HOW TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN.
From time to time before I ever gave my life to Christ I would sometimes be asked by a Christian, “Do you know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?” For two reasons, I would always answer “Yes.”
The first reason was because I thought I knew how to become a Christian, I went to church every week and I talked to Jesus (pre-Christian style) nearly every day. I had even read the Bible through four times. (Aren’t you impressed?)
But the major reason I said yes was because I wanted whoever asked the question to get off my back.
You’ve no doubt heard the saying, “Sitting in a church doesn’t make you a Christian anymore than sitting in your garage makes you a car.” The truth of that saying is obvious. I was “churched” soon after I began my junior year in high school. But I didn’t give my life to Christ (become a Christian) until I was thirty.
Before I became a Christian I’d attended Fuller Theological Seminary for a year. (Aren’t you impressed again?) And before I became a Christian (was “saved” or “born again” I had my own Christian radio program in the San Francisco Bay Area for thirteen months telling teenagers for a whole half hour five days a week that they should become a Christian too. I wasn’t being a hypocrite. I just didn’t know I wasn’t a Christian.
I’ve always been a slow learner. You’re probably a lot faster learner than I am. However, if you are the slow learning type, Jesus Christ loves you just as much as He loves those who always make straight A’s.
No matter what your age, if you’ll come back to this website every day I promise you two things:
1. If you don’t know Jesus Christ except maybe as a swear word, I’ll arrange a meeting between you and Him that you are going to find more fabulous than an eternal hot fudge sundae.
2. If you DO know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior (are a Christian) your faith in Him is going to grow greater every day.
So, let’s get started. You don’t have to clean up your life before you become a Christian. This is a come as you are party. If you’ve never taken a significant moment in your life when you’ve honestly prayed and asked Christ to be your Lord and Savior, you can do it now, or if you feel you’ve gotten away from Christ, simply talk to Him out loud and tell Him you want Him to take over the leadership of your life. Literally, surrender to Him NO MATTER WHAT EVIL THINGS YOU’VE DONE UNTIL THIS MINUTE. If you’d like some help in praying this, just read the following words out loud and put your mind on Him as you do it:
‘Lord Jesus Christ…..forgive me for every sin I’ve ever sinned.
Forgive me for ever thinking I was good enough to not need You…..
or too bad for You to ever want me…..Create a clean heart in me
this very minute…..Right now and forever become my only Lord and
Savior…..I’ll follow you, Lord, because You are the only One who
knows the purpose for which I was born and all You’ve planned for
me to do on this Earth…..And You’re the only One who knows the
way to God, the Father, and to Heaven and will take me there
eternally.…..Send the Holy Spirit right now to live inside me
forever…..In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.’”
What does honest prayer inviting Jesus Christ into your life as Lord of it accomplish? Here’s Romans 10:9-11 from the New American Standard Bible to tell us:
“that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth they confess, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture say, ‘WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.’
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
HOW TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN by Ray Mossholder