The Greatest Truth!

God is alive and active in the lives of people everywhere. He made us in His own image, and we are precious to Him. He made us to share life with Him and with each other in mutually fulfilling and satisfying love. Something went terribly wrong, though. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, chose to defy God and abandoned His intent for us. They sinned, and with that sin came the terrible penalty: epidemic struggle, striving and death. (Genesis chapter 1-3)

We sin just as they did, and we share in the penalty of that sin. We are separated from the life of God by our own defiance, stubborness and rebellion. We have no hope of changing this situation on our own. Fortunately, the One who made us, is also able to save us from ourselves...
God, loving and kind as He is, still desires for us to share life with Him and each other in mutually fulfilling and satisfying love. Sin has always been a barrier to this goal, however, so He sent His one and only Son into our world and our flesh to live and die in complete loving obedience to Him. Jesus of Nazareth came teaching and preaching (around 30 AD) the nearness and transforming power of God's kingdom in the world. He performed loving and miraculous acts of power as displays of God's kingdom reality.

According to God's purpose and plan, the perfectly innocent and completely good Jesus was betrayed by one of His own followers, arrested by His own nation, and then killed on a cross. He died and was buried -- that is until the third day...
He made it clear that His unjust and scandalous death on that cross was for the sins of the world - of all mankind. He said it was to provide for our forgiveness as individual members of this broken and rebellious human race. Because of Jesus' death on the cross, your sins can be forgiven and your right relationship with God can be restored! You don't need to be an enemy of God anymore, but can become His child -- accepted and favored. You get to enjoy life with Him and others like never before right here and now!
There's more! Also according to God's purpose and plan, Jesus was raised to life on the third day. Just as He promised, God transformed Jesus' physical body to become immortal and eternal yet entirely physical. This resurrected Jesus appeared to hundreds of people to show that He truly was alive.
His resurrection from the dead is our promise of eternal life! When Christ comes back, all who have loved, trusted and obeyed Him will be resurrected as well and go on to enjoy eternal life in a new creation with Him and His Father. To all who commit to submit to Christ as Lord, He has promised to send His Spirit as a seal and promise of all that is to come in our eternal life with Him. Choose to love, trust and obey Jesus and you will not only find joy, forgiveness, hope and peace now, you'll also be able to anticipate eternal life with God and your new Christ-family.
What can you do now that you know the truth?

·    Embrace Jesus by faith. Without seeing Him, you can love and trust Him with all your heart. Believe that His death on the cross was enough for you and that His resurrection from the dead is your hope of new life.

·    Turn around. Turn away from the ways of thinking and behaving that were defiant and rebellious against God. Learn from Jesus what is pleasing to your Father and what Jesus Himself wants for you. As you learn the way of life you're meant to live, you'll also unlearn the ways of life that have had a hold on you. Acknowledge that God's been right and you've been wrong. Then, strap in and get ready to learn, grow and change like you never thought possible!

·    Take the plunge. Baptism is an act of obedience in which we mark the end of our old self and the beginning of our new self in Christ. We die to our sins as we go under the water, and we rise out of the water as Christ rose out of His grave to live a new life. In the Scriptures this beautiful act of submission and trust in what God promises to do is connected to the washing away of sins (Acts 22:16), the pledge of a good conscience toward God (1 Peter 3:21), our death to the power of sin (Romans 6:1-7), forgiveness and the receiving of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38-39). It is also connected to our entrance into the shared life of God's family - all those who belong to Christ and share in "one body and one Spirit...one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all..." (Ephesians 4:4-6).

·    Join a household of faith. Once you have embraced Jesus as the Savior-King, you are meant to learn from Him and be changed into His likeness. You are meant to join Him in His work of saving and rescuing the lost people of the world. You are meant to love and help build His family. To do this, you'll need to become a committed and active part of a local church family. Whether here at New Hope Community Church or in another Christ-following congregation, you can be led, trained and loved. You can enter into a community of those who are finding wholeness in Christ one day at a time. You can be taught to love more completely, serve more skillfully, and live more wholly. Be supported and support others, give and receive, serve and be served, teach and be taught. This is life in Christ and with His people!