Connecting With God

 

 

Dear Friend,

Have you tried running life your way and things just aren’t working out or have you ever just felt like giving up on life all together?  Maybe it’s time you turned the reigns of your life over to someone who knows the way.  Someone you can trust with all your heart; who understands you better then you do yourself and who has the power to give you a fresh start in life.  I met such a friend over 22 years ago.  His name is Jesus and he wants to be your friend too and show you the way, as He did me.  Who is this Jesus?  He is the Son of God.

 

You see friend; God desires a personal relationship with each of us.  He created us in His image, to intimately connect with Him, but our sin broke that relationship.  Because of God’s great love for us, he made a way to bridge the gap our sin created and reconcile us to Him once again. This plan climaxed when His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins.  Because Jesus paid the debt for our sin, we can now be forgiven and reconciled to God.  It’s not to late for you friend.  If you want another chance at life, just say the following prayer from the heart (no lip service) to accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour today.

 

    “Heavenly Father, I have tried to live life my way and have realized that it just doesn’t work.  I need you Lord to show me the way.  I confess that I have sinned and that I need a Saviour.  I believe in my heart that Jesus died for my sins and that God raised Him from the dead so that I might have life and have it more abundantly.  Please Lord Jesus come into my life, forgive me of my sins, and lead me in your path of righteousness.  I give myself to you from this point on and will follow you all the days of my life.  Help me to live in a way that is pleasing to you.  Thank you Lord for forgiving my sins.  Thank you for coming into my life and starting a new work in me that will continue throughout my life as I submit myself to you.  In Jesus name, Amen.”

 

Building your relationship with God

My friend, now that you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour and started your life long journey with Him, it is time to start building that relationship.  As in any relationship this will require a commitment on your part to spend quality time with God to get to know Him.  One of the best ways to do this is to establish a special time and place to communicate with God on a “daily” basis.  Here are just a few tools to help you do this:
 
Prayer
Prayer is conversation between you and God. Through prayer we can worship God for who He is, praise Him for what he has done, repent of our wrongdoings, intercede for the needs of our friends, family and others, and bring our own needs to Him as well.  God delights in us coming to him with our needs.  Not only does it give Him an opportunity to show us how much he loves us, but it also gives Him a chance to speak with us.  Because of this, we need to remember that prayer is two-way communications, so we shouldn’t be doing all the talking.  We should also be listening to what God has to say to us and determine in our hearts to follow his lead.

Bible Reading
Reading and studying the Bible is an absolute must if you are going to build your relationship with God and grow in your Christian walk.  The Bible will provide you insight, inspiration, explanation, and revelation into God’s character as well as build your faith in Him. You don’t need to be a bible scholar to understand the Bible. All you need is the desire to know God and to learn from him.  Always pray before reading the Bible and ask God to speak to you through His Word.  Here are some tools that may help:

 

Daily Devotionals

Our “Links” page on this web site has several devotional resource sites to help you spend time with God.  Some sites lay out a program to help you read the bible through in one year.  Other sites provide a variety of daily devotions that you can subscribe to by various authors, subjects and formats.  These devotions can be either read on-line or received through your email on a regular basis.

 

Study Bible – A good study bible and Bible translation will help you understand the context and history of the passage of scripture you are reading. If you do not have a study bible we have a link on our “Links” page under the Bible Study Resources section called “The Bible Finder”.  This will help you find what you need in this area.  If you would like, you can also read and study the bible on-line at various web sites like “BibleGateway.com” or “Crosswalk.com” also listed on our Links” page.

 

Other Bible Study Tools – There are several other Bible Study tools that will

bring further insights into your Bible Study times as you grow in Christ, such as:

 

Topical Bible – Allows you to do topical studies in the Bible much easier

Bible Concordance - Allows you to find any verse in the Bible simply by knowing one of the key words in the verse you are trying to find

Bible Dictionary – Provides insight into people, places, and things in the Bible

Expository Dictionary – Allows you to do word studies to see how different words were used in the Bible

Bible Handbook – Provides an abbreviated Bible Commentary, latest archaeological discoveries, how we got our bible and some church history

Bible Atlas – Allows you to see the geography of the land during Bible times and where things took place in the bible

Manners and Customs of the Bible – Provides tremendous insight into how and/or why things were done the way they were in the Bible

Worship and Fellowship
Worship and gathering with other Christians are also vital in building your relationship with God and with other Christians.  These relationships help sustain us, strengthen us, and build us up in our everyday life and in our walk with God.  They also provide accountability in our Christian walk, which we desperately need if we are going to stay on the right path.

 

Because of these critical needs we have established a Friday night “home” Bible Study Fellowship and would love to have you come and join us.  Feel free to bring a friend along with you.  We have a great bunch of young adults from every walk of life with a wide age range that would welcome you with open arms into our fellowship.  Give us a call at 896-6069 if you would like to come, have questions, need directions or need a ride.  For a list of our other services at our Church on Sunday and Wednesday nights, please see the “About Us” page.  You can also find out about our upcoming events on our “Calendar of Events” page.

 

We are here to help

If you have prayer needs in your life, we would be honored to pray with you and believe God for the answers together. To submit a prayer request, praise, or learn how to be a part of this ministry, please contact Charlie Krager at (757) 896-6069 or email him at Charles2024@cox.net