You have 1 missed call - from God - please respond ASAP!

God is trying to get in touch with you. This is a friendly reminder to answer the call!

How do I know that God is “calling” you? God tells us so in the Bible (and certainly this has been many people’s experience who have come out of something else into Christianity). Even though my telephone analogy is obviously a new way of conceptualizing the biblical “call,” the idea that God is “calling” you is found in scripture.

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20)

A call to relationship with God

God’s call is first and foremost a call to relationship! Whatever previous image you had in your mind about God, perhaps as a distant authority figure who demands money and worship and correct adherence to rituals, I want you to put that all away and see what the Bible reveals of God’s character. The true and living God who created you and me is personal and relational.

God is calling you because he wants to have a relationship with you. The Bible uses a number of relationship metaphors to help us understand our interactions with God. For example, the Bible describes God as relating to us similar to a parent who adopts a child (Romans 8:15), a close friend (John 15:15), and a loving spouse (Ephesians 5:25).   

Indeed, in a sense you could say the whole purpose of life is relationship – with God and with our fellow people. Jesus explained that the first great commandment is to love God, and the second is to love our neighbours as ourselves (Matthew 22:36-40). God’s law is simply a revealed blueprint for perfect relationships with God and with each other (think of the 10 commandments each falling into one of these two categories), and sin is simply the violation of those laws (1 John 3:4) and thus a disruption of relationships.

If you look at the Bible as a grand narrative from creation to the defeat of evil, you can see God’s desire for relationship with you! It was there in the Garden of Eden when God walked and talked with his creation – that is, before we disobeyed God and hid from his presence (Genesis 3:8). It was there throughout the chronicles of ancient Israel when God led his people out of bondage and through a number of trials. It was there when God dwelt among us as a man in the form of Jesus Christ (John 1:14). And it is there in Revelation’s depiction of the eternities when God restores his kingdom and dwells among us in the heavenly city:

“And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.” (Revelation 21:3)

A call of grace

You do not have to be perfect to enter into a relationship with God. You don’t even have to be good. In fact, God knows that you and I are rebellious, filthy, and broken. And he loves us anyway. As I’ve said before, Christianity is not about joining a holy club where everyone can dress nice, behave properly, and look down their noses at everyone else. People who think that are missing the whole point of the Christian message: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

Jesus said, “They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Mark 2:17)

The amazing news is that God is calling you regardless of what you’ve done. In fact, he called you before he even created you. As the Bible says, God “hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began…” (2 Timothy 1:9)

Don’t ever think that one day you’ll clean yourself up, turn yourself around, and maybe be good enough for God. Just stop it. You don’t ever have to be good enough for God! God is good enough for you. No self-righteousness required, only the righteousness of God (Romans 10:3-4).

A call to come out of darkness into light

You may not think of yourself as living in darkness. Saul of Tarsus certainly thought he had his life all together – he was a religious man, perfect at keeping the law, born into a decent social standing. But when he came to know Jesus he said that was all DUNG (Philippians 3:3-9). Religion! Rule-keeping! Social status! Appearing like you’ve got it all together! All of it is worthless.

It didn’t matter what he looked like to the outside world. He was still a sinner. He still had a filthy heart. After he finally heard God’s call and became a Christian, Saul of Tarsus (now going by Paul) testified that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” (1 Timothy 1:15) Incidentally, you can read of Paul’s amazing conversion story in the Book of Acts, chapter 9 (if you don’t have a Bible, use a free online one like biblegateway.com).

And so, regardless of your social status, religion, ability to keep rules, or how good you look to everyone around you, I want to suggest that you may be just like Saul of Tarsus, myself, and every other sinner who has fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). And like all of us before encountering the transforming light of Jesus Christ, you may be in darkness.

The good news is that God is calling you out of that darkness (1 Peter 2:9), whatever it may be. You don’t have to fix what’s broken about you (you can’t, only God can) – all you need to do is surrender it to God. Drop your old idols on the ground right now and walk away. Renounce your old sins, addictions, secret rituals, and even your church if it keeps you from a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. God has so much more planned for you.

“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” (2 Corinthians 6:17-18)

“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her [spiritual Babylon], my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” (Revelation 18:4)

“For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light… And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.” (Ephesians 5:8-13)

Conclusion: Answer the call

God’s call for you will be individual and personal, suited to your particular situation. But the basic pattern is the same, and is emphasized throughout the Bible. Answering God’s call is not like picking up a badge and putting it on your Boy Scout sash next to all your worldly accomplishments – it’s like picking up a cross, dying to your old self, and following Jesus Christ. This is hardly a flashy commercial for a Boxing Week sale – but it is better than that. It is Jesus’ offer of life eternal.

“He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.” (John 12:25)

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

“Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” (Ephesians 5:14)

“That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 5:21)

“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3)

God bless you!

A Journey to Jesus (Part Two)

Read part one here: http://eph1-17.blogspot.ca/2013/05/a-journey-to-jesus-part-one.html

I became an atheist in 2008, and I was content with my godless life. 

In 2012 that changed unexpectedly. In April, when we were packing to move to a new house I found an old Bible that my now-wife had given me as a gift the year we started dating. I opened it and flipped through the pages a bit. As a history and religious studies major in university I still found religion interesting even if I didn’t believe any of it. So it was maybe a bit of scholarly curiosity, maybe a bit of nostalgia that kept me reading the book. At a few points while packing I decided to take a break to read a chapter or two, and it eventually turned into a habit. As the summer progressed I continued to devour the words of Jesus in the New Testament. At some points the words pierced me deeply – early on I encountered John 8:58, in which Jesus said “Before Abraham was, I AM!” I knew it to be a thinly veiled claim to divinity – he was claiming to be the God of the Old Testament (see Exodus 3:14; John 8:58). I considered for the first time in years the possibility that Jesus was telling the truth. I had a conversation with my wife about these things, and we decided to go to church once or twice to explore that option again.

