October 8, 2010

How to Become a Christian
Acts 2:36-39 (MSG)

“Know this: There's no longer room for doubt—God made him Master and Messiah, this Jesus whom you killed on a cross."

Cut to the quick, those who were there listening asked Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers! Brothers! So now what do we do?"

“Peter said, "Change your life. Turn to God and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, so your sins are forgiven. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is targeted to you and your children, but also to all who are far away—whomever, in fact, our Master God invites." Acts 2:36-39 (MSG)

Pastor’s Blog

There is one pathway into the Christian life. It is repentance.

Have you recognized how you have helped to “kill” Jesus? How you have spent much or most of your life living, thinking, believing in a way that “kills off” the work of God in you and the work that God wants to do through you for others?

I have now been a Christian for over 30 years and I have come to see clearly that, yes, I was there when they crucified our Lord. I am culpable. I am guilty. In fact, if I want to see all the evil in the world, all I have to do is look in the mirror. I suspect that the difference between me (a “good” person) and a “bad” person is almost indistinquishable in God’s eyes. I encourage you to go to the Holocaust museum and view one of the most horrible atrocities in the history of the planet and then recognize that you have in you the very same thing that every perpetrator had in them. You are not better than they.

Yet, it is in this recognition that we have the hope to be set free. In our confession of sin and evil within, in our remorse because of it, and in our plea for God’s forgiveness offered because of the cross freely to all, to all, none excluded . . . . . . in this repentance we have access to the salvation of God.

The path to God is closed to those who think they’re okay without Him. It’s wide open to those who are painfully aware of their utter need for Him. For the latter there is not only forgiveness, but also the empowered Spirit filled life.