Ambassadors for Jesus Christ

God created us for relationship with Him.

Everything was perfect-until we broke it by disobeying Him. Our disobedience or sin separated us from God, who was perfect. The penalty for mankind was immediate spiritual death and eventual physical death. 

Genesis 3.

As a result of the fall, sin was brought into the world and all of mankind became sinful. Paul wrote this fact to the the church "23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23

There is nothing we can do as humans to repair it, but God made a way. We can never do enough to pay for our sins and make us holy "enough" to live with a perfect Heavenly Father. 

But God in his perfect love for us sent His son, Jesus, to die in our place. (John 3:16)

When we believe that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins and choose to live in a growing relationship with God, He sees us not as we were, but in a right standing with Him because of what Jesus did. He literally makes us a “new person” when we decide that God’s way is how we want to live. 

It is not easy, but it is soooooooooooooo worth it and we are never left to “do it on our own”. In fact, when we are weak, His strength in us is even more obvious. We just have to ask Him for help as we follow His lead.

As a new child of God, He gives us His Holy Spirit to help us follow Him and become who He created us to be. We become brothers and sisters in Christ with other Christians in community (the true church), as we are adopted into the Family of God through Jesus. In this family, we use our “gifts” or strengths God has uniquely given us to serve Him, one another, and our community as we grow stronger in relationship with Him. 

God created you, loves you and has a plan for you!

Prayer is simply talking with God. You can do it anywhere and anytime. Just pray!!

Jesus taught us how to pray with the Lord's Prayer, not the exact words but what our prayers need to include in Matthew 6:7-13

7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. 

Jesus starts His prayer: "Our Father" We are praying to our Heavenly Father and we need to address Him by name and acknowledge He is holy. 

Jesus then asks for God's will to be done. God's will is always perfect. While we can pray for help, guidance, direction, we need to acknowledge that our will may not align with His will. We bend to His will not the other way. 

Jesus then asks for his needs; "Give us this day our bread". It is okay to ask for our needs. 

Then Jesus shows us that we need to seek God's forgiveness. "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." (our debt is sin). This is an important step in humbling ourselves and acknowledging to our Heavenly Father that He is the great and merciful God of forgiveness. We too need to remember that it is God who told us to forgive as well.  This is a perfect time, as a new believer, to acknowledge you are a sinner and in need of a Savior to pay the debt of sin. Seeking God's forgiveness also keep us humble and reminds us to also forgive others. 

Jesus ends with asking God to deliver us from evil. In other words, help to keep our eyes focused on Him and help us to not sin. 

Because Jesus is our mediator (1 Timothy 2:5) with our Heavenly Father, we should end our prayer in Jesus Name. 

If you have just prayed and chosen to follow Christ, you are a Christian! A disciple of Jesus. Welcome to the family of God! Please let us know so that we can celebrate with you and add you to our prayer list as you begin your journey.