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The Gospel
Our desire is for people to know God personally. The simple truth is
that there is a God who created you and loves you very much. He gave us
life and deserves our gratitude and love. We, however, have chosen to
disobey Him and sin against Him; all of us have done wrong and failed
to do what is right. (Romans 3:23) We may not be more sinful than our
neighbor, or we may be far worse than anyone we know, it does not
matter. Either way, we are guilty before God. (1 John 1:8)
God is perfect, completely good, always right and fair.
He cannot tolerate sin. He cannot simply overlook the fact that we have
chosen to disobey Him. The Bible says "the wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23) This means that the fair payment for
our rebellion against God is death. It is the punishment that we
deserve. Jesus, the one and only Son of God, came to earth and lived a
perfect sinless life. He was crucified even though He was completely
innocent. He received the punishment that we deserved. He was the
perfect sacrifice, He was put into our place and took on Himself the
sentence of death that should have been ours. (Romans 5:8) Jesus did not, however, remain dead.
After three days, He rose from the grave and later ascended into
heaven. He will soon return for all those who are trusting in Him as
their Savior.
Jesus died for you. You can be saved by asking Him for
forgiveness from your sins. If you are willing to repent of your sin,
He is willing and waiting to forgive you. It doesn't matter what you
have done in the past, if you cry out to Jesus for forgiveness, He will
not reject you. The word "repent" literally means "to turn away from."
You need to look at your life, admit that you are a sinner, genuinely
desire to turn your back on that sin, and ask Him to forgive you. If
you do this, He promises to forgive you. True Christianity is not about
attending a particular church, or how your parents raised you, or what
country you were born in. Being a Christian means that you have a
personal relationship with Jesus Christ, that He is your Savior. It's
not good enough that your priest, pastor, mother, or aunt knows Jesus,
you must know Him for yourself. They cannot believe in Him for you, you
must believe for yourself. They cannot repent for you, you must repent
for yourself.
Jesus is everywhere all the time. He can hear you now if
you ask Him for forgiveness. Please turn your life over to Him NOW.
Time slips by so quickly, don't miss this opportunity. If you want to
pray and ask Jesus to be your Savior, you can say a prayer something
like this:
"Jesus, I know that I have sinned against you. I know
the truth is that I have sinned by my own choice, and I am the one
responsible for it. I know that I have earned punishment from You, and
that the fair punishment would be death. Jesus, I believe that You died
in my place. Forgive me for my sin. I cannot cover or take my sin away,
I am relying totally and only on You. You are the only one who can save
me. I reject my sin, I turn away from it, I repent. Come into my life,
take away my sin, and show me how to live my life in a way that is
right and pleasing to You. Please surround me with people that love you
and can help me as I try to live for you.
If you have prayed this, YOU ARE SAVED! You are
now completely forgiven, a new creation, innocent in the eyes of God,
cleansed of all unrighteous. Welcome to the family of God! It is
important for you to start to grow in your relationship with Jesus.
Just like any relationship, you need to spend time with someone if you
want to know them well. The way to know God is through the Bible. We
have a few different Bible studies here
that will help you get going. It's also important to find a church you
can attend where they teach the Bible. This will allow you to talk with
a pastor who will help explain questions you might have, and it will
give you a chance to spend time with other Christians who can encourage
you. You can start to study the Bible by going through our New
Believers Info. After that, we recommend that you start a Bible
study through the Gospel of John. You can look for a church in your
area by checking our List of Calvary Chapel Fellowships.
Once again welcome to the family and finally please let us know that
you now a Christian as we want to help in any way we can...
True Vine meets at The YMCA of Orange 2241 East Palmyra Ave. Orange, CA 92869 Church office phone: 714.748.1738 Sunday morning services are at 10 am
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