"And you shall name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins". Matthew 1:21
Yes, there was a reason that Jesus had to die. He knew and fortold his own death. He was called "the lamb of God".
That lamb was sacrificed for you. It may be hard to grasp in your mind, but somehow it makes sence to the hearts of men.
If you've never asked Jesus if he is there, here are some steps that you may want to investigate. How do I find God?
The Key To Everything
By Norman Grubb
Who is the Holy Spirit? As a young man, Jack Matthews, my first Pastor, had the chance to spend time with Norman Grubb.
Jack said, "it was like sitting at Jesus' feet". Can you be filled with the Holy Spirit? Is that the difference that you see in some people?
Have you ever met someone, and said to yourself, "God is there", or "I want what they've got"? It's right here.
The key to everything
Becoming a Disciple of Christ....
Jesus said, "Therefore go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit", Matthew 28:19. Is there a difference between a disciple and a believer?
How do we know when we are OK spiritually?
Have you ever told someone about feeling distraught and they
came back with some line, like "Oh, your doing Ok", and yet you
feel empty inside?
Here is an incredible video from house2house.com.
house2house.com is a great resource site for house churches.
Please visit their site @ house2house.com.
Randy and Alisa Varga in Uganda
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:
to look after the orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27
Trusting God when everything around you is a storm.
"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for
those who love Him." 1 Corinthians 2:9
I have a team of friends who will join with you to bring your requests to God. God already knows your needs,
He wants us to seek Him so that He can show us that He is there. Ask for prayer.
Two men's view of Jesus.
Today in Paradise
We all have an idea of why we need God. Is it for our needs or for our our wants? Here is a view on the last dialog that Jesus had with two men. (Luke 23:43) By John Piper of Bethlehem Baptist Church.
Today in paradise
I Pursue Christ...
Hi, I'm Dave. In 1978, at the age of 18, I was handed a bible and told to read the New Testament.
I didn't know anything about the bible or God. I was at a place in my life where I had made many self destructive decisions and didn't know how to fix myself.
I opened the bible to the book of Matthew and started reading a list of names. The genealogy of Jesus. When I got to verse twenty one, in the first chapter, it said the phrase, "and you shall have a son and you shall name Him Jesus for He will save His people from their sins".
Right then, I asked God to save me from my sins. It happened. He did. I felt a peace come over me that I had never known. I met God through His Holy Spirit. My life was changed.
I ended up going overseas at twenty three, as a missionary and tried to save the world.
When I came back to the US, I felt like a duck out of water, not knowing how to fit back into my own culture. Eventually, I quit trying to pursue God and just tried to run my own life.
Twenty years later, I was back to being self destructive. On October 1st, in 2006, I came to a place where I couldn't fix myself or my problems, and again I needed a Savior.
God was there.
My second wife, Krista, said that I was born again, again and that she wasn't going to believe in Jesus.
Well, she did. Three months later, while driving our truck to work, listening to the Christmas song, "Oh Holy Night" she had a personal experience with God and pulled off of the road in tears.
Since then, we have made an effort to trust God and turn our lives over to Him daily.
There have been no regrets, just hundreds of circumstances that confirm, God is truly in our lives, in a very real way.
We are not trying to convince anyone to join Christianity or even to learn to be a Christian.
We have found that Jesus is real and that He changes lives. He has changed ours.
WePursueChrist.com is not an organization.
There is no building, no board of directors, and no 501-c3 non-profit corporation.
It's nothing more than a website that costs $15 a year. Krista came up with the name and it fit.
So what's the point?
If you need a Savior, I have found one in Jesus. Maybe you don't.
Jesus said that he came to save the lost. I was lost.
If you were treading water, twenty miles out in the ocean and I came by in a boat and said, "Here is my hand, get in" and you stubbornly said, "no", that's your choice.
That's what life without God is to me, being lost in an ocean of aloneness and fear.
I am pursuing Christ!
I am asking others, come with me.
It wasn't a one time fix; I am making an effort to know God, daily.
Is it possible to know God?
I have found two ways. The bible is packed full of man's experience, knowing God. I read the bible. The second way is to spend time with God. What does that look like?
I take a walk and talk to Him. I get away from everyone and everything and open my heart with all of my thoughts and worries and tell Him my fears.
God is not looking for good people. God is looking for people with pure hearts. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God".
I believe that God wants us to know Him and talk to Him. I want to learn to listen better to the still small voice that the bible says is the Holy Spirit inside of my soul and follow Him.
By the way, have you ever had an experience where you were about to step into traffic or something like that, and you didn't, because something inside you said, "STOP", and it saved you. Hugh.
Maybe your at a place where you want some answers and want to see if God is real. Maybe it's why you took the time to look at this site.
I believe in what I call a "lateral body of Christ". I am not looking for someone to be my mediator with God.
I am building relationships with people that individually seek God and avoid being religious.
Do I have followers? The only followers I want are my dogs, who are always looking for scraps.
My wife has a relationship with God and seeks Him personally. She asked me how to pray after her experience with God in the truck. I told her, "Why don't you go ask Jesus how to pray".
She did. What she found out, was that she just talked to Him. No deep religious tone or thee's and thou's. She just went in the bedroom, got away from me and talked to God. It apparently worked for her.
We do not teach Christianity. Actually, I'm not sure what Christianity is any more, anyway.
We believe that Jesus was God's only begotten son and that He died for our sins and that He rose from the dead and that He sent His Holy Spirit as our guide.
We pray to our heavenly Father, are forgiven by the His Son's death on the cross for our sins and listen to the Holy Spirit in our daily lives for His direction.
Jesus said, "You call Me Lord, Lord, but never knew Me".
What if I spent more time praying and having a personal experience with God and spent less time trying to gain approval from men?
What if we striped away all of our preconceived ideas of American Christianity and just pursued Christ with each other.
If a church works for you, then OK. Go. We go to church off and on. If church doesn't work, that's OK, too.
There are lots of churchs and lots of people who say alot about God. Six thousand and two hundred in the Portland area (I googled them).
I haven't found a perfect one yet. We've been going to Willamette Christian Church.
Once in a while, we go to Jack Matthews church in Molalla, OR, Grace Church Molalla
. It was New Horizons Fellowship and it's merging with Grace. He's really good a marrying people(He's married me twice) and baby dedications(we're waiting for him to dedicate our baby due in Feb. 2011) and preaching, too.
Sometimes we just watch TV church like Love Worth Finding with Adrian Rodgers or Joyce Meyer or Joel Osteen.
Anyway, I'm tired of religion, I'm just going to seek God and let everyone else worry about that other stuff. Dave.
