ChristmaSpirit

New Believers Info

This page is intended for those, (especially those coming from the Meaning of Christmas page,) who have recently placed their faith in Christ and would like to know what to do next. If you have now trusted in Jesus, through your faith in Him, you have come into a loving relationship with Him and are saved from the punishment of hell. After your life on Earth your spirit will go to heaven. This is an eternal gift to you through God's love and care. Congratulations!! That's wonderful!!

Romans 5:1-2 says, "By faith we have been made acceptable to God. And now, because of our Lord Jesus Christ, we live at peace with God. Christ has also introduced us to God's undeserved kindness on which we take our stand. So we are happy, as we look forward to sharing in the glory of God." (CEV)

Now you need to begin to strengthen your new relationship with God and draw nearer to Him. To do that:

Pray to God regularly, preferably every day. Talk to Him with normal words like you might use if talking with a loving father. To pray means to relate to God from your heart. You can talk to God as much as you want to, whenever and wherever you want to. Thank Him for giving you the gift of eternal life in heaven and for giving you every good thing in life. You can talk with God about any question in life and ask Him for help. He knows what you really need and will help you in accordance with that knowledge. (Hebrews 13:5-6)

Live according to God's will. God's will is that you would love Him, love man, and not sin. He gave you the incredible gift of eternal life in heaven. So it is right to try to live according to His will. But because you are a human with a sin nature, you can never be completely holy like God. So God gives a perfect Helper, called the Holy Spirit, to all people who believe in Jesus. There is only one God, but existing as three entities: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. At the exact moment you believed in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit came to live in your heart and will be with you continually from now on. The Holy Spirit will help you to stop sinning. (John 14:15-17)

Read and study the Bible. First, ask God to give you understanding. Many people who believe in Jesus read and study His Word almost every day. Through this book you can get a clear understanding of the biggest part of God's will. If your mother tongue is not English, and you do not have a Bible in your language, here's a link where you can probably find Bibles in your language. Many people suggest beginning with the book of John, which is the fourth book of the New Testament. (II Timothy 3:16)

Unite in fellowship with other believers in an evangelical (Bible-believing) church. Most people who believe in Jesus gather together every Sunday. This is a time to meet regularly and listen to teaching from God's word, give praise and honor to God, encourage each other, and build up each others faith. If you live in a strict Muslim part of the world, of course you know that you need to use extreme caution and pray to ask God what to do before attending church in your country. But if it is possible, we advise every believer to go to a church where the people believe the Bible is the inerrant Word of God. Tell them that you believe in Jesus, and join. (Hebrews 10:24-25) If you live in America you can do an internet search for Bible-believing churches in your area. Or here's a link to a broader range of evangelical churches.

Tell your family and friends about your faith in Jesus. Show your faith to others by being baptized. Baptism means that a follower of Jesus immerses a new believer in water for just a moment and then brings him up out of the water. (However, there are some churches that baptize by sprinkling or pouring water.) Baptism is a testimony that you believe in Jesus and are affirming that faith to other people. If you live in a strict Muslim part of the world, of course you know that you need to use extreme caution and pray to ask God what to do before being baptized or announcing to family and friends that you are now following Christ. (Matthew 28:18-20)

About the Word of God

The Bible is often called "the Word of God." Thousands of years ago the Hebrew king David wrote "God's Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." Today people annually buy many tens of millions of Bibles in almost every national language. "Bible" is a Greek word meaning "books". Beginning 3500 years ago, over a period of 1600 years the Bible was written mostly by Hebrews. Not even one word of the Bible came from the mind of man, but rather from the mind of God. He put all of this truth into the minds of the writers through His supernatural power. Therefore the Bible is a perfect, completely errorless, truthful book. There is no other book which emanated from the mind of God.

Does it sometimes seem to you that one just tries to find his own way through life and at the end simply dies? There are times in the life of anyone when a decision must be made, yet through human reasoning you just don't know what to do. But the Bible shows us what to do in almost every area of life: work, business, money, marriage, how to relate to family and to others, childbirth, health and sickness, success and failure, living in God's grace, etc. In this way God shows us the right way to live. These truths have a tremendously positive effect on the daily lives of the followers of Jesus. By living according to the Bible the followers of Jesus are able to make life's big and little decisions in faith, and have a right purpose for living, not wandering.

So, to the followers of Jesus every single word written in God's Word is invaluable. Therefore, from the earliest times copies of the original manuscripts were made with the utmost care, in order to make sure every word and letter was copied without error. Right up to today the words which were written on the original manuscripts have been kept as they originally were. However, in the course of history the followers of Jesus have read and studied the Bible, and conveniently divided each book into chapters, each chapter into verses, and added names and titles. So God's Word has two main parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament, containing a total of 66 books, each with their own names. The Old Testament is the oldest factual record of the history of mankind. The Old Testament tells how the world and universe were created, and also about the first humans and how God related to them. The New Testament is about what Jesus Christ said and did, how and why people began to follow Him, how man should relate to God and men, what happens after death, how the earth will come to an end, and what will happen in the future.

Congratulations! Please visit our Focus on Christ page next.