“DID I RECEIVE CHRIST? AM I TOTALLY FORGIVEN?” 

If you sincerely repented and trusted Jesus you can be sure that all your sins are forgiven. Why? Because Jesus paid for them in full. God has saved you totally by His grace!

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8,9)

“And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:11-13).

Thank God often that Christ is in your life and that He will never leave you (Hebrews 13:5). You can know on the basis of God’s promise that His Holy Spirit now lives within you and that you obtained eternal life the very moment you believed. God will not deceive you.

An important reminder...

DO NOT DEPEND ON FEELINGS
The promise of God’s Word, the Bible - not our feelings - is our authority. The Christian lives by faith (trust) in the trustworthiness of God Himself and His Word. This train diagram illustrates the relationship among fact (God & His Word), faith (our trust in God & His Word), and feeling (the result of our faith and obedience).

The train will run without or without the caboose. However it would be useless to attempt to pull the train by the caboose. In the same way, as Christians we do not depend on feelings or emotions, but we place our faith in the trustworthiness of God and His promises.

NOW THAT YOU HAVE RECEIVED CHRIST
God loves you dearly and has made you His own child. Like any good parent, your Father has wonderful plans for your life (John 10:10). He wants to see you grow to be a healthy, spiritually mature child. You can trust God completely because He is infinitely wise & good. He lovingly fashioned you and is intimately aware of all your ways. 

Along with the incredible gift of eternal life, God has also given you His Spirit (Ephesians 1:13,14). The Holy Spirit now lives within you.* He will help you to grow and lead a godly life. Don’t worry if you’re not perfect at first. Just as an infant first learns to craw, then walk, so God will lead you along a process in which you grow from infancy to maturity in Christ.

GROWING IN CHRIST
“Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” (1Peter 2:2 NIV) Spiritual growth results from trusting Christ. You might only be able to handle spiritual milk right now but your Father will enable you to trust Him increasingly as you live by faith. These are some of the ways that God will help you grow:

	Go to God in prayer daily (John 15:7).
	Read God's Word daily (Acts 17:11); begin with the Gospel of John.
	Obey God moment by moment (John 14:21).
	Witness for Christ by your life and words (Matthew 4:19; John 15:8).
	Trust God for every detail of your life (1 Peter 5:7).
	Holy Spirit - allow Him to control and empower your daily life and witness (Galatians 5:16,17; Acts 1:8).

Every day we strive to follow God more and obey our sin nature less. Positionally, God has already declared us righteous because He now sees the perfect righteousness of Jesus in us (2 Corinthians 5:21). Functionally, however, we are still sinners and will continue to struggle with sin (1 John1:8). We will never be perfect on this side of Heaven, but God has given us His Spirit who empowers us to live increasingly holy lives. 

FELLOWSHIP IN A GOOD CHURCH
God’s Word instructs us not to forsake “the assembling of ourselves together” (Hebrews 10:25). Several logs burn brightly together, but put one aside on the cold hearth and its fire soon goes out. So it is with our fire for Jesus. God has designed us to be in authentic fellowship with other Christians. Apart from it our burning heart for Him soon cools.

If you do not belong to a church, we at Lawndale Baptist would love to have you join us in worship of our Lord. Begin experiencing regular fellowship with genuine Christians and take hold of the abundant life that God has to offer!