Christianity is a lifestyle of self-denial and discipline: one of total surrender and obedience to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Some view this as a constraining, boring, and old fashioned way of life. But we only have one life to live. We can seek to find our own way of life, or we can give our life back to God and discover true abundance.

“Bless the Lord, o my soul, and forget not all His benefits”  — Psalm 103:2

These words were spoken by King David of Israel. He knew God and followed after the heart of God. He was a frail, flawed human like all of us, but because he kept God first on the throne of his heart, he experienced a life full of God’s presence and intervention. I would like to mention several of the benefits of living the Christian life in an effort to persuade some and challenge others:

God gives me lasting peace in a tumultuous world. It guards my heart and mind from fear, worry and anxiety. It is not fragile and fleeting, but beyond my understanding and stronger than life’s storms and uncertainties. He gives rest for the weary soul.

His joy is my strength – not just physical strength, but the part of me which will outlast this aging body. Jesus delivers from depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. He renews my mind, which can be so easily polluted with all the things I see and hear. He gives a sound mind that is not tormented with suicidal thoughts.

God gives wonderful counsel free of charge in His Word. When I apply it to my life, the result is that I live a more abundant life. I have great help in my relationships, such as marriage, children, parents, co-workers, friends, and yes, even enemies. That’s what life is really made up of – relationships – and having a personal one with Jesus makes all earthly ones even better. His office is always open, and He is never on vacation.

Jesus is ready, willing, and able to give all types of healing – physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. I don’t need a psychic, medium, or holistic therapist to overcharge me for their services. I can activate my God-given faith and access His healing power.

God has knowledge of and provides for all of my needs. He supplies them from His great resources and riches. Most of the time I am unaware of how He is constantly doing this, and often I have to trade my worries in for a whole-hearted trust in Him.

I choose to indulge in good, clean fun. There may be many other self-indulging options available that offer unrestrained but temporary pleasures, but God lets me choose – and when I choose, I also live with the consequences. Consequently, I’ve chosen to live a life free of regrets, guilt, hurt relationships, or punishment. When I also confess and turn from wickedness, I will be given an escape from God’s judgment against sin.

I experience pure love from its very source, which is God. Love that never fails and is so deep, so wide, and so forgiving that it’s difficult to understand, because there is nothing like it anywhere else in life. I know God as my heavenly father, which makes me one of His sons. Even if your father was abusive, neglectful or absent from the home, God is a kind and everlasting Father whose family is always growing because He keeps adopting more children.

Jesus has empowered me to live a lifestyle free from self-destructive addictions like smoking, alcohol, drugs, pornography, gossip, and complaining. I reap the benefits of a moral lifestyle with no regrets. God has cleaned the proverbial skeletons out of the closet of my life. And when new ones die and want to make their grave in my heart, Jesus comes with resurrection power over past hurts, pain, guilt, and shame.

There are many more examples, but perhaps this sampling will give you an idea of why I am convinced that being a Christian, not just claiming the title, is the best life possible!

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”  — Hebrews 11:1-6

The above is an excerpt from what many people call the “faith chapter” of the Bible. It inspires us to read about the exploits of the “heroes of faith”. We have examples laid out for us to see the amazing interplay between God and man as He uses His servants to accomplish a mighty work on the Earth.

When I read this chapter, my heart longs to be there with these giants of faith and experience the power of God for myself. These are true stories of cataclysmic, world-changing, physics-defying supernatural occurrences that directed the course of the human race over the span of recorded history. Those who possessed great faith saw beyond the present and often beyond their own lifetime into the glorious plan of God and acted in accordance with His will to produce mighty works. Can we help but be stirred when we read Hebrews 11?

But we do ourselves a disservice if we look only at the great works that were accomplished by faith. While I imagine that most readers have the desire to see great works, or even a desire to possess great faith, simply recounting the works God has done through others is usually not enough to produce the same faith in us. Too often I am inspired about greatness instead of to it. So how did these “heroes of faith” get great faith?

“For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”  — 2 Timothy 1:12

Paul describes it exactly, and if you were to examine the lives of those mentioned in Hebrews 11 in detail, I believe you would find that every one of them possessed the faith they displayed not because they were inspired to it and not because they had some innate confidence or divine advantage, but because they set aside their life and pursued relationship with God that could eclipse every other element of their lives. As they grew close to God and began to understand His character and methods, faith in His word and actions in their lives grew as a matter of course. Great faith comes from great relationship with God.

