When God formed us, the Bible says He made us different from all creation.  He made us in His image.  This makes us creatures of reason with a free will to choose.  Adam and Eve chose to ignore God's command, falling from God's favor and friendship, cursing all of their descendants including you and I as recorded in Genesis chapters 2 & 3.  All of humanity is born with an inherited drive toward selfishness.

 God's desire has always been to have fellowship with humans.  In fact:

1. God wants to be friends.

John 15:14 You are my friends if you do what I command. NIV

2. We disobey His Commands and Can’t Be Friends.  We ignore the Bible. We lie, steal, commit adultery, commit murder and worship the wrong things instead of God. We  put self first instead of God, this is called sin. And everyone sins.

1John 1:10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. NIV

Rom. 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, NIV

Rom. 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. NIV

3. Jesus took our death penalty on the cross making friendship with God possible.

John 3:16   “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. NIV

4. We must turn from our sin and receive Jesus as Lord (boss) and Savior (rescuer) to be saved from death and restored to friendship.

Acts 3:19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, NIV

Acts 2:21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ NIV

5. Friendship With God never ends

Heb. 13:5 …God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” NIV

The choice is yours. 

Self or Jesus Christ.  There are no other choices.  Jesus said: John 14:6   Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 

Do you believe this? 

If so, you can receive eternal life by surrendering control of your life to Jesus Christ right now.  Just call upon His name. 

You can pray honestly to Him like this:

Dear Father God, I am sorry I have ignored you, please forgive me of all of my sins (name all you can think of).  I trust you with all that I have done wrong.  Come Holy Spirit and live in me.  Please give me the power and desire to choose what is right.  Cleanse me of my past, and take away my guilt and shame.  Save my soul from hell and take me with you to live eternally in heaven, for I surrender control of my life.  You are my Lord, I trust you to save me and keep me saved. In the name of my new friend Jesus, Amen.

If you have sincerely prayed this prayer - 

 then congratulations dear brother or sister and welcome to the family of God. You are now heading to heaven! Now you must continue on and maintain this walk of faith with the basics in spiritual discipline.  These four things will cause your roots to grow deep in Christ, making you strong for every trial to come. Do you need to back up and pray your prayer?  If you have already prayed continue, to learn the spiritual disciplines.

1. Pray.

Just talk to God and tell him everything that is on your mind.  Learn to listen to His advice as you pray.  He tends to correct our wrong thinking when we are upset, and give us ideas on how to serve Him.  For guidance in prayer consider reading Matthew 6 where Jesus teaches the disciples to pray.