New Life Presbyterian Church of Dresher

How to have an Encounter of your own

As you have read these stories, have they touched your heart? Do you desire to encounter the life-changing power of Jesus Christ, as these people have?

The Bible, which is the story of God bringing people like us into relationship with Him, shows us several things that we must believe in order to have this relationship with Jesus Christ:

1) God created us for relationship with Him.
The beginning of the Bible (Genesis 1 and 2) tells how God created man and woman uniquely and in His own image, so that they might live in close personal relationship with Him. God reaches out to us, making His love, power, perfection and words known to us. We can know God, communicate with Him, and experience His love and goodness. God says to us, "Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength," (Deuteronomy 6:5). But this is not what we have done.

2) We have all failed to love God this way, and sinned.
Instead of living in relationship with God, every one of us has turned against Him, and given our love to other things. We have attempted to be our own god. The Bible says, "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God ... for all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God," (Romans 3:10-11,23). Even the most moral people sin against God. We sin against God in thought, word and deed, and we end up suffering the consequences of ours and others' sins, along with all the accompanying fear and guilt.

Many people don't like to talk about sin, believing it is a concept intended to make us feel bad. But can anyone doubt the wrongness or destructive power of sin? Its everywhere we look-from large-scale problems like poverty and disease, to small-scale problems like broken relationships.

The relationship most affected by sin is the one between us and God. Sin created a huge chasm between us and God, between holy perfection and sinful imperfection. We can do nothing on our own to bridge that chasm. The good things we do, our best intentions, even our being "better than most" cannot restore that relationship. Only God can do that. But the amazing thing is that because God is the one doing the saving, no one is beyond His reach! Each of us can be forgiven, regardless of what we've done. Every one of us needs God. Without His acting on our behalf, we would be without hope, facing an eternity of sadness and punishment.

3) God has made a way for us through Jesus Christ.
God has not left us without hope, though; Jesus Christ is able to save us. He is the only way, for only He is both God and human, and can therefore represent both parties. He also lived a sinless life. Our sin kept us from God. But Christ had no sin. His payment of perfect holiness wiped out our debt of sin-forever! Christ died on the cross for our sin. By doing that, he bridged that chasm for us. But we can only cross that chasm by believing in Jesus Christ, and what He has done for us. It is not enough to give intellectual assent to these truths. We must act.

4) We must admit, believe, commit, and rely.
The first act in our new life of faith is to tell God of our decision, through prayer.

Dear God,
I admit I have not loved you as I ought, and sinned against you. I realize that nothing I do can repair our relationship and that I am lost without you. I no longer want to live that way.
I believe that Jesus Christ, your Son, made a way for me to come into your presence by taking the punishment I deserve, through His death on the cross.
I commit to follow Jesus as my Lord and Savior, to trust and obey Him, and to rely on Him from this day forward, confident in his power to change me and keep me secure in His kingdom.
Amen.

"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life
and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life."
Jesus