What We Believe
A Christian is someone who has realised their need for forgiveness of their sins and a brand new start. This comes through accepting that Jesus made forgiveness possible by His death and resurrection. By inviting Jesus to be in our lives we can really begin this new start.

To become a Christian there are some important things to realise:

1) Something to admit - That we have all failed to live up to our own standards, let alone the perfect standards of God. So, we all need the forgiveness of God. To repent means to turn away from our selfishness and turn towards God. We deliberately seek God's forgiveness. We admit the fact that we have sinned and we ask God to forgive us and make us clean.

2) Something to do - The basis of Christianity is that 'Christ lives in me'. Ask Jesus to come into your life. He is waiting to be invited to share life with you. If anyone invites Jesus Christ into their lives, the Bible says that Jesus 'will come in'.

3) Something to know - That the last verse of the Bible says 'I will come in'. not 'I might'. You can know that you are a Christian because Jesus promised to share His life with us. You can rely on that promise 'I will come in'. You may not feel any different, that's not important. We do not rely on feelings but on fact. Let me put it like this...

God said it - 'If we confess our sins...God...will forgive us our sins'.

God did it - 'Christ died for our sins'.

I believe it - 'To all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God'.

That settles it - 'Whoever believes in...Jesus...has everlasting life'.

4) Something to confess - If you have received Jesus into your life you ought to let somebody know about it. The Bible puts it like this 'If you confess with your mouth... and believe in your heart...you will be saved'. A clear picture of this new beginning is Believer's Baptism. This, in turn, leads to belonging to a local Church.

What do I say?

God,

I believe that you are there and I am sorry that I have spent so much of my life ignoring you. I think that it is amazing that you care about me and want to relate to me as a friend. At present it feels like I hardly know you but I really want to get to know you better. I know that in the years I have spent ignoring you I've really spoiled a lot of things in my life. I wish that hadn't happened and want you to know that I'm sorry. Thank you, Jesus, that you were willing to die on the cross for me. I now give control of my life to you. I want to trust you completely with every part of my life and put you first. Help me live a new life in a relationship with you and give me the strength to know you better as each day passes.

Amen

What now?

God has accepted you as one of his own children.

God has totally forgiven you for all your years of ignoring Him.

God has placed a powerful 'friend' - the Holy Spirit - within you to help you know God from the 'inside out'. You need to find a Christian who you know and trust. Tell them what you have decided.

You need to get hold of a Bible. Try to read a bit about Jesus each day (start with the section headed 'Mark').

You need to start involving God in your everyday life by: talking to him about the things that concern you, asking him to help you with things that are too tough for you, seeking his guidance in decisions that you are facing.

You need to find a good local church where there are some people your age, where the Bible is taken seriously and where Jesus is talked about a lot. Talk to the minister there and tell him/her that you've become a Christian.

If you've decided that you can carry on ignoring God:

GOD WILL NOT FORCE HIMSELF ON YOU.

He allows us to face life by ourselves (but he'll still be ready to accept us, should we turn to him in the future).

In the meantime you'll have to face life without God.

Rev David Russell, Pastor, Northchurch Baptist Church

This page was created on Sunday 17 June 07 and last updated on Thursday 17 April 08