Would you like to know your Creator as your true friend?
Reading and responding to God’s offer to you, as explained on this page, could be the most important turning point in your life!
These four things will help you know God. By following them, you can find the full and satisfying life He promised:
1. God loves you. He made you so that you could know Him in a real way.
God’s Love
— “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. Whoever puts his trust in God’s Son will not be lost, but will have life that lasts forever” (John 3:16).
God’s Plan
— “This is life that lasts forever. It is to know You, the only true God, and to know Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).
What stops us from knowing God in a real way?
2. People are sinful, and far from God, so we cannot know Him in a close way. We cannot know His love.
Mankind is Sinful
— “For all men (all people) have sinned and missed the shining greatness of God” (Romans 3:23).
— “But your wrong-doings have kept you away from your God. Your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear” (Isaiah 59:2).
God created people so that each of us could know Him as a friend. But people are stubborn. We want to go our own way. This rebellion against God is sin.
Mankind is far away from God.
— “You get what is coming to you when you sin. It is death!” (Romans 6:23a).
God is holy (completely sinless). Mankind is sinful. There is a big separation between God and mankind, and people try to reach God and heaven. Mankind is trying to become a friend of God in his own way. People do this through traditional or formal religion, or by just trying to live a good life.
But there is a way over this big separation.
3. Jesus Christ is God’s only answer for people’s sin. It is only through Jesus that we can know God as a true Friend. You can know His love!
He died for us.
— “But God showed His love to us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
— “Christ suffered and died for sins once for all. He never sinned and yet He died for us who have sinned. He died so He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).
He rose from the dead. He is alive!
— “Jesus died for our sins. He was raised from the dead to make us right with God” (Romans 4:25).
Jesus is the only way to God.
— “Jesus said, ‘I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one can get to the Father except by Me’ ” (John 14:6).
Sin separates us from God. If we die with that big “gap” between God and us, it will be there forever. But there is Good News! ? God has made a way over the separation.
The only way is Jesus Christ. God sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross. He died in our place to pay for our sins. He is the Way.
But it is not good enough just to “know” these three things…
4. We must each take Jesus Christ into our life. We must let Him come in as Saviour and Master. Then we can know God as a true Friend!
— (Jesus is speaking) “Listen! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and we will eat together” (Revelation 3:20).
We must receive Jesus Christ by faith.
— “He gave the right and power to become children of God to those who received Him. He gave this to those who put their trust in His name” (John 1:12).
— “For by His loving favor you have been saved from the punishment of sin through faith. It is not by anything you have done. It is a gift from God. It is not given to you because you worked for it. If you could work for it, you would be proud” (Ephesians 2:8,9).
When we choose to receive Jesus, we have a new and different life.
It doesn’t do any good just to know that Jesus is God’s Son, and that He died on the cross. What you do with Him is the most important decision you will ever make.
Believing in Jesus means giving Him control of our life. It means being sorry for our sins. It means accepting God’s forgiveness for our sins. It means turning away from our sins. It means letting God make us what He wants us to be.
This next part will show you how to ask Jesus into your life.
Will you ask Jesus Christ into your life? He comes in when you believe. He comes in when you ask Him.
God knows how we think. That is more important than the words we use when we pray. Praying is simply talking to God. If you are unsure of what to say to God, you can invite Jesus into your life through a prayer like this:
Lord Jesus, I want to know You in a real way. I admit that I am a sinner, and I am sorry for doing wrong things. Please forgive me. I turn from my sins. I now ask You to come into my life. I take You as my Savior and Lord. Come and be the Chief of my life. Make me the kind of person you want me to be. Thank you for taking away my sins. Thank you for giving me life that lasts forever. In Your Name, Amen.
You can know that Jesus lives in your life.
Did you ask Jesus into your life? In Revelation 3:20, Jesus says He will come into your life. He said He will be your friend. You can get to know Him in a real way. How do you know that God has come into your life? He said so in the Bible. You can trust God. He does what He says.
The Bible says we have life that lasts forever.
— “This is the word He spoke: God gave us life that lasts forever and this life is in His Son. He that has the Son has life. He that does not have the Son of God does not have life. I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. Now you can know you have life that lasts forever” (1 John 5:11-13).
Thank God many times because Jesus lives in your life. Thank Him that He will not leave you.
— “God has said, ‘I will never leave you or let you be alone.’ ” (Hebrews 13:5)
Do not go just by how you feel.
