Want to know God?

Student pastor, FBC Jasper 

While I was studying at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina, I went on a missions trip to Nigeria. The people of Nigeria were very welcoming to us as well as being welcoming to God’s gracious gospel. They had many physical needs that went unmet every day. Because of that, they could see very clearly they were not self-sufficient physically or spiritually. 

Here in Alabama, however, we work very hard to be self-sufficient and not need anyone’s help. But the fact of the matter is we need more than help when it comes to receiving genuine salvation. We need someone to earn it for us. That someone is Jesus. The truth is that sinners like you and me have only one way to gain salvation, and that is through Jesus Christ. In Mark 1:15, Jesus says, “Repent and believe in the gospel.” We must turn away from our sin and trust Christ alone to save us. Therefore we must repent and believe, turn and trust.

One of the men I met in Nigeria was already a Christian when we arrived. His life had been radically transformed by the gracious gospel of Jesus Christ. He wasn’t a Christian for cultural reasons or even because he agreed with my morality. He was a Christian because he understood that Jesus is better than anything he or I could obtain on this earth. This brother in Christ walked from Cameroon to Nigeria for the expressed purpose of learning how to serve his community through his local church. 

Friend, when you repent of your sin, Jesus does not remodel you; He remakes you. When you trust Christ alone for salvation, your new love for Him will most assuredly spill over to your community. Will you choose this day to by faith turn away from your sin and turn to Christ alone to save you from the consequences of your sin and bring you into a relationship with Himself?