Do you want to see spiritual revival in your town? Do you want miracles to happen in your family, workplace, or school? Do you want the divine manifestation of God? All of those great things are byproducts of great relationship. It begins with a prayer. Maybe it’s a prayer of repentance so that you’re no longer at odds with Him. Maybe it’s a prayer of commitment so that God can bring you to another level of relationship. Maybe it’s just a prayer of spending time with God and letting Him talk to you – letting that relationship grow.

Regardless of it starts today, there is only one way to get from where we live – the mundane, the ordinary, the carnal – to the powerful, extraordinary, God-designed, God-inspired, God-directed realms of earth-shaking faith. It is a byproduct of vibrant relationship with the Creator. My prayer is that you will take time today to engage in a deep, heartfelt relationship with Him.

“In Nepal and India, I have watched friends drop by one anothers’ homes, only to sit and remain silent — visits during which everyone was perfectly comfortable (other than myself, of course). Sometimes the silence would extend for hours, at which time a conversation, often full of laughter, would explode as if through spontaneous combustion. Then there would again be silence, which might continue until it was time to leave. These people were confused when I asked them whether they felt awkward about doing nothing together. Simply sitting, they explained, was doing something.”

For the friends that Levine observed, simply the presence of those they hold dear is plenty of activity. It does not need to be added to or scheduled. Silence is not the mark of ‘wasted’ time if it is the silence of being with others. Presence — the ability to feel the passing time together and enjoy life — is enough to captivate.

What if we held this attitude with respect to our time with God? In the hurried, friend-time-scheduling West, perhaps it is easy to forget that He wants to have a relationship with us. We have prayer conferences, prayer books, prayer breakfasts, prayer lists, prayer patterns, and prayer fads. Maybe  some of those things have their place, but in most cases they follow the larger trend of a time-obsessed world: we want to pray as long as we’re getting something else done, too. We’ll pray if it feels like we’re not wasting our time.

Imagine a friend who planned her conversations with you the way that we plan prayer to God. She might write down a list of things to talk about, but as soon as all the items had been addressed she would turn to someone else and engage in small talk. Imagine a friend who calls you up on the phone to recite a conversation he overheard between you and another person because it seemed to have good results and he wants to get the same result that they did. The two of them might hold conferences with other people who are interested in talking to you the same way…

Do these people sound like real friends? Not to me. Friendships couldn’t survive with the limited kinds of interaction we try to use with God. Relationship requires relation; put another way, it requires relating to the other party. If I wouldn’t treat a friend like a vending machine, why do I sometimes treat God that way? What if we decided to “be still and know that [He is] God?” (Psalm 46:10) What if you chose to spend time today praying and meditating on God for who He is, instead of what He can do for you? If you chose to enjoy His presence? Here is a challenge for this week: spend time speaking nothing, but saying everything to God. Sitting with Him is doing something, and it is time well-spent.

But then, out of the blue, chills ran down my spine. I felt goose bumps crawl across my skin. Suddenly, I felt his presence cover me fully and completely. I knew at that exact moment that angels were spread across that chemistry room. And most of all, I knew that my Jesus, my Lord and Savior, my Redeemer and Provider, was right there with me. No matter what happened, no matter what issues came my way, His promises would remain the same.

“Fear thou not; for I [am] with thee: be not dismayed; for I [am] thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”  — Isaiah 41:10.

I am reminded of a very familiar story of Elijah, who after doing the will of the Lord, fled to hide from the wrath of Jezebel. After praying for the Lord to end his life, Elijah traveled to Mount Horeb, where the Lord dealt with him:

“And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”  — I Kings 19:12-14

Even though the Lord had never forsaken him, Elijah still doubted the Lord’s faithfulness. Elijah felt as if he were the only one that served the true God. But the Lord reminded him, in His still, small voice: “Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.” (I Kings 19:1)

It is easy to forget that God is not subject to the human frailties we are. Too often we put limitations on His ability, defining it through our carnal eyes. I can tell you what God will say to us. He will say that we are His children, His bride, and His church. He will tell us that He died on the cross for our sins, and He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He can tell us that He knows every tear that we cry, and that He cares for us more than anyone else. However, I feel the need to declare what God will not do. He will not leave us, nor forsake us. He will never lie, or break His promises. He will never abuse us, or take us for granted. He will never mock us, or tell us that He’s too busy for us.

