What's it all about?
Church services, special events, prayer meetings, bible studies, community projects. Why take the time and energy away from our already busy lives to do these things? What’s it all about?
Good question. We wish more people would ask this! The reason we invest our hearts and lives into spiritual things is because we have had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ. I don’t necessarily mean a dramatic vision or his likeness on a piece of burnt toast, like you see in some tabloid magazines. But through reading about Him in the Bible, seeing other Christians model His truth and character, and sensing His presence in times of prayer and worship, we have become convinced that Jesus is who the Bible says He is, and that He is the most important thing in life.
“The most important thing?” you might ask. “What about family, friends, or even me?” The reason we say Jesus is the most important thing—actually person—in life, is that when Jesus is at the center of your life, everything else falls into place and works the way it is supposed to: relationships, work, family, community, fun, everything. You see, He created this world and all of us. He has a plan and purpose for our lives and for how we connect to one another, and for how we connect to Him ultimately.
One of the reasons we are convinced of this, is that Jesus taught and lived like no other religious teacher in history. He claimed to be the light of the world, the bread of Life come down from Heaven, the Lord of the Sabbath, to offer up His life as a ransom for many, and—most comprehensively—the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus did not merely point to a moral law or a spiritual path, He called people to Himself as the unique way to know God, to be forgiven of their sin or wrongdoing before God, and to walk in fellowship with God for all eternity after physical death