Global Church Planting Mission

What is true Christianity? That is the question that I was asking God many years ago. I remember pouring my heart out to God in prayer. "Lord, bottom line, what is true Christianity?"

What He said to me totally blew me away! He said, "True Christianity is living your life in right relationships! It begins with being in right relationship with me as your Heavenly Father, through your faith in my Son. It's being in right relationship with Jesus, truly allowing Him to be Lord of your life and trusting Him fully as your Savior. It's being in right relationship with the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to teach you the truth, to lead you, to guide you, and to empower you. It's being in right relationship with your wife, loving her and laying your life down for her even as Christ gave His life for the church. It's being in right relationship with each of your children, loving them and training them in the way that they should go, bringing them up in the admonition of the Lord. It's being in right relationship with all of your family and with your spiritual family as well. You must love your brothers and sisters in the Lord. It's even being in right relationship with the lost, loving them enough to share the true Gospel with them. That's what true Christianity is all about. Simply living your life in right relationships.

" Wow! What an incredibly simple but powerful answer that was! Some of you may argue that true Christianity is about God sending His Son Jesus to earth to be born, to live, to die on a cross, to shed His blood as payment for man's sin, to be raised from the dead on the third day, and to ascend to the right hand of God in Heaven. You are absolutely right! That is exactly what God did. Have you ever asked yourself why Jesus died on that cross? You might say something like, "Well, Jesus died on that cross to save us from our sin and hell and to take us to Heaven. You are absolutely right! But I believe that there is even more to this incredible story of salvation and redemption. I believe that the primary purpose of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection was to restore man's relationship with his incredible creator.

Consider for a moment the story of creation. On the 6th day, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit said, " Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...." Gen. 1:26 "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him, male and female created He them." Gen. 1:27 Why did God create man and woman after his own likeness? To have relationship with them! Immediately after God created the man and the woman, He began to talk to them. "And God blessed them and God said unto them, 'Be fruitful and multiply....' And God said, 'Behold I give you every herb-bearing seed....' " Gen. 1:28-29 "And they heard the voice of the Lord God (who was) walking in the garden in the cool of the day...." Gen 3:8

God had created the man and the woman for relationship with Himself. But man's sin and rebellion against God tainted that simple and pure relationship. Isaiah 59:2 says, "But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God....." (HCSB) "Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden and the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, 'Where art thou?' And he said, 'I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid....' " Gen. 3:8-10 *Did you notice that it was Adam and Eve who had become afraid of God and who hid themselves from the presence of the Lord? God wasn't hiding from man. God still desired relationship with man, even though Adam and Eve had rebelled against Him and had disobeyed Him. Man's sin and rebellion made him feel ashamed, guilty and afraid of God. Sin had become a roadblock and a barrier between God and man.

God sent his son Jesus to smash through that roadblock and barrier of sin. Why? So that man's relationship with God could be fully restored, unhindered by sin, guilt, shame, and fear. Jesus wiped away our sin and transgression against God. He wiped it away by the sacrifice of His own life, and His pure and innocent blood. What was his ultimate purpose in dying on that cross? To restore man's relationship with God forever and ever. He set us free to be able to once again love God openly with a pure heart and to walk and talk with God in the garden in the cool of the day so to speak.

Living our life in right relationship with God then opens the door for us to be able to live in right relationship with our spouse, our children and grandchildren, our extended family, our spiritual family, and even with our unsaved neighbors.

Thank you, Father God, for sending your Son Jesus to earth to sacrifice Himself, that our relationship with you might be fully restored. Thank you Jesus for dying for us that we might have a loving relationship with you, our spouses, our children and our grandchildren, our families, our brothers and sisters in Christ, and with all the unsaved people in the world. In Jesus wonderful name, Amen!!!!!!!!!!!