Jesus said that those who want God will have Him.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”
(Matthew 7:7-10)
That’s not really true about anything else in life, you know. Jobs we wanted and prepared for are phased out. Homes for which we saved get priced out of our range. People we wanted to marry say no. And people we married stop saying yes. Health we worked hard to keep breaks. Children we love can walk away. But the most important thing, the eternal thing, the one thing we absolutely can not do without, is the one thing that is guaranteed. God never turns away from an honest heart.
So this pamphlet is based on the truth that an honest spiritual quest will be responded to by God Himself. God doesn’t play tricks with a humble and open heart. He doesn’t play cat and mouse. And He doesn’t enjoy seeing people trying to find their way out of a maze. God is the one thing you will have – if you want Him. Note this verse from the Bible.
“’I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD.”
(Jeremiah 29:14)
I am writing this pamphlet as a person who has been on a serious spiritual journey for some time, maybe even a little longer than you. But I am still a fellow traveler after all. I simply offer to you what I have found: that the road leads straight to an encounter with Jesus of Nazareth. Sooner or later a serious spiritual quest will bring you around to considering this towering figure of history who said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” (John 14:6) Stick around and read the rest. Listen. Really listen. Your soul will not lie to you. It will tell you the truth.
WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN ANYWAY?
This pamphlet is designed to help you understand what it means to become a Christian. Actually, “Christian” is not a word I make use of a lot. It is a perfectly good word. In fact, it is a word that comes straight from the Bible. But it is a word that, like currency during inflation, has been devalued. Overuse and careless use have changed the meaning of the word. It can mean anyone of several things:
· I go to church
· I was baptized as a child in the church, and my parents are Christians so in some sense I think of myself as a Christian.
· I have a high view of Christ and the Bible.
· I agree with the moral teachings of the church.
· I try to be a good person
What I mean by Christian is a person who has become a “Christ-follower.” A Christ-follower is simply a person who has experienced a serious and sincere encounter with Christ that has changed life’s goal and life’s focus. A Christ-follower is characterized by a faith that sees beyond circumstances, a hope that endures trials, a life that inextinguishable and an obedience to the will of God that lifts performance standards beyond the average and humdrum practices of our culture. Being a Christ-follower isn’t just about which religion you believe. It’s more than that. It’s about a relationship with God. In other words, Christ-following makes a difference in the real world.
What follows aren’t my thoughts, though they are my words. What you will read is based on the teachings of Christ and of those who walked with Him. These teachings are found in the Bible. I will reference these teachings from the Bible like this - (John 3:16). John 3:16 refers to one of the books in the Bible, the third chapter of that book and the sixteenth verse of that chapter. You can look the truth up yourself if you have a Bible. (And if you don’t, Coastal Church will get you one without cost). I am simply communicating to you what all Christians of all times in all places have believed about the way to life. Nothing new is here. Though when it is believed and relied upon it makes us new.
LET’S BEGIN HERE
God made us, and He wants to have a relationship with us.
No matter what science teaches us about chemical processes that shape our physical lives and no matter how easily God is discounted in the discussions of economists, business enterprises, government leaders, counselors, or even neighbors, we intuitively know we are spiritual beings. People world-wide are incurably religious. Is this just a throwback to ancient times that we haven’t yet learned to shuck? Even in western technological society only 2% of the population are atheists. Where does this incurable spiritual hunger come from? The Bible teaches that we were created by God and that He gave us the capacity and desire to know Him. I will use a series of illustrations to picture for you the points made. This starting point can be illustrated this way.
What I want to say is that your desire for more than just material prosperity and pleasure is not some fantasy. It doesn’t mean that you have lost your senses and are in danger of some kind of strange fanaticism. It is merely an expression of your spiritual nature. Your desire corresponds to a real God. When we are hungry and feel the desire to be full, there is food. When we are tired and desire rest, there is sleep. When we are cold and feel the desire to be warm, there is heat. When we are lonely and desire intimacy, there is romance. And when we are lost and feel empty, there is God. Though we might ignore this part of ourselves for a long period of time as we are busy with education, careers, raising families, hobbies or whatever, the desire for something “more” pops up at the strangest times. In fact, our spiritual nature is most clear when we actually get all the things we want and still aren’t happy. We might even feel guilty for not being happy, especially when so many others go without the very things we have. If you are honest and ask yourself why you are still unhappy, your very soul will cry out that the whole world itself could not satisfy you. Only God can fill the empty heart. Jesus said:
“And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process? Is anything worth more than your soul?” (Mark 8:36)
You’re not becoming strange or weird because you are considering spiritual things. You’re not on the edge of becoming a fanatic or religious nut. You’re simply being human, what God created you to be.
