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So, I say I’m Christian, but have I actually accepted Jesus’s proposal?

Jesus is making this proposal to you, to accept that:

the life you’re living is really death (Ephesians 2:1),

the world you live in is ruled by darkness because we chose to obey Satan (Genesis 3:1-7, Romans 6:16, Luke 4:5-6, 1 John 5:19),

your whole life is harming and being harmed because of your separation from God (Matthew 18:7-9, Luke 17:1),

there is nothing good apart from God (James 1:17),

God loves us (John 3:16, 1 John 3:1),

God is so loving, all-knowing, powerful and wise, that before the foundation of the world He provided us a way of escape (Ephesians 1:4, 1 Peter 1:20, Revelation 13:8),

God’s Kingdom is on the move, His Kingdom is at hand to save us from the death we’re dying now, the coming death of God’s wrath against sin and to save us from Hell (John 3:36, Romans 1:18-19, Revelation 20:6, Revelation 20:11-15) ,

God does what is impossible for us to do: God provided The Way to save us from destruction AND restore us to fellowship with Him, reestablishing the perfection required to dwell in His presence (John 1:12-13, Ephesians 2:13, 1 John 3:1),

Jesus is The Way (John 14:6),

Jesus is God, begotten of the Father by the Spirit through a woman (Galatians 4:4),

Jesus came in the flesh, indwelt by the fullness of God, died as the atonement for our sins and rose from the dead with new life that He makes available to us (John 1:14, Romans 8:11, 1 John 4:2),

Jesus is sent by God to be King, to deliver us from the power of darkness and convey us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, that we may have life through the knowledge of God (Isaiah 9:6, John 18:37, Colossians 1:13),

Jesus offers new life (John 3:3, 10:10, 2 Corinthians 5:17),

Jesus requires that we give up our old life: our identity, our possessions and our pursuits (Luke 14:33),

Jesus requires that we give up our right to rule our own life, to accept Him for who He is –our Master and God, and to submit to Him with total obedience (Luke 6:46, Matthew 7:21, John 14:15, John 15:10),

Jesus requires that we denounce the world and abandon any affections for anything in it. You must give up your previous lover (James 4:4, 1 John 2:15),

Jesus requires that we use everything we have and everything we are to advance His cause, to further His interests and not our own (Luke 14:25-33, Luke 16:10-13),

Jesus offers God (John 17:1-4).

Do you accept His proposal?

When we marry, we don’t know all there is to know about the person we’re marrying or what that person will become, but we see enough worth and believe we know enough about them to navigate the unknown.

I have seen enough of Jesus to trust Him (or at least try). He has proven to me to be exceedingly worthy. I know enough to trust Him to navigate the unknown.

I have not attained, but I press and make it my aim to say “I do” to the Lord, every day.

I commend Jesus to you.

Repent (be convicted of sin –admit falling short of the standard of His love and change direction in pursuit of it), hear Jesus (if you don’t hear, humble yourself, pray and ask God to give you hearing and get in His Word), believe Him and be saved.

Beware taking Jesus’s name (Christian) without taking Jesus. We will not have Jesus until we accept His actual proposal and begin to give Him everything. We will not experience Jesus until we obey Him (John 14:21).