You and God – the Reconciliation (while there’s still time)

Dear Friend,

God created the world, with all its beauty, for people like you to enjoy. He also created men and women so they could share in a loving relationship with Him.

Ever since God formed you in your mother’s womb, He has known you and everything about you. God has even counted the number of hairs on your head. He also knows when you rise and when you sit down.

Sadly, men and women turn away from Him and most deliberately choose not to know God – their loving Creator. The Bible says that the evidence of God’s eternal power and divine nature may be plainly seen in the wonders of creation. God has also given each person a conscience that speaks to them of right and wrong. Throughout your life you have suffered the results of wrong actions, both from the hands of others and by your own choices.

Although many bad things have happened to you, you are nevertheless responsible for your own actions and the choices you make as you go through life. When you have lied, stolen, cheated, or deceived others, the person you offended the most by these actions was GOD Himself. The Bible calls such actions “SIN” and all your unforgiven sin will one day be judged by God. The Bible says:”For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”. No-one is blameless.

God hates sin because he is Holy (perfect). Sadly, your sin separates you from God and the loving relationship He seeks with you. All sin will, one day, be punished so this puts you in great danger. But the GOOD NEWS is that God is – even now – ready, willing and able to forgive your sins and remove that separation. This forgiveness by God restores the opportunity for you to have a loving relationship with God your creator. Are you prepared to turn from your present way of life, change direction and turn to God your creator for a fresh start? In doing this, God calls you to stop trusting in and relying upon everything you have, and surrender your life to Him. So your old life has to go when you take this step. However, God promises to give you His power to enable you to live a new life.

Have you heard of Jesus Christ of Nazareth? Hundreds of years before He was born into this world, many prophets wrote about His coming. These prophecies telling of Jesus’ coming are all in the Bible, a book about Him. Jesus’ coming to Earth from Heaven was according to God’s saving plan for all mankind.

Jesus Christ of Nazareth was sent by God the Father, out of love, into the world on a mission to rescue men and women. In obedience to God’s plan Jesus lived a sinless life, yet He willingly gave up His life and died on a cross to rescue you and me. By his death and resurrection three days later, Jesus broke the power of sin and death. After He rose from the dead, Jesus was seen alive again by hundreds of people.

By His death on a cross, Jesus paid the price for your sin and mine. The Bible says: “But God shows his love for us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Jesus gave himself up as a sacrifice on our behalf by taking upon himself God’s punishment that our sins deserve. Jesus is now alive for evermore and sits at the right hand of God the Father in Heaven, in a place of glory and honour.

DO YOU WANT TO BE RESCUED?

Do you want Jesus to rescue you from your sins and your present way of life? The Bible says: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

If you cry out to Jesus to save you, He will set you free, give you eternal life and a place in God’s family. Because Jesus was sinless, yet paid the price due for your sin – in your place – you can trust in Him as your substitute and go free. So you do not have to suffer the consequences of your own sins. God is then able to help you live a new life, by His power. The Bible says: “For it is by grace you are saved, through faith, and this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, so that none can boast”. God offers you His forgiveness as a free gift.

Jesus gives new life by His Spirit, which sets people free and brings them into God’s kingdom.

At the end of your life, Jesus will hold you alone responsible for all your unforgiven sins and you will be judged accordingly. If you choose to hold on to your sin, refusing Jesus’ free offer of forgiveness, you will bear the consequences on your own head – the wrath (anger) of God for eternity.

On the other hand, if you cry out to Jesus to forgive your sins NOW, He will do so and set you free from sin’s controlling power, He will wipe the slate clean and give you a fresh start. You can know total forgiveness of all the sins you have ever committed.

