Our Message

An eternal relationship with God is entered into as a free gift received by believing Jesus Christ for it. As Jesus proclaimed: "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life."

Everlasting life in the Bible is life with God forever! Because it is everlasting, it will never end-- not for any reason. Thus, in guaranteeing everlasting life by believing in Him for it, Jesus is also saying that nothing we do on our part-such as good works, church attendance, baptism, etc.-could have any part in obtaining or in losing our eternal relationship with God. If we have believed in Jesus Christ for it, we have it--forever!

Because God tells us in the Bible that we have all sinned and fallen short of His standards of perfection (as in Romans 3:23), we cannot reach God. But God reached down to us by sending His own Son, Jesus Christ, into this world in order to pay for all of our sins by His death upon a cross. He became our substitute, paying the penalty for all of our sins, so that He could offer an eternal relationship with God as a free gift. That free gift is received at the moment a person believes in Jesus Christ for it.

So if living with God forever is a free gift, received simply by believing in Jesus Christ for it, then why should we obey God? God gives us several motivations to obey Him. For example, if we obey Him, we can experience more fulfillment and happiness in this life; but if we disobey Him, we will experience more problems and less happiness. And if we obey Him, we can experience eternal rewards from God in His kingdom; but if we disobey Him, we will experience less eternal rewards from Him.

God calls us to enter into an eternal relationship with Him by believing in Jesus for it. But He also desires for us to have the greatest experience of that eternal relationship by obedience to Him. Everyone who believes in Jesus for eternal life has it from the moment he or she believes. But the greatest experience of eternal life belongs to those believers who live obediently to God. Believing in Jesus is how we enter into that life; obeying Him is how we experience it in all its abundance.