A four-wheeler will run with or without a trailer. But it would be useless to try to pull the four-wheeler with the trailer. In the same way, we as Christians do not depend on feelings or emotions, but we place our faith in God and the promises of His Word.
Fact = God and His Word
Faith = our trust in God and His Word
Feeling = the result of our faith and obedience
— (Jesus speaking) “The one who loves Me is the one who has My teaching and obeys it. My Father will love whoever loves Me. I will love him and will show Myself to him” (John 14:21).
New life in Jesus Christ!
When you ask Jesus to come into your life, many things happen, including:
- Christ comes into your life. (Revelation 3:20; Colossians 1:27)
- Your sins are forgiven. (Colossians 1:14)
- You became God’s child. (John 1:12)
- You receive life that lasts forever. (John 5:24)
- You begin a new life with God as your friend. (John 10:12; 2 Corinthians 5:17)
- God’s Holy Spirit comes to live in you. (Ephesians 1:13; Rom. 8:14; 1 Corinthians 6:19,20)
Having Jesus living in your life as your true friend … is there anything better than that? You can pray, thanking God for what He did for you. Thanking God shows your faith in Him and what He says.
Next part … enjoying your new life with God!
How to GROW as a Christian
G – Go to God, praying every day. (John 15:7)
R – Read the Bible every day. (Acts 17:11) Start with the Gospel of John.
O – Obey what God says. (John 14:21)
W – Witness for Christ by what you do and what you say. (Matthew 5:16)
T – Trust God for every part of your life. (1 Peter 5:7)
H – Holy Spirit. Allow Him control of your life. He gives the power you need to live for Jesus everyday. (Galatians 5:16,17; Acts 1:8)
… and worship, fellowship, and serve with other Christians in a church where Christ is preached.
The Bible says: “Let us not stay away from church meetings” (Hebrews 10:25). When we meet with other Christians, we walk closer to God. When we do not meet with other Christians, we walk farther from God. Find a good church. Go every week.
Has this page helped you?
If you have just received Jesus Christ, be sure to tell others about what you have done. If you are unable to do that, or if you need spiritual help, please call or write us at Tribal Trails.
For More Spiritual Help…
Or to tell someone that you asked Jesus into your life… Call: 306-961-2588, or E-mail us at: tribaltrails@ncem.ca
Or you can write to us at: Tribal Trails Box 3030 Prince Albert, SK S6V 7V4 Canada
If you would like a pocket-sized printed copy of our tract, “Would You Like to Know God as Your True Friend,” we are happy to send you a free copy. (Additional copies to share with others are available for purchase. Look for “Bookstore” under “Resources”.)
…………………………
T H E G R E A T E S T S T O R Y …
CREATION
Our land is rich and beautiful. It is a land that has fed and sheltered its people for many many years.
The weather is sometimes harsh, but the trees give lumber to build houses. The lakes and rivers provide fish, and the forests and plains sustain moose, deer, elk, caribou, cattle and food crops that nourish us. The oceans, too, provide for us, and there are minerals beneath the land’s surface from which we benefit.
Someone made the land to take care of our needs. We know there must be a God.
God made humankind to talk with Him, and to be close friends. God can communicate with people in different ways, but it is in the Bible we read of His story from beginning to end. Over many years men of God wrote down what He wanted to say to humankind. These many books and letters were all put together to form the Scriptures, the Old & New Testaments. The Bible contains the Greatest Story ever told!
THE CREATOR
The Bible begins by showing God as Creator of all. He had no beginning. He lived eternally before He made the earth and everything in it. He sees and knows all things. He has the power to do anything He wants in keeping with His holy character.
There is only one true God, yet three persons – Father, Son & Holy Spirit.
God made people, but in a different way than He made the animals. God made people in His image – in other words, to be like Himself in some ways. A person can make decisions. A person can share ideas with others. A person can choose to do right or wrong. A person has a spirit.
Before God made people, He created spirit beings called angels. One rebelled and is called the devil or Satan (Isaiah 14). Others joined Satan in rebelling against God, becoming evil spirits, or demons.
A FRIENDSHIP BROKEN
Adam & Eve were the first male and female formed by God. He made a beautiful garden for them to live in. They had everything they needed, but God had warned them that if they disobeyed Him, they would die.
Adam & Eve walked and talked with God and life was very good. However, Satan, the leader of rebellious spirit beings, did not like Adam & Eve being friends with God. So he lied to them and tempted them to disobey God. Because of their sin, Adam & Eve would have to die. Their close friendship with God was broken. Their sin brought guilt, shame, fear and death into the world, affecting all of creation.
