A Blessed Opportunity

I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to share the following with a friend from college some 34+ years ago.

I am so thankful that you would take the time to communicate and share these things with me, ______ Truly.

As I read your email, I am brought back to the many things I have experienced as well over the past 30+ years. I certainly haven't been through the trauma you seem to have experienced, but if I look deeply into my private life, I must say, I have been living a similar tale.

I mentioned earlier that one of the most revealing things that happened to me upon becoming a Believer that Jesus Christ is the Messiah was that I recognized how much of a liar I was to God, myself and the world. I also began to recognize more and more what a lustful man (and many other private undesirable traits) I possessed as I read Jesus' words regarding His life and the type of life we ought to lead as His children regarding this type of behavior. I wrestled with these things for quite awhile, believing that I was unworthy of His love because I couldn't stop thinking selfish and other, OK, I'll use the word; sinful, thoughts that were in my mind. I also couldn't stop sinning in my life, whether it was flirting with every girl I saw or lying whenever I was put on the spot or having judgemental thoughts about others. I was a mess.

But, I stayed in the Bible. I tried as hard as I could to read a little of it every day and to speak to God, being honest and up front and asking Him to help me to understand and change. Over time, I began to realize that I was normal, that's right NORMAL!! The Bible says it quite clearly; "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." and there is a beautiful discourse in the letter of Paul to the folks in Rome. It can be found in Romans 7:7-25 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%207:7-25%20;&version=31; Where Paul, the apostle that revealed the Gospel (the good news about the coming of the Messiah) to the Gentiles, speaks about how he is the chief sinner and how he wants to do good, but sin is always there with him; it is a battle for the ages. This helped me realize that we are all under sin. We are all the same in that we have temptations and histories and experiences that make us who we are, but, we don't have to remain there. God sent Jesus Christ here to reveal this to us and to tell us that HE is the answer. HE is the truth. HE is the one that stood in our place and took all of the sin upon Him. HE was judged for that, according to God's promise that we would be judged, but He told us that if we believe in Him as the Messiah, we would be forgiven and would enter into the Kingdom of God and be with Him forever.

Not only are we saved for eternity because of His sacrifice, but, we are forgiven for all of our sin. You know the worst sin of all is "not believing that Jesus Christ is the Messiah" That's the biggy. We aren't able to get past that one, but when we do, really look at Him, read about Him, give that investigation our full focus and make that decision to Believe, even if it's just the best we can do at that moment, He comes into our inner lives and saves us. He pulls us out of the muck that we have made of our lives and He transforms us into real people. Into the people He wanted us to be before we messed it all up with our worldly beliefs and lifestyle.

From there it is a process of 'not being conformed to this world, but being transformed by the renewing of our minds.' We have to relearn real life. You'll hear evangelical Christians talk about being born again and that term grates at us because it has been so piloried in the press, but it is actually very true as Jesus tells us in John 3 that "we must be born anew in order to enter into the Kingdom of God." Born anew, not like when we were born of our mother, but, born of the spirit in newness of life. After making the decision to believe in Him, I have experienced that forgiveness, that renewal, that transformation into a new life in Him.

I am still the same person. I believe God allowed me to be who I was, to make the decisions I did and experience the things I experienced. Why? For His purposes. So that once I was renewed I would be able to see that my life was an experience I needed to get back into the right perspective and use it now to empathize with others, to understand how all of us have our private lives that are lived outside of this relationship with Him and that the need of all of us is to turn back to God or turn to God for the first time. But, it's all about Him. He created us. He created this world. He created this universe. We know in our sinful hearts that is true and that it is man (woman) that has messed things up. We think we can control things. We are so prideful that we think we can effect the environment, we can stop Sarah Palin's daughter from having sex with her boyfriend or that we can save the whales. Who do we think we are? Selfish, sinful, prideful, jealous, power-crazy, lustful, greedy, dishonest, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. But what is He calling us to be? faithful, good, knowledgeable of Him, self-controlled, persistent in our faith, love our brothers and be kind. The fruit of His Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and faithfulness.. against these things there is no LAW of how to be. We can be these things through our faith in Him and His working in us to become more like Him.

Whew!!! I know this is lengthy, but, it is the truth. It is what I have experienced and know is the truth. I am not complete. I am in the process and by His will and good pleasure I will continue to grow as a redeemed man with all my frailties and faults and, yes, sinfulness, still.

There is a beatiful song that drives me deep into myself and the appreciation I have for what God has done for me. It is called 'Come to Me', I believe, and at the end she states, 'come to Him, come and find your rest, come and find your peace, come and find your Joy... He is waiting here for you, He is waiting here for you with open arms. To hold you, to embrace your heart, to love you.... He is waiting here."

Anyone can start right now. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%201&version=31

Love you, _______.

Bill