very clear, so that anyone considering belief in Jesus will understand that: ...with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:22-24). If you intend to add Jesus to your existing religious beliefs as a safe guard, DON'T. He demands exclusivity. For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 27 If you intend on passively including Jesus in your existing lifestyle as an add-on, DON'T. He demands total domination, not inclusion. If you are working on assimilating the appearance of belief in Jesus while retaining control of your values, beliefs, behaviours, speech etc. DON'T. He demands total control as absolute God of your life. So, a Christian, a Believer in Jesus, is someone who recognises their sinfulness along with their impending judgement before a holy God. Acknowledging their total inability to do anything to help themselves, they put trusting faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone, believing that His death on the cross was payment for their sins. They surrender their lives, their daily thinking and living in obedience to Jesus Christ as Lord. The results of belief in Jesus Christ are the following, to mention only a few. These spiritual truths are to be realised as actual following genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ: For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 28  God declares us righteous in His sight REALISE THAT ...your sins have been forgiven on account of his (Jesus) name (1 John 2:12). REALISE THAT ...we have now received reconciliation (Romans 5:11). Reconciliation is the exchanging of our sin for Christ's righteousness. Reconciliation is what turns the sinner from being an enemy of God into one who has God's favour. REALISE THAT ...there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:1-2). Believers are never to be condemned for sin.  God declares us to be His children REALISE THAT ..."to all who received him (Jesus), to those who believed in his (Jesus) name, he (Jesus) gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). REALISE THAT ...He (God) predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ... (Ephesians 1:5). The Believer is now a child of God.  God indwells us by His Holy Spirit For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 29 Realise that ...you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13). The very moment you believe in Jesus Christ as Lord you receive the permanent indwelling of His Holy Spirit.  God grants us eternal life REALISE THAT ...whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). The very moment you believe in Jesus Christ as Lord you receive the permanent, irreversible gift of eternal life.  God makes us new REALISE THAT ...if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17). Whatever we were before we put faith in Jesus as Lord is gone, dead. In Jesus Christ, God sees and treats us as new people. REALISE THAT ...He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5b). In God's sight, we are now viewed as clean people, renewed by the Holy Spirit and acceptable. For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30 Conclusion "I just want to have fun. It's my right to have fun. Why can't I believe and live the way I want? Don't I have the right to think what I want? I don't hassle God, so why can't He leave me alone?" Statements like these are based on false assumptions that Christians are not capable of enjoying life and that the only way someone can enjoy life is by living in isolation from God. The greatest deception found in these statements is this: it's wrong to presume that mankind has a right to live independent of God. First, God is not a kill-joy, He actually wants people to enjoy life ...because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun (Ecclesiastes 8:15). Through King Solomon, God gave instruction many years ago by saying: "Be happy, young man, while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 31 but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment" (Ecclesiastes 11:9). God makes us aware that pleasure achieved by sinning, by defying and disobeying Him, has a very real negative reward. Living independent of Him in pursuit of self-gratification is permitted by God, even though it's not what He wants for you. Unfortunately, it carries a seriously long term negative consequence that personally, I don't think makes for a wise choice. Two adages speak the truth on this matter well: 1) Your greatest, yet most subtle enemy is SELF! Even when left alone by Satan and others, self will happily lead you away from God with eternally damming consequences! 2) Sin will take you further than you ever wanted to go Sin will keep you longer than you ever wanted to stay Sin will cost you more than you can ever pay For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 32 As in all of life, what we think is freedom of choice comes at a high cost, and turns out to be nothing more than enslavement to wrong thinking, leading to wrong conclusions about God. Second, God created you for His glory! You were created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27) and for His pleasure (Ephesians 1:5, 9). You fall short of your designed purpose by choosing to disbelieve in the Lord Jesus. God is robbed of His rightful glory, you are deprived of living a life at peace with Him, plus you forfeit eternal life. All this you exchange for a few limited years of self-centred living, only to end with an eternity separated from a loving God and experiencing unquenchable punishment for your sin. Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord (Acts 3:19). For salvation is found in no one else, there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved (Act 4:12). If you realise your need of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, I encourage you to talk with God: For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 33  Confess and repent of your sin. Turn to living for Jesus Christ as your Lord (master).  Believe in Jesus Christ alone as the one who paid for your sin, buying your forgiveness with His life on the cross of Calvary. Believe that Jesus Christ took your place on the cross.  Believe that you, with your old way of life, died with Jesus on the cross of Calvary and that God is giving you a new life, eternal life, in His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. If you have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, or want more help, may I suggest you speak with the Christian friend who gave you this booklet. Read God’s Word daily. Begin attending a Bible teaching church or Home Group. I would love to hear from you if you would like to share your story, or, if you have something I can help you with. For My Friend ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 34 Visit www.bbf.org.nz Email info@bbf.org.nz Bay Bible Fellowship PO Box 15478 Tauranga, 3144 New Zealand All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™ First Printed http://www.bbf.net.nz/index.php/what-is-a-christian nevcnz@gmail.com |
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