Answer: When you are adopted into God's family you have a brand new identity. Believers in Christ can change, because God can replace negative thoughts and behaviors with His promises, which can give you God-confidence and a brand new self-image. If you can accept God's promises, then you won't need to seek acceptance from others. That is the key!

Like so many others, ED takes your strength, dignity and your heart. You may be shunned by your friends and family. Society misunderstands you. But Jesus Christ? He wants to touch you.

Story: On the final night of a ski retreat, students are challenged to give their lives to Jesus Christ. Thirteen do. But a few of the teens think up excuses for not making such a firm commitment.

Tim reasons, "I'm too young for that right now. There's too much I want to do. I'll get serious about God when I'm older." Keith argues, "What is this guy's problem? God loves everybody, so why all the talk about hell and this heavy pressure to 'get saved'?" Anna protests, "I'm not doing anything until somebody can answer all my questions. For instance, why is there so much pain and suffering in the world?

Those seem like pretty good excuses until you hear how God answers each one. To those who say, "Maybe later," God replies: "I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2). To those who insist, "Everybody goes to heaven because God is love," the Lord responds: "Unless you repent, you too will all perish" (Luke 13:3). To those who charge, "there are too many mysteries," the Bible warns: "The secret things belong to the Lord our God" (Deuteronomy 29:29).

If you have never trusted Jesus Christ because of one of the excuses above, you're on shaky ground. Trust Him now. Accept the forgiveness He offers, and tell Him you want to begin a real relationship with Him.

God ... is He a real being?

For all of recorded history, humans have thought about, written about and talked about God. Though the term God has been understood in many ways, to most people it implies an intelligent creator. Such discussion raises life's most serious and important question: Does such a being really exist?

All Effects Have Causes

Science (as well as everyday experience) tells us that every effect must have a cause. Things don't create themselves. They are brought into existence by someone or something else. Cars don't just pop out of thin air. Auto parts are first designed by engineers, then produced by manufacturers, then put together on an assembly line. The result -- or effect -- is a car.

The Universe Is an Effect

Like a huge wind-up clock, the universe now seems to be running down. Scientists see this as evidence that the universe had a beginning. If that is the case, the universe is an effect that requires a cause. But what kind of cause? Consider the obvious complexity in the universe. The simplest one-celled organism contains enough complex information to fill one complete volume of an encyclopedia. Intricate exquisitely designed organisms could not have been caused by blind chance or an unintelligent force. No, the complexity of the universe demands an intelligent cause.

God Must Exist

Since the universe is an effect, it must have an adequate cause for its existence. Since the universe displays incredible complexity and design, the cause of the universe must be intelligent. Therefore, an intelligent creator of the universe must exist. This is the one we know as God.

God Reveals Himself

God has revealed His intelligence and power through the created universe (Psalm 19:1-4)... and even more of Himself through His son, the person of Jesus Christ (the New Testament). Jesus came to earth so that we could more fully know God, the intelligent creator of the universe (John 1:1-14).

God's Word - The Bible

The Bible is the inspired Word, the revelation of God to the prophets and apostles within human history and human language. A such, the Bible is the highest written authority for faith and practice in the Christian church.

The Bible is our roadmap for living. It is important to us because we love and beeline in God. He has given us this book to help us better know, love, and serve Him - the One who created each one of us, the One who has saved us from our sins. We must submit our thoughts to Christ as we seek to know the wisdom of God.

God Will Change You From The Inside Out

When you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, God will deposit a 'Christ' seed in you. As it grows, you will change. It's not that sin has no more presence in your life, but rather that sin has no more power over your life. Temptation will pester you, but it will not master you.

