Know Jesus

Stop what you are doing for just a few minutes. This can change your life.

                                                 

Most of what man prepares and portrays in regards to the Christian life if filled with religious terms and demands which are not understandable to the everyday person. Most people perceive, and rightly so that if they attend a church, they will not know how to act and will be judged for their lack of knowledge. So… they just don’t bother.

When you are dealing with Real Life problems, you are searching to real solutions that are presented in a real and understandable way. You know you are not where you need to be. You are living a life filled with disappointments and stress. You don’t need a bunch of self righteous morons telling you how wrong you are and you need to get right with God. You want to scream, “Don’t judge me help me.”

Well it is no coincidence that you landed on this website today. At Real Life we practice simple church. The gospel of Jesus Christ is simple and should be presented simply. Jesus did not complicate things, and He never judged a person’s heart. What He did was relate to people. He built relationships that were real and personal because that is what the Father seeks and that is what He is seeking with you right now. He believes in you whether or not you believe in Him.

Everything in life revolves around “relationships”. Your success or failure in this culture depends upon your ability to relate to those who are important to your life. Your success or failure for eternity is based on your relationship with Christ. This relationship is promised to us and given as a free gift. It is God’s desire to have a relationship with you, but He will not force Himself upon you. You must take the first step toward Him and then He will start everything in motion.

Take a look at the explanations below and ask God to speak to your heart. The one action will show Him that you are open to receive and start a relationship. Openness is all you need to begin the process.

1 John 5:11-12 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. The one who has the Son has this eternal life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have this eternal life.

This passage tells us that God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son, Jesus Christ. In other words, the way to possess eternal life is to possess God’s Son. The question is, how can a person have the Son of God?

Man’s Problem: Separation From God

Isaiah 59:2 But your sinful acts have alienated you from your God; your sins have caused him to reject you and not listen to your prayers.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

According to Romans 5:8, God demonstrated His love for us by sending His only Son to die for our sins. Why did Christ have to die for us? Because Scripture declares all men to be sinful. To “sin” means to miss the mark. The Bible declares “all have sinned and fall short of the glory (the perfect holiness) of God” (Rom. 3:23). The is no one who is perfect (sinless). In other words, our sin separates us from God who is perfect holiness (righteousness and justice) and God must therefore judge sinful man.

Habakkuk 1:13a (Speaking to God) You are too just to tolerate evil; you are unable to condone wrongdoing.

The Futility of Our Works

Works just won’t get you to where you need to be.

Scripture also teaches that no amount of human goodness, human works, human morality, or religious activity can gain acceptance with God or get anyone into heaven. If being “good” would do it, how much good is good enough? The moral man, the religious man, and the immoral and non-religious are all in the same boat. They all fall short of God’s perfect righteousness. After discussing the immoral man, the moral man, and the religious man in Romans 1:18-3:8, the Apostle Paul declares that both Jews and Greeks are under sin, that “there is no one righteous, not even one” (Rom. 3:9-10). However, here is the rest of the story:

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 it is not of works, so that no one can boast.

Titus 3:5-7 he saved us, not by works of righteousness that we have done but on the basis of his mercy, through the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us in full measure through Jesus Christ our Savior. 7 And so, since we have been justified by his grace, we become heirs with the confident expectation of eternal life.

Don’t let these terms stop you. As you build your relationship, the Holy Spirit will build your understanding of terms like rebirth, renewing of the mind

The hardest thing for us to do is “surrender”, yield to God, control of our life.

No amount of human goodness is as good as God. God is perfect righteousness. Because of this, Habakkuk 1:13 tells us God cannot have fellowship ( a relationship) with anyone who does not have perfect righteousness. The way we become that clean, that righteous is by “Justification”…simply stated, “Cleansed by the blood of Jesus”.

God’s Solution

God is not only perfect holiness (whose holy character we can never attain to on our own or by our works of righteousness) but He is also perfect love and full of grace and mercy. Because of His love and grace, He provides us hope and a solution.

Romans 5:8 … God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

This is the good news (Gospel) of the Bible. It’s the message of the gift of God’s own Son who became man (the God-man), lived a sinless life, died on the cross for our sin, and was raised from the grave He became the final sacrifice for you sin and mine.

Romans 1:4  …who was appointed the Son-of-God-in-power according to the Holy Spirit by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 4:25 He was given over because of our transgressions and was raised for the sake of our justification.

2 Corinthians 5:21 God made the one who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.

1 Peter 3:18 …Because Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring you to God, by being put to death in the flesh but by being made alive relationship with Him, and through that relationship, we can build our relationship with God.

 John 1:12 But to all who have received him--those who believe in his name--he has given the right to become God's children.

How do we receive Christ?

John 3:16-18 For this is the way God loved the world: he gave his one and only Son that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. 18 The one who believes in Him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

This means we all must each come to God the same way: (1) as a sinner who recognizes his sinfulness, (2) realizes no human works can result in salvation, and (3) relies totally on Christ alone by faith alone for our salvation. In our world we say, “ I’ll believe it when I see it.” In God’s world you are required to “Believe it, then you will experience it.”

If you would like to receive and trust Christ as your personal Savior, you may want to express your faith in Christ by a simple prayer acknowledging your sinfulness, accepting His forgiveness and putting your faith in Christ for your salvation. Follow that experience by finding a Bible believing Church to help you walk through the process of building your relationship with God. Jesus never let the Pharisee (hypocrites) drive Him away from His relationship with the Father, don’t let well meaning Christians who have never built a personal relationship themselves keep you away from God’s house.

There are true Christians and a bunch of them. It just seems the hypocrites standout the most.