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Receiving Jesus As Your Personal Savior............ |
Since 1884 Mt. Tabor Baptist Church has proclaimed the Gospel Message, the Good News, that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, was given to be our Savior. Why did God do that? Because of His great love for all of us. We believe we have been faithful to our church’s calling. Now, in the modern age in which we live, there is still only one way to become a Christian. If you live in the Paint Lick area, allow us to share with you the information we believe the Scriptures provide for you to become a Christian. First, allow us to explain that becoming a Christian is not dependent upon your good works. On our own,of God’s children. It is a grace/faith issue. The Holy Spirit of God touches the spirit God has placed in our hearts and minds and causes us to recognize that we are sinners. We were born with a sinful nature. Without a deliberate intervention from God, we would continue in our sins until the end of our lives and subsequently, we would not have a right to enter into God’s Heaven. Through the Bible, God’s Spirit plants in us the seeds of guilt and the need for something or rather, Someone beyond our own abilities to save ourselves. When the Word of God is in-breathed by God’s Holy Spirit, and the message finds a resting place in our hearts, we recognize that our sins are condemning us, separating us from God. We are in need of forgiveness, of repentance...turning from our sinful ways and reaching out to Jesus, Who was given for the purpose of our redemption, and forgiveness of our sins. Repentance is a deep conviction of lostness, of our personal guilt. When the Word of God is directed by the Holy Spirit, we are made to understand some of the amazing things that God did for us. God looked down on the world and saw that mankind was evil. God gave us life, allowed us to be born for the purpose of honoring Him with our lives. His great desire was for us to want fellowship with Him, to honor Him by the way we live. Beginning with Eve, in the Garden of Eden, she urged her husband/"helpmeet" or helpmate to join her by going against God’s wishes. You see, God had placed that couple in the Garden of Eden with the warning: they were not to eat fruit from a forbidden tree. The Devil, in the form of a snake, tempted Eve to go ahead and eat the fruit, indicating that God was selfish and wanted to be wiser than the couple. If they would eat the delicious forbidden fruit, they would become as wise as God. The Devil’s temptation was so effective that they ate the fruit. The result of that disobedience was that God became so angry at the couple’s disobedience that He cast them out of the Garden of Eden. Their sin was the beginning of a world of people who would deliberately choose to go against God’s wishes. From before the beginning of God’s creation, God had arranged a plan to save lost mankind. God made plans to send His Only Begotten Son, Jesus, into the world of sin. The sinful world would recognize Jesus’ goodness and they would be so infuriated with His perfect life, so opposite from their own, that they would want Jesus killed. His death was determined from the beginning of time. Man’s redemption from sin could only be effected by the perfect sacrifice of God’s Sinless Son...Jesus. In God’s plan for you and for us at Mt. Tabor Baptist Church, it was imperative that we proclaim the Good News, that Jesus has now died for our sins...as well as the sins of Adam and Eve. The means for us to be redeemed from our sins would be to have a heart-felt sorrow for what we did in our sinfulness; then we are to reach out in faith...faith in Jesus who died on the cross for our sins...Who was buried and subsequently resurrected from the grave on the third day after He was crucified and buried. Our faith must be placed appropriately on God’s great sacrifice of His Son, and faith in Jesus’ sacrifice. When we reach out in faith, seeking forgiveness, and receiving Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior, God works a great miracle of regeneration...our forgiveness and acceptance into His Kingdom. People who reach out in redemptive faith become "Children of God". God’s grace, God’s unmerited favor is given to us...and we are provided the supreme privilege of becoming God’s children. Upon receiving God’s grace, because of our repentance and acceptance of God’s plan, we will have a new desire to live Godly lives in every step of our lives. We will have a purpose to be obedient to Jesus and His teachings. Jesus was baptized to teach us about obedience. We will want to be baptized also and be faithful to publically declare our relationship with Him. We will want to join ourselves to other Christians...in a church where His Name is proclaimed and where Christian people fellowship and grow together in Godliness. We will be attracted to God’s plan, which includes becoming students of the Word of God...the Holy Bible. We will be given new interests and new desire to become more and more like our Creator...and His Son, Jesus. We extend to you a personal invitation to meet with us and participate in our Worship Services on Sunday and Wednesday evenings, Sunday School and other vehicles of learning and growing in the knowledge of God and His Son. We would be happy if you would contact us...or attend services with us...perhaps this next Sunday? |