GOD HAS BROUGHT ME A LONG WAY

Yes, this is really me when I was 6 or 7. I never dreamed all the places that God was going to take my life. I am just so very thankful that I received Christ and made Him Lord of my life.

I like to say "Received" Christ as opposed to "accepted" Christ because I always figured that He wasn't really looking for any acceptance from me. I, on the other hand, was praying that He would accept me and one day I found out that He would if I would come to Him by way of the Cross. In Ephesians 1:6, God tells us that He has made us accepted in the beloved. Christ is the beloved and as we are in Him by faith in what He did for us at Calvary, we then are accepted by God. I was so happy when I found that out.

My relationship with God doesn't depend on anything that I have done, good or bad, except for one thing: my relationship with
God depends on what I have done about receiving what Jesus Christ did for me at the Cross.
Jesus died on that cruel Cross as my substitute. Meaning that He paid for all of my sins on the Cross; past, present, and future sins.

You see, He paid a debt that He[Jesus] did not owe. It was my debt. It was Your debt. We are the ones who sinned against God. Jesus never sinned. Because He paid my sin debt, I am free from the guilt and shame that sin produces in our lives. Hallelujah!!

If left up to me, I never could afford the payment for my own sins so the alternative would be to spend eternity in hell, seperated from a Holy God. Oh, how I love Jesus for going to that Cross!!!

And, if that weren't enough, once I gave my heart to Christ by faith in what He did at Calvary; the Holy Spirit began to, little by little conform me into the very image of Christ; the beloved. Wow! Always remember this; God loves us just the way we are and He loves us too much to leave us the way we are. God never leaves us like He found us. The Holy Spirit is constantly desiring to make us more like Jesus. As we yield ourselves to the Lord, we become His servants of obedience unto righteousness. [Rom 6: 16].
So, when we obey from the heart that form of doctrine [the message of the Cross] then, and only then can we be made free from sin on an everyday basis in our life and living for God. [Rom 6:17-18]

Now then we see that Jesus Christ not only paid our sin debt on the Cross, but He broke the powerful grip that sin had on us as well. Now we can be free. All by faith in the finished work of Christ upon the Cross.
The Cross is where we must place and keep our faith.