There is NO sin you have committed that Jesus cannot forgive, as He is “all-powerful” and “all-forgiving”. Jesus said: “I and the Father are one.” The sins He forgives in this life are forgiven, and forgotten, for eternity. at a crossroads in your life. Do you wish, whether you realise it or not, to remain a slave of sin? Or will you surrender your life to Jesus? Realise who this Jesus is. He is God, the one who died for you and offers you total forgiveness, peace and joy – now! The Bible says: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”

One day all men and women will stand before Jesus, the Judge of all mankind. The Bible says: “…man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgement…”. Jesus alone has been given all power and authority in judgement by God the Father. Jesus therefore will decide where you will spend eternity. Although our human bodies eventually give out and die, our spirits live on beyond death.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DIE?

We all live on after death and the Bible makes clear that we end up in one of two places, either:

(a) a place of weeping, suffering, eternal torment and eternal separation from God for those who reject Him (Hell aka the Lake of Fire), or

(b) a place of eternal peace, love and joy (Heaven)in the presence of God, your creator.

Jesus himself said that most people walk through this life on the BROAD ROAD that leads to DESTRUCTION, rather than on the NARROW ROAD that leads to LIFE.

After this life is over your destiny is sealed based on your response to Jesus Christ in this life. So you need to respond to Jesus’ call on your life while you still have breath in your body! The Bible says: “Today is the day of salvation.”

No-one else can forgive your sin and make you right with God. Jesus truly is God’s unique gift to mankind!

“Jesus Is Going To Heal You”

  I met in town with our Healing On The Streets team and at first we struggled to get anyone to show interest.

Latterly after we’d prayed for a friend of mine who received major healing in his legs, one of the team pointed out a middle-eastern looking guy who seemed to be loitering nearby, but then took off.

I went after him as had stopped not far away. It turned out he was an Iranian Christian who had been living in our town for 5 years.

We chatted and I asked if he had any pain in his body. He confirmed he had suffered from a painful foot for some time, and it was still causing him pain as we spoke.

I just knew Jesus was going to heal him so I assured him: “Jesus is going to heal you!”

  After laying hands on him a couple of times and commanding the problem to go, he confirmed the pain had gone. I have him my card and invited him to e-mail me anytime.

Tonight I received this e-mail from him:

“Hello dear xxx. You are very big human. You are kindest man I saw in the England. If I see you again I will kiss your foot in front every people in the city centre. And my foot not pain any more.

God bless you sir. I love Jesus”

Painful Foot Receives Healing Touch

She came in with a walker which she parked behind her chair. She explained she had multiple problems due to various pains and illnesses.

Her right foot was currently the most painful. I offered to pray in the name of Jesus. She wasn’t sure who that was, so I gave her a short explanation of who he was and what he did. She agreed to prayer and allowed me to place my hand on her foot.

After a minute or so I asked how it felt. She said the pain level had gone down by 50% and there was a noticeable tingling feeling in her foot. I prayed some more, at which point I became aware –  in my body – of the power of the Holy Spirit at work. (Normally when people experience healing I don’t feel anything happening, even if they do). I suggested she thank Jesus tonight before she goes to bed. She said she would.

I prayed for another lady with ongoing problems in her life. She had Muslim parents, but was happy to be prayed for in the name of Jesus. We talked about prayer and she noticed the “Footprints” poem on the wall opposite, saying “that’s Jesus isn’t it?” I lifted it off the wall and read it to her. As we came near the end I found myself getting emotional about the content, and I could see she was too.

Lastly, I was introduced to a guy from Eastern Europe who was in a bad way. As his life story unfolded, I learned that both his parents had been really cruel to himself and his twin brother growing up. He was now estranged from his twin, although he only lived 30 miles away. Worst of all, this man had lost his wife to cancer two years ago and he was still suffering badly the effects. He had also been sexually assaulted by a man whom the police couldn’t trace and this was eating him up inside too. He is an alcoholic and the doctors have told him he is likely to be dead within a year.

At intervals he kept crying his eyes out, saying he had nothing to live for. He had already tried to kill himself. I told him God was his only hope, as he would not abandon him. He told me he went into the local Catholic church to pray most days. I prayed for him and that his relationship with his brother might be restored.

Offer Of Hope To Desperate Man

He was an ex-Army man and looked very active and fit, but as I chatted to him I discovered that life was in fact terrible for him.

