Welcome to your New Life!

If you’re reading this then you have most likely just stepped into relationship with God or you have just renewed your commitment to God.  This blog site is designed to help you take those first steps towards God or retrace some of the steps you have already taken.  This blog is something new and I’m not really sure exactly how this is going to work, but I want to do whatever I can to help you along the way. 

You’ve probably got a million questions about God and being a Christian.  I can’t jump into your head and know exactly what you need so I am just going to start discussing some things that are important for you to know as you start your life with Christ.  Each day I’ll blog about another aspect of your life with Christ and you can post any questions that you may have and I’ll try to answer them.  I might ask you to do some reading from time to time or maybe ask you to pray about something…we’ll just go with the flow, OK?

So let’s get started….I want to make sure that you understand the decision you have made.  When you made the choice to accept Christ and believe that he is the son of God; what did that do?  Well it all has to do with our realtionship with God and our nature.  We are all sinful people.  In the 3rd chapter of the 1st book of the Bible, Genesis, we read the story of Adam and Eve.  They were the first people that God created and they had a perfect relationship with God, but in chapter 3 we see that they sinned against God.  God is holy and because of Adam and Eve’s sin they were separated from God.  Not only were Adam and Eve seperated from God, all of mankind has been separated because we all have sinned.  Romans 3:23 says that we have all sinned.  However, God has supplied a way that we can be in relationship with him again.  He did this by sending his son Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins, death.  When Jesus was crucified on the cross, he paid for our sins and his resurrection 3 days later defeated death and gives all of us the opportunity to be in realtionship with God.  When you made that decision to follow Christ and accept what he has done for you, in that moment, God forgave all of your sins.  The Bible tells us that they have been wiped clean and totally forgotten.  This is your new life and I hope that this site can help you take the first steps of that new life.

I hope you have a full understanding of what has happen to you and that you will join me on this journey as we talk some more about God

What Next??

Ok!  So now you’re a believer in Christ…what next.

There are some fundamental practices that you need to make an everyday part of your life.  These practices will help you grow closer to God and help you understand what it means to be a Christian.  There are many things that we can do to grow closer to God, but 2 stand out…prayer & reading the Bible

READING THE BIBLE – The Bible is one of God’s gifts to us.  We are going to spend an entire blog at a later date going over the Bible, but for right now it’s important to understand that the Bible is God’s words to us.  It is actually the words of God written down by men as God’s Spirit inspired them as to what words to write.  It should be the most important book that we ever read.  It also should be a book that we read on a continual basis to allow God to speak into our lives.  You see God speaks to us through the Bible.  It is how we come to understand that we need a savior.  It is how we come to understand that our savior is Jesus; and it is also how we learn to be His follower.  You need to begin now to develop a habit of reading the Bible consistently.  There are a few ways to do this:

                    Time – Pick a time of the day that works best for you to read your Bible.  For many people that may be early in the morning, for others it may be after lunch or right before going to bed.  The important thing is pick a time that is right for you and then read each day as consistently as you can.  The amount of time you spend reading is not critical.  Do not fall into the trap of feeling that you have to read 30 min. or an hour.  The important thing is that you understand what you are reading and that you allow God to communicate to you as you are reading it.  There is a good saying that “we don’t read the Bible to get through it but rather we read the Bible for it to get through to us.”  If you remember that saying you’ll not have any trouble with worrying about how much or how little time you have spent reading your Bible in a given day

              Version – If understanding what you are reading is important (and it is of supreme importance) then you need to be able to read the Bible in a style that you can relate to.  Today there are many different versions of the Bible to choose from.  You need to look at a few different versions and find one that is comfortable for you.  You need to understnad not only the language, but the context and the cultural nuiances of what is being said.  If you click on the Bible Gateway link on New Life’s website (www.new-lifechurch.org) you can search and read the Bible in many different versions and find one that is right for you.

         PRAYER – The second practice that is important is prayer.  Prayer is another way in which we can communicate with God.  In prayer we can worship, express thanks, express worry, ask for help, express anger, in short…just have a converstaion with God.  That really is what prayer is in its raw form – a conversation we carry on with God.  It is not something that is designed for us to do only when we are in trouble and it certainly is not a “wish-list” of things that we ask God for.  Think about it…if you want to get to know someone you talk to them.  Reading a letter from them is good (AKA Bible Reading); but actually talking to them is even better.  There is no set formula about how and what we are to pray.  You can pray anyway and anytime that you want to as long as God is the focus of what you are doing.  The key in prayer is the same as in Bible reading.  Finding a time to set aside for prayer that works for you and then doing it.  Make prayer a consistent, daily part of your life and you’ll find yourself growing with God in leaps and bounds.

What is important about prayer and Bible reading is that it allows us to communicate with God.  We have to remember that this is 2 way communication in both practices.  Many times we view Bible reading as God speaking to us and prayer as us speaking to God.  What you need to concentrate on as you begin these practices is to speak to God as you read your Bible and to listen to God as you pray.  You see all communication has to be 2 sided for anything to be transferred.  When we limit our prayer time and Bible reading to one dimension someone always loses out – and it’s not God!

Please post comments to share with me your experiences with prayer and Bible reading as you explore these exciting ways of getting closer to God or share any questions that I may be able to help you with.