ABC's of Salvation

The ABC's of Salvation Knowing your sin has been forgiven and you are ready for heaven is as simple as following these steps: A.  Admit you have sinned.  "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23 HCS) B.  Believe in Jesus.  "For God loved  the world in this way: He gave His One and Only  Son,  so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16 HCS)  C.  Confess and turn away from your sin.  "If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord,"  and believe in your heart  that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  With the heart one believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses, resulting in salvation. (Romans 10:9-10 HCS) If you would like to talk with someone about this  or have someone  pray with you about your decision to follow Jesus Christ, please contact us.

From the desk of the Minor Prophet (UPDATED 01-04-09)

Becoming a ‘Master of the Book’ Will Improve Your Prayer Life       This is the fifth in a series of articles addressing the benefits of becoming a ‘Master of the Book.’  The ‘Book’ of which we speak is, of course, the Bible.  This month, I hope to demonstrate how knowing more about the Bible will improve the quality and the consequences of our prayer life.     Jesus tells His disciples, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you” (Jn. 15:7).  In this verse we observe a direct correlation between God’s Word in us and answered prayer.     Everyone wants his prayers to be answered.  No one wants a “no” answer.  In the verse quoted above, Jesus is giving His disciples the secret to answered prayer; and somehow it is related to the Word of God.     What does God’s Word in us have to do with getting our prayers answered?     First of all, most people ask for what they want in their prayers.  There is nothing wrong with that.  This verse tells us that is OK.  In fact, most of the newer translations of that verse translate that portion of the verse this way: “. . . ask whatever you desire.”  That’s like saying, “ask whatever you want.”     What Jesus is intimating is that “if you abide in Me,” your wants and desires are going to change.  What is important to Jesus gradually will become important to you; and you will find yourself asking for things of which He approves, for which He desires.  He is quick to answer those prayers.     Secondly, and going hand-in-hand with abiding in Jesus, one also must have God’s Word abiding in him.  Why is this important?  Because God’s Word reveals to us what is important to God.  It is those things for which we should be praying.  It is those things that are God’s will.  God answers prayers that line-up with His will.     And this is the confidence which we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.  And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him.  (I Jn. 5:14-15)     In invite you to do a study of the things the New Testament writers pray for regularly: Eph. 1:15-19; 3:14-19, Phil. 1:9-11, Col. 1:9-12, to cite a few.  You will find none of those prayers are for making sick people better, improving financial circumstances, or sparing someone from trouble.  It’s not wrong to pray for those things; but God gives no guarantee those things are His will.  But there are plenty of prayers in the New Testament, prayers prayed by the New Testament writers – even more than I cited above – that show us in no uncertain terms what God wants us to be praying when we pray.     Do you want an effective prayer life?  Then let’s move away from prayers designed just to make our (or other’s) lives better, and find out - by becoming a ‘Master of the Book’ - what our God wants us to pray when we pray.

Mission Statement

The Mission of  Oak Grove Baptist Church is: To reach out to nonbelievers and develop them, along with existing believers, into committed followers of Christ.