RIVERTON BAPTIST COMMUNITY CHURCH
"Jesus Christ makes The difference - now and in Eternity"
IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT THE CHRISTIAN FAITH
This information from retired Pastor Linton Smith is very helpful.
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DISCOVER LIFE AND PEACE!
Author - Linton Smith
"I have come in order that you might have life—life in all its fullness."
"Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you."
Jesus of Nazareth made these claims in about 30 A.D.
We find the life and peace He gives when we..
ACKNOWLEDGE THAT JESUS WAS A REAL PERSON.
"Jesus of Nazareth was a man whose divine authority was clearly proven to you by all the miracles and wonders which God performed through Him. You yourselves know this, for it happened here among you. In accordance with His own plan God had already decided that Jesus would be handed over to you; and you killed Him by letting sinful men crucify Him."
Jesus was a real, historical Person. He was executed by crucifixion.
BELIEVE THAT JESUS WAS RAISED FROM DEATH.
"God has raised this very Jesus from death, and we are all witnesses to this fact. He has been raised to the right-hand side of God, his Father."
He said He would be killed and rise again. He was!
He said He was the Son of God. He was!
CONSIDER WHY HE DIED.
"God offered Him [Jesus], so that by His blood He should become the means by which people’s sins are forgiven through their faith in Him."
What could be so important that Jesus, the Son of God, the Co-Creator of the Universe would allow Himself to be killed? Only one thing - His great love for us, His desire to open a way for us to be forgiven and find life and peace.
DECIDE TO TRUST HIM.
"What the Scripture says about being put right with God through faith is this.. ‘If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from death, you will be saved. For it is by our faith that we are put right with God; it is by our confession that we are saved.’"
Believe He is Risen. Believe He is the Son of God, the Ruler of the Universe - and trust Him. Be willing to change and reach out to Jesus just as you are. Ask Him to forgive you and invite Him to be your Senior Partner in all that you do – and you will find life and peace!
Quotations used are from Today’s English Version. The verses quoted are as follows:
John 10:10 John 14:27 Acts 2:22,23 Acts 2:32,33 Romans 3:25 Romans 10:6,9,10
© 2005 - Linton Smith. All rights reserved.
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OUR DEEPEST NEED - CAN BE SATISFIED !
He was very religious.
He was impressed by Jesus.
He wasn’t satisfied.
He visited Jesus quietly one night.
“Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
Jesus looked him in the eye and said to him,
“I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
That was what he needed.
To see the kingdom of God,
to experience the kingdom of God,
to know that God was real,
to know that God was at
work in his life.
His deepest need was to be born again
Jesus explained,
“I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”
It is one thing to be born physically.
Another to be born spiritually!
We need the Spirit of God
to make us alive in our spirits.
Then we will be satisfied!
But how can we be born again like that?
Jesus went on to explain
“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
He was referring to an incident recorded in the history of His own people. Here it is.
“The people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!’
Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, ‘We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people.
The LORD said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.”
So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.”
The bronze snake was lifted up on a pole.
People looked—and were healed!
At the very prime of life,
Jesus was arrested, tried, and executed.
They crucified Him.
He was lifted up—on a wooden cross!
He was buried.
He rose again.
He is alive today!
He says to you and me,
Look to Me and trust in Me
as those people looked at the bronze snake,
and I will give you eternal life!
Then you will be satisfied.
A young man went into a little church one Sunday morning and found himself being exhorted to look to Jesus.
“Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! You have nothing to do but to look and live.”
He did.
“Oh! I looked until I could have looked my eyes away. There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away.”
That is all it takes. Look to Jesus—and live!
Quotations from John 3 and Numbers 21 from the New International Version, and C. H. Spurgeon as quoted in his autobiography.
© 2005 - Linton Smith - All rights reserved.
For further reading and information click on www.rbc.org