Your Guide to Life
Are you looking for life, excitement, answers to yearnings within you? Perhaps what you
have thought was freedom has become your greatest chain. Here is the key to begin the life
you were created to enjoy.
Dear friend,
My journey in search of life enticed me into trying varied experiences,
travelling within Australia and then to other countries, pushing against any and every
boundary that I ever found. Thinking that I was exploring freedom, I pursued whatever was
said I shouldn't do, following my current dominant feelings without thought of the
consequences.
Nothing satisfied, excitement was always very fleeting. People I've met
who I thought had it all together like movie stars, musicians, business executives, and
just wealthy individuals were still searching like me, still unfulfilled, lonely in a
crowd, hated being quiet and alone, always empty looking to be filled with something.
Being a business success and the power it gives seems fun at first, until
you discover that the business requires so much of your life that there is no time for
anything else including your spouse and children. I was disgusted when I found myself
celebrating the bankruptcy of a competitor, who had a family. Surely there was a way to
make money without destroying others. (There is.)
Drugs and booze seem fun at first until it becomes a drag waking up with
hangovers, or always having to hassle for a fix. The changes to your personality means
others start to avoid your company as they get to know you and pretty soon you don't even
like yourself. What was fun becomes a destructive chain you can not do without.
Having no commitment in relationships and what was once termed "Free
Love", seems fun at first until, your heart is breaking and you just long to be held
and cared for, without needing to use and be used for sex.
Eventually, what was meant to be a pleasure turns into a chain that binds
you up in an emotional and physical torment. There are many more pleasures that turn to
chains.
What is your greatest chain? Drugs, alcohol, loneliness, abuse, maybe it's
a relationship that's more torment than love. Your chain can be broken.
My journey in Search of life had brought me to an existence in chains.
What I had called freedom had become my greatest chain. Real freedom and life is found in
one place. Fulfilment and peace that lasts no matter what happens around you, is
found in the same place.
If I could show you a way to find these things, in fact a way that gets
more and more fulfilling as you go, and never chains you, do you think you may be
interested? It works opposite to what I've described above. "Sin" (the
situations like we have looked at) is fun for a season. That means it is easy and fun to
walk into, until the consequences of acting in a way we were not designed to do, takes
it's toll.
The Bible says everyone has sinned and fallen short of God's Glory. So sin
is falling short of what we were designed to be. To start to reach
our potential there needs to be a change.
If we always do what we've always done we will always get
what we've always got.
To start to walk into life, the way the Bible says we were designed to
live, seems hard at first until the consequences of right standing with God) kick in, and
the abundant life starts to happen. It gets easier and more enjoyable the further you push
in to it. Have you ever tried to exercise? You know how it is hard at first, then as your
body gets into condition, it becomes more enjoyable, easier and you can meet new
challenges the further you go. Well its like that.
The first step is to realise that you fall short, even with all of your
successes and good points you are not living to the potential you were created to live.
The first step involves admitting that you are separated from your Creator. The Bible
calls this separation and falling short "sin". Grab a
Bible and have a look at these Scriptures. The contents page of the Bible will show you
where the book is found e.g. Romans 3:23 "Romans" is the book name" is the
chapter number then "23" is the verse number. (If you don't have a Bible you can
click on the Scriptures to see them.)
Now look up Romans 3:23 then 1 John 1:8 (1 John is toward the back of your Bible) It says that if we say
we have no sin we are deceived. In other words we're having ourselves on. To find life we
need to be ruthlessly honest with ourselves in this first step.
Let's look up Isaiah 59:2 then Romans 6:23. I
think we are getting the picture. Now we can see why we suffer the consequences we do. The
wages of sin are death.
The next step is to realise that God has an answer for the problem of
sin.
Look at Hebrews
9:22. Things are purged with the shedding of blood. Without the shedding of blood
there is no remission. The Bible talks about the innocent being slain for the guilty, this
is called sacrifice for sin. This bit is hard to grasp but just hang in there it will get
easier.
Look at John 3:14 to 21.
The whole reason Jesus came to the earth was to pay the price of our sin.
He is the only human who ever lived that did not fall short of the initial design. The
Bible says He fulfilled all righteousness, that means He was in total right standing with
Father God. Even though He didn't deserve death, He voluntarily died the most cruel death
known to man. He did that for you and for me, to pay our price for our sin. He was
separated from Father God on the cross, so that we could be united to our Heavenly Father.
You see the price has to be paid. If we accept what Jesus has done for us, it is paid. If
we don't accept what Jesus has done, we are still separated from Father God and will have
to pay the penalty ourselves.
Death begins with separation from God and life begins when we come to the
cross and exchange our decaying existence, for Jesus' eternal life. The cross has
become a place of exchange. When we accept the sacrifice of Jesus, we are entering into an
agreement with Father God called a covenant. It is just the beginning. After making that
exchange, the Bible says we become born again. In other words.... we get a whole new
start. Not only do we get a new start, but instead of existing in a decaying type of
law we begin a growing improving climb.
In our covenant, every promise in the Bible becomes ours.
It is really great. If at any time during our growth we are killed accidentally we end up
in heaven where Jesus is preparing a place for those who are in covenant with Him. Look at
some more Scriptures ....Revelation 3:20,
now look up Romans 10:9 to 13 So if you confess Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him
from the dead, you will be saved. So the start of this life is asking Jesus to be Lord of
your life. In the same passage, verse 17
it says that faith comes by hearing the word of God. That is why we go to church and
listen to tapes, so we can learn and grow in this new life.
When you make Jesus Lord of your life it is the Holy Spirit who comes and
makes you born again, in fact as you are reading this I believe that the Holy Spirit is
there waiting for you to say yes this is what I want. The Bible says He is sent to be our
helper and teach us how to pray.
So just say this before we pray. "Holy Spirit I want to be born
again, please come and help me right now to pray and make Jesus Lord of my life." Now
I will put a choice of prayers that can help you take this step and begin your new life.
You can pray any of these prayers or just say it in your own words. As long as you mean it
in your heart you will be saved and start your new life.
