What If I’ve Already Messed Up?

Virtually every time I speak to young people about purity, someone will ask the question (usually anonymously), “What if I’ve already messed up?” I’m happy to report that there’s good news for those who have committed sexual sins but who wish to be made pure and whole once again! God’s forgiveness covers all sin for all time, and He and He alone can restore a person’s spiritual purity. If you have any doubts, read David’s confession from Psalm 51 below.

For the choir director: A psalm of David, regarding the time Nathan the prophet came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.

“Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. For I recognize my shameful deeds – they haunt me day and night. Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just. For I was born a sinner – yes, from the moment my mother conceived me. But you desire honesty from the heart, so you can teach me to be wise in my inmost being.

“Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me – now let me rejoice. Don't keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and don't take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me again the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you. Then I will teach your ways to sinners, and they will return to you.

“Forgive me for shedding blood, O God who saves; then I will joyfully sing of your forgiveness. Unseal my lips, O Lord, that I may praise you. You would not be pleased with sacrifices, or I would bring them. If I brought you a burnt offering, you would not accept it. The sacrifice you want is a broken spirit. A broken and repentant heart, O God, you will not despise. Look with favor on Zion and help her; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will be pleased with worthy sacrifices and with our whole burnt offerings; and bulls will again be sacrificed on your altar.” (Psalm 51 NLT)

The first step to being restored is to repent of your sin. To repent means to acknowledge your sin and to turn from it (literally to do a 180 degree “about face”). In verse three, David acknowledged his sin:

“For I recognize my shameful deeds – they haunt me day and night.”

He didn’t try to rationalize, minimize, or neutralize his sin. He looked it square in the face and admitted to himself and to God that it was shameful.

The second step toward restoration is to acknowledge that all sin is against God. In verse four, David admits this to God.

“Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight.”

All sin is against God, no matter who else might be involved. And God is the only One who can forgive our sin. Others may forgive us for whatever offense we may have committed against them, but only God can forgive sin.

The next step to being restored is to apply your faith by accepting God’s ability and willingness to forgive and cleanse you, no matter what you have done. In verse seven, David confesses his faith in God to restore his purity.

“Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.”

Losing your virginity can never be undone. You can give all of yourself only one time to one person. There are consequences for all wrong choices in life, but God is bigger than your choices. He is gracious and merciful, and He chooses to use even our mess ups to help us to grow and to mature.

“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” (Romans 8:28 NLT)

God can and will restore your purity, just as He did David’s, if you admit to Him that you’ve sinned against Him and genuinely desire to be made right. Through the shed blood of Jesus, you can be made pure as the new driven snow in God’s sight. God’s forgiveness is like a pardon. Through Christ He offers justification—just as if you had never sinned. God want to remove your guilt, not just cover it up.

David cried out to God in verse nine,

“Remove the stain of my guilt.”

He acknowledged that God had the power to forgive his sin and remove his guilt. It is vital that we acknowledge this, too, so that we also may be forgiven and restored. David continued,

“Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.”

God never does anything halfway. Whatever He does, He does completely. When we mess up and genuinely ask God to forgive us, He not only forgives us, but He also cleanses us of every wrong so that we may once again stand righteous before Him.

“But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong.” (1 John 1:9 NLT)

But God doesn’t even stop here. His mercy and grace compel Him to renew our spirits, to restore His Presence in our lives, to restore our joy, and to give us the desire to obey Him, according to verses 10 through 12.

“Renew a right spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and don't take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me again the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.”

In verse 13, David responded to God’s unfathomable mercy by committing to teach others how to avoid the pitfalls he encountered as a result of his wrong choices.

“Then I will teach your ways to sinners, and they will return to you.”

One of the best things you can do in response to your own failures is to help others to avoid the stumbling blocks that tripped you up. No sin can be undone, but once it has been admitted to God and forgiven, the best way to minimize Satan’s ability to use it against you is to learn from it and to help others to learn from it as well. Confessed and forgiven sin becomes a part of your testimony and can be used to keep Satan at bay. He can no longer accuse a believer who has fully appropriated forgiveness and cleansing from sin. If he even tries to remind you of past sin, you can refer him to your Advocate, Jesus Christ, whose shed blood literally blotted out any record of that sin.

David summarizes his confession and guarantees his forgiveness and cleansing in verse 17 by acknowledging God’s definition of true repentance.

“The sacrifice you want is a broken spirit. A broken and repentant heart, O God, you will not despise.”