FEELING TH
E GAP
At the same time that we begin to feel deeply that we were made for God, that He has answers for the human condition, and that knowing Him is a serious and worthy pursuit, we immediately sense another feeling: We are far away from Him. This can be illustrated this way:
No matter how close we may sense Him to be, we are still too far away. We sense a gap. What accounts for this? What explains the distance I feel? The Bible teaches that the reason for this distance is our own resistance to handing our lives fully over to God. We have a natural desire to be the boss and to ignore God’s principles for living. The Bible calls this “sin.” This breaks our close relationship with God. It causes us to fear Him and to try to live our lives outside of His will.
“Listen! The LORD is not too weak to save you, and he is not becoming deaf. He can hear you when yo u call. But there is a problem—your sins have cut you off from God. Because of your sin, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.” (Isaiah 59:2)
When our relationship to God isn’t right and we live by our own wisdom, it causes problems in every area of our lives – marriage, career, relationships, finances, etc. In fact, these very problems are the means God often uses to wake us up to something deeper that is wrong. And what is wrong is the bent of our heart – self-trust, self-sufficiency, self-will.
FILLING THE GAP
When people have problems, they often try many different way of coping before turning to God.
They may just try harder, gut it out and ignore the pain. Or they may think the solution is a different situation – a change of job, place, or even spouse. Some people turn to pleasure and preoccupy themselves with travel, sports, hobbies, sex, drugs, whatever. Some go into extensive therapy to probe their inescapable sadness. As the Bible says,
“There are ways that seem right to a man, but they only end in death.”
Prov 16:25
Even when we begin to sense that our deepest need is God, we often try wrong ways of getting to know Him. Maybe you can relate to the following phrases :
· “It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere.” Let’s call this salvation by sincerity.
· “I’ll give up all my bad habits.” Let’s call this salvation by subtraction.
· “I’ll work harder and do the things I should.” This is salvation by addition.
· “I’ll go to church.” This is salvation by religion
All of these have something in common. We end up never seeming to do enough or be good enough. We don’t even meet our own standards, much less the standards of a perfect and holy God. Our consciences still condemn us and we have no peace. The sad fact remains,
“All fall short of God’s glorious standard.”
Rom 3:23
And the sad consequences remain, too. “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) This certainly is true physically – all die. But it is true spiritually as well. All spiritually die, and in the world to come all are eternally separated from God. The Bible calls this “the second death.” The Bible teaches in a very clear way that our real danger is not what happens in this life. Our real danger lies in the life to come where we live out the consequences of our soul-shaping decisions made in this world. This illustration pictures the futility of our efforts to reach God.
BRIDGING THE GAP
Things looks pretty bleak. But the good news is that we matter to God. In fact, he loves us so much that he did for us what we could never do for ourselves. He provided a bridge over which we can find His forgiveness and restore our relationship with Him. This Bible simply says that Jesus “died for our sins.” (1 Peter 3:18).
The great truth is that Jesus of Nazareth came among us as God the Son (who with God before He came into the world) to offer his life on the cross for us so that the debt of our sin would be paid. By paying the debt we owed to the justice of God the way has been cleared for people who fall short of God’s standard to have access to God and become His children. Death is no longer our destiny but life – life now and life eternally. Jesus said:
“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
(John 10:10)
This is the crux of the Bible. This is the core of its message. It is a book about how God has acted in and through Jesus Christ to deliver us from the misery and hopelessness of our sin. The religions of the world are spelled “DO.” But the Bible spells religion “DONE.” It is the story of what God has done for us. This is what God wants each of us to understand.
“We know very well that we are not set right with God by rule keeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ. How do we know? We tried it—and we had the best system of rules the world has ever seen! Convinced that no human being can please God by self-improvement, we believed in Jesus as the Messiah so that we might be set right before God by trusting in the Messiah, not by trying to be good.” (Galatians 2:15-16)
THE A,B,Cs
Does this mean that everybody has this life and will receive the gift of an abundant and eternal life? No. Not everyone has eternal life. The Bible teaches that this gift must be received. It is not enough just to know or even agree. We have to act on it. Only by an act of personal trust can one move over across the bridge to the other side. This involves three actions:
Admit – admit that God has not been first place in your life and ask Him for the forgiveness of sin. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from every wrong.” (1 John 1:9) The life of Christ-following begins with a humble admission that our own wisdom has taken us away from God, not toward Him. This may sound like a simple thing to do, but all of us know that it’s not easy. And it’s not easy especially when we have waited a long time to deal with the spiritual dimensions of our lives. The longer we have waited the more we have invested in the way we have lived.
Believe – believe that Jesus died to pay for your sins and that He rose again from the dead and is alive today as the Savior of the world. “If you confess that Jesus is your Lord, and you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Rom 10:9) Jesus conquered our final enemy, death itself, and proved that He has the power over sin and all of its consequences. Jesus wasn’t merely a great moral teacher who showed us a better way to live. He did more than teach. He opened the way to Heaven by His own resurrection from the dead. And He is able to deliver anyone who comes to Him.
