Some of the text I borrowed from a Campus Crusade for Christ tract and some of it is my own thoughts (blue text). The two graphics were taken from the tract. Feel free to e-mail me if you have questions, want to get into a theological debate, etc.

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1: God's Perspective On Us

God loves you and created you to know Him personally. He has a wonderful plan for your life.

"For 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)

"Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." (John 17:3)

We're not here by random chance. God created us to have a relationship with Him. Unfortunately, we screwed it up in the garden of Eden when we tried to become like Him and ended up spiritually separated from Him.

But that never changed the way God felt about us. We are his creation, and like parents with a child, no matter what we do or who we are, God always loves us. He also wants us to live our lives to the fullest under his love and care. " 'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.' " (Jeremiah 29:11) But often times we turn away from Him and think that we can do whatever we want on our own, and we end up getting hurt or we never fill up that empty space inside ourselves, no matter how much stuff we buy or the people we spend time with. There's a part of us only God can fill, and He waits patiently for us to realize that.

2: Our Condition

People are sinful and separated from God, so we cannot know Him personally or experience His love and plan.

"...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)

People were created to have fellowship with God; but, because of our stubborn self-will, we chose to go our own independent way and fellowship with God was broken. This self-will, characterized by an attitude of active rebellion or passive indifference, is evidence of what the Bible calls sin.

"For the wages of sin is death" [spiritual sepration from God] (Romans 6:23)

 

This diagram illustrates that God is holy and people are sinful. A great gulf separates the two. The arrows illustrate that people are continually trying to reach God and establish a personal relationship with Him through our own efforts, such as a good life, philosophy, or religion, but we inevitably fail.

A lot of times, people will say they're going to heaven because "I'm a good person" or "I go to church every Sunday" or something like that. But the fact is, nobody gets to heaven on their own. Being a good person won't do it, going to church every Sunday won't do it, even reading the Bible every day won't do it. The only way we can get to heaven is through God's grace and mercy.

The Bible says that "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6) and that "...He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy." (Titus 3:5) We can never earn our way into heaven. You can be the next Mother Teresa, but if you don't have Jesus in your heart, you won't be with God when you die. The only way to get to heaven is to believe that Christ died on the cross for your sins.

3: God's Response

Jesus Christ is God's only provision for our sin. Through Him alone we can know God personally and experience God's love and plan.

1. He died in our place.
"But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

2. He rose from the dead.
"...Christ died for our sins...He was buried, He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures..." (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

3. He is the only way to God.
"Jesus answered, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6)

 

This diagram illustrates that God has bridged the gulf that separates us from Him by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross in our place to pay the penalty for our sins.

This is the part that gets people all annoyed. In this modern, overly-tolerant-of-everything (except the truth!) world, how dare anyone say that their god is the ONLY God? But I'm telling you right now, it's the truth. Like Jesus said, He is THE WAY, THE TRUTH, and THE LIFE. NO ONE comes to God except through Him. That's what the whole crucifixion was about! Jesus, who was sinless, took all of our sins onto Himself when He was on the cross so that when He died, sin died with Him. Then He broke the bonds of death when He rose on the third day. This is God's gift to us. Eternal life! Salvation! And it's FREE!!

Humanity always has a hard time dealing with concepts like this. No one finds it easy to believe that such a great thing could be free. That's why everyone focuses on works and trying to earn their way. Plus, a lot of people think that they have to get their lives in order before they go to God. They think He won't accept them if they're unwashed or hooked on drugs or whatever. But the truth is, God accepts anyone and everyone, no matter what their condition is. People don't have to fix themselves before coming to God. It's God's job to fix people after they come to Him, and He's very happy to do it.

4: Our Response

We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know God personally and experience his love and plan.