His wife was suffering from severe mental illness and within the last week had walked on to the local motorway to try and kill herself.  The husband admitted he was at the end of his tether. Because of her dangerous and unpredictable behaviour he was getting hardly any sleep and didn’t know where to turn. He had tried to get her into secure accommodation, but with no success.

He seemed in a hopeless predicament and He confirmed to me that this was indeed the case.  

I picked up a little booklet we have for clients, called “Finding Hope”. I said: “even although you may not be a religious person, this is an encouraging booklet because it offers hope. He flicked through it and said: “yes, that looks good – I’ll take it”. The first pages begin: “If life is hard, if your whole world is broken, if it is hard to keep going………………………where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth” Psalm 121:1-2. Let this God of the Bible bring you hope”.

I went on to tell him that a comprehensive study of the different religions in the world identified the Christian religion as the only one that offered hope to its followers. He told me his wife liked reading, so I also give him another booklet called: “Thought and Prayers For Troubled Times”. He looked through it and said: “yes, I think she’ll read that.”

Later, I chatted to a guy with a major, painful knee problem requiring surgery. I told him of several cases I personally knew of where guys had been healed of knee problems after a short prayer. Despite me encouraging him to try it for himself, he said quite firmly: “no thanks!”. I said: “what do you have to lose – it’s only 30 seconds of your time?” All to no avail, so off he went with his pain and damaged knee.

1 Peter Chapter 3 Verse 15

 I went for a coffee upstairs while waiting for my grandchildren who were at the Church summer club on the ground floor. All the others in the room were women, except for an older man, so I went and sat by him and chatted. He was a retired lorry driver and, like me, was waiting while his grandchildren had their fun at Church club.

He was very friendly; and as we had nearly 2 hours to kill we had quite a long conversation. Somehow we got on to matters of faith. He had attended Sunday School as a lad, like most of our generation, but that was the last of his regular churchgoing.

I explained the steps I had gone through while trying to find out what was ‘real’ in the spiritual realm. I went on to share my testimony in some detail, which caused him to realise that that there were such things as ‘God encounters’. I explained how I had got down on my knees in my bedroom and confessed my sins (repentance) and asked Jesus to forgive me. I also testified how the next day on the way to work everything seemed new – even the colours of the world looked brighter!

A subsequent experience several days letter led to my encountering God’s love in a very powerful and personal way. God showed me how much he loved ME! As I grew in the Christian life God showed me his heart for the poor, the needy and the rejected, which led me to volunteer roles on the street and elsewhere where I encountered those with many kinds of problems. Most of those I met had terrible childhood experiences, leading me to realise that such damage led to severe knock-on effects in later life.

Soon after becoming a new Christian I had had a conversation with a (supposedly Christian) woman who said to me that the miracles that Jesus did as recorded in the Bible ‘never really happened’ – in her view these ‘accounts’ only illustrated ideas or concepts. I had been appalled at this, so much so that I went straight home and cried my eyes out- at this woman’s offence against Jesus and his works. As I was weeping in my bedroom Jesus suddenly appeared in my room, put his arms around me and comforted me. I never saw his face, but I recall thinking afterwards ‘how brown his arms are!’

Back to the present. My wife entered the room, I introduced my lorry driver friend who then said, in a humorous way: ‘your husband’s trying to convert me!’  My wife replied: ‘yes, I can imagine that’

One regret: I had omitted to bring any gospel tracts with me. My friend didn’t use the internet, so a tract would have been a nice parting gift…………..

Before we parted to collect our respective grandchildren, he said to me: ‘I appreciated our chat. You have a very gentle and respectful way of putting these things across’.

Bible: 1 Peter Chapter 3 Verse 15: ‘ But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect’.    

Thoughts and Prayers For Lonely Times

  A woman with children came for help and while she was waiting to be dealt with she picked up a small book called: “Thoughts and Prayers For Lonely Times”. She seemed interested in it, so I said:”you can take it away with you if you like – it’s free. She replied :’yes please it looks interesting’.  Like all other clients who came today she also received a Christian newspaper with a gospel message inside it.