God is pure and good. He is so holy that He cannot live with sin. So God could not let Adam & Eve stay with Him in the garden.
After Adam & Eve sinned, every person has been born with a desire to sin. We do not naturally try to follow God. Rather, we all want to live our own way, but really it is Satan’s way. And Satan’s way leads to death – it leads to a place of separation from God and suffering forever.
A PLAN
God’s friendship with humankind was broken, but He did not want to leave it that way. He wanted people to be holy and good like Him. God wanted to walk and talk with people again.
Many more people were born on earth, and most of them did not care about God. But God did not want people to have to die because of their sin, so He had a plan so that people could have their sins forgiven.
God chose a nation called Israel. Through Israel, God wanted to show the world that He was God, and how to live with Him. God gave laws to obey, known as the “10 Commandments.” But no matter how hard they tried, people still disobeyed – and this was sin. So God set up a plan for a person’s sins to be forgiven.
God had Israel set up a special tent, and men were chosen to be priests. God said that when a person sinned, he had to bring a perfect lamb to the tent (and later a building). The person put his hand on the head of the animal, and by doing this the person was admitting to God that he/she was a sinner, and that he/she deserved to die. Then the priest killed the animal. The person trusted God to accept the death of the animal instead of their own death.
GOD’S PROMISED ONE
For many years Israel followed this plan, but they often went astray in their hearts. The animal sacrifices became meaningless rituals to many of them.
All this time God kept promising that He would send Someone to free people of all nations from their sin. God made many promises telling what this Saviour would be like. People waited hundreds of years and, finally, the Saviour came! His mother was from the nation of Israel. She was a virgin, and the father was God Himself.
Before the Saviour was born, an angel said: “You must give him the name Jesus. That is because he will save his people from their sins.” When Jesus was about 30 years old, He started to teach and preach. He told people how God wanted them to live. He lived a perfect life and He never sinned once. Jesus was completely human, while at the same time He was completely God.
Everywhere He went Jesus told people about God. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). This was new teaching for the people – they thought that they were to come to God through an animal that was killed.
BORN AGAIN?
One time a man named Nicodemus came to visit Jesus. As they talked, Jesus told Nicodemus that he needed to be born again. Nicodemus didn’t know what Jesus meant. Could he get back inside his mother and be born again?
Jesus told him that there are two kinds of births: (1) we are born into this world when our mother gives birth to us; (2) we are born into God’s family when God’s Spirit gives life to our spirit.
Jesus went on to say, “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only son. Anyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life” (John 3:16).
But what does it mean to “believe in Him”? Even today many people believe that Jesus came as a man and lived a good life. Does that mean that all those people will not die, but live forever? To understand this, we need to look at the death of Jesus.
THE CROSS
Some of Israel’s religious leaders did not like what Jesus was saying and doing, so they made a plan to kill Him. They had Jesus arrested, and had a trial that was unfair. People lied about Him at the trial. Jesus had never sinned in His life, but the religious leaders said that He had sinned by saying that He was God.
They put Jesus to death by nailing Him onto a cross. Satan thought it was great that Jesus was dead, but God had something else in mind.
Before dying, Jesus shouted, “It is finished!” meaning that He is the final lamb-substitute for sinful humankind. His shed blood was the perfect sacrifice to pay for the world’s sin.
As He died, the curtain in front of the most holy part of the temple tore in two from top to bottom, symbolizing Jesus opening the way directly to God.
THE CHURCH & THE FUTURE
On the third day God made Jesus come alive! After appearing to many people, He returned to the Father, and gave His Holy Spirit to live in all believers – called the Church.
The New Testament includes many letters written to Christians in different settings to encourage them to be faithful to Christ and teach them what to believe and how to live.
There is a comforting promise that one day the dead in Christ will also rise from their graves. Then believers living at that time will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and be with the Lord forever. They will be given new bodies that will never sin, never get sick, and never die.
Jesus has promised to return to earth and make everything new. He has promised a home forever for His people. But Jesus will judge the earth for its rebellion against God. Sin, Satan and all people who follow Satan will be punished forever in the Lake of Fire. All those loyal to Christ will live forever with Him.
MORE THAN A STORY…
What you’ve just read is a short version of The Greatest Story. You will want to read more in the Bible.
But it isn’t enough just to read or hear The Story. It isn’t enough just to know “about” Christ (even Satan and his demons believe in the one true God – see James 2:19).
