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Where Will You Spend Eternity?
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Prayer of Salvation - Our First Real Conversation
With God
The "prayer of salvation" is the most important prayer we'll ever pray. When we're
ready to become a Christian, we're ready to have our first real conversation with God, and these are its components:
- We acknowledge that Jesus Christ is
God; that He came to earth as a man in order to live the sinless life that we cannot live;
that He died in our place, so that we would not have to pay the penalty we deserve.
- We
confess our past life of sin -- living for ourselves and not obeying God.
- We admit we are ready to trust Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.
- We ask Jesus to come into our heart, take up residence there, and begin living
through us.
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Prayer
of Salvation - It Begins With Faith in God
When we pray the prayer of salvation, we're letting God
know we believe His Word is true. By the faith He has given us, we choose to believe in Him. The Bible tells us that "without
faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those
who diligently seek Him." (Hebrews 11:6)
So, when we pray, asking God for the gift of salvation, we're
exercising our free will to acknowledge that we believe in Him. That demonstration of faith pleases God, because we have freely
chosen to know Him. Prayer
of Salvation - Confessing Our Sin
When we pray the prayer of salvation, we're admitting that we've
sinned. As the Bible says of everyone, save Christ alone: "For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God."
(Romans 3:23)
To sin is simply to fall short of the mark, as an arrow that does not quite hit the bull's-eye.
The glory of God that we fall short of is found only in Jesus Christ: "For it is the God who commanded light to shine
out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
(2 Corinthians 4:6)
The prayer of salvation, then, recognizes that Jesus Christ is the only human who ever lived
without sin. "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in
Him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Prayer
of Salvation - Professing Faith in Christ as Savior and Lord
With Christ as our standard of perfection,
we're now acknowledging faith in Him as God, agreeing with the Apostle John that: "In the beginning was the Word
(Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through
Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made." (John 1:1-3)
Because God could only accept a perfect,
sinless sacrifice, and because He knew that we could not possibly accomplish that, He sent His Son to die for us and pay the
eternal price. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should
not perish but have everlasting life.." (John 3:16)
Prayer of Salvation - Say It & Mean It Now!
Do you agree with everything
you have read so far? If you do, don't wait a moment longer to start your new life in Jesus Christ. Pray this with us:
"Father, I know that I have
broken your laws and my sins have separated me from you. I am truly sorry, and now I want to turn away from my past sinful
life toward you. Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again. I believe that your son, Jesus Christ died for my sins,
was resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer. I invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign
in my heart from this day forward. Please send your Holy Spirit to help me obey You, and to do Your will for the rest of my
life. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen."
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All have sinned, and come
short of the glory of God;
I want to remind you of the gospel I preached
to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2By this gospel
you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according
to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according
to the Scriptures.
We instructed you how to live in order to please God,
as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. For you know what instructions
we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.
It is God's will that
you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in
a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no
one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told
you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction
does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.
Now about brotherly
love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love
all the brothers throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more.
Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as
we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
The Coming of the Lord Brothers,
we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe
that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According
to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly
not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice
of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive
and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord
forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.
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