That decision resulted in a series of events that led to my conversion. I believe that God responds when we open our hearts to him in sincere prayer. I slowly allowed myself to set aside old prejudices toward born again Christians, toward the Bible, and toward God… Rather than rallying my faculties to attack Christianity upon reading a questionable passage of scripture, I yielded to the possibility that my conclusions were premature. More often than not, I realized that such criticisms of the Bible were based on a very shallow reading of the text which often ignored the intended purpose and meaning (I hope to address this in a future blog post entitled “Atheists can trust the Bible”). It required some newfound humility on my part, but God led the way in breaking down every wall that kept him out.

There were a few instances where a particular “wall” (problem I had with Christianity) that I had prayed about was addressed in the very next church service I attended or the very next chapter of the Bible I read. My years as an atheist trained my mind to recognize such instances as coincidences – and I certainly still believe that skepticism can be very healthy! But it can also lead to blindness, or a willing disregard for truth. Just as Jesus healed literal blind men in the first century, he dealt with my spiritual “blindness” with patience and continued to provide me with the evidence I required to believe. He is faithful, even when I was not.

Finally, toward the end of June I had a series of three dreams which I believe to be revelations from God. First I dreamed that there was something spiritually unclean in my life that I should have put away a long time ago (the concept was presented to me in visual metaphors, but the meaning was clear). Second, I dreamed that I was preaching Christianity. The third dream was more complicated, but I was quoting biblical passages, rebuking false doctrine, and telling a man of the need to be born again; in the morning I looked up the biblical passages that my character in the dream had quoted and it clarified the meaning of a particular part of the dream. I was convinced more than ever before that God had answered my prayers for guidance! The thought still stirs up such gratitude that I can hardly express it in words! All I can say is Praise God! Glory to God! The very next chapter I read in the Bible was the first chapter of Ephesians, which contained the following passage…

“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.” (Ephesians 1:17-18)

A revelation of the knowledge of God… The hope of his calling… That is exactly what I believe God had just given me.

The next day was July 1, 2012. I was in Calgary for a conference and was to head home by bus that morning. As I was waiting to board the C-Train I found myself overwhelmed by the idea that despite my faithlessness (and every other flaw), God was still interested in walking patiently with me, answering my prayers for guidance, and pointing me in the right direction. He even had a calling for me – to share his gospel. Amazing grace! The idea brought tears to my eyes as I stood waiting for that train; so you can imagine that I was tipped over the edge when I finally boarded the C-Train and found a piece of paper beside the very seat that I sat upon: a tract from a group called Every Home for Christ, a group that preaches Christianity. I knew for certain at that point that God was trying to get a message across to me, underlining it again and again! Dreams, biblical passages, tracts – rapid-fire sequence. The message was clear as day, and I could not ignore it.

The next feeling I had was that of conviction. God had a calling for me, but it was not because of my own worthiness or piety. I had a wicked heart; among other flaws, over the past several years I had expressed utter resentment and hatred toward God, toward Christianity, and toward born again Christians and others in my life. I needed forgiveness. At that very moment I asked God to forgive me, to give me new life, and to make me a new creature. My feeling of conviction was followed by enormous relief and joy. I had given my life to Jesus, and I was born again.

Since that day I have sought to follow the path that God set out for me in his word and in his revelations to me. I experienced for the first time what “Amazing Grace” means, and it drives me to share what I believe is the true gospel (the “good news”) with others. Jesus is the son of God, and he came to build a bridge between us and God, restoring that relationship that was lost through human rebellion.

May God give you a revelation of the knowledge of him, and the hope of his calling for YOU! Thanks for reading! The next blog post will address one of the most frequent comments that I get… “All paths lead to God; Jesus is not the only way, is he?”

Introduction

Delusional, annoying, and fake. These are three words that I may have used in the past to describe “born again” Christians. I was puzzled by their persistent enthusiasm, their love songs to Jesus, and their insistence that everyone had to be “saved” by “grace.”

Today I am a born again Christian… not because I liked their more contemporary worship music, not because I needed something to do on a Sunday, and not because I desired a new source of community and meaning in my life. I am a born again Christian, I believe, by the guidance and grace of God. You might even say that it took me by surprise! But that’s another story for another time.

This blog is titled “A Light Unto My Path” based on a Bible verse: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105). In other words, we receive direction and guidance for our lives through God’s word (the Bible). Such guidance has come to mean a lot to me, and I hope to explain why.

In this blog I hope to record some of my thoughts about following Jesus and about life as a born again Christian. I also write this blog as one way of sharing the gospel with friends, family, and anyone who would listen. Over the course of this blog’s lifespan, I hope to articulate in depth what can actually be summarized in a few sentences:

1) Jesus is the Son of God, and the only way to God.

2) The Bible is the authoritative word of God, which reveals God’s salvation plan to humanity.

3) You must be born again. YOU should recognize your own corrupt nature (prone to selfishness, wickedness, weakness) and rather than defending it in order to prop yourself up, surrender it all to God and allow him to change you from the inside out!

To offer a brief background and introduction to myself: I am a (new) Christian, a husband and father, and a student of history and religious studies from Western Canada. Please join me in my journey following Jesus, the saviour of the world, the son of God, the way, the truth, and the life.

My next blog post will be a brief account of my own story, summarizing my conversion from Mormonism to atheism to Jesus. Thanks for reading! Praise God!