From 'Anonymous' ~ "In a book that I am reading, the author wrote of her personal experience with incest and how much her journey with God has helped her. She said,

"I felt my light, hope, and faith pulling away from me, until I remembered what I read in God's Word about being born again, being a new creature, about all things being past and gone. What I got out of all this is that I'm slowly getting to be like Jesus. I have His mind. To me Jesus isn't a cripple, so I'm not. I am the only thing between God and being a whole person. I am the problem. I'm holding out for all of God's promises. I will not settle to learn only to adjust, cope and function. I'm holding onto the promise of abundant life. I believe God can totally heal. I have the faith and hope that I will arrive at that point. That is my goal -- to be all Jesus says I can be and wants me to be."

You don't have to be weird to follow Jesus. You don't have to stop liking or hanging out with your friends! Just the opposite ~ a few introductions would be nice. In Psalm 63 joyfully proclaims the blessings David received when he cried out to God; they can be yours also -- to see glory of God, to know God's love is better than life, to praise Him with singing lips, to meditate on Him when sleepless, and to stay close to Him because His right hand upholds you!

What's It Like To Have Christ Inside?

To have my voice but Him speaking?
My steps, but Christ leading.
My heart, but His love beating
in me, through me, with me.
What's it like to have Christ inside?
To tap His strength when mine expires
or feel the force of heaven's fires
raging, purging wrong desires.
Could Christ become my self entire?
So much Him, so little me
that in my eyes it's Him I see.
No longer I, but Christ in me.

Are you ready to accept Jesus Christ?

Jesus loves women. In the Bible, Jesus treated women with dignity and respect. He elevated them in a world where they were often mistreated. Does this sound like a person you might want to get to know? I encourage you to follow this short Bible study.

Jesus Christ is just waiting for you to let Him in. He is a true gentleman. He won't force Himself on you. He's patiently waiting for you to give Him your pain, your past, your fear, your need ... your mask.

Here's the "Good News"? If you don't know what us Christians mean when we say "the Good News" that is the translation for the gospel of Jesus (New Testament).

GOD LOVES YOU AND IS SEEKING TO HAVE PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH YOU

• 1 John 4:10: "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to remove the barrier of sin."
• God loves you and planned a wonderful, full life for you. He wants to enter a personal and intimate relationship with you that includes fellowship, inner peace, happiness, guidance in life and power to fulfill His special plan for your life, I never heard that before and wanted to know more.
  

SIN HAS CREATED A BARRIER BETWEEN MAN AND GOD

• Romans 3:23: "All have sinned and come short of the Glory of God."
• God is Holy, and He cannot have a relationship with anyone who falls short of His righteous character. Sin began when man went his own independent way and rejected his relationship with God. At that point, man became unacceptable to God's Holy character.
• No matter how sincere we are, or how hard we try, or how religious we are, we can never produce a righteousness that God can accept. Even our good deeds are not acceptable in God's sight
• Isaiah 64:6: "But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are like filthy rags …"
• So our sin has created a barrier that we cannot remove. Even though God loves us, He cannot compromise His holy character to receive us. Only God can remove this barrier.

THE GOOD NEWS: JESUS CHRIST CAME TO REMOVE THE BARRIER BETWEEN GOD AND MAN

• Jesus said of Himself, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)
• 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 says that Jesus Christ is God's son. He died for our sins so we can be forgiven. He was buried and He rose from the dead.
• You see -- God so loved us that He stepped out of eternity into time and became a man in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus lived a perfect life as a man and thus qualified to die for the sins of the world. He then willingly died in our place to purchase a pardon for sins.

THERE IS ONLY ONE BARRIER BETWEEN YOU, ME AND GOD -- YOU MUST RECEIVE THE PARDON JESUS PURCHASED FOR YOU

Yes, I want to turn over my life to Jesus!

Not quite sure? My recommendation is to read Lee Strobel's "The Case for Christ" and "The Case for Faith". Lee is a journalist who investigates the toughest objections to Christianity, and provides evidence that supports Jesus.

Spiritual Awakening and Experience

Who is God?

Why Does God Allow Pain and Suffering?

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know his incomparably great power for us who beeline. -- Esphesians 1:18-19

Guidelines For Prayer ~ Who is God?