This is really much more than a story! … because there are great rewards for everyone who believes The Greatest Story and responds to it, and because there are terrible consequences for those who reject it.
God wants you to know Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. When you know Jesus, He gives you these things:
- He will forgive your sins.
- He will give you inner peace and strength to face life’s challenges.
- He will take you to heaven someday.
But when you put off knowing Jesus, these things will happen:
- You will not have peace with God.
- You will have to stand before God someday and your sins will condemn you forever.
“He who puts his trust in the Son has life that lasts forever. He who does not put his trust in the Son will not have life” (John 3:36a).
UNDERSTANDING THE GREATEST STORY…
To know Jesus it is important to understand these truths:
- Humankind was created by God and in the image of God. This means that God has ownership and authority over all people, and we must all answer to God.
“And God made man in His own likeness. In the likeness of God He made him. He made both male and female” (Genesis 1:27).
- The first man and woman were created in a perfect relationship with God, who is holy and righteous.
“God saw all that He had made and it was very good” (Genesis 1:31a).
- The perfect relationship with God was broken when Adam & Eve disobeyed God and rebelled against His authority. It resulted in spiritual death.
“At one time you were dead because of your sins” (Ephesians 2:1); also Genesis 3:1-24.
- All people are born with a rebellious sin nature. We can’t blame it on our parents because we all know that we choose not to do what is right.
“This is what happened: Sin came into the world by one man, Adam. Sin brought death with it. Death spread to all men because all have sinned” (Romans 5:12); also Romans 8:5-8.
- We are not able to restore our friendship with God ourselves. God has only one way to remove the barrier and restore people to a relationship with Himself.
“Sins are not forgiven unless blood is given” (Hebrews 9:22b).
- God demanded the shedding of innocent blood to pay for sin. Since no other payment was suitable, God provided the perfect sacrifice in His sinless Son, Jesus Christ, who came to earth in the form of a man.
“Jesus said, ‘I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one can go to the Father except by Me’ ” (John 14:6).
- Jesus Christ, in obedience to His Father, was sacrificed on behalf of all humankind. This satisfied God’s anger towards sin, and made possible a restored relationship with Him.
“God was in Christ. He was working through Christ to bring the whole world back to Himself. God no longer held men’s sins against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19a); also Philippians 2:8.
- God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, thereby defeating Satan and his helpers for all eternity. The penalty of sin is paid for, and the power of sin over a believer is broken.
“Through His death He destroyed the power of the devil who has the power of death. Jesus did this to make us free from the fear of death. We no longer need to be chained to this fear” (Hebrews 2:14c,15).
“As Christ was raised from the dead by the great power of God, so we will have new life also. If we have become one with Christ in His death, we will be one with Him in being raised from the dead to new life” (Romans 6:4b,5).
BELIEVING THE GREATEST STORY…
To believe something means to act on it. If I truly believe The Greatest Story I will respond this way:
- I will agree with God that I am sinful and that my sin separates me from a relationship with God. (Romans 3:23)
- I will be genuinely sorry for my sin – for all of my wrong actions and thoughts. (2 Corinthians 7:9-10)
- I will repent – which means to turn away from my sins. (Matthew 4:17)
- By faith I will believe and receive God’s sacrifice of Jesus Christ in my place as God’s only plan to save humankind. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
- As a born again person I receive forgiveness for my sin and enter into a relationship with God. I will allow God to change me and to shape my life according to His plan. (Romans 6:6-14)
SHARING THE GREATEST STORY…
A truly born again person obeys God with his/her actions and attitudes, and by telling others what God has done for them.
“If you say with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved from the punishment of sin. When we believe in our hearts, we are made right with God. We tell with our mouth how we were saved from the punishment of sin” (Romans 10:9,10).
If you are not able to talk with the person who gave you this booklet, we here at Tribal Trails are glad to have you call or write to us.
Phone: 306-961-2588 / Email: TribalTrails@ncem.ca
Postal Address: PO Box 3030
Prince Albert, SK SV V Canada
You are not alone!
Our Tribal Trails TV program guests are people who have heard and responded to The Greatest Story and found new life in Jesus. Check our website for station listing, or watch online today.
……………….
Adapted from Great News! by Christy Arnold. Copyright © 1995Northern Canada Evangelical Mission. Revised © 2016 Tribal Trails. Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New Life Version, Copyright © 1969, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1986, Christian Literature International, Canby, OR. Used by permission.Bible Illustrations © Sweet Publishing (http://sweetpublishing.com) modified from originals. Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.