WHY CHURCH?
TRUTH... TODAY?
The UK is becoming increasingly secular. Even with rising fuel and food costs and mortgage increases, we still have so much material wealth. There is a tendency to say that religion surely is for those who need a crutch in life or for the 'older' generation who believed in that sort of thing?
But ignoring the truth does not mean that it's not true!
You can choose not to believe in electricity but if you stick your fingers into a live socket you will soon be brought to account!
THE BIBLE
The Bible is an incredible book. If you have never chosen to examine it yourself, you are ignoring the greatest truth ever!
Written over a period of 1500 years, with over 40 human authors, we are told in 2 Timothy 3:16 that "All Scripture is God breathed----". If it represents the Breath of the Almighty Creator God we do well to take notice!!! Its message is clear and consistent. It tells us why we are here, why there are so many problems in the world and what can be done about it. It brings meaning, sense and spiritual life to those who believe it.
THE PROBLEM OF THE HEART
First, the really bad news. Although we don't want to face up to it, we must come to the point where we accept that the fundamental human problem is deep within each of us. G.K. Chesterton summed it up in a letter to the Times when in replying to the question, "What is wrong with the world?" he said:"I am!"
None of us, however hard we try, is good enough to go to Heaven. The Bible says: “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5) and “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). This means that from birth we are under the judgement of our Creator God and automatically headed for an unimaginably awful place called hell when we die (i.e see John 3:18,19, Revelation 21:8). To be in hell is to be excluded from God's presence and to be with satan (otherwise known as the devil) for ever.
SO IS THERE HOPE?
THE AMAZINGLY GOOD NEWS IS that “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him” (John 3:16,17). These words were spoken by the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ while He was on earth some 2000 years ago. This was shortly before He was crucified (having done nothing wrong!), rose again and ascended to Heaven.
It gets better!! In John 14:2 Jesus said “I am going there (Heaven) to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am”. To be in Heaven is to be with God for ever.
WHAT DOES “BELIEVING IN HIM” MEAN
FOR YOU AND ME?
Firstly, confess before Almighty God that my "heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure” Jeremiah (17:9) and that I want to turn away from sin and repent.
Then, believe that God sent his only Son, Jesus Christ to die a cruel, unjust death on a cross to carry my punishment.
Finally, accept God's free gift of forgiveness. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
This is just a summary -
There is SO MUCH MORE - come and find out!!
(You can get some more information from our “Statement of Faith”)