The most important decision that you make in your life is to choose to accept God’s offer to have a relationship with Him. He extends a personal invitation to each of us to have an intimate relationship with Him. We all need to be connected to God, because without a relationship with Him, we are totally separated from Him. It is our natural human nature that disconnects us from God because we are sinners. The Bible says in Romans 3:23:

"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God"

It doesn’t matter how good you believe you are, what wonderful things you do, or how many millions of dollars you give away to doing noble things. Nor does it matter how long you have been in church, taught Sunday School, or if you were christened as a baby. If you do not have a relationship with God, none of that matters. This means that you remember a specific point in time where you (not your parents or your grandmama) accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Good works don’t matter because no matter how wonderful our works are, our very nature, the essence of who we are, is permeated with sin. It is that sin that eternally separates us from God.

But God prepared a way for us to have our sins forgiven (Romans 5:8). His Son Jesus came to earth with the mission and purpose to die for us as a perfect sacrifice to atone for our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21). He was our substitute. The Bible says that the true and just payment for sin is death (Romans 6:23). That’s why someone had to die to pay for our sins and that is what Jesus did. He paid the penalty for our sins with His life so that we could be reunited with God. But we have to make two decisions. The first one is to agree with God that we are sinners (Acts 17:30) and the second is that we accept what Jesus has done for us. But there is more…

Jesus was a sinless man who bore all of the sins of mankind when He died on the cross. He allowed His life to be taken, He died and was buried in a tomb. On the third day, Jesus was resurrected from the dead. Many witnesses saw Him, spoke to Him, ate with Him. At one point, over 500 people saw him at one time. Later, He rose straight up into heaven where He is seated (Hebrews 12:2) at the right hand of God making intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25 KJV).

Today is the best day to make the decision to accept what Jesus has done on our behalf because tomorrow is not promised. Don’t put it off thinking that you have to "clean up your act first." The whole point is that we can’t clean up our act. We must become "born again." Our very sin nature keeps us in bondage. Instead allow God to give you new life (John 3:3-8). Besides that, there is nothing that we can do to earn salvation. Ephesians 2:8 & 9 says:

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast."

God promises that whoever calls on Him for salvation, He will accept them as His children (Romans 10:13). It doesn’t matter what you’ve done or where you’ve been. There is nothing that you have done in your life that God will not forgive (Colossians 1:13-15). He always forgives (Psalms 103:2-4). Romans 10:9 -11 tells what we must do to be saved:

"That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame."

Congratulations! You have just taken the most important step that will change your life for all eternity. God loves you, dear one. He wants you to get to know Him. He wants you to know that He hears you when you pray. God will begin to draw you close to Him. Find a church where you are taught the word. Ask people around you to recommend a Bible-teaching church that instructs in a loving and encouraging manner.

We pray for God to keep and protect you…which He has already promised to do.

In Jesus Name…

Jerome and Valerie