Following Him

If you would like to become a Christian and have eternal life, then follow Jesus for the rest of your life. Put your faith in Him. Believe in God and His Holy Spirit also, pray to Him, and ask Him for help to believe in Him and His Son, Jesus. Confess your sins to God, ask Him to forgive you and ask Jesus, God's Son, into your heart. Following Jesus is both something which He chooses us to do...

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. John 15:16 (NIV)

...and something we are told to do.

Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, "One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." Mark 10:21 (NASB^®)

Get stuck into God's word and believe and obey the things He teaches us in there - some of which we have discussed in this article. Check the Bible Info (http://www.dansfriends.com/bibleinfo.shtml) page for some info and thoughts on different Bible versions to read. You could start reading at the New Testament, which is the part of the Bible written after Jesus was born. If you are new to the Bible, you should be aware that the Old Testament (the first 3/4 or so of the Bible) has some parts which talk about the "Law", which were the rules that God commanded the Jews to live by before Jesus' death and resurrection. Christians are not to be under the Law, but are to live by loving and obeying and having faith in Jesus and God.

If you do start reading the New Testament, another thing which may be confusing is that the first four books of it all tell the same basic story, except written by four different people. That story is the life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus. After that in the New Testament are other stories, and further teaching about the meaning and practice of being a Christian and being saved.

Another part of being a Christian is to not just live in isolation. We should tell other people about Jesus. Christians are also part of a body of believers. These are our brothers and sisters in Christ. We should be together with them, encourage them, and get help from them. One way to do this is to go to church. Be careful choosing a church however, as a proportion of churches seem to teach a false belief these days: that Christians can live however they want to or even turn their back on God, but still expect to be saved. Avoid churches which teach this doctrine - it flat out isn't true, and it's dangerous. The Bible says that the Lord does provide safety for us, but as we have seen in some of the verses quoted in this article, there is also a strong element of us having to remain living in Him for us to retain that security. Read the Salvation Security? (http://www.dansfriends.com/osas1.shtml) article for more information on this topic.

Thank you so much for reading. We really hope you have benefited from this article. Maybe you have learnt something or been challenged about something, or would like to learn more about God or become a follower of Jesus? A wonderful way to find out more is to read the Bible. Online Bibles are available for free at www.biblegateway.com. Please also feel free to email us at contact@dansfriends.com if you'd like. We feel very under qualified, and might have trouble responding properly all the time, but we want to be available to anybody with genuine questions, criticisms, comments or anything at all. Even if you would just like to say hi or ask for a prayer about something. God bless you.

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