It may seem as if things are going too quickly, and the only choice you have is failure. A natural reaction to that would be to try to control everything, to try to do it on our own, to make our own plans apart from what God wants. But it is His will alone that is good and perfect and can be trusted. As it is said in Lamentations 3:22-23, “It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness.”

“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”  – John 8:32

I was utterly lost. I knew that I was kneeling at an altar of some sort, and that I was too warm, almost burning. I heard shouts around me, but I was in a fog, hopelessly lost in a fog that was Jesus’ presence.  My mouth moved, speaking words I did not know; my eyes dripped with tears and sweat. I was thirteen, and though I knew much about the call of Jesus and His intense love and devotion, I had never been completely sure that I heard His voice. I was drowning in this fog, learning to lose myself in God’s presence. Then a voice drew me towards Him. God’s precious light shone down upon me, and for the first time, I heard a sweet, tender, Fatherly voice clearly speak John 8:32 in my ear. There was no mistaking God’s voice. There was no mistaking that verse, which I had often heard in Sunday School. I felt hands touching me, praying for me, but I didn’t know how to move—I didn’t even know how I was still speaking, because I was somewhere else. At a simple youth camp service, on a Wednesday night, I fell in love with my Master and Savior: the gentle voice that whispered my name.

What is truth? To a young child, the truth is telling Mom that he did steal the cookie or pinch his sister. To a working adult, a lie might be eating your co-worker’s lunch out of the fridge and telling him it wasn’t you. But the truth can be many things, and it is our responsibility to seek out His truth. If I told you that I thought the moon was a huge ball of cheese, you would probably laugh. You’d think I was joking, because everyone knows that the moon is not cheese. But what if I truly thought that the moon was cheese? I might be able to convince a couple young children before someone proved to me that I was horribly wrong.

So ask yourself another question: what if someone truly thought that God didn’t love and care for them? What would you say? The truth is that God loves us all more than anything, with a love that cannot be compared, broken, or lost. Even when we fail, He will never leave us or forsake us. If you are reading this right now and you aren’t sure of God’s undying love for you, you need to know that you are His precious pearl that He gave Himself for so that He could spend eternity with you. That is the truth of God’s infinite love.

God gives you an innate sensor to know when His truth is being encroached upon. God’s truth, not just about His love, but also His mercy, grace, and delivering power, is as hard as diamonds, as beautiful as the songs from heaven, and as real as He is. After that camp meeting I laid in bed, knowing that God had given me a revelation. I was not to question Him, but to seek out the truth and reality of who He is. I was to desire Him every day of my life, and to trust that His truth would prevail. I was to seek out His truth!

How I could do that? What did it mean to seek out His truth? Truth is more than the words that come out of your mouth; it’s the lifestyle you lead. God would have to show me. “…Not by might or power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD Almighty” (Zechariah 4:6). We can desire truth in our lives every day, and apply it. God is always faithful to reward them that diligently seek Him.

Are you searching for God’s truth in your life, or do you let your enemy plant lies in your life?

“Yes, I do.”
“Seriously? Wow, that’s a lot.”
“Hey man, I love it. I love every second of it.”
“Every Sunday, wow…”

The love and passion that I hold for my church and my relationship with God left my friend awestruck. However, love is only half of the story. While my love for God and the church is important, there is another driving factor in my walk with God: Commitment. Without both, our walk with God will not succeed. As we journey down the straight and narrow, the devil is trying to pull us off our holy path. He doesn’t particularly care which side he pulls us off of. Cold hearted commitment which lacks the energy of love is just as dangerous as passionate love with no commitment. God is desirous of a holy Bride who is both stubbornly committed and feverishly in love.

Was my statistics friend correct? Is going to church every Sunday a lot? Is that too big of a commitment? As I divulged earlier, I am a stats student. So let’s do a simple math equation. Say that your church has a two-hour service. Say that it takes you a half hour to get to church and a half hour to drive home. That brings us to a total of three hours. The average American watches four hours of TV a day. Personally, I do not watch much TV at all. However, there are plenty of things I do for three hours a day, and on Sundays, church is one of them.