[Christ speaking] "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with Him, and he with Me." (Revelation 3:20)

"Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God." (John 1:12)

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith -- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -- not by works, so that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)

When we receive Christ, we experience a new birth.
"I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born again...Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit." (John 3:3,6)

Receiving Christ involves turning to God from self and trusting Christ to come into our lives to forgive us of our sins and to make us what He wants us to be. Just to agree intellectually that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He died on the cross for our sins is not enough. Nor is it enough to have an emotional experience. We receive Jesus Christ by faith, as an act of the will.

You can receive Christ right now by faith through prayer.

God knows your heart and is not as concerned with your words as He is with the attitude of your heart. Here is a sample prayer:

Lord Jesus, I want to know you personally. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving me of my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of the throne of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be.

Accepting Jesus isn't the end of the story. When you ask Jesus into your heart and confess your sins, the Holy Spirit, the third part of the Trinity, takes up residence in your life. You probably won't see dramatic changes, but things that might have occupied you before, like getting more money, buying new things, or whatever you did to make yourself happy will seem less important. You'll be more at peace, knowing that you have someone you can always turn to in times of trouble, someone who will listen to you when no one else will, someone who loves you unconditionally no matter what. It's so freeing to not worry about the future, too. You'll know that whatever happens to you or anyone around you, God is in control.

You'll also feel that pinch, too, when you do something against God's will. A Christian isn't someone who never sins, it's just someone who's already forgiven for them and tries not to repeat them! No one can hide anything from God, and when you think about doing something wrong, the Holy Spirit goes into action. That guilt, that nagging conscience, that little voice in your heart saying "Don't do that." And a lot of times we still do do it, and it grieves God, but He still never stops loving us. When we realize we've done wrong and confess our sins to Him, He welcomes us back with open arms. As the saying goes, confession is good for the soul, and believe me, I know!

A Reminder: Do not depend on feelings!

The promise of God's Word, the Bible -- not our feelings -- is our authority. The Christian lives by faith in the trustworthiness of God Himself and His word.

A lot of times, people accept Jesus into their hearts while they're on an emotional high, such as during an evangelism event. Then when they get back home and back into their day-to-day lives, that euphoria disappears and they wonder if they really are a Christian after all. That's where faith comes in. If you accept Jesus into your heart, and you're sincere, you ARE a Christian, no matter how you feel the next day.

Being a Christian doesn't make your life perfect, either. Unlike what the "prosperity preachers" you sometimes see on TV tell you, Christians can go broke and they can lose their jobs. People get sick and die. But the thing that gives Christians peace during the worst of their troubles is the knowledge that God is always with them and is watching out for them. Christians who trust in God find new jobs. They recover from sickness, sometimes miraculously. Sometimes they still die, but the loved ones they leave behind are comforted knowing that they are in heaven with Jesus.

Believe me, I know all this through personal experience. I accepted Jesus when I was eight or nine, and the worst year of my life was seventh grade. I had emotional problems, I cried all the time, and I hated going to school. My parents were even considering having me homeschooled for eighth grade. But every time I was feeling so awful that I wished I would just die, I would pray, and God always gave me a sense of peace that let me get up and go on with the day. I still don't know what was going on with me that year, since I was fine after that, but I know that without having Jesus in my life, I probably wouldn't be here today. He carried me through that time and all my troubles since.

There are still days when I don't feel close to God. The thought of evangelism terrifies me (well, in person, anyway -- on the web its easy!) and most of the time, I don't feel like people even notice a difference about me. But I keep my faith and trust in God, and I know that when I see Him, either when I die or when Jesus returns, He will welcome me with open arms. I am His child.

Find a Church!

If you are a new believer, I highly recommend that you find a good church to become a part of. Individual prayer and Bible study is important, but so is fellowship with other believers. Hebrews 10:25 says, "Let us not give up meeting together..." Finding a church is kind of like dating; you can go to a lot of them before you find the right one. Don't get discouraged if you visit a few different churches and nothing seems to click. Pray about it; ask God what His will is for you. Where does He want you to go?

That being said, I'll suggest a few denominations to start with. Try an Evangelical Free, Assemblies of God, or Bible church and see if that's where God wants you to be.