as explained by Karl A. Zorowski

In 1975, a close friend took me aside and told me that she had the answer to all my problems. That afternoon, she sat me down, and told me I that if I got hit by a car while walking home from school that afternoon I was going straight to hell. If I didn't say this particular prayer she told me to say, and ask Jesus into my heart, I was going to burn in hell for all eternity.

What a wonderfully warm, loving and inviting scenario. This was my introduction to the concept of Jesus Christ and being "saved."

A few weeks later, she invited me to attend a rally given by an evangelist named Nicky Cruz. I went with her, sat on the ground and listened to this man talking and preaching and reaching out to the thousand or so people there. At the end of the rally, an invitation was given to everyone to come forward and accept Jesus as their savior. My friend grabbed me and pushed me to the front, telling me "You HAVE to do this - TODAY!" I knelt down on the ground, and recited the prayer they handed me to read off of a slip of paper, as friends around me chanted and wailed, "Praise Jesus! All Glory to Jesus the Savior!" It scared the hell out of me.

Their attempts at bringing me to know God pushed me away from Him. I began to see all these "friends" as nothing more than fanatical sheep, and I wanted no part of it. For years after this incident, I rejected God and Christianity because it had been so forcefully pushed upon me. Perhaps this has happened to you?

In 1989 I attended a revival at the insistence of my then current wife. The services were lead by a Southern Baptist preacher from South Carolina who appeared each evening dressed as a different character from the Bible. These first-person dramatizations began to have a great effect on me as the week-long revival continued. I began to sense a great void in my life. Something was definitely missing.

My life at that time had been one of fun and games. Alcohol, drugs, late night parties... a really great life. Yet, something was wrong. My life was NOT great. I didn't feel good about myself, or any of the things I was doing. I felt as if my life was just a waste of time. Suicide was not out of the question - who would notice anyway?

And then one day, it happened. I sensed something new at work on my conscience. A force pulling me towards something different. I came to realize it was God, telling me to come home to Him. It didn't matter how much of a mess I had made of my life - HE wanted me to come to Him, and He would accept me and love me no matter what I had done in the past.

I went and spoke with a pastor about all these things going on in my head, and that afternoon in his office, I accepted Christ as my Savior. Not to keep from going to hell, but because it was what I WANTED to do. Not something I HAD to do. I made the choice FREELY. God gives us this freedom of choice, this free will, and He wants us to choose His way.

I came to realize that God's plan for my life, for each of our lives, was not one of rigid obedience to this omniscient tyrant who would strike me down if I didn't follow his laws. God had given me a choice to be obedient, and He knew there would be times when I would go against His desires. And that was okay. So long as I accepted that Jesus had come to earth to live as a man to fully understand the temptations which face us each and every day. He was willing to accept the penalty of death for those transgressions in my life.

It was all explained to me one day very simply. It was as if I were a murderer in a court room and my own father was the judge. As I confessed my guilt to the judge, and admitted I was sorry for what I had done, he would respond, "You know the punishment for what you've done is death in the electric chair. I sentence you to die according to the law. But, because you are my child, and I love you so much, I'll take the punishment for you," at which time my father would be led to the execution chamber in my place, and I would leave a free man.Pretty simple - I committed the crime, a loving parent took my punishment so I could live.

This was the true meaning of Salvation.
This is what Salvation through Jesus Christ is all about.

God makes Salvation readily available to each and every one of us.

It's not the result of a magic prayer that brings Him into your life. It's not the result of someone else's efforts to "save" you. It comes as a result of an inner change. A realization of several important truths.

Until these truths are realized, and believed upon within your heart, God's gift of salvation will not be known to you.

The truths of Salvation are presented here in the hope that you too may come to know the loving forgiving God I have come to entrust with my life.

We must admit that we are all sinners and have fallen short of what God wants us to be. We need this forgiveness. The Bible says we cannot be saved ourselves.

The only way we can get salvation is from God.

"For by grace you have been saved by faith;
and this is not your doing, it is the gift of God -
not because of works, lest any man should boast."
Ephesians 2:8-9

"But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us"
Romans 5:8

Jesus paid for our sins with His life.

"For God so loved the world that he gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through Him."
John 3:16-17

God loves us enough that He was willing to sacrifice His own Son so that we might be saved from the penalty of death for our sins. Again, I reiterate that Jesus paid for our sins with His life.

You can accept what the Bible says and place your faith in Jesus Christ...

or you can turn away from the offer.

What will you do?

"And it shall be that whoever
calls upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved."
Acts 2:21

Ask Jesus to come into your life. It's that simple.
It changed my life... and it WILL change yours!

God loves you, in spite of everything you've done.
A preacher once said, "God thinks you are so special that if He had a refrigerator He'd have your picture on the front of it."

He loves you for who you are, and His desire is for you to be happy, and for you to live your life in His company.

So how do you talk to God about this? It's quite simple. The following prayer is a good place to start:

"Dear Heavenly Father, I know that you love me.
I confess my sin and ask for your forgiveness.
I believe that Jesus is Lord, and believe in my heart
that You raised Him from the dead.
I now invite Jesus into my life.
In Jesus, name, Amen."

But remember, these are not magic words nor some mysterious incantation to save you from going to Hell. When I prayed these words to God back in 1989, I spoke them from my heart. They were words I truly believed, because I had opened my heart to hear God call to me, "Come home my son, come home."

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life:
No man cometh to the Father but by me."
John 14:6

 

My prayer is that even one person who visits this website can come to realize God's gift of grace. And to that person I say, "welcome to the family of God."