Three hours a week is certainly not ridiculous, but our greatest example, Jesus, gave much more than that small fraction of his life. Jesus was “daily with you in the temple teaching.” Jesus wasn’t just a Sabbath saint. He was passionate about church. Today He is still “daily in the temple” teaching us, but are we there to hear Him? Maybe church isn’t available every day. But, when someone comes to meet God, you can count on Him being there. He is a church junky. He loves it. On the other hand, He is committed to it. I cannot remember the last church or house service where God has not blessed me. That alone is more than enough reason to both love and commit to it.

Our sacrifices are often not as demanding as we think. Our small offering of time does not compare with the price paid by many who gave their lives for His kingdom. As one preacher says, “In the day of judgment you will stand next to people whose life’s blood ran down the streets of their cities.” Commitment will lead you to do these things for God. Love will lead you to do them with Him. You must have both to be a part of the Bride fit for The King.

We were blessed this week at Acts II Ministries, my home church, by the ministry of Bro. & Sis. Ricardo Gonzalez. I’d like to share the message of a couple sermons that ministered to me. The first message was that whenever and whatever God wants us to sacrifice, we need to put it on an altar and give it up to Him. The second was about human nature: when God asks for one offering and we disagree with Him and want to give another offering, we get mad at Him foolishly when that offering is not acceptable.

You probably know the Bible story of Cain and Abel (read about it in Genesis 4:1-12): Cain the tiller of the ground and Abel the shepherd gave offerings of their increase. Cain gave fruits and vegetables and Abel gave the “firstlings of his flock”, or the lambs of his flock. God rejected Cain’s offering but accepted Abel’s, because Abel offered what was required. We must put what He wants on the altar, without reservations and without holding anything back.

Another concept given to me by an individual of late regards times when we come to the altar and give almost everything to God, but hold back one thing we think we can handle. We leave wondering why Jesus doesn’t have complete control in our lives, yet we have only ourselves to blame. At other times we come and give everything, then take it back to ourselves when we leave. No wonder He can’t work on it if we keep pulling away from Him! Every day — or maybe every hour, minute, or second — we have to recommit it to Jesus. I’ll be the first to admit that that’s a whole lot easier said than done sometimes. Giving our all takes work. It comes down to commitment and consistency.

Relationship with God is a prerequisite to an abundant life, and relationships require commitment. God asks us to consistently give Him our all; every prayer time is a visit to the altar remind ourselves what we’re living for and to give ourselves again without any reservations. I’m striving to get better at this, and I pray you will, too. Thank you to all who dare to make their personal altars and offer everything to God as a sacrifice unrestrained and unrestricted.

He taught about the love that God has for us, and how John had this revelation. That is why the apostle John was called “John the Beloved”. John, unlike any of the other disciples, saw Jesus all the way to the cross and saw his friend — his master, his God — die for him. It was a gruesome death unfit for any human, let alone the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Through the agony and suffering he watched his savior endure, John learned how much Jesus loved him. He would be forever changed by the knowledge that Jesus loved him enough to endure it all for him, to pay the ultimate price, to be the sacrifice to end all others. Jesus bled and died to relinquish the hold that sin had upon our lives: He gave His all that I might be free!

As I stand back and consider the impact that this unprecedented act has upon my life, it reminds me how insignificant my petty arguments are with my brothers and sisters. If Jesus could have held every sin against me and yet chose to forgive, how much more should I forgive my brothers? As it says in John 14:15 “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” Then Jesus said in Matt 22:39, “And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”  From these scriptures we see that we cannot love God if we do not love our neighbor — but we cannot love our neighbor if we don’t love ourselves.

Bro. Urshan said it this way: “We cannot love God if we don’t love others, and we cannot love others if we don’t love ourself”, so we must love ourselves, but not with a selfish love. We must not allow what we see in ourselves, our faults, failures and shortcomings to mitigate what God wants to do through us.

We can find encouragement in the fact that Jesus loves us despite our failures, and He knows us better than we know ourselves anyway. Personally, I am going to let God heal me of the things which prevent me from loving myself, and learn how to love myself unselfishly in the process that He has for me. I challenge you to do the same! Remember, He loves you!

He loves you. He loves you!

Apply this idea to your life. What changes when you know and are convinced that God loves you?