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You are right to reject a religion
that is a list of dos and do nots, or a gathering of sour-faced,
finger-pointing people who think they are better than everyone
else. Jesus would reject it too. Anything Jesus is involved in
frees people. It is powerful, supernatural and full of life.
People reject Christianity on the basis of an outsiders glance,
like a little boy who is sure he will always hate kissing girls.
Knowing Jesus is more wonderful than those who have not experienced
it could dream.
All longing is a longing for Jesus, discovered someone enjoying the greatest adventure. The love, excitement, challenge, satisfaction and understanding we crave are found in the One who made us.
The Christian spiritual experience, Jesus declared, is like buried treasure. Millions walk past it, never suspecting the wonders that lie below the surface. Anyone who makes the discovery, however, would eagerly trade for it everything they had previously treasured, like trading plastic for diamonds.
To try describing the benefits of having Jesus in your life sounds
as hollow and self-centered as listing receiving a gold ring as
a benefit of marrying the most wonderful person. It is like cutting
up the most beautiful, priceless flower and offering the separate
parts for sale. And it sounds just too good to be believable.
This is to be expected. We were made to enjoy the God who made
us. So it is hardly surprising that a relationship with him will
fulfill our deepest longing. But it still sounds too good to be
true.
Here is a few of the results of being united to the One we
were made for:
A brand new start in
life.
Involvement in the
greatest possible good. Reaching your highest possibilities. Finding
and fulfilling your reason for being born. Living life to the
full.
The thrill of knowing
you can now achieve things of eternal importance.
Being at peace with
God. No longer running from reality.
The excitement of
living life on the edge, as God takes you beyond what you are
humanly capable of.
The lifelong opportunity
to love and thank God, the Giver of every good and beautiful thing
everyone has ever enjoyed.
A life that is highly
demanding and challenging, with the greatest power in the universe
urging you on and giving you the power to achieve.
The freedom to look
in the mirror and know that no matter what your past, you are
now pure in the eyes of the holy God.
God-given power to
love the unlovable, to break harmful habits, to resist the pressure
of people wanting you to be like them, and to control such weaknesses
as anger, greed, and selfishness.
Knowing that God is
working both within you to make you more and more like Jesus
the most loving and most wonderful person earth has seen.
Being on the winning
side the obvious result of having in your life the God whose
power and wisdom has no limit.
The highest security
of knowing you are forever loved and that nothing not even death
- can rob you of its endless joys.
Knowing that you are
of the greatest importance to the most important Person in the
universe.
Having as your best
friend the Person who not only feels concern for you but knows
your every weakness and victory, your every thought, your every
experience since birth, your darkest secret, your sweetest dream,
and is committed to you with never ending devotion.
Answers to prayer.
Access to the spirit
world. Supernatural dreams, visions, miracles, meeting angels
and other amazing spiritual experiences are not impossible.
Joy and peace and fulfillment,
each of which are so far beyond what anything else offers that
it cannot be described.
Escape from the endless
torment of hell.
Not even all Gods
matchless gifts, however, reach the heights of the wonder and
excitement and pleasure of enjoying and knowing deeply the most
thrilling Person in the universe. God is so special that falling
in love with him is the inevitable result of truly knowing him.
8. Science has crippled Christianity
9. Pleasant near-death experiences of non-Christians disprove Christianity
10. A loving God would not send me to hell
