"Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.
"He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
~Revelation 3:20-22 NASB
Saturday's Scriptures
How to Be Saved by God:
Asking Jesus Into Your Heart
Last night, my post was about our searching for answers as to whether our child was saved when he or she died. Tonight, I wanted to share some Scriptures for those of you who might have questions of your own about how to ask Jesus into your heart, or how to share Him with your friends or loved ones.
I love the picture above, of Jesus knocking on the door of our hearts, as that is such a tender portrait to me that had made such an impact on me even as a young child. It seems to capture the love Jesus has in His heart for us as He ever seeks to find each of us, His little lambs...
"Jesus said,
'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.'"
~John 14:6
~~~
"Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved and thy house."
~Acts 16:30b-31 KJV
~~~
"The Romans Road" is a tool I was given when I was a teenager and wanted to share Jesus with friends, family, or new visitors to my church. It is a simple tool I also used along with a few other Scriptures not only with these dear people, but also with my own children when they were all fairly young along with some hand-drawn pictures that I used to illustrate the verses.
Tonight I will share some graphics that are somewhat comparable to the pictures I (amateurishly) drew for my children! With my children, I used the Living Bible, so I will add that version below the ones used here:
As it is written:
“There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.”
~Romans 3:10-12 NKJV
~
Romans 3:10-12
Living Bible (TLB)
10 As the Scriptures say,
“No one is good—no one in all the world is innocent.”
11 No one has ever really followed God’s paths or even truly wanted to.
12 Every one has turned away; all have gone wrong. No one anywhere has kept on doing what is right; not one.
(Here, both while reading Romans 3:10-12, and Romans 3:23 below, I just used a simple drawing of a dart board, and showed the bull's eye was empty while (I drew) marks all over the rest of the board, and explained to them that none of us gets it right in life, as we all "miss the mark" in life and mess up, so we all stand in need of a Savior to help us.)
~~~
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
~Romans 3:23 NIV
~
Romans 3:23
Living Bible (TLB)
Yes, all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious ideal;
~~~
"But God commendeth His love
toward us, in that, while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us."
~Romans 5:8 KJV
or as NIV states it,
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Romans 5:8
Living Bible (TLB)
But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
Here, I drew a picture of the cross - a dimensional cross, with "Sins" written down the long verticle bar of the cross, and blackening in with pencil inside the cross' bars to show our sins covering the cross.
|---|
||-S
|--I
||-N
|--S
|----
I printed "Jesus" across the cross bar of the cross. Then I showed them Jesus washed away our sins by shedding His precious blood to pay for our sins (erasing the blackened-in sins, if I remember correctly!).
------------------------
----J E S U S
------------------------
I drew us on one side of the cross with God on the other side of the cross, and pointed to "Jesus" dying on the cross, to show that only what Jesus did for us by dying on the cross allows us to have our sins forgiven so that our sins are washed clean, and we can then cross over (through Jesus) to God when we die.
----------------------------
------------------|---------|
------------------|---------|
------------------|---------|------
------------------|---------|---------------
\0/--|------|J---E--S---U---S--------||---G O D
-||---------------|---------||---------------
|/ \--------------|----I---||----------
-------------.----|---------||----------
----------------.-|||--N---||-------------
--------------.---|---------||----------
-----------------||---.S---||----------
------------------|---------|
------------------|---------|
------------------|---------|
-----------------------------
~~~
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23 NIV
Romans 6:23
Living Bible (TLB)
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
(Here, for Romans 6:23, I drew a present similar to the one below showing God has given us a "free gift" of being able to go to Heaven to live with Him forever when we die.)
{Of course, Merry Katherine told me later she kept waiting for me to give her that free gift...! I believe she was about five years old when I first showed her this.}
If you declare 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 profess your faith and are saved.
Romans 10:9-10 NIV
Romans 10:9-10
Living Bible (TLB)
For if you tell others with your own mouth that Jesus Christ is your Lord and believe in your own heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in his heart that a man becomes right with God; and with his mouth he tells others of his faith, confirming his salvation.
~~~
for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
~Romans 10:13 NIV
Romans 10:13
Living Bible (TLB)
Anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
(Here, I drew a picture of a telephone, and told them prayer was sort of like calling a friend on the telephone, so you can call on Jesus through prayer and ask Him into your heart. And you can talk to Him any time just by praying to Him.)
Then I asked if they wanted to pray with me to ask Jesus into their hearts, and each one of them {Each of them talked one-on-one with Mommy}, at around the age of 5, 6 and 7 years old prayed with me to receive Jesus as their Savior.
We talked about God and Jesus more and more through "Home Church" over the years at times when we were in between churches; we have such sweet memories of those times!
It seems for each of them that it was really in their teens that they understood how much they needed their Savior, and it became much more real to them then. At that time, they were very active in the youth department at our local Baptist church, and it was a wonderfully personable and intense program that really helped them to grapple with a lot of issues, and get to know God on an even closer personal level. I am so very thankful for that program to this day.
Even now, our oldest child, our son Rollin lives here in Knoxville and, along with his wife Stephanie, they work closely with that same youth department, teaching Sunday School to the Freshmen in high school there, as well as helping with all the discipleship weekends (spring and fall - "FrostBite" and "DiscipleNow") and the week-long "SonBurn" camp at the beach (summer). Our middle child, our son Nathan lives in Athens, Georgia (my hometown!), works with young people. and is very active in his close-knit church as well. And, as you know, we trust our Merry Katherine is safely ensconced in her Savior's arms even as I write...
We have so very much to be thankful for to this day.
I pray that these verses will be helpful to you, and perhaps you can share them with those you love as well! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to share with either Tommy or me!
Much love to each of you, and we pray God's sweetest blessings and comfort to your hearts.
All images, thanks to "Google Images"
NASB: New American Standard Bible
KJV: King James Version
NKJV: New King James Version
NIV: New International Version
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