Do you experience peace and joy in your life based on a foundation of your relationship with our Creator, YHWH? Do you want to share your faith more confidently and effectively with others? Please consider the following resource from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
The Christian Life and Witness Course is a course that is designed to help provide people with a basic foundation of living for Christ and also how to witness and share their faith with others effectively. The material is good, even if ordered off the BGEA association website and conducted offline personally via DVD training instead of face-to-face training. I recommend it and there is much more to it than what I share here in this article. Please click on the link above in this article to check it out in more detail.
I will highlight in today’s article just one of the summary resources to help communicate key concepts and peak your interest. There is a very nice summary booklet to guide a discussion with non believers about your faith in Christ and also to check your own relationship with Christ along the way. It is a booklet titled Steps To Peace With God.
Step 1: God’s Purpose: Peace and Life
God loves you and wants you to experience peace and life – abundant and eternal.
“We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:1
“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.” John 3:16
“I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10
We must ask ourselves… “Why don’t most people have this peace and abundant life that God planned for us to have?” Even most of us who identify as Christians do not have this peace and abundant life!
Step 2: The Problem: Our Separation
God created us in His own image to have an abundant life. He did not make us as robots to automatically love and obey Him. God gave us a will and freedom of choice.
We choose to disobey God and go our own willful way. We still make this choice today. This results in separation from God.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23
Our choice (sin) results in separation from God (holy).
Our Attempts To Reach God
People have tried in many ways to bridge this gap between themselves and God…
“There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” Proverbs 14:12
“But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” Isaiah 59:2
No bridge made by man can reach God… not good works, not religion, not philosophy, not morality. Only one bridge can reach God.
Step 3: God’s Bridge – The Cross
Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose from the grave. He paid the penalty for our sin and bridged the gap between God and people.
“For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” 1 Timothy 2:5
“For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” 1 Peter 3:18
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
God has provided the only way… Each person must make a choice…
Step 4: Our Response – Receive Christ
We must trust Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and receive Him by personal invitation.
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20
“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” John 1:12
“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9
Where are you? Are you separated from God, in sin, rebellion, and separation? or have you received Jesus as a bridge to be reconciled with God and now experiencing peace, forgiveness, abundant life, and eternal life?
Will you receive Jesus Christ right now?
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- Admit your need. (I am a sinner).
- Be willing to turn from your sins (repent).
- Believe that Jesus Christ died for you on the cross and rose from the grave.
- Through prayer, invite Jesus Christ to come in and control your life through the Holy Spirit. (Receive Him as Lord and Savior.)
An example of how to pray
Dear Lord Jesus,
I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior.
In Jesus name, Amen.
God’s Assurance: His Word
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:13
Did you sincerely ask Jesus Christ to come into your life? Where is He right now? What has He given you?
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
Receiving Christ, we are born into God’s family through the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit who indwells every believer. This is called regeneration, or the “new birth.”
“He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” 1 John 5:12-13
This is just the beginning of a wonderful new life in Christ. To deepen this relationship you should:
- Read your Bible every day to know Christ better.
- Talk to God in prayer every day.
- Tell others about Christ.
- Worship, fellowship, and serve with other Christians where Christ is preached according to the Bible.
- As Christ’s representative in a needy world, demonstrate your new life by your love and concern for others.
I encourage you again to consider reviewing the full training course material from BGEA using the link at the beginning of the article. May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
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Have you submitted your life to Jesus Christ? If you die today, do you know for sure that you would be with God in heaven? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.
*Pictures and much of the content shared is from BGEA Steps to Peace With God booklet.