I remember the initial excitement of accepting Jesus Christ as my Savior. I had so much to do; so much to learn! I have to go pick out a Bible appropriate for me! I have to go to church three days a week, and tell everyone I talk to about the good news! After about two months of being told by everyone, including my new Christian brothers and sisters, if I could please talk about something else I started becoming discouraged. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a good mentor to look after my Christian growth. We will talk about the importance of that later. So here I was having the most exciting time of my life and no one seemed to care. So I stopped talking about it. I kept my spiritual activities to myself. That was my first mistake as a Christian; soon to be followed by many more. In my first year of salvation I gradually stopped going to church and my Bible became dusty. It seemed I was doomed to stay in the first stage of salvation. The Father had other plans, however. Praise the Lord! I now know what it means to be saved by our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you? When I try to ask people why they can’t receive Jesus I often get the reply that they think they are too bad. I ask them, “do you believe in Jesus?” They often reply, “I believe that he existed.” In all seriousness, I have never run into a person who hasn’t heard of Jesus. People are stubborn and want proof. Well, when I ask these people why they believe and have not received they give me the lame rationalization that they are the worst people in the world. They think I am mister goody and they are the devils children. Well there is not a rationalization anyone can give you that you can’t find a rebuttal for in God’s Word. In Romans 3:23 Paul tells us that all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. We also find this inclusion of ALL people in what I would consider to be one of the most famous verses in the Gospels. John 3:16 doesn’t say that God sent Jesus to save just Wilbur and Dexter. John 3:16 says that our loving Creator sent his Son to save us ALL. As Christians we can have faith in the fact that Jesus took our sins so that we may have freedom from the destructive power of sin. So don’t let the lie that you can’t be redeemed affect you. Know as a new creature before your God that you have been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ.
John 3:16 “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.” [NIV] So if I am truly saved I won’t Sin anymore, right? No, I am not perfect and neither are you only God is. Yet, if we look at John 8: 34-36,
John 8:34-36 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” [NIV]
we find that there is hope for us. Jesus tells us that we are slaves to sin. Well what rights have slaves ever had? None, of course, but the Son of God can free us. We are no longer held by the pain of guilt that held us back before. Now we can work towards our sanctification. Many of us however will learn this and think we can sin away as long as we repent. I continued to drink for many years after I accepted Jesus. I would argue that the Bible doesn’t say you can’t drink and that even Jesus drank wine. Just imagine me making my argument with very slurred speech while looking like I very badly needed to take a seat. I’m personally disgusted with those memories of myself. I could never picture Jesus acting the way I did. In John 12:46 Jesus says that he came into the world as a light so that no one who believes in him should walk in the dark. I was trying to save the batteries of my spotlight. I was stumbling around in the dark stubbing my toes and still didn’t have the wits to turn on my light. Don’t wait! Turn on your light, because it’s amazingly bright and will help you out a lot. We are no longer slaves to sin, but sin is all we know so we must learn a new way. God’s Word is your instruction manual. So I beg you to read it. I know we all make mistakes as we grow as Christians, but the less mistakes you make the more comfortable you’ll be. I wish someone had helped me. I now know just how simple it is. In John 14:12 Jesus tells us that anyone who has faith in him will do what he did on the Earth and even greater things. So don’t just ask yourself what Jesus would do. Look in the Bible and see what he does, because you’re a Christian, and your goal is to be like Christ. One of the very first gifts you receive from God when you give your life to Jesus is the gift of communion. You can now do what you are made for. The Lord gives us three important gifts that allow us to communicate with him. He gives us the gift of God’s Word, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the gift of prayer. Some might not think prayer is a gift, but Jesus gave us the Lord’s prayer (Matthew 6:5-13, Luke 11:2-4). God didn’t have to give us his telephone number, he could of just told us to wait for his call. We should have God on speed dial, yet many of us discount the power of prayer or rationalize about it because we are thinking about the world. I have heard myself say things like, “God knows what I need, I speak to him when I have time.” I’m in shock just looking at such a statement, but it came out of my mouth. Then I would complain about why I can’t get ahead in the world. The fact is that when I look at another person I can generally tell if they need something, and I am sure you can as well. Would you help them if they didn’t ask? A few years ago I would have watched them flounder in despair until they asked for help. God of course is not like that, and in my own growth I have learned that. Now I would offer my help and tell them not to be scared to ask for more help if they need it. If you don’t ask it’s your own fault. That’s my opinion. The Father will continue to gently try to teach us with long suffering patience. God knows what you need, however any healthy relationship needs communication by confirmation. My wife knows that I am probably hungry after a long day at work so she makes dinner. Now how good do you think the foods going to taste if I never confirm that I need dinner and appreciate her for providing this need? Believe me when I say that any hardship I have suffered as a Christian was brought upon me by my own stubbornness. Earlier I mentioned John 14:12. Let us look at the entire comment made by Jesus.
John 14:12-14 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. [NIV]
I mentioned verse 12 earlier because I wanted to show you that Jesus was an example and he expects us to follow that example, however there is more to be learned from this comment. In verses 13 and 14 Jesus tells us how the Heavenly telecommunications system is set up and gives us the phone number to our Father in Heaven. It may have taken me some time to realize it, hence why we continually read our Bibles, but the portion in verse 12 is very important to the communication system set up by our Savior in verses 13 and 14. Faith is the key to answered prayer. Just think about what it is that makes you have faith in someone. I have found that the more I know about my wife and understand the place she holds in life the more faith I have in her. For example, I know my kids are well cared for and safe with my wife. I have faith that the safety of my children is a fact when they are with my wife. If you want to have more faith in Jesus you need to learn more about him. So increase your faith and increase the power of your prayer. Don’t discount the importance of prayer, because prayer is how your Christian life started.
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