The most important question you’ll ever ask.
Whether you’re curious, skeptical, hurting, or searching, this is for you. Take it at your own pace. No sign-up. No pressure.
Before you took your first breath, God knew you. He didn’t just make you. He made you for something: a life of meaning, lived with Him. And that plan only comes together through Jesus.
More than 8 billion people on earth
Out of all of them, God knows you by name.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.
Centuries before He was born, prophets wrote where He would be born and how He would suffer. After He rose, hundreds saw Him alive. His closest friends faced prison and death rather than deny it. People don’t die for something they know is a lie.
700 BC
Micah writes that a ruler will come from little Bethlehem, a ruler from ancient times.
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.
700 BC
Isaiah describes someone wounded for other people’s wrongs, seven centuries before the cross.
But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
5 BC
Jesus is born in the very town Micah named. He grows up in Nazareth, and around age 30 begins teaching, healing, and calling people to follow Him.
30 AD
He is executed on a Roman cross and buried. On the third day the tomb is empty, and He appears alive, to His friends and then to more than five hundred people at once.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
30 AD & on
The friends who ran the night He was arrested spend the rest of their lives telling everyone He rose, even under threat, prison, and death. James was the first of them killed for it.
He killed James the brother of John with the sword,
Not long after Jesus rose, His friend Peter was invited into the home of a Roman officer named Cornelius to explain who Jesus is. This is what he said.
So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Not a list of rules. Not a religion you have to earn your way into. God offers you forgiveness, and with it, peace: peace with Him, and the power to make peace with the people around you.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
You don’t need a rulebook to know you’ve done wrong. Your conscience tells you. Jesus put it simply: treat others the way you want to be treated. Every time we haven’t, something in us has known it.
Be honest for a moment. Have you ever treated someone in a way you would never want to be treated?
So has everyone who has ever lived.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
The Bible calls this sin: the gap between how we live and how God made us to live. It isn’t just a few bad moments. It separates us from the God who made us, and no amount of trying harder can close that gap on our own.
Jesus is either just a good teacher, or He is exactly who He said He is: the Son of God, who forgives sin. Those two answers lead to very different places, and one verse holds both of them. Everything turns on a single word.
Road one Go my own way
For the wages of sin is death,
It ends in separation from God, forever.
but
Road two Follow Jesus
the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It leads home.
Romans 6:23 ESV
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus lived 33 years without ever sinning. Then He took the penalty for our sin on Himself, dying on a cross in our place. He paid for what He never did, so we could be forgiven for what we have done. And three days later, He walked out of the grave.
Record of debt
Owed to a holy God
No. 0001
Every person
“The wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23
Hold to see what Jesus did with it.“It is finished.” Jesus, in John 19:30
by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
You don’t need to be in a church or have a pastor with you. You can receive Jesus right now, right where you are. Turn from your sin, put your trust in Him, and tell Him so.
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Talk to God in your own words. If it helps, you can pray something like this:
These words aren’t magic. What matters is that you mean them. God hears your heart.
If you prayed that and meant it, God has forgiven you. Completely. You are His child, and your new life with Him starts today.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
You may not feel different right away, and that’s okay. Your forgiveness rests on what Jesus did, not on a feeling. The Bible says God’s Spirit Himself will assure you, from the inside, that you belong to Him (Romans 8:16).
Begin with the Gospel of Mark. It’s short, fast-moving, and all about Jesus. Read a chapter a day.
Read Mark, chapter 1 ↗Prayer is simply talking with God. Thank Him, tell Him what’s on your heart, and ask for His help. There’s no wrong way to start.
Following Jesus was never meant to be done alone. Join us Sundays at 10 AM or Wednesdays at 6:30 PM at 8925 Youree Dr. Shreveport, LA 71115.
God isn’t in a hurry, and neither are we. Honest questions are welcome here. If something is holding you back, we would genuinely love to talk about it with you.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. esv.org