God wants to know that our hearts are broken by our recognition of the sin in our lives. True repentance means turning our back on sin, and vowing to God that by His grace and with His strength we will never repeat our folly. God will always hear a genuine admission of guilt, and He will always restore a broken and repentant heart.

If you’ve messed up, I have good news! There is hope for you. God is in the business of restoring broken vessels and creating beauty from ashes. There is no sin you have committed that is so egregious that God can’t forgive it. Nothing you have done could possibly have thwarted God’s perfect plan for your precious life. It’s never too late to start fresh. If you really want to have your purity restored, follow the steps in David’s confession in Psalm 51.

1. Acknowledge God’s unfailing love and compassion and His power and willingness to forgive (wipe out) your sin (verse 1).
2. Ask God for forgiveness and cleansing (verse 2).
3. Admit your sin and agree with God that it’s grievous to Him (verses 3-4).
4. Accept God’s cleansing of your heart and the restoration of your joy (verse 10).

“yet now he has brought you back as his friends. He has done this through his death on the cross in his own human body. As a result, he has brought you into the very presence of God, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.” (Colossians 1:22)

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Better Than "Safe Sex!"

I just read a synopsis of the new “Real World” series in the Parents Television Council’s Weekly Wrap for June 17, 2005.

“Next week MTV will kick-off the 16th season of its long-running reality series, The Real World. This time the action takes place in Austin, TX. From hot tub threesomes, to night-cam sex romps, this youth-targeted series celebrates drunkenness and debauchery. This season's cast includes, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a self-proclaimed "nymph" who in the first episode alone can be seen streaking through the house nude and kissing another woman to the delight of her male housemates. Teasers hint at housemate hook-ups, and one 23-year-old cast member losing her virginity.”

Sexual themes abound in daytime and prime time television programs such as “Sex in the City,” “One Tree Hill,” “The OC,” “What I Like About You,” and others. Add to the mix sexy commercials and magazine ads, sexually provocative lyrics in songs, sexually explicit movies, and the latest “pimps and hos” fashion trends, and it’s no wonder that today’s teens have a difficult time keeping their sexuality in check.

According to the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fact sheet titled "The Truth about Adolescent Sexuality"

• 45.6 percent of high school students (48.5 percent of males and 42.9 percent of females) reported having had sexual intercourse
• 33.4 percent of students reported they were currently sexually active (defined as having had sexual intercourse in the three months preceding the study)
  
• 6.6 percent of students reported initiating sexual intercourse before age 13
  
• 14.2 percent of students (17.2 percent of males and 11.4 percent of females) reported having had sexual intercourse with four or more partners

The good news, if there is any in these statistics, is that the percentage of students having sexual intercourse is down almost eight percent since 1995. Slight though it may be, the trend is downward and I hope to see it continue in that direction.

One thing that may well have contributed to this decline is teen sexual behavior is the renewed acceptance of abstinence as a viable alternative for young people. Many church youth groups are challenging their young people to take a vow of abstinence or to sign a commitment to remain sexually pure until marriage. I believe that this is definitely a step in the right direction.

Unfortunately, another contribution to this decline could be the blurring of the distinction between intercourse and other sexual activity by our former president and by the media.

The Alan Guttmacher Institute recently issued a special report titled, “Oral Sex Among Adolescents: Is It Sex or Is It Abstinence?” The reports title begs the question: Is anything other than intercourse really sex? Planned parenthood and our public schools seem to place virtually no prohibitions on any sexual activity for children, teens, or adults other than to use protection. In some circles, oral sex is virtually glorified as an acceptable alternative to intercourse. In others, it’s not considered sex at all.

I am a firm believer in abstinence before marriage not only for teenagers but for young adults as well. (And I’m talking about abstinence from ANY kind of physical intimacy; not just sexual intercourse!) True abstinence is the only true form of “safe sex.” One needs to go no further than the Bible to find the origin of this concept.

It is good for a man not to touch a woman.
(1 Corinthians 7:1b NASB)

This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. (Genesis 2:24 NLT)

Give honor to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery. (Hebrews 4:13 NLT)

In a world where we’re bombarded with sexual images and where television shows depict normal teenagers as sexually active and only geeks and losers refraining from sex, kids get the impression that “everybody’s doing it” and are pressured to join the crowd. Peer pressure is brutal and the consequences of not fitting in are devastating at best. Truth is, however, more than half of the young people in the U. S. are NOT having sex!

