You Are Invited

In this post you are being invited to consider becoming a Christian. You may wonder about your own life with reference to God. Where do you stand? Can you really become a part of the people of God? What is involved? Is Church compulsory? Everything is much simpler than you think. If you would like to become a part of the people of God, you can. While we live in an age of light (are alive, and before Jesus returns to this earth), you can be invited. God invites you. We see in John 11:25-26 that Jesus, because He is God, is the Source of eternal life

John 11:25-26 (NASB Strong’s (Lockman)) 5 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

You are invited to believe in Jesus for the following reasons –

• He was born in this world 2,000 years ago in order to save humanity from the curse of sin and death that it had fallen under after the first sin by the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, when they disobeyed God and chose to believe Satan’s lies over God’s truth (Genesis chapter 3)
• Jesus spent the last 3 years of His life in full-time ministry until He was crucified at age 33 years. One very interesting exchange He had with one of the Jewish leaders, a Pharisee called Nicodemus, reveals how salvation comes about for the believer in Christ :

John 3:3-21 (ESV) “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

• Having been crucified on the Friday, what the Church commemorates as Good Friday, Jesus rose bodily from death on the following Sunday, very early in the morning
• After 40 days on this earth in His resurrected state, He then ascended to Heaven where He lives glorified, seated at the right hand of God the Father. There are many biblical references to this. Some of them can be found at Acts 2:34, Ephesians 1:20, Hebrews 12:2 and 1 Peter 3:22.
• Jesus will return at some time but not as a helpless baby. It will no longer be a time of invitation but a time of judgement. This time, Jesus will return in power and in wrath and in judgement as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. See 

Revelation 19:11-16 (NASB Strong’s (Lockman)) 11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. 13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. 15 From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. 16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

This invitation for you to become a Christian is between you and God. It is about you simply and sincerely praying to God, repenting of (being sorry for, to the point of turning away from) living your life with no regard for Him, asking God for forgiveness of your past sins and turning to Him in faith or belief that Jesus has died for you, risen victorious from the dead and ascended to Heaven, from where He will one day return to this earth to judge the living and the dead. Regarding your sinful past, we all have a sinful past and present and future simply by virtue of not being perfect as God is perfect. Apart from knowing this because of the presence of states like anxiety, fear, deficiencies in getting along with fellow human beings and more, we also know this because of the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus taught His disciples to pray,

Matthew 6:12 (ESV) 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

and which many Christians pray on a daily basis. So on a daily basis we are asking God to “forgive us our debts” as we also forgive others.

Jesus reveals how He views humans by these words –

John 2:23-25 (ESV) 23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

The following verse further highlights our inability to reach perfection in this life –

11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! (Matthew 7:11 (NASB Strong’s (Lockman)).

So you see, we will never become perfect, not in this life. We are saved on the basis of God’s love, not our perfection. But we can expect to grow in holiness as we keep God in focus in our daily lives. We do this through prayer and Bible reading. Church will also help you in your new life because you will meet fellow believers, who by their very existence as a Church, offer spiritual encouragement. But the main reason for Church is that it is the meeting place for Christians to gather together to worship God. That is its main function and meaning. If you find it threatening to attend a Church, then don’t, until you are ready. Or it might be that you need to visit a few churches in order to find one that is comfortable for you.

Holiness and sanctification are words that are used to describe a Christian’s progressive movement towards the Source of holiness and sanctification – God. The following descriptions from two study bibles will help elucidate their meanings. The concept of holiness, elsewhere defined on this site, has a counterbalance in the following description from the NIV Study Bible –

“Holiness” is commonly defined as being separate or set apart. God is holy in that he is set apart from everything that is not God, and God’s people must be holy by being set apart from sin. So holiness, according to this definition, is separateness that entails moral purity. But that does not sufficiently describe the essence of holiness or distinguish different senses in which people and things can be holy. There is a sense in which only God is holy and another sense in which others can be holy.

Extract from the article, ‘Holiness’, by Andrew David Naselli, The NIV Zondervan Study Bible. Kindle Edition.

Sanctification is described in the ESV Study Bible –

Sanctification ( 2 Thessalonians 2:13 ) refers to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life, whereby the person becomes increasingly more like Christ. This ongoing process continues until the redeemed person is resurrected and made completely holy in heaven (glorification). 

ESV Global Study Bible. Crossway. Kindle Edition.

It is exciting to become a Christian because life seems so random and pointless and frankly, insane, without a knowledge of why humans and nations act as they do. Christianity gives us the true clues about our own existence, God’s existence, spiritual forces at work in the world; in other words, what is truth and what is devilish lie. Ask God for His help and guidance about ultimate truth. Blessings.