“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” (John 7:37)
This is obviously more than a bare belief in the facts about Jesus. It is a personal reliance upon what the mind has come to believe is true. A lot of people believe in Jesus like they believe in George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. They believe they existed and they know the great works they did. But they do not rely upon Washington or Lincoln to do anything for them. Believing means trusting Jesus alone for the gift of real life. It means walking across the bridge God Himself has provided.
Commit – Jesus said very simply “Follow me.” Invite Jesus to come into your life and be the director (CEO) of your life. All relationships are based on commitments. If Jesus is who He claimed to be and can do what He claimed to be able to do, then He is worthy of having all of our trust, greatest loyalty, and full obedience. Jesus Himself said,
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11:28
All of this begins with your personal invitation to the living Jesus Christ to come in and take charge of your life. Jesus says,
“I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in.&rdquo
; Rev 3:30
YOU CAN TAKE THESE STEPS BY PRAYING A SIMPLE PRAYER THAT MAKES A BIG COMMITMENT TO GOD:
“Dear Jesus, thank you for loving me, even when I’ve ignored you and gone my own way. I realize I need you in my life. I am sorry for my sins. I ask you to forgive me. Thank you for dying on the cross for me. Please help me to understand it more. I give as much as I know about myself to as much as I know about you. I want to follow you from now on. Please come into my life and make me a new person inside. I accept your gift of salvation, knowing that on my own I cannot earn it or deserve it. Please help me now to grow as a Christian.”
“Whoever call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Romans 10:13
SO, WHAT’S NEW?
You may ask, “What has actually happened to me when I invited Christ into my life to be my Savior and my CEO?” In response to your belief and trust in Jesus, God has given you a new nature. Unlike the old nature this new nature is capable of participating in the very life of God with all of its benefits and blessings.
“Your new life is not like your old life. Your old birth came from mortal sperm; your new birth comes from God’s living Word.” 1 Peter 1:22
This new life is powerful enough to overcome old, destructive ways of living and being a dwelling place of God, both now and forever. This is not a reformation of the old life. The old life is subject to the principles of death. The Bible says that anyone who is in Christ is a new person.
“Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The past is forgotten and everything is new.”
2 Corinthians 5:17.
There is literally a new you. The Bible compares this new nature you have received to a seed. Though it is small, maybe even almost invisible, it is real. And it contains the very life of God himself. Over time that new life grows to become strong and fruitful—exactly because it is God’s life.
“Your new life is not like your old life. Your birth came from mortal sperm; your new birth comes from God’s living Word. Just think: a life conceived by God himself!” 1 Peter 1:23
Our natural, earthly lives don’t in themselves lead by their very nature into the kingdom of God. Their very nature is to die, so how could they “naturally” end up in the Life Kingdom? But because you now have God’s life in you, abundant and joyful living is yours.
The great temptations that a new Christ-follower faces is to underestimate the true miracle God has worked in this gift of new life. Many people who make a commitment to Christ observe that, contrary to their expectation, there may be no bells or whistles going off. Life seems to go on much as before: same responsibilities, schedules, challenges, temptations. But the new life Christ gives is like the beginning and development of a new child inside the womb. Though the life is not fully developed, it is real and in time will show itself as vital and mature. Nothing will be like it was before.
Now your great need is to grow that seed so that you more and more become what God has enabled you through Christ to be. Spiritual growth is not automatic. Though you will never become more of a child of God than you are right now, you can become a more mature Christ-follower with the blessings of increased strength to face trials, fuller joy to overcome the grieves of life, deeper love to serve, and a lively hope to always convince us that the best is yet to come.
Now “grow for it.” God has made available to us the Bible to instruct us. He has given to us His presence to co mfort and sustain us. He has given to us the privilege of prayer to provide for us. And He has given to us the church to support us. These are the means of growth.
Coastal Church provides training for spiritual growth through the Life Development Process. Christ-followers are moved “through the bases”, like the bases on a baseball field. Through a series of four classes the basic habits of spiritual growth are taught and modeled.
First Base is learning the ropes—what Christ and Coastal are all about. Second Base is developing the 4 habits that bring spiritual power for living. Third Base is defining your own personal mission in life through understanding your S.H.A.P.E.(Spiritual gifts, Heart, Ability, Personality, Experiences), the unique you that God wants to use to make a difference. Home Base is learning how to impact the world with this life changing Message.
Contact Coastal for the dates and times of these classes at 781-871-3442 or visit our website at www.coastalchurch.com.
Coastal Church
145 Webster St. Suite i
Hanover, MA 02359
781/871-3442
www.coastalchurch.com