It doesn't matter what you think, God chooses you. He meets with you and then changes you. God has chosen each of us and then He meets with us personally and then directs our lives. Some people say that they know about Christ but have never really met Jesus. It's this meeting that changes a person's life. We cannot convince people that salvation is a good idea or they should do it because we have done it. They have to want salvation. Salvation cannot be bought or sold. It's a gift. It's not merchandise that you throw a sales pitch about. It's the news (the gift) that is given and when it is received by an eager heart then God makes an appearance to that person. That person gets changed and then a new life starts.
A relationship with God begins when you meet Jesus. Look at the life of Saul in Acts 9. Prior to this meeting on the road to Damascus, he was a man that hunted Christians down and signed their death warrants. God chose Ananias to go and speak to Saul and Ananias was afraid and told God, "don't you know who this man is?" God had to explain to Ananias that this man was chosen by God to give His message to the gentiles. When Saul meets the Lord for the first time he says, "who are you, Master?" He recognized that this person was a higher power and needed to be addressed as Master. He knew all about Jesus but had never met Him before this moment. The Lord speaks to him plainly and states, "I am Jesus, the one that you are persecuting!" This event changes the life of Saul and he becomes the greatest spokesman for Jesus Christ so much that even his name is changed to Paul.
Paul is later placed in charge of the surrounding churches and becomes the author of the majority of the New Testament with his writing to the churches. We all need to meet God first and then our relationship with God can start. One church that has this claim here in Charlotte is a church called Generations. They even have an event called "The Encounter". This three day event is engineered to have a person meet with Jesus. They are currently meeting at the University area Hilton on 8629 J.M. Keynes Drive in Charlotte on Sundays at 10:00am.
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