Campus Life magazine, in its September/October 2002 issue included an excellent article titled, “Everybody’s Not Doing It” by Stephanie Sheaffer. In this article, Ms. Sheaffer confesses,

“I'm glad I grew up in a family where my parents cared about what I saw and did. I'm glad my parents never let me watch PG-13 movies until I was 13. I'm glad my parents wouldn't let me go on a date with the boy I'd just met at a fast-food restaurant. I'm glad my parents told me it's not OK to have sex before I'm married. I'm glad my parents told me to keep certain things private. I know they love me because they give me standards to live by.

“They told me that some things are not to be shared with everyone. They taught me it's OK to blush. Some people may whisper about how I'm repressed and not experiencing life to the fullest. I disagree because, remember, I'm not the one who's pregnant. I don't have a sexually transmitted disease. I'm not concerned about birth control. I simply refuse to buy into the idea that sex is all that matters.”

Part of the payoff for being “sexually free,” according to Ms. Sheaffer, is the possibility of getting pregnant or contracting a sexually transmitted disease. The best way to NOT worry about pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases is to NOT have sex in any form! And while abstinence is a way to accomplish that, it may seem to some like a difficult discipline depriving them of normal pleasure.

I have an even better idea, however, for Christian teens to consider—one that involves more than just a person’s abstinence from sexual behavior. This is the concept of chastity. Chastity is the spiritual condition of purity that has to do with the body, the soul, and the spirit. The Bible has much to say about purity.

Teach me your ways, O LORD, that I may live according to your truth! Grant me purity of heart, that I may honor you. (Psalm 86:11 NLT)

Fire tests the purity of silver and gold, but the LORD tests the heart. (Proverbs 17:3 NLT)

We have proved ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, our sincere love, and the power of the Holy Spirit.
(2 Corinthians 6:6 NLT)

Because we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit. And let us work toward complete purity because we fear God. (2 Corinthians 7:1 NLT)

Don't let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you teach, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity. (1 Timothy 4:12 NLT)

Treat the older women as you would your mother, and treat the younger women with all purity as your own sisters. (1 Timothy 5:2 NLT)

And I command you before God, who gives life to all, and before Christ Jesus, who gave a good testimony before Pontius Pilate, that you obey his commands with all purity. Then no one can find fault with you from now until our Lord Jesus Christ returns.
(1 Timothy 6:13-14 NLT)

God’s Word gives us good incentives to remain pure. No where in the Bible does God demand anything of us without also providing us with a benefit in return. Chastity is no exception. Its demand is preceded by sufficient motivation and power from God to make it not only possible, but profitable. (See 2 Peter 1:3) The payoff for being pure and chaste, besides being free from worry about pregnancy and STDs, is the ability to stand blameless before God and to receive His favor. Abstaining from sex is something you do, being chaste, however, is part of who you are.

Dr. Richard D. Dobbins, in an advice column for CBN.com, titled "Why Shoiuld I Save Sex for Marriage?" stated that,

"Certainly the greatest reward of confining sexual fantasies and practices to marriage is to have a conscience free from devastating sexual guilt, disappointment, and regret. I believe that more self-respect is sacrificed at the altar of sexual indulgence than in any other activity in modern America."

Chastity allows you to preserve the one thing that you have to offer that one special person who God brings into your life to be your help mate--yourself! You can only give yourself completely to one person one time. In God's grand scheme of things husband and wife were to save themselves for each other and then at the right moment, under the right circumstances, they were to give themselves totally to each other for all time with virtually no restrictions.

Young people who engage in sex before marriage cheat their potential life partner out of the one thing that would make their relationship unique and special. There is only one first time, and that should be experienced by two people who have committed to each other "'til death us do part." Young people who engage in sex with multiple partners before marriage give pieces of themselves to each person with whom they have sex, so that whomever they marry, at best, gets only leftovers. What kind of marriage could be built on that kind of a shaky foundation? It's no wonder half of all marriages today end up in divorce.

Lauren F. Winner writes in "Sex in the Body of Christ" (Christianity Today, May 2005):

“Sex is, in Paul's image, a joining of your body to someone else's. In baptism, you have become Christ's body, and it is Christ's body that must give you permission to join his body to another body. In the Christian grammar, we have no right to sex. The place where the church confers that privilege on you is the wedding; weddings grant us license to have sex with one person. Chastity, in other words, is a fact of gospel life. In the New Testament, sex beyond the boundaries of marriage—the boundaries of communally granted sanction of sex—is simply off limits. To have sex outside those bounds is to commit an offense against the body. Abstinence before marriage, and fidelity within marriage; any other kind of sex is embodied apostasy.”