I also had a chat with one of our new volunteers today. In explaining the wider context of what we do, I told him it included praying for people for healing. He was bought up as a churchgoer, but no longer attends. I gave him a few testimonies of how some people had been healed while they waited to be seen. I hope my chat with him gave him a wider perspective on Christianity – namely the exciting life possible when compared to the passivity and inactivity of dull times in the pew listening to a dull sermon.

 

Not Sure If You Are A Christian?

      If you want to test yourself to see whether you are a Christian, ask yourself these questions and answer honestly:

1. Do I believe that Jesus Christ came from Heaven for the express purpose of reconciling mankind to God the Father?

2. Do I acknowledge that the fallen human nature is predisposed to sin, and that only Jesus can redeem my life from sin and make me acceptable to a holy God?

3. Do I believe Jesus died on a cross, that God raised him from the dead and that he is now alive for evermore?

4. Do I believe that when Jesus died on the cross, he paid the price for my sins?

5. Have I ever acknowledged to God that I am a sinner, in need of God’s forgiveness?

6. Did I ever pray to Jesus to become a Christian? If so, was I sincere in my heart about what I was asking?

7. If someone asked me, could I give examples of some sins that God has forgiven me for?

8. Do I believe that I can talk to Jesus in prayer and he will answer?

9. Do I believe Jesus is able to forgive ALL my sins and make me a brand new person?

10. Do I accept Jesus as my Lord, in charge of my whole life from now on, putting him first instead of myself?

11. Am I doing my best nowadays, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to live a changed life that will please Jesus my Lord?

12. Do I want to forgive others in the present – and also from the past – for what they did to me?

13. Do I have a desire to read the Bible regularly?

14. Do I pray regularly, not just asking for “things”, but to cultivate a personal relationship with God?

15. Do I want to meet regularly with other Christians, to encourage and be encouraged by them?

16. Do other people see genuine evidence in my life of a love for God and my neighbour, as Jesus commanded?

17. In what ways do I lay down my life for my fellow man?

18. Do I know what it is to experience persecution for my faith in Jesus Christ?

19. Do I have stories to tell of how God has worked through me to bless others?

20. Are any of your family/close friends Christians? If not, have you ever witnessed to them about the importance of your own faith?

If you want to know WHY you should become a Christian after reading this, see  this page

 

So You Want To Become a Christian?

   So you want to become a Christian and  know the basic facts about Jesus?      

Basic facts are here: http://www.newchristian.org.uk/twokingdoms.html

If so, read on below.

You probably want to change things about your life and your behaviour and so far have got nowhere. That’s actually a good place to be, since only Jesus can change you deep down where it matters, and from the inside out.

He knows your heart attitude, so you can’t fool him! But the good thing is, he’s ready and waiting to do for you what you can’t do for yourself.

The easiest way is to take time out one day and pour you heart out to him in prayer, just simply talking to him in your mind, or out loud if you prefer. Tell Jesus how you feel, what you need, and how you now realise that He’s the only one who can change things.

Coming to Jesus in prayer and asking for forgiveness of your sins and surrender of your life to Jesus is how you become a Christian. 

Jesus wants all of you, not just a part. He wants to be the most important person in your life. This is an act of your will – to choose this course of action. God never forces us to do anything, that’s why he gave us free will.

Once you’ve settled that in your mind, the next step is this. Ask Jesus to forgive all the sins you ever committed. All sin is primarily against God. He’s the one you hurt the most when you sinned. Even though you did things to other people, God’s the one who’s been most hurt by your actions.

Through his death on the cross and subsequent resurrection, Jesus paid the price for all your sins. All sin has to be paid for, for justice to be done. Instead of paying for your own sins, Jesus did it for you, in advance. How amazing is that? But you have to ask for and receive that forgiveness for yourself.

The ideal way to approach Jesus to forgive you is this way. Take time out and make a list of things you’ve done that you know to be wrong. Don’t rush it – take your time. For example, list lies you’ve told, people you’ve wronged or hated, folk you’ve deceived, things you’ve stolen. Pour your heart out to Jesus and ask him in prayer to help you write the list.

