Salvation

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How to start or continue this Journey

Hey, let’s take a journey and discover the new you!

If you are reading this it means you are either curious on how to live a more enriching fulfilled life? Or you have made the decision to continue to live for Christ and would like further help, information or support on what it means to live a Christian life? 

Either way a wonderful change has taken place in your life, due to the choice you have made which has cause you to come into contact with the almighty God. Sounds a lot but in a nutshell your life will never be the same.

As a part of your new Christian journey ensuring that you pray is so vital, and we will get on to that a bit further on, take a moment to say this prayer as we continue to discover and learn.

“Lord Jesus help me to understand your thoughts towards me and the purpose you have for my life as I embark on this journey of discovery, fulfilment and a more closer and deeper relationship with you”.

What next? – The Growth

Think about these words from the bible, “The Kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the Blade then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts the in sickle (cutter) because the harvest has come”. 

Just like the seeds scattered, you will also go through growth, become stronger and develop a greater sense of God presence in and around your life. Just like the seeds long for the rain, God also longs for your relationship with him to grow stronger and deeper. He wants you to recognise his voice when he speaks to you, to find out what special gifts he has given you as that seed is planted, and discover ‘life in all its fullness’ (John 10 v 10). As you get to know God better you will find yourself growing more like Jesus, and you will start to have an impact on people’s life around you at School, College, Uni, Work and home.

You’re not alone on this Journey, You have a great friend!

Is it me or does life feel as if it’s getting more difficult and there never seems to be enough hours in the day to deal with all life seems to through at you? At times the issues that surround our every day life can draw us further and further away from living a satiable and abundant life.

God is your friend! He desires to walk, stand and journey with you. At times we find friendship or belonging when there seems to be a gap or void in our lives. These gap fillers are usually only ‘quick fixes’. 

Question, who or what is this God?

God the father is the almighty and the creator, Jesus was the one who walked on earth over 2.000 years ago, he was God in Flesh revealing the fullness of the Father to us. He defeated death by coming back to life to show us that we can have eternal life if we live for him who died for our sins. The Holy Spirit is sent as a guide to those who make the decision to follow him.

Take an egg for instance - it is made up of a shell, egg white and the yellow substance called a yoke. If you separate these elements you would still have the egg but in it’s different forms (e.g. egg shell, egg white and egg yoke). The completed component in this instance is EGG and without these elements it wouldn’t be an egg.

So God the father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are all God.

Can God really change me?

When you become a Christian you change! We mentioned earlier about the term being born again and that was explained. In short we get a new start with God with Life and who we are. The thing is we won’t actually feel much different because our character will pretty much remain the same. The difference is that we lead a new life and are forgiven of all our sins.. Yes we may mess up at times, but we have an advocate that we can go to in order to get up and start again.

SO WHAT DO I DO NOW?

It is always difficult to find a church to attend when you are new to this or you have been away for a while out of the presence of God. The bible tells us not to neglect the fellowship of the saints. This is important as it helps you on your Christian journey, you will have people of like mind around you that can help and support you along the way and if you struggle there is always someone to encourage you to continue on and get you back on track

Let me give you a couple of steps in order to assist you in finding the right church for you.

  1. Pray and ask God for direction. God will guide you to a place whether through a friend or something you stumble on from a flyer or publication detailing a place of worship. Ask God to give you confirmation of a church for you. When you attend that particular church you will know when it’s for you.
  2. Ask for a list of churches from the Midnight Oil after care team. The team from Midnight Oil can be contacted through the website. The team is designed to assist you in finding the right church for you in your area for your growth and development. You can seek advice on how to approach the issue on searching for a place of worship that upholds the same principles of salvation.
  3. Obtain a bible and read the word of God – reading the word of God ignites your inner man (spirit) , couple with prayer you will begin to be drawn to places that you feel with be important to your spiritual growth. You will know when a place is for you.

HEY SOME OF THE WORDS YOU USED I DON’T UNDERSTAND

I am aware that reading this guide there are certain phrases that are used and we expect you to know.. so to save us assuming you know what we are talking about and get it very wrong let me list some of the phrases that I used and give a brief explanation of it.

  • Salvation / Born again – Describes what happens when you become a Christian you move from death to life (spiritually). You are reborn into something new.
  • Forgiven – That’s you!. It means being sorry for the mistakes you have made and being sincere about it. But is really about God wiping the slate clean in our life so we can start afresh.
  • Grace – This is what Gods gives us even tough we don’t deserve it, he will still forgive us unconditionally.
  • Altar Ministry – Individuals that will help you pray and counsel you on your spiritual walk. You will find that in most churches there is a particular spot ant the end of a church service where you can request prayer at the front of the hall/auditorium.
  • Sin – Three letters that describe all that we do what is not what Christ wants for us. It is stuff that pulls us away from God and stops us knowing him.
  • Worship – what we do to express and show our love to God. It does not only mean the lifting of our hands in a church service but it is also how we live our life in worship/reverence to God.

MAINTENANCE

You are still learning - just like a baby you won’t always get it right the first time!

We advise you to spend some time reflecting on these areas and what they mean. As believe they will help you maintain your Christian journey:

  1. Prayer
  2. Reading the word of God (Bible)
  3. Fellowship - spending time with other Christians

We do hope that this has been of great assistance to you and we would love to hear from you if you have decided to embark on this journey contact us.

May God ever Bless you and keep you in his perfect peace.

We look forward to you letting us know how you are getting on!

P.S. That’s called a testimony :)