Sex outside of marriage is clearly NOT a part of God’s plan for any believer’s life. It is the joining of Christ’s body to that of another without His permission or blessing. Within marriage, however, sex is a physical demonstration of the kind of intimacy God wants us to share with Him spiritually. The oneness between husband and wife during sexual intercourse represents the degree of spiritual oneness God wants us to have with Him.

Sex is not wrong when experienced in the context of marriage. It is to be celebrated by husbands and wives as a gift from God and an example of how very much He loves and wants to be intimate with us. Christians need not be ashamed of or embarrassed by the thought or mention of sex. God created and approved of it.

C. S. Lewis wrote in his Mere Christianity[1]:

“I know some muddle-headed Christians have talked as if Christianity thought that sex, or the body, or pleasure, were bad in themselves. But they were wrong. Christianity is almost the only one of the great religions which thoroughly approves of the body—which believes that matter is good, that God Himself once took on a human body, that some kind of body is going to be given to us even in Heaven and is going to be an essential part of our happiness, our beauty, and our energy. Christianity has glorified marriage more than any other religion: and nearly all the greatest love poetry in the world has been produced by Christians. If anyone says that sex, in itself, is bad, Christianity contradicts him at once.”

God never created anything for our good and then withheld it for no good reason. Sex is no exception. God created male and female, and He created sex as a means of pleasure as well as procreation. When we commit to indulge in sexual intimacy ONLY within the God-ordained confines of a marriage relationship, we are laying the groundwork for the most gratifying and fulfilling sexual experiences possible. Even secular statistics point out that the most fulfilling sexual experiences are had by married, religious couples. Chastity is not denying oneself of all sexual pleasure, but merely postponing it until the time and under the circumstance where it can be enjoyed the most.

For more excellent biblical teaching on chastity and abstinence, visit http://www.chastitycall.org/.

[1] Lewis, Clive Staples. Mere Christianity. Macmillan, Inc. 1952

Your Personal Testimony

Do you panic every time you’re in a group and the leader asks for volunteers to share their personal testimony?

I used to be like that until someone shared with me exactly what a personal testimony is. First, let’s look up the definition of the word “testimony.” Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary[1] defines a testimony as “an open acknowledgement or a public profession of religious experience.” That’s pretty simple to understand, isn’t it? Your personal testimony is just a verbal accounting (open acknowledgement) of your conversion experience.

I was saved at age five during an evangelistic meeting in my home church in Carlsbad, New Mexico. I have no doubts that God saved me as a result of that experience. My fear of sharing my testimony, especially when I was an adolescent, was based on the fact that I didn’t feel I had much to share because I was saved at such a young age. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I actually heard an individual share an illustration that helped me to understand fully what a Christian testimony was. With apologies to the individual who originally told this story, I will share my version of it.

In an evangelistic meeting one evening, the preacher asked for individuals to share testimonies illustrating the grace of God in their lives for the encouragement of those in attendance. (That, by the way, is one of the primary reasons why we should be willing to share our testimonies.) The first person to volunteer was a large, rough-looking, bearded gentleman with a shaved head, multiple tattoos, facial scars, and a gravely voice. He stood and offered the following testimony concerning the grace of God.

“I never had a father and my mother had to work two jobs to make ends meet. As a result, I was left on my own from the time I started school. With virtually no supervision, I ended up gravitating to the wrong crowd and became involved with a gang of boys when I was about 12 years old. As a member of this gang, I was expected to steal, to drink, to do drugs, and to do whatever was necessary to protect my fellow gang members. I was in and out of juvenile detention.

“A few months after my 18th birthday I was arrested for armed robbery of a convenience store. I was sentenced to 20 years in prison where I learned even more criminal behavior. I was released after serving 15 years, but having never learned how to live a normal life, I returned to my life of crime.

“I became a member of a motorcycle gang of individuals who were about as ruthless and evil as anyone I had ever known. It was only a matter of time before I was totally immersed in the activities of this gang and regularly involved in drinking, drugs, sex, and general mayhem. As a member of this gang, I was involved in more robberies, assaults, rapes, and even murders. As a result of these crimes, I eventually was arrested and returned to prison, this time for life.

