Dear Friends,
We’ve reached the halfway point in my series — “The Next Step, Living Your Life through Jesus.” I know you were expecting to find my next topic on “How to Dress for Success.” However, I’ve paused for a moment to write this letter of warning and encouragement to you.
As you are aware, the first six lessons in “How to Live Your Life Through Jesus” focused on everything inside of you — your body, mind, and spirit. Without your full understanding and belief in what God’s Holy Word instructs and quite often commands us to do and to be, the remainder of my series will truly mean nothing to you.
You must believe in your heart, and not just your mind, that the death, burial, and resurrection of your Lord, Jesus Christ, have broken and severed the chains of your Old Nature (Sin) — the part of you that is controlled by Satan. You are free now from Satan’s control. The transformation from the Old you to the New you can only be achieved by Faith. And the belief that God will keep His Promise about your life and what he has planned for you.
The Warning
Let me share with you my journey from knowledge to belief, a journey that has taken me over 60 years and is far from over. Being a Christian for more than 40 years, I had lived too many of those years still attached to the lures of the Flesh and this World. Like many of you, the very thought of becoming a Slave of Jesus Christ never entered my mind.
However, once I finally realized that I truly could not do anything for God through my own efforts, and I was having no major impact on the lost souls of this world, I began using a common sense approach to God’s Holy Word. Simply put, if God says it, then I believe it with all my heart, all my soul, and all my strength. I moved my understanding and belief from my head down into my heart, the same approach needed for salvation.
I finally began to understand that in order to be His ambassador to this lost world, I needed to rely on the power of my Lord Jesus working through me rather than believing in my own strength. I had to change from the inside out, not the outside in.
I had to stop trying through my own self-righteous efforts to live the way I thought God wanted me to live. I had to stop trying to convince God and everyone else that outwardly what I was doing was exactly what was expected of a Christian. I had to stop believing that I controlled the fruits of the Spirit that I would dole out wisely in just the right situations with my friends, neighbors and fellow Christians. I realized the self-centered Christian life I was leading was really a lie and of no real value to God, my Father, or my Lord, Jesus Christ. And finally I had to remind myself who I truly was, a sinner (and always will be) who was saved by the Grace of God through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Once I finally realized that a sinner like me can do nothing to impact or change this poisonous cesspool of sin we live that is controlled by Satan, I moved my belief from head knowledge to heart knowledge. I was finally ready to believe God’s Entire Word by faith and began to learn to do things His way, not mine.
The Encouragement
Let me tell you what will happen when you move from head knowledge to heart knowledge of God’s Word, the Bible.
Have you ever felt total peace? A peace that you really can’t explain to anyone, a peace that includes no guilt, no shame, and no regrets — one you can feel throughout your entire body, mind and spirit? This peace and calmness enable you to focus on God and all of His goodness even in the midst of all of life’s problems and tragedies.
The Fruits of the Spirit will begin to blossom inside of you without any effort. The world around you will begin to see those fruits; you will become more loving, kind, patient, forgiving, and caring of others. You will truly begin to surprise yourself. You will now begin to attract others who are hurting because they see something in the way you live your life that they want for themselves. New friendships will begin to blossom.
You will begin to lose interest in the things of the world that used to excite you and hold your attention — movies and television shows you once loved, jokes you used to love to hear, and addictions you once thought impossible to break. Without any effort on your part, priorities in your life will begin to change.
Old interests will be replaced with new. Don’t worry what they will be. Your Lord and Master will lead you to them. This website is a prime example for me. Never in my life did I dream of launching a web ministry that in its first year has touched lives in over 35 countries around the globe with the Good News of Jesus Christ.
You are able to walk in peace with this world. Now don’t take this the wrong way — it’s not a matter of walking through the world with blinders on and living in denial as to what is really going on. There will still be evil and violence all over this world as long as Satan exists.
If you think things can’t get any worse than they are now, you’re simply being naive; the Bible assures us it will. So expect it and stop being innocently surprised and questioning God when it does happen.
I am still appalled at what we humans do to one another and how we treat each other, God’s wonderful creations. Because of our self-righteous Pride we just step on one another like ants without regard or concern for each others’ feelings. Our self-centered quest to achieve everything we want in this life leaves much collateral damage along the way to those we love.
You are no longer part of this world we live in. You become more of an observer than a participant because you realize that you’ve become a foreigner and sojourner in this life, and your focus is no longer on the things of this earth, but on heavenly things to come.
God has a plan for this world and each of us, and He is working that plan through His Son and your Lord, Jesus Christ. Believe it or not, even Satan and his demonic minions are part of His glorious plan.
There is so much more I could share with you about what my Lord, Jesus Christ is doing in my life. I am proud to be His bondservant. I only wish I had done so sooner.
If your journey sounds familiar to mine, my friend, it is my prayer that this series will begin to make some serious changes in the way you are living your Christian life. God’s Holy Word is very clear on how you and I should be living our life now that we’ve become Christians and a Slave to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. There is no middle ground. You are either living your life through Jesus or you are not.
I assure you if you are still trying to live your Christian life through your own efforts like I was, you too are living a lie and you will fail. It is not a question of if you will fail; it is simply a question of when.
Until next month, my friend, when we will dive into God’s Holy Word and learn how to “How to Dress for Success,” may Mercy, Peace and Love be multiplied to you.
In Christ’s Love,
Bob
