Much in life is a choice. Choosing what to eat, choosing what car or house to buy. Even who we want to be with. Some choices are harder than others. There is a choice that is much bigger than any of that and it affects eternity.
A lot of churches and many that call themselves Christian will beat you over the head with Old Testament scriptures they say you need to follow to get to heaven. Most every one of us has experienced that. That is not the message of Jesus!
The title of this message is what the jailer asked Paul in Acts 16, when none of the prisoners left after all the jails doors opened mysteriously in the middle of the night. When the jailer realized everyone could have got away but didn’t, he had to know why.
Jesus emphasized that you must be born again. Paul addressed it in Romans 10. He said “if you confess with your mouth the LORD Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
At first glance many that call themselves Christian will say “I believe” They miss the word I capitalized in Bold. Even the Devil and the demons believe in God. Lord is defined by Webster as: “a ruler by hereditary right or preeminence to whom service and obedience are due” I think of it as describing my King.
Before I got saved, the king of my life was me. When I got saved the King of my life became Jesus.
You don’t need a church to do that. There are a bunch of scripts written by many different people that you can read from, but actually you can do it in your own words. I did! No one told me what to say.
Once you do that and are sincere, you will reap what Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 5. He said “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Christ Jesus, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.”
Jeremiah 29:13 says: “you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
As I already stated, most of us have been told things that seem to say we can’t get to heaven because of who or what we are. Some here have suffered abuse because of what others including church goers think and do. That is not what Jesus did or said when He walked the earth. That is not what the Apostles did. After Paul met Jesus on the road and regained his sight, he became one of the Apostles. He was beaten many times, but he always offered Grace to everyone. All of the Apostles and true disciples were willing to die for the message of Grace through Faith in Jesus.
I did what it says in Romans 10 forty years ago and it is as real for me today as it was then. I was not in a church of any kind at the time.
The bible says not to forsake the assembling together, but that may not be possible if some of the church members don’t want you there. The assembling together does not save you. It was really meant for Christians to get together and help each other in our daily life struggles by edifying each other; much like this website does to help with our own unique struggles.
Hugs,
Confused1