“While in prison, I became angry and rebellious. During the first several years, I spent much of my time in solitary confinement. One day, after just having been released from solitary, a prison chaplain came to see me in my cell. Of course, I had no use for anyone, much less one who was religious. I laughed when he asked if he could talk to me. He persisted in coming to see me and gave me a New Testament. I tossed it on my bunk, but later was curious to see what it was about.

“I had never seen a Bible before that time. I began to read the New Testament and though much of what I read made little sense, I understood enough to realize that I was missing something in my life. Some of what I read made me angry, but other verses that I read pricked my heart and made me cry like a little baby. I was embarrassed that a big, rough guy like me could be reduced to tears by mere words, but that only confirmed that there was something to what I was reading.

“The next time the chaplain came, I had dozens of questions for him. He spent time answering my questions and ultimately led me to a passage of scripture that showed me exactly who I was. I realized for the first time in my life that I was a horrible sinner who was headed for Hell. After only a few more meetings with the chaplain, I realized that I needed to be saved. I asked him to lead me in a prayer to confess my sins and ask Jesus to come into my heart and life and be my Savior and Lord.

“I became a committed Christian and a model prisoner. I eventually began to lead a Bible study with inmates in the prison. By the time my parole hearing took place, I had found such favor with the prison authorities that I was released from prison. I have been serving the Lord Jesus ever since. This, to me, is exemplifies the grace of God.”

The congregation resounded with hearty “amens” and scattered applause. The burly man sat down and across the sanctuary from where he sat, a frail, weathered-looking, middle-aged woman stood up and began to speak.

“I was the product of a broken home. My dad left when I was eight and my mom did her best to be there for my sisters and me. I was very bitter and angry with my dad and became very rebellious during my adolescence. Having missed out on the love and affection from a loving father, I reached out to boys my age and older for whatever affection I could get. I became sexually active by age 11, but found no fulfillment in all my sexual activity. I got pregnant when I was 13 and my boyfriend at the time helped me to find a place where I got an abortion.

“I had many boyfriends and sexual partners during my teen years, and became pregnant two more times. Rather than abort these babies, I sold them through an unscrupulous attorney to couples who couldn’t have children of their own. I didn’t care about either baby. I just needed money to buy drugs. During that time, I unknowingly contracted several sexually transmitted diseases.

“I was addicted to sex and desperate for money. I used sex to try to fill the emptiness in my heart and the money I made to buy drugs to anesthetize the horrible pain I continually felt. I went from having sex with most anyone for free to selling my body to anyone who would pay. By the time I was 20 I looked 40 and couldn’t sell my body any longer. I sunk into a deep depression and attempted suicide twice. I ended up on the street, a hopeless junkie who didn’t want to live any longer.

“One day, in my desperation, I went to a homeless shelter for a free meal. It so happened that on that day, a woman from a local ministry was there sharing a message from the Bible. My mother had taken my sisters and me to church when we were little, but I stopped going. She read the Bible to us, but I tuned out most of the time. Still, as this woman read from God’s Word, some of the verses she read brought back the few fond memories I had from childhood. This time, however, the true meaning of the words hit me right between the eyes!

“I ate slowly so that I could hear as much as this woman had to read, and when she finished, I sought her out to ask her for help. She took me aside and listened to my story and then asked me if I would like to be set free from my past. Of course, I did, and she knelt and prayed with me to receive Christ and to be released from the bondage of the life I had chosen. I was gloriously saved in that encounter, but what I had never expected was to be healed of the sexually transmitted diseases I had contracted years before. I was saved, healed, and set free in a matter of minutes. I have lived for Christ ever since. I now work with the woman who led me to Christ to help others. Now, that is the grace of God!”

Once again, the sanctuary was filled with verbal approval. The woman sat down and in the very back of the sanctuary an elderly woman stood to her feet. The preacher acknowledged her and she began to speak.

“I was born to the two godliest parents on earth. My mother and father raised me in the ‘nurture and admonition of the Lord.’ I was taken to church every Sunday from the week after I was born until I left home to attend college. I never saw my parents fight, and what few arguments they had, they resolved in a very Christian manner. They loved each other and they loved me and demonstrated the love of Christ to me virtually every day of my life.

