from Pat Fraher
Another REF conference has passed. We enjoyed a great day together of teaching, fellowship and worship. Thank you again to all who had a hand in this year's event. Attendees, hosts and organizers, partners, speakers, presenters; you all had a hand in making it happen. For those who were unable to make it to Ohio, I want to give a quick summary of the teachings. This year’s theme was ‘The Legacy of Salvation: A Gift and a Call’.
Salvation is a gift from God. Ephesians 2:8 says, “for it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—“. Salvation is the gift of eternal life, through God’s grace and mercy, from the eternal consequences of sin. And we all are sinners.
Since it is given only through our faith in Christ, we really need to know what saving faith is. When we have saving faith, we ‘repent and believe' like Jesus told us to in Mark 1:15. When we repent and believe, we turn from living our will and life of sin, to living God’s will and following Him. We surrender our hearts to Him. This is when our relationship with Him starts.
When we do this, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. It’s the Holy Spirit that changes our heart, and makes us new creatures in Christ; otherwise known as ‘born again’. This is important because Jesus said in John 3:3, “truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
So, for those interested in being born again, I suggest starting with getting in touch with your gratitude towards Christ. Now, gratitude is not about paying Christ back. It’s about loving Him back. All He did was save you from eternal damnation, by getting humiliated, tortured, and nailed to a cross. And the end result is your eternity in paradise. Pretty amazing, don’t you think?
And He did all of that for a relationship with you.