| What goes on inside of us that brings us to a place where we want to believe? Many of us have come to put our faith in Christ for the following five reasons:
1. God has wired us in such a way that we have a spiritual hunger. True spirituality is responding to the promises of God and saying yes to Christ. Realizing that God is for us and loves us instead of fighting against Him. It is being connected to Christ, remaining in Christ, submitting to Christ, trusting in Christ, and obeying Christ. True spirituality is worshipping and having a deep-felt gratitude to the living God.
2. We have seen Christ-like character and behavior in the lives of Christians. We are in need of mending and the grace of God is the glue. Christ wants to transform
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 Pastor Cliffe Knechtle
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our character to be gracious. The New Testament explains that we are gracious by how we love each other and bear with one another. Being gracious is to be patient, willing to suffer, and committed to each other. When we surrender our lives to the God of grace and allow His grace to flow through us, we are empowered to become more gracious. 3. We have a mind that values and has an insatiable passion and longing for truth. Truth is exclusive; the law of noncontradiction holds firm. We can not say there is no truth and that there are only opinions. God gave us rational minds and we are to use those minds to pursue truth, to evaluate the evidence that is available to us, to put our faith in Christ and live in reality. Truth will set us free.
4. We have a conscience that convicts usand we know we need grace and forgiveness. We all have a problem with eviland know that we have done wrong. We need God?s forgiveness and the atonement for our sins by the death of Jesus Christ. 5. We want to go to heaven. Life is a precious and an amazing gift from God. To put our faith in Christ is a profound affirmation of the value of life. It is to say "yes" to life and to receive the gift of heaven and eternal life. The perspective of realizing this is not our real home, that this life is a blink of an eye compared to eternity with God changes our identity and how we view and use our possessions. Our souls will either spend eternity with God in heaven or spend eternity separate from God in hell. Because God is good, evil is ultimately going to lose. There will be a day of judgment and justice shall triumph. Otherwise, life is pretty empty and meaningless. Christ loves us and is reaching out to draw us closer and closer to Him.
Summary submitted by Karen Walsh
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