Follow Jesus

God loves you. He chose you. He has a plan for your life. He desires to personally know each one of us.

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.  - Ephesians 1:4-5

"For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." - Jeremiah 29:11

All of us were created with a desire to be loved, valued, and accepted—this desire was meant to be filled by a relationship with God, who offers us unconditional love and forgiveness. But sin—the things we do and think that fall short of God’s will—separates us from a loving relationship with him and creates an impassable gap between us. Our sinful natures cause us to turn our backs on God and seek love and approval from the world. We choose to selfishly go our own way and pursue temporary highs and pleasures, ignoring God’s ways. Sin has a way of killing our relationships, our joy, and our closeness with God. The penalty for sin is spiritual death.

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. - Romans 3:23

We try to reconcile with God by being good people or by following religious rules, but no human effort can make us good enough to fix our separation from God. Still, God deeply loves us and desires for us to cross this gap and be in a relationship with him.

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. - Ephesians 2:8-9

Because God loves us so much, he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to bridge that gap between us and God. There is no other way for us to get to God other than through a relationship with Jesus.

But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. - Romans 5:8

Jesus was fully God and fully human, yet he had no sin. We deserved death for our sins, but Jesus willingly laid down his life and, three days later, rose from the dead. In his death and resurrection, his life paid the price for our sin, once and for all.

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” - John 14:6 

Forgiveness of our sins is a free gift from God when we accept Jesus as the one who saved us. Because Jesus took the punishment for us, we can have a fresh start, a clean slate, and a new life. We can’t earn forgiveness and we don’t deserve this gift of grace and forgiveness, but he chooses to give it to us freely.

If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. - Romans 10:9

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. - Romans 10:13

YES! If you want to begin a relationship with Jesus right now, you can talk to him as you would a friend. Here’s an example:

“Dear God, I confess that I am a sinner and I can’t reach you on my own. I believe that Jesus died to pay the penalty for my sins and then rose from the dead. I accept your free gift of forgiveness and salvation, and I invite you to be the leader of my life. I’m turning away from doing things my own way. Please help me live my life according to your way. Thank you for your grace and forgiveness and for giving me the gift of a new life in you. Amen.”

Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. - Romans 5:1

I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life. - John 5:24

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! - 2 Corinthians 5:17