|
What's
happening Sundays?
Great
place for kids & parents!
(Waumba Land,
UpStreet,
KidStuf)
Current
or upcoming message series
Also...
Grades 6-12
Change or provide
contact info
Serve
at SBF
Home
| |
That's
all great...
But what does it have to do with me?
Countless other lives have been transformed over the course
of 2000 years.
Jesus Christ, who came to show us what God is like, who came
to be the way to God, who willingly died a cruel death on our behalf, and
who rose again to life– still makes a difference in people’s lives
today. Jesus said, "If you trust in Me, you are really trusting God who
sent Me. I have come as a Light to shine in a dark world, so that all who
put their trust in Me will no longer remain in the darkness." (John,
chapter 12, verse 44-46)
The great Christian author and brilliant professor of
Cambridge University, C.S. Lewis was once a skeptic.
He launched an honest investigation concerning the truth about Jesus. The
evidence led Him to become a believer and follower of Christ. He wrote:
"I am trying to prevent anyone from saying the
really foolish thing that people often say about Him [which is]: ‘I’m
ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His
claim to be God.’
That is the one thing we must not say. A man who
was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a
great moral teacher.... You must make your choice. Either this Man was,
and is, the Son of God– or else a madman or something worse. You can
shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon–
or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not
come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human
teacher.
He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."
(C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity,
New York:
Macmillan-Collier,1960
© renewed 1980 by Arthur Owen Barfield)
Considering these realities, then, we must each ask
ourselves: Does it matter
to me who Jesus is?
Jesus is the most influential Person in history; He changed the
course of history. No one who is serious in their search for God or their
search for truth can overlook Him. Often people first ponder whether God
exists and erratically explore different religions or systems of belief.
Sometimes people just go on wondering, never realizing the immense
significance of these questions: What
about God? If He’s there, can I live without Him? Why wouldn’t I want to
know Him? God does exist,
and we see His reflection clearly in the Person of Jesus Christ.
Some may think it’s narrow-minded to believe that Jesus is
the only way to God . Many
people are hopeful that it doesn’t matter what you believe as long you’re
sincere and your beliefs "work for you". It is popular to think
that, if God exists at all, then all beliefs lead to God and that truth is
whatever you want it to be. But this cannot be true any more than thinking
that all roads will lead to a particular destination, or that any answer
given to a math problem is correct. Keep these things in mind: The
conclusions you reach about God do matter. What you believe will make a
difference in your life. When looking for answers to life and
spirituality, you may find a grain of truth here or there. You may be
intrigued by what you hear. But on the most essential, foundational level,
there is a difference. The concepts of other religions or belief systems
teach that through our own efforts we can attain a life of spirituality and
self-actualization, or work our way to God somehow. Some teach mistaken and
inaccurate opinions about Jesus– that He was only a man and nothing more.
But the Christian faith– a life of following Jesus as the Bible describes
is not about "religion." It’s about life. It’s about truth. It’s
all about Jesus. Only through Him will your search for God make sense
and come into clear focus.
Maybe you’ve never thought of yourself as a spiritual
person anyway. But deep
inside, you have a longing, something that tells you there’s more to life
than what you’re now experiencing. The Bible is clear on this point: Until
we come to terms with Jesus, we have not begun to deal with the one issue
that is central to starting a relationship with God.
You may be wondering: what can I expect from having God in
my life? Life will always
bring us difficulties, and those who know God are not exempt. However,
Christ-followers have many significant promises to rely on and find, among
other things, that:
The guilt of their sin is erased. They have life that never
ends. Placing their lives in His hands, they find greater fulfillment,
meaning, and purpose in life. They find they are able to build lives on
something strong, something reliable and true. God offers greater peace,
joy, and a sense of hope. Best of all, if you decide you want Jesus in your
life, you will be God’s child and will know His love for you. You will be
able to begin the adventure of living life connected to the One who made
you, who cares for you deeply, and has a marvelous plan for you. When we try
to "find ourselves", we are inevitably disappointed. The same
happens when we look in the wrong places for something to fill our
emptiness. But when we look for God through Jesus Christ, we find Him– and
with Him, we find all we need and more than we ever dared to hope for.
If we take an honest look at ourselves ,
we can quickly see our imperfections and the resulting fractures that run
throughout our lives. We are often painfully aware of our inadequacies. Deep
loneliness tends to mark our existence. We regret the past; we fear the
future. We fail at relationships. We fall short when it comes to our own
dreams and expectations, let alone those placed on us. We plod endlessly
through the daily routine. Life doesn’t make sense to us because we are
oblivious to the One who can make sense of it all– God, who
lovingly reaches across the distance, into the darkness of our existence.
The French physicist and philosopher Blaise Pascal recognized our need for
Jesus when he said, "There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every
man, which only God can fill through His Son, Jesus Christ."
How many times do we silently declare: "There has to be
more to life than this."
And too often, we are unaware of– or we
ignore– the fact that there is more. There is a God who loves us.
He will accept us when we turn to Him. He has the answers to all our
questions.
"I have other questions."
"I want to talk to someone about
it."
|