When you’re done making the list, talk to Jesus and ask Him to forgive you everything on your list, plus all the sins you’ve forgotten about.

There’s nothing you’ve done that Jesus can’t forgive. Then after your prayer of confession to him, thank him that he now HAS forgiven you all these things. Jesus has promised to come and live with us when we choose to surrender our life to him and so he will come and live in your spirit by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit enables us to live a life that honours Jesus and he gives us the strength to live for him, in the face of opposition or other problems we have.

Once you’ve written your list, this is the kind of prayer you could use, as an example:

“Dear Lord Jesus, I believe that you came from Heaven to Earth to reconcile me to God the Father, and that you did this because you love me. I thank you that when you died on the cross and rose again from the dead, you paid the penalty price for my sin. These are the list of sins I am able to remember…………(your list). Please forgive me of all these. Please also forgive me the many sins I committed but have since forgotten about.

I realise you are the only one who is able to forgive me these sins, for only you were good enough to pay the price for them. I offer myself to you as a living sacrifice, so please use my life for your glory and honour. I turn from everything I k now to be wrong.I place my trust in you for the future. Please help me to live for you, and give me the strength I need to live my life for you for the rest of my days. Thank you for hearing and answering this prayer. I am weak and need your strength, so please fill me with your Holy Spirit power now. Amen”

Once you have done this with a sincere heart, you have become a follower of Jesus and an “apprentice Christian” (my phrase). You can then destroy the list of your sins that you wrote, because they have now all been forgiven by Jesus and forgotten about by him.

 

Drug Addict With Many Face Piercings Ran Up For Prayer

We were on the street doing outreach when a guy with lots of face piercings came up and said: “I need prayer!!”. He explained he was a drug addict, had enough of the life of addiction and wanted free.

He was severely agitated and, despite what he said, would then keep drawing away, changing his mind and saying “no”.

He had about 10 or 12 piercings on his face, lips, chin and ears. But there was nothing menacing about him, only sadness. The fact he was a drug addict tied in with his repeated pulling of his arms close to his chest and scratching his arms.

I asked him: “do you want to be free?” He said he did, then he would pull away, being constantly in two minds. I said: “Jesus can set you free – do you want him to do it?” He said he did so I led him in a prayer of deliverance. After this I asked him: “do you want your sins to be forgiven?” He said he did, so I then led him in a prayer of repentance. He then seemed to change, having lost his agitation and acting like a different person. He suddenly put his arms round me, hugged me and said “I love you!” I reminded him Jesus was the one who sets people free. He didn’t have a bible, but we gave him the “Why Jesus?” and I also gave him a tract about salvation. Exciting stuff!

He said he had come with a friend who was still being prayed for by others in our team. Afterwards they left together. It transpired that they had some local church connection through a drop in free lunch outreach.

Does God Answer Prayer?

Was heading into town to do my volunteer duty at the Food Bank. As I walked down the road I was asking God to really use me in loving others. Two minutes later, as I passed a man sitting on a low wall, I felt God say “stop and talk to him”. By this time I had gone past him, so I doubled back and sat down beside him for a chat. To cut a long story short, he was suffering all sorts of rejection by family members after the death of his mother, whom he’d looked after 24/7 for a long time. He also suffered several illnesses, plus a withered left hand that he had covered in a glove, “because people make fun of it”. He was a very sad man. He shared how he’d tried to end his life  before. He confided that some days he even sat out in the rain in shorts to try and catch pneumonia so that he would die!

I offered to pray for him and he accepted. I prayed, but was conscious of my inadequacy and of having to leave him to get in to do my shift. I offered him a good news booklet, but he said he couldn’t read.  I tried to encourage him as best I could, then went on my way. It’s so hard seeing the world’s misery in human terms! It makes you wonder how badly God feels about it, knowing an answer exists that so many find hard to grasp hold of, for whatever reason.