Penkhull Christian Fellowship
  Stoke-on-Trent, England

contact us  | about us  |   what's going on?  |  departments  |  students  |  message board  |

home  |

 
How do I become a Christian?
 

To desire to be a Christian is to desire to be a child of God, to be a person in a personal relationship with God.

To become a Christian is to partake in the actual event of receiving God the Holy Spirit within our own human spirit, therefore creating a new Spiritual life inside of us. It is this Spiritual life that unites us and makes us a child of God our Father.

In other words Christianity is not an Idea nor a Philosophy. Christianity is an event, specifically the event of God giving us each personally a new Spiritual Birth. This new Birth is also called the "Born Again" or "Born from Above" event.

 

John 3:3 In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no-one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

2 Cor 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
 

Christianity is not a philosophy but a real time event.

God created mankind to live forever so that we can get to know God forever.

Mankind disobeyed God and entered into a relationship with sin and with sin came death (separation from God).

Mankind is now separated from God. God then came to mankind by taking on the form and appearance of a human. God became a human to interact with humans on a human level.

God's entrance into the physical world as a physical person was accomplished via the Virgin Birth.

Jesus then died on the cross. Sin requires death and only through death can sin be completely removed. To die is the end and fortunately for us the death of Jesus on the cross is the end of sin as it is His death that we acknowledge was for us. Sin is dead and never to be resurrected again.

Three days later Jesus Resurrected from death to Life providing the opportunity for a new Spiritual life for us in the Resurrection Life of Jesus.

1 Cor 15:1-4
15:1 Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the
gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.
2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

Gospel means Good News. Eternal Life in the Resurrection Life of Jesus Christ is the Good News of Christianity.

Since Jesus died for us there is only one thing for us to do and that is to Accept what Jesus did for us. This is called Faith and Trust. We have faith that Jesus is Alive even after He suffered and died. We have faith that the same Resurrection Life that Jesus now lives we too also live.

Faith is a wonderful thing! Faith is trust, we trust Jesus. Faith excludes works. It would seem natural to have to do something in order to gain the attention of God however we don't. We already have God's attention. What God desires is for us to have a personal relationship with Him. We can only have a relationship when we acknowledge the existence of the other person, in this case God.

 

When should we acknowledge God and become a Christian?

The Bible tells us that we are created to get to know God and that every moment in life is an opportunity to know Him. God wants very much for each and every person to acknowledge and to accept Him.

2 Cor 6:1-2
6:1 As God's fellow-workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain.
6:2 For he says, "In the time of my favour I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favour, now is the day of salvation.

In the Bible when people became Christians they took action, they got Baptized in water, fellowshipped with other Christians, prayed and read the Bible and served and proclaimed Jesus to others. They also took the very important step of destroying in fire the elements of their past life that are unpleasing to God. It is important to rid our lives of the old unpleasing ways and that means destroying whatever does not glorify God. Sometimes it's drugs, pornography, music, movies, books or clothing. Whatever it is, destroy it in acknowledgment that it has been destroying your soul and your relationship with God.

To become a Christian is to acknowledge that Jesus is God and to acknowledge that Jesus is Alive and with us at every moment. To acknowledge God is to talk to God, this is called prayer.

You can start and talk to God in a prayer like this.

God I acknowledge you in the existence of Jesus and I acknowledge your Love for me to come as a human and to die on the cross for me. I too love you and I desire to live my life in a relationship with you. Thank you that you love me. Thank you that you hear me when I call upon your name. I accept Your death and Your blood as the full penalty for all of my sins and I acknowledge that by the blood of Jesus I am now clean. I ask that you, having cleansed me, will now in Your Spirit come into my life and make me Your child. God I give You my life this day to take and to do with whatever You will. I now walk in faith day by day and moment by moment in the love and Resurrection life of Jesus. To the glory of God and the praise of His Holy Angels and to the delight of all the Saints of Heaven I now confess that Jesus is my God, my Lord, my Saviour, my Companion, and also my Friend. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

1 John 5:11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.


(All scripture is taken from The Holy Bible: New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, by International Bible Society)
 

 

 


top
| home | departments | Sunday Services |