We are all contaminated with sin (Romans 3:23). We are born with sin (Psalm 51: 5), and we all personally choose to sin (Ecclesiastes 7:20; 1 John 1: 8). Sin is what doesn't make us saved. Sin is what separates us from God. Sin is what has put us on the path to eternal destruction.
We all deserve death because of our sin (Romans 6:23). While the physical result of sin is physical death, it is not the only kind of death that results from sin. All sin is ultimately committed against an eternal and infinite God (Psalm 51: 4). Therefore, the just penalty for our sin is also eternal and infinite. What we need to be saved from is eternal destruction (Matthew 25:46; Revelation 20:15).
Since the just penalty for sin is infinite and eternal, only God could pay the penalty, because only He is infinite and eternal. But God in His divine nature could not die. So God became a man in the person of Jesus Christ. God took on human flesh, lived among us, and taught us. When the people rejected Him and His message and tried to kill Him, He willingly sacrificed Himself for us, thus being crucified (John 10:15). Because Jesus Christ was human, He could die; and because Jesus Christ was God, His death had eternal and infinite value. Jesus' death on the cross was the perfect and full payment for our sin (1 John 2: 2). He took the consequences we deserved. Jesus' resurrection from the dead showed that His death was indeed the quite sufficient sacrifice for sin.
"Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31). God has done all the work. All you have to do is receive in faith the salvation that God offers (Ephesians 2: 8-9). Trust fully in Jesus alone as payment for your sins. Believe in Him and you will not perish (John 3:16). God offers you salvation as a gift. All you have to do is accept it. Jesus is the way of salvation (John 14: 6).
From the beginning of creation, God has longed to associate with humans. Even when direct contact was broken through the fall, God wanted man to remain in contact with him. This is done through prayer. God wants a personal relationship with each of us. The word "pray" first occurs in the Bible with Abraham who is commissioned by God to pray for Abimelech in connection with his wife Sarah. Throughout the Bible from Abraham to the Lord Jesus to the Apostle Paul, you see people praying to thank God and ask for all kinds of needs. Genesis 20: 7
The Lord Jesus Himself says that God the Father knows what we need before we pray to Him. God understands our thoughts from afar. However, when we consciously break God's commandments, then God does not answer, says the prophet Isaiah. Matthew 6: 8, Psalm 139: 1-2, Isaiah 59: 1-2
There are no rules for that. The Lord Jesus Himself sometimes prayed part of the night. On the other hand, there are also prayers in the Bible that are quite short when you say them. One thing is for sure: be sincere and direct in your prayer and do not use verbiage. Mark 1:35, Psalm 17, Matthew 6: 7
In principle you can ask anything, but there is a condition that you do not ask for things just to satisfy your own selfish needs. Fortunately, God comes to the rescue of our weaknesses because we do not know what to pray as it should. However, He guides us by His Spirit. You should pray a prayer that Jesus himself could pray too. That is what it means when you pray in Jesus' Name. James 4: 3, Romans 8:26, John 15:16
A fine example of how Jesus prays can be found in the Gospel of John, chapter 17 in the High Priestly Prayer. There it says, He lifted up His eyes and spoke to His Father in heaven. Also in the time of suffering He prayed and begged that the cup of suffering might pass from Him, but He also said, Your will be done. And so He died for our sins. But God answered Him and He rose from the dead! John 17: 1-24, Matthew 26: 36-46, Matthew 28
The Our Father is some of the most famous prayer in the world. On closer examination, the context of the Gospel record reveals that it is primarily intended for the Jewish people. The phrase “Thy Kingdom come” can only become reality when the Jewish people accept Jesus as their Messiah. Jesus says to the Jews the following: You will not see Me again until you say: Blessed is He - the Messiah - who comes in the Name of the Lord. A moment that is still in the future. That does not alter the fact that the Our Father contains a number of things that apply to every person. We all need our daily bread. We all need forgiveness of guilt and should also extend that forgiveness to others. We are all tempted and afflicted with the evil one. It is certainly a prayer for us too. However, be aware of what you are praying. Matthew 6: 9-15, Matthew 23: 37-39, Zechariah 12:10
A church is a building, but a Biblical church is a local group of believers who each have accepted Jesus as their Lord. They represent Jesus on earth as his brothers and sisters. The word church comes from the Greek word ekklesia, which means "called-out ones." The church is also called the "Body of Christ". And Jesus is the head and is therefore Lord.
A group of local believers meet regularly to worship God, to learn from the Bible and to talk (pray) with God. These meetings can take place at home, as was the case in the first churches, but also at a neutral meeting place.
At regular times, the death and expectation of Jesus is commemorated by the celebration of the “Lord's Supper”.
The “cement” between the members of the group is Divine Love. Each of them knows each other and is concerned about each other's lives. In this way people care for each other and the local church grows into a close-knit community. But the local group of believers is open to anyone who wishes to come and participate in the group. New participants get to know Jesus and are lovingly accepted into the group. If the group becomes too large, the group will split into two groups.
The Biblical Church has no membership. One can become a member of the universal church by personally accepting the Lord Jesus as Savior and Redeemer, whereby one is sealed forever with the Holy Spirit who is the guarantee for the future destination, heaven. To show what happened to that person inwardly, one can show it outwardly by being baptized on the basis of the testimony.
The Biblical church acts as a light in the world and follows the Word of God, the Bible, in everything. It is an attractive place for non-believers where there should be a warm welcome and full acceptance. The Biblical Church is the place from which the gospel is brought into the world.
Gospel comes from the Greek word "euangellion", meaning "glad tidings" or "good news." Evangelizing is a verb and therefore means: bringing a good or happy message. In that sense how the word is not to be used explicitly in biblical context and is not necessarily Christian loaded. Yet it is generally used for bringing the good news of the Lord of Jesus Christ to mankind.
What's the Message
Now that we know that evangelizing means bringing a good message, the question arises what exactly that good message means. This seems like an easy question, but when I look at what is sometimes preached during evangelism, the answer is not that simple. Some people claim that the good news is that God loves people. They do everything they can to proclaim that. You often meet them on the street. "Boy, did you hear, God loves you." Sometimes beautiful tracts are handed out, with the caption that God loves people. My experience is that this way of evangelizing is more likely to keep people away from Christ than to see that there is a need to flee to Jesus Christ.
I have often heard that when I call people to seek salvation from Jesus, the response was, "I don't need salvation. Because if God loves people, won't everyone be fine? If He loves people, does He not send them to hell at the end of their lives? No, God loves all people, so what are we worried about? Everyone will be fine in the end. I don't need that salvation. "Do you see how dangerous it is to deliver the good news in the wrong way? By the way, where in the Bible are we called to tell people that God loves people? I don't see it anywhere. Yes, you say, but what about the well-known text from the Gospel of John?
John 3:16: "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."
Here we read clearly that God loves people, right? Yes, is this so? If I read carefully, it says "has loved" and "has given." A completed act that took place in the past. Now here in the context, in Greek, seems to be a word that does not directly indicate a past tense how. Still, most translators, and I have looked at ten different translations, all use the perfect tense here. Only The Book speaks of loving in the present tense. Unfortunately, in many people's minds is the idea that God loves all people. They believe that this is also the message they must proclaim.