“When I was old enough to understand the difference between right and wrong, I asked my parents to lead me through the plan of salvation which I had heard many times during my childhood. I received the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Savior when I was eight years old and I have served Him ever since. To me, this is the grace of God.”

Now, this illustration was specifically about the “grace of God,” but it serves also to make my point that everyone has a personal testimony. God’s grace is every bit as evident in the life of the young child who receives Him early and lives for Him continually as it is in the life of an ex biker, prostitute, or junkie who becomes saved and delivered late in life. The real issue is that God’s grace is sufficient! Period. End of story!

When I realized this, I realized that my testimony was every bit as legitimate as anyone else’s was. Just because I wasn’t a druggie or an axe murdered by the time I was five doesn’t mean that God didn’t perform a miracle in my life when He saved me. God spared me all the misery and heartache that many others have experienced. That’s a wonderful miracle, every bit as significant as being delivered from those things, maybe even better? From that moment forward, I have never been reluctant to share my personal testimony.

If you’ve been reluctant to share your personal testimony for any reason, I want to give you an overview of what a testimony should include. Answer the four questions below and you’ll have a testimony worthy of sharing on any and every occasion.

Your Personal Testimony

1. What was your life like before you received Jesus into your heart and life? (If nothing else, you were lost and headed for Hell!)
   
2. Who or what made you aware of your lost condition and caused you to want to become a Christian? (Was it something someone said, something you read, or just the conviction of the Holy Spirit?)
   
3. What was your actual salvation experience like? (Who led you to the Lord? When and where did it happen? What did you experience and feel as you prayed to ask Jesus into your heart?)
   
4. What difference has Jesus made in your life since you became a Christian? (Obviously, He changed your direction, but what else has He done?)

That’s pretty much all there is to it! You can be as detailed or as concise as you prefer, but your personal testimony will include answers to these four basic questions. Take a few minutes to write down your own answers and then place them in your Bible or wherever you can refer to them. It won’t be long before you will no longer need to refer to your written answers.

Finally, share your testimony as often as possible. It will encourage others and bolster your own faith. And when people ask you how to become a Christian, refer to your answer to question #3 and tell them how you did it.

“…Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if you are asked about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it.”
(1 Peter 3:15)

[1] (c)1999 Prentice-Hall, Inc. All rights reserved.

How to Be Saved

To be a true Christian--a follower of Jesus Christ--and to have the assurance of eternal salvation (knowing that you'll go to heaven to be with Jesus when you die), you must follow God's "plan of salvation" as outlined in the Bible. The seven steps listed below will help you to understand this plan.

Seven Steps to Salvation

1. God loves you and has a plan for your life.
   (John 3:16-18)
2. You are a sinner. (Romans 3:23)
3. You are dead in your sin. (Romans 6:23)
4. Christ died for you. (Romans 5:6-8)
5. You can be saved through faith in Jesus Christ. (Romans 10:9-11)
6. You can be sure of your salvation. (Romans 8:16)
7. You must now obey God. (Romans 6:16-18)

God's plan of salvation is summed up in the following two passages of scripture.

"Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"..."Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, along with your entire household." (Acts 16:30b-31)

Salvation that comes from trusting Christ – which is the message we preach – is already within easy reach. In fact, the Scriptures say, "The message is close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart." For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. As the Scriptures tell us, "Anyone who believes in him will not be disappointed." (Romans 10:8-11)

If you're ready to be saved, pray the prayer below, using the numbered steps as a guide. Remember: the exact words don't matter as much as the intent of your heart.

The Sinner's Prayer

1. Jesus, I know that I’m a sinner, and I’m sorry.
   
2. I truly want to be saved.
   NOTE: If you know of any specific sin in your life, you must now admit it to God (confession) and choose to give it up (repentance). Jesus will help you to overcome up your sin, if you are willing, but He will not come into your life if you desire to continue sinning. Jesus wants to be your Savior and your Lord (master).
   
3. Lord, I confess my sins. I’m sorry for them, and I now choose to give them up.
   
4. Lord Jesus, come into my heart right now. Save me from my sins and cleanse me for your service.
   
5. I commit to live for you, Lord, according the plan you've given me in Your Word, the Bible.
   
6. Thank you, Jesus, for coming into my heart and for saving me from my sins.

Amen

If you prayed the above prayer and meant it, please let me know via e-mail so that I can pray with you and help you to get off to a good start in your Christian walk. A good place to begin is reading the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Bible. If I can help you in any way, please let me know. God bless you and welcome to the family!


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