I’ve just asked Christ into my heart.  What do I do now?

You have just asked Christ into your heart. How do you know He has come in? You know, because He promised. He said, "I will come in," He didn't say, "I might," or, "I'll think about it." He said, "I will come in." He doesn't tell lies, He doesn't make promises that He is not going to keep, He keeps His word.

So, regardless of your feelings, you believe He has come into your heart and life by His Spirit. When He came He forgave you your sins, gave you eternal life and made you a child of God.

Revelation 3:20 "Here I am, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat (fellowship) with him, and he with me."

Acts 10:43 "Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish (be lost from God) but have eternal life."

John 1:12 "To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God."

All Your Sins are Forgiven

But you may say, "What about my future sins? It will be hard for me to live a Christian life." It is important for you to understand that when Jesus forgave your sins He forgave you your past, present and future sins. If He hasn't done that, then there is no hope that you will get to heaven. Even one sin can keep us out of heaven so it is important that the total sins of our life are completely forgiven. If I sinned suddenly, and the next minute I died without time to say sorry, I know Jesus has already died for that sin and it is forgiven. I will enter into the presence of God and have eternal life.

For a Christian then, all his sins, as far as getting to heaven are concerned, are forgiven. But when he sins after becoming a Christian he gets out of fellowship with the Lord. It is like hurting someone in your family that you love. You feel bad about it and unhappy. You still both belong to each other as family, even living in the same house together, but something has come in to spoil the fellowship. You will feel miserable until you say sorry and fellowship is restored again. You never ceased being a member of the family but you were out of fellowship.

1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

Living the Christian Life

If you think that it is going to be hard to live the Christian life, remember, you are not alone, the Lord is with you. He wants to share your life with you. God says, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." So we can say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" Hebrews 13:5,6.

We have to learn how to live this Christian life, but the Lord is our helper. We will make many mistakes as we learn, but God is not there with a big stick to beat us when we fail. No, He is like a loving mother teaching her little child to walk. The child takes it's first step and the mother is delighted. The child then takes the next step and falls over. Does the mother then get angry and pick up the child and throw it out the window saying, "You're no good, I don't want you anymore!" No, she encourages the child to get up and try again. That is what our God is like as we learn how to live the Christian life.

It is also like learning to ride a bike. When we get onto a bike for the first time and try to ride it, most of us fall off and have to try and try again. We do this until we learn to keep our balance. After that we go riding all over the place. However we still have to look where we are going or we will crash into something or someone. Even the most experienced cyclist can fall off when something unexpected happens or they get too sure of themselves and take unnecessary risks.

So it is with us as Christians, we have to be alert because we will always face dangers and temptations as we live our new life. Jesus said to His disciples, "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation." Mark 14:38. To watch means to be spiritually alert, praying means talking to God. Just like we enjoy talking to a trusted friend and telling him about everything that is happening in our lives, in the same way we should talk to God about everything. Lack of communication can cause problems in human relationships and forgetting to talk with God will hinder our relationship with Him.

Praying to God is not memorising some words and saying them to Him like saying a piece of poetry. Praying to God is with reverence and respect talking naturally with the best friend you could ever have. Talking to God keeps you close to Him.

Reading the Bible

Reading God's letter to us, the Bible, is also an important part of the Christian life. He can speak to our hearts from the Bible. Psalm 119:105 says, "Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path."

The Bible can teach us how to walk in God's way and live a life pleasing to Him. Psalm 119:28 says, "My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your Word."

Reading the Bible, can strengthen us in times of special need. Psalm 119:11 says, "I have hidden your Word in my heart that I might not sin against you."

The Bible can help keep you from sin. A s you read it, think about it and memorise it, you will find it brings great blessing to your soul. Usually it is better to start reading the New Testament before you start the old Testament. Start reading from Matthew, reading some each day. Eventually you will get through the whole New Testament. There will be much you won't understand. Some parts may even confuse you. Just put them aside and enjoy the parts that speak to your heart. Later you can ask someone who knows more about the Bible to explain some of the difficult parts. They may be able also, to introduce you to some books that help you understand more.

Regular Fellowship with Other Christians

The next thing you need is to make sure you have regular fellowship with other Christians. If you possibly can, attend church, or a fellowship group, at least once a week. Hebrews 10:25 says, Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another..."

A bad habit is to neglect meeting with other Christians. A good habit is to meet often to worship together, pray together, study the Bible together and share and encourage each other. We should be eager to go to church, make it part of your lifestyle.  We would love to help you learn more about having a faith in Jesus.  Please visit us this Sunday.

Tell Others About Jesus

A wonderful way to stay close to God is to start serving Him and to keep on serving Him. Jesus has chosen us to be His witnesses in this world. We witness mostly by the way we live, and as we have opportunity, by our mouths. Introducing other people to Jesus and encouraging them to live for Him is the most exciting thing we can do. Not everyone will want to follow Christ but there are always those who will, if we share what Christ has done for us.

We read of a man named Andrew in the Bible who, after he found Jesus, the first thing he did was to go and find his brother Simon, we read, "And he brought him to Jesus." John 1:42. Both these brothers became great servants of God. I pray that you, the reader, will bring many to Jesus.

Don’t Give Up

Don't give up following Jesus no matter how hard it gets. In Acts 14:22 we read of some advice given to some new Christians "...strengthening the disciples (new Christians) and encouraging them to remain true to the faith." We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God," they said. What this is saying is that they were encouraged not to give up their faith even though they would face many problems and difficulties on their way to heaven. Jesus promises to be with us, in fact when we are going through problems. He sometimes fills our hearts full of His love joy and peace and we have a wonderful victory over our difficulties. But whether we have joy or peace or not we have made a commitment to follow Him all our lives.

There is an old story that goes something like this. A train is going on a journey. It is moving on two rails. The name of one of the rails is trust and the name of the other is obey. The train is travelling through the beautiful sunny countryside when suddenly; it comes to a tunnel in a hill. Into the tunnel the train goes, it is all dark, no beautiful sun. The train is discouraged, "This is terrible," it thinks, l didn't expect this on my beautiful sunny journey." The train stops in the tunnel feeling sorry for its self. Now it is going nowhere, it has given up.

Sometimes as Christians we enter a dark tunnel experience when all sense of the sunshine of God's love seems to have gone. So what should we do? We should do what the train should do, not give up but keep going forward on the rails, trust and obey and eventually we will come out of the tunnel into the warm sunshine again. We need to keep going forward, not relying on our feelings, but on the Lord. Sometimes we have wonderful feelings of Him very close to us or we have little or no feelings at all. Has the Lord left us? Of course not. He promised never to leave us. He is still there whether we feel Him or not.

When the sun is hidden by a dark cloud it doesn't mean that the sun has gone, it is still there. When the dark cloud moves away the sun which was there all the time shines on us again. Feelings come and go but Jesus remains constant in our hearts forever.

My prayer for you is that you will faithfully follow Jesus all your life, that you will serve Him in whatever gifts and abilities He has given you and that God will give you the joy of introducing many others to the Saviour. Amen.

If you would like further help or information, or if you made a commitment to the Lord through reading this, please write to us at office@pcf.gen.nz

We'd love you to visit us at PCF on Sundays to learn more about following Jesus.