Meeting Jesus and Growing in your Relationship with Him
“Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live.” -Galatians 1:4
Next Steps
After giving your life to Jesus: https://www.cru.org/us/en/train-and-grow/spiritual-growth/beginning-with-god/personal-follow-up-your-new-life-reformatted.html
Growing in your faith: https://www.cru.org/us/en/train-and-grow/spiritual-growth/beginning-with-god/new-growth-series.html
Bible reading plan: a guide to John’s Gospel: https://www.bible.com/en/reading-plans/40118
321 Video Course: 321 is a course that invites people to see life the way Jesus does. Inspired by Jesus’ vision of reality, 321 is designed to help you think about God, the world and yourself through immersive videos and thoughtful illustrations. 321 comprises of 8 interactive video sessions designed to be completed at your leisure. Each session is around 20 min long and can be played, paused and accelerated to suit. https://321.speaklife.org.uk/course/321
More help to grow in your relationship with God: https://www.cru.org
Join a good, Jesus following, Bible teaching, Community serving church . Ask UGM staff about churches they recommend.
UGM Guests: If you are from one of the UGM shelters, we pick up anyone wanting to come to our service on Sundays at Jacob’s Well Church. We pick up at 9:15AM
Contact us if you have questions, prayer requests or want to receive a Bible: email: jacobswellspokane@mac.com Or call/text 509-535-9355
Meeting Jesus:
The New Testament call on all of us to give God our lives as a “living sacrifice”.
Romans 12:1-2 “Beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God’s marvelous mercies? I encourage you to surrender yourselves to God to be his sacred, living sacrifices. And live in holiness, experiencing all that delights his heart. For this becomes your genuine expression of worship. Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes.”
We can do this because God no longer demands a sacrifice for sin from us, He calls us to place our faith and trust in the sacrifice He has provided for us through Jesus.
Hebrews 10:19-22 “And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.”
The law of God with its perfect demands as revealed in the Old and New Testaments has been fulfilled by Jesus. Jesus lived the perfect life that we cannot. Because of His life, death, resurrection and ascension, God is satisfied and the payment for all our sins has been paid. Death has been conquered and peace with God, oneself, one another and creation is possible through union with Jesus.
This world tells you to place your trust in yourself, your own good works and promises to “open your eyes” with its wisdom but it’s a Christless existence that offers a Christless eternity.
If we do not place our faith and trust in Christ, we face the judgment seat of God to argue our own case of living lives that measured up to his Divine perfection. To reject Christ is to reject God’s sacrifice and say we can offer something to God that is better than the Christ.
To deny Christ’s offer of salvation is to face the reality of eternal judgement on our own.
To refuse God’s offer of salvation through Christ is to deny the demands of justice and stand with all that is evil and declare that it is good to ignore, look over and forget the wake of humanity’s sin, our sin.
That would be a monstrous response to the reality of the human experience. It’s an ominous thought to think of sacrifice, but sin requires a remedy more powerful and pure than its cause. I hope that you can see that the doctor of your soul has provided a way to save you from the power, penalty and ultimate presence of sin.
We are like someone in desperate need of an organ transplant, and in order to save our lives, we need to trust the doctor and surgeon and place our faith in the life-giving organ of another, to use a natural metaphor. Many people owe their life to someone who made a choice in facing death, to give life through being an organ donor. The gospel declares that a greater death has taken place and the life that it gives is not mortal, but…eternal.
We cannot save ourselves, we need saving and our souls need life, eternal life.
Jesus rescued us, He saved us and He offers that salvation freely to all who will place their faith and trust in His saving sacrifice.
What sacrifice are you trusting in today?
Pray with me this simple prayer which is a statement of faith and trust in what God has accomplished in Christ. It’s like opening the door of your heart and inviting Christ to come in and take control and make your life his home.
“Father God, I acknowledge my sin and turn from it by accepting your grace and mercy for the forgiveness of my sins that you accomplished on the cross through Jesus Your Son. I thank you for your rescue, a salvation that you planned before I was even born and have offered me freely, not because of anything I’ve done, but in spite of it. I deserve death, but You offer me life and it’s all by grace. Come live in me by Your Holy Spirit, guide me in the truth of your word and help me love and obey it. Teach me to love You with all my heart, mind, soul and strength and love my neighbor as I love myself. Protect me from evil and work in me, so that my life, not just my words, will glorify you and show others that You alone are the hope of the world. In Jesus name, Amen.“