Excellent! Right off the bat, you and Jesus Christ have something in common. Jesus didn't like religion either. I don't want to talk to you about religion; I want to tell you about Christianity.

Christianity is not a religion, it's a relationship. A relationship with Jesus Christ.

Religious groups tend to try and make you follow a set of man-made rules. Rules that not even God makes you follow. Religious organizations try to make you fit into their own “special” mold. They try to make you into the kind of person that they think you should be, instead of the kind of person God wants you to be. Sadly, very often, they will actually turn a person away from God instead of helping them find God and draw close to Him.

No it doesn't, because Christianity isn't a religion. It's a relationship with Jesus Christ. A relationship that comes from accepting Him as your personal Savior, and just coming to know Him and love Him above all else. It's not a bunch of man-made 'don'ts' (“don't do this” or “don't do that”). Christianity centers more on the 'do's.'

For example—

Mark 12:30-31
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. Love your neighbor as yourself.

When you “do” these things, you won't have to worry about the “don'ts,” because they will take care of themselves.

When I say accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, I mean tell Him that you believe He is the Son of God, who died for your sins and rose from the dead. It also means to make Him your Lord (the person you've surrendered control of your life to).

Because without Jesus your life will never take on meaning and purpose. But most importantly, without accepting Jesus Christ you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

That's right, because you can't get into heaven by self-effort. You can't get to heaven by being good—you need faith in Jesus Christ to get you there.

Galatians 2:16:
“…knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law (good deeds) but by faith in Jesus Christ…for by the works of the law no person shall be justified (go to heaven).”

Maybe by man's standards, but not by God's standards.

Romans 3:23:
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”;

Isaiah 64:6:
“Our good deeds are like filthy rags before God.”

Psalm 14:3:
“There is not one who does any good, not even one.”

Unlike what most people think, when you die God doesn't take all your good deeds and bad deeds and weigh them on some kind of spiritual scale; and if your good deeds outweigh the bad, you get into heaven. On the contrary, God said that to get into heaven you have to be perfect, sinless.

Matthew 5:48:
“Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

Matthew 19:26:
“With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

We can't live a perfect life, but Jesus did. We couldn't die to pay for our own sins, so Jesus died for us. All that God requires from you is to put your faith in His Son, who loves you and gave His life for you.

2 Corinthians 5:21:
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” and;

John 3:36:
“He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

That is why you are saved through your faith in Jesus Christ and not by your good works.

Ephesians 2:8-9:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

If your salvation was attained by your good works, it wouldn't be a gift from God, you would have earned it.

That's right. Paul writes:

Romans 10:9:
“If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.”

It's easy because Jesus Christ made it easy. But for Him it wasn't easy at all. He did all the work, including suffering the horrible pain of a torturous death on the cross just to make it easy for you, because He loves you so very much.

Isaiah 53:5-6:
“But he was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped, and we were healed! All of us have strayed away like sheep. We have left God's paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him (Jesus) the guilt and sins of us all.”

YES, He does!

John 3:16:
“For God so loved the world (you) that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish (in hell) but have everlasting life (in heaven).”

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

You bet your life He's a crutch. But when you're crippled, what's wrong with a crutch? Besides—don't let anyone fool you—everyone has a crutch. Everyone's got something they lean on.

Some people depend on alcohol to be their crutch. Others lean on drugs. Some people make money their crutch. While still others look to their friends, family or career for support.

The only difference is—when I turn to my Crutch and cry out for help, my Crutch answers and helps me. Does your crutch do that for you?

My Crutch strengthens me in all my afflictions. My Crutch leads and guides me. He laughs with me in the good times and cries with me in the bad. And I know my Crutch loves me because not only did He tell me so, He proved it.

John 15:13:
“Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down His life for His friends.”

I wonder if you can say the same for your crutch?

Hold it a minute! God didn't cause evil and suffering, man did! We're so quick to blame God for the mess we've gotten ourselves into.

Why does man allow it to continue? Why does man kill, steal, lie and hate? Why do we turn our backs on God, and go totally against His will for our lives, living in evil and sin?

Then we look at our world (a world that's only a product of our own sinful lives) and we say to God, “Why are You doing this to us?”

Remember, God is a God of love. His plan was to create a race of people that would love Him. People free from evil, suffering and death. But genuine love cannot exist unless freely given through free will. And thus man was given the choice to accept God's love or reject it. Death and suffering entered the world through sin, man's own sin.

But it was God who came down from heaven in the Person of Jesus Christ, and died on the cross for our sins; giving us a pardon to the death sentence we had brought upon ourselves through sin. And also to give us life (eternal life), if only we'd believe in Him.

1 Corinthians 15:21-22:
“For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.”

Don't you believe it! There is no problem too big or too small for God. Remember, you're talking about the Creator of the universe.

Jeremiah 32:27:
"Behold, I am the Lord… Is there anything too hard for Me?” and

Luke 1:37:
“For with God nothing will be impossible.”

But He won't begin to put your life back in order until you turn your life over to Jesus Christ. God doesn't want religion from you; He wants a relationship with you!

Positive. Jesus said:

Matthew 11:28:
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

The Bible says:

Psalm 147:3-4:
“He heals the broken-hearted, and binds up their wounds.

And God also said:

Psalm 50:15:
“Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me.”

He not only will forgive you, He wants to forgive you. He's just waiting for you to invite Jesus into your heart and ask for His forgiveness.

Psalm 86:5:
“For the Lord is good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in loving kindness to all who call upon Him.”

First of all, the Bible says that you must repent. This means that you're sincerely and honestly sorry for all the sins of your life. It also means that you truly desire to turn away from your sins and to live for God from this moment on. Then you pray this prayer and sincerely mean it with all your heart.

“Dear Lord Jesus, I am truly sorry for all the sins of my life; please forgive me. I accept You, Jesus, as my Lord and Savior. I believe that You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I ask You to come into my life and into my heart.

Give me the strength, Lord, to live for You, loving You above all else. Thank You, Jesus, for giving me a new life. I ask all of this in Your precious name, Amen.”

From this moment on, you are a child of God.

John 1:12:
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in His name.”

As a child of God, look to Him each day for the strength to live for Jesus Christ from now on. The old life is now gone, from this moment on you are to live a new life in Christ.

What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore— for the old life is gone. A new life has begun! Specifically:

2 Corinthians 5:17:
"Therefore if any man (or woman) be in Christ, he (or she) is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

As a new believer in Christ the Bible says, “And you won't spend the rest of your life chasing after evil desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God. You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols. (1 Peter 4:2-3)

Begin to read the Bible everyday to nourish and strengthen you spiritually. Talk with the Lord in prayer as much as possible, He always loves to hear from one of His children. Ask God to help you find a Bible teaching Christian church, and attend regularly.

May the Lord fill you with His love, may He bless you and keep you and cause His face to shine upon you and give you peace.

Colossians 1:9-12:
“For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.”

If you prayed this prayer and desire to draw closer to God, we would love to hear from you, and give you a Bible and disciple you in a walk with Him. Please contact us at: (847) 895-3545. or complete our Next Steps Form HERE.

Even if you can't attend our fellowship, it's really important that you get plugged into a bible-teaching Church that leans on The Word of God, but it would be our privilege to speak with you.

May God richly bless you as you seek to know Him more, day by day.