Join us in living the life God desires us to live.
Everyone has problems in life. Christians are those who have come to realize that our main problem in life is not to be found in what others have said and done, no matter how bad. Our main problem is to be found inside ourselves, what we have said and done, and what we have thought and felt. We realize this problem has affected our relationships with others and with our Creator. To admit this to ourselves and God is confession.
What can we do to fix our problems? We have come to realize that we are not able to change these relationships because we are not able to change ourselves and undo our mistakes. We turn from trusting ourselves to fix our problems and look to God. This is repentance. We come to hear and trust the Good News of Jesus, that is, who Jesus is, what He has done, and what He is now doing to solve our problems. This is faith. This is how we become Christians. We come to trust in Jesus as God’s gift to save us from ourselves and our misdeeds. Jesus died to make us right before God. Jesus’ sacrifice paid our sin debt, satisfying God’s Law so God could forgive all our sins. This is how God has reconciled us to Himself and to one another.
John 5:24: "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
Jesus has fixed our problem. Jesus’ death removed all our sins and guilt. Jesus’ resurrection and ascension made eternal life and divine power available to us when we trust and follow Him. We become new creations with Jesus living inside us, which enables us to live as God desires. On our own, in our former state, this was impossible. But now, we are dead to our old life and alive to God. A glove can do nothing on its own, but once a hand is in it, the glove can do whatever the hand can do. With Jesus’ Spirit living in us, we can do what we could not do on our own.
2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
John 15:5: "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
What is the Church? The Church is the assembly of those who have trusted and follow Jesus. We are those who have trusted Jesus’ death and resurrection for forgiveness of sins and have received Jesus’ Spirit to dwell within our heart. We are those who have come to follow Christ as Savior and Lord. We are sheep of the same flock under the care of Jesus, the Good Shepherd. We are branches together on the same Vine, Jesus. We are members of Jesus’ body. We are children of God, siblings in God’s family. We need one another, and we belong together. We grow up in our new life together. In the Church, we are learning how to live as God’s children together. We benefit from one another. We accept and love one another.
Romans 12:4-5: Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
Ephesians 4:15-16: Speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
