If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
–Romans 10:9-10
God has been beckoning you to Himself since the moment you were born. God wants you to KNOW Him like He knows you – the Scripture tells us that God knows the number of hairs on our head and keeps every tear that we cry. God wants to know you so badly that He sent His Son – Jesus Christ – to reconcile you to the One True God.
Jesus Christ is the Author and Redeemer of the world. He – fully God and fully human – humbled Himself and came to earth to live and experience life and death so that He could free us from the bondage of fear, sin, and death. Christ’s pathway to the cross was intentional for the purpose of giving you and the entire world LIFE – life in the full! When He chose that path, died, and rose from the dead the third day, He conquered death for eternity. If you confess with your mouth, as Romans 10 states, and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord and that He rose from the dead for YOU and for your salvation, you will have begun this journey of faith in Christ. Ultimately, being a Christian is about a relationship with God through Jesus Christ and walking this journey with Him.
There will be difficult days – becoming a follower of Christ does not exempt you from the hurts and difficulties of life. But it does SUSTAIN you and ENCOURAGE you so that even on the darkest of days, you are full of Hope because of your relationship with Christ. Our prayer for you is that you choose to walk with Christ and experience the Hope, Peace, Love, Discipleship, and Joy that only God can bring to your life.
If you would like to know more about Jesus and how to embark on this exciting and magnificent journey, please call our church office: 206.542.2111 and ask to speak with a pastor who would be happy to meet with you, pray with you, and answer any questions you might have.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. –Romans 15:13
Author; Bethany Hull-Somers, Pastor of Mount Vernon, Wa, Church of the Nazarene
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In the Bible, in the Book of Numbers, there is a narrative of "fiery serpents" which came among the Jews as they traveled in the wilderness. Moses was instructed to make a serpent and place it on a pole. Anybody bitten by a serpent who looked at the bronze serpent on the pole would be saved from death.
The snake in verse 14 above refers to that narrative.
Here's an old old song that makes the connection between looking at that "snake" in vers 14 and what it takes to be "saved":
There is life for a look at the Crucified One,
There is life at this moment for thee;
Then look, sinner, look unto Him and be saved,
Unto Him Who was nailed to the tree.
Refrain
Look! look! look and live!
There is life for a look at the Crucified One,
There is life at this moment for thee.
Oh, why was He there as the Bearer of sin,
If on Jesus thy guilt was not laid?
Oh, why from His side flowed the sin-cleansing blood,
If His dying thy debt has not paid?
Refrain
It is not thy tears of repentance or prayers,
But the blood, that atones for the soul;
On Him, then, who shed it, thou mayest at once
Thy weight of iniquities roll.
Refrain
Then doubt not thy welcome, since God has declared
There remaineth no more to be done;
That once in the end of the world He appeared,
And completed the work He begun.
Refrain
Then take with rejoicing from Jesus at once
The life everlasting He gives;
And know with assurance thou never canst die,
Since Jesus, thy righteousness, lives.
Refrain
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As a new follower of Christ, it is good to meet with other Christians to learn more of the joy of believing and serving Him. Aurora Church of the Nazarene is such a place. We would love for you to look at all of the pages of this web site and we hope you will choose Aurora Nazarene as your spiritual home.
Here's one more Bible verse that speaks of God's desire that you will look to him:
New Living Translation (©2007)
Let all the world look to me for salvation! For I am God; there is no other. Isaiah 45:22
(The "Online Parallel Bible allows you so see approximately 15 translations of the same verse.)
