CHAPTER TEN – Rock On

What is your life built on?  Do you base your beliefs on anything solid, or is it just the way you feel?  Would you like to be sure about who you are and where you’re going in life, and what the purpose of all this is?

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Repent…for the end is nigh!

Have you noticed how many people these days are predicting the end of the world?

Do you ever worry about that?

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CHAPTER NINE – Remember

Have you ever set down your car keys and forgot where you put them?  How about the remote control?  Ever lost anything really important?

How do you go about remembering what’s most important?

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Have you ever heard of the question about what would happen if you were to go back in time and kill your own grandfather?  If you could do that, then you could never have been born, making it impossible for you to go back in time in the first place.  It’s one of those “chicken or the egg” questions that’s a bit hard to answer.

The real question is, what is your destiny?  And better yet, how do you know?

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CHAPTER EIGHT – More Than Conquerors

Have you ever done something wrong and you wish you could go back and change things?  Probably just about everybody has.  And since we haven’t yet figured out the whole time travel thing, we have to figure out some other way to deal with those situations.  So what do you do with those kinds of problems?

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CHAPTER SEVEN – Sin Trap

Why do you think some people break the law?  Murderers and robbers and corrupt politicians obviously have some sort of motivation for what they do.  Do you think it’s because they don’t think there will be any repercussions for their actions?  Or maybe they think the payoffs will outweigh the damage done.  Or maybe they’re ultimately just not that smart.

Another good question to ask might be, why do some people obey the law?  Why would somebody live a peaceful moral life?  These days it seems like the law keepers take more of a beating from society than the law breakers.  Do you ever wonder why that is?

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What if you found out that there was going to be an attack against your town?  In one week, missiles and bombs would begin to fall.  And you were the only one in town who knew about it.  So the only way to save all those people would be to evacuate everybody to bomb shelters or get them out of town.  Would you bother trying to tell anybody?  How about family or friends?  Or would you leave all by yourself, and let everybody in town die?

What if you tried telling people, and nobody believed you?  Why should they believe you?  How hard would you try to convince them?  How easily would you give up?

This is the dilemma that faces every Christian.  All believers are commanded by their Lord and Savior to make disciples and to teach people to obey the commands of Jesus.  In other words, they are to save lives by making Christ followers out of sinners, who are otherwise doomed to Hell.  Missiles and bombs might kill people’s bodies, but people who die with their backs to God suffer an eternal death that is described as a lake of fire.  So, obviously that would be worse than any kind of death we could imagine on Earth–and since our soul is eternal the torment would never end.

So, knowing that, how hard do you try to tell the world what Jesus commanded?  Do you share the message of salvation with anybody–friends, family, neighbors?  What if they don’t believe you?  How hard to you try to convince them?  How easily would you give up?

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CHAPTER SIX – Dead and Buried

Did you ever wonder why it’s so hard for some people to quit doing things they know are bad for them?  It’s usually because they’ve been doing it for a long time.

If a person smokes one cigarette or drinks one beer and realizes that it’s gross and unhealthy, it’s easy for them to never drink or smoke again.  It’s even easier for people who have never even tried such things.  If they have watched other people’s lives destroyed by things like drugs or alcohol, it’s extremely easy for them to choose never to touch those things.  But for the person who has made it a habit and become addicted after months (or even years) of use it can be an extremely difficult struggle to break free of those bonds they have created.

It’s the same way with sin.  People choose to turn their backs on God, and break his commands.  And the deeper they go and farther they run from God the more they become enslaved by their own evil.  They become so used to living in sin and their minds are so darkened that they can’t even imagine what life could be like if they weren’t slaves to wickedness.

That’s why the fact that Jesus is willing to cleanse us from all sin is such Good News.  Not only does he save our lives from eternal damnation, he purifies our lives from the stain of sin and empowers us with the Holy Spirit to be able to live the way he commands us to live.  When we choose to repent and to turn away from sin and toward God, in his wonderful grace, God sets us free from that slavery to sin and death, and we are free indeed to live for Jesus and have a brand new life in relationship to him.

I don’t know about you…but I think that’s awesome!

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I recently heard someone say that Christianity isn’t about self improvement, it’s about self surrender.  I can see that.  We could try to improve our lives on our own and completely miss the point.  God doesn’t just want people who are improved.  He want people who love him back.  And so we aren’t called to apply self-help techniques to our lives, we’re called to surrender our lives to God and submit to his will for us.  We might not always understand what his plans are or what the end result of our labors will bring about.  But we can know, if we trust and obey Jesus, that he will help us do whatever he wants us  accomplish.  And Jesus can do a lot more in the heart and through the life of a humble, willing servant than he can do for someone who already thinks they’re good enough.

Having Jesus in charge of our lives will definitely improve us–more than we can imagine.  But the point isn’t to attain a goal in order to find God’s grace.  It’s to find God’s grace so that we can attain every goal set for us.

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CHAPTER FIVE – Do You Want The Good News or The Bad News First?

Have you ever notice how things can completely change depending on your perspective?  For example, imagine that you’re asleep–a nice comfortable sleep filled with sweet dreams and somebody slaps you in the face so that you wake up to a very sore cheek.  How do you feel about that person?

Ok, now say the same scenario happens, but once you’re awake the person who hit you explains that the building you’re in is on fire, and you need to get out before you’re trapped inside.  Now how do you feel about that person?

The Bible can bring about different reactions from different people.  For example.  If you don’t love God, and your life demonstrates a disregard for how he has told us to live, much of the Bible is going to sound pretty harsh–and even frightening.  But if you’ve been saved by God, and your life shows it through living the way he tells us to, then you’re going to read the same Bible with a lot of thanks and joyfulness.

So what do you get out of it–good news or bad news?

PS. I don’t know what happened, but this one has terrible sound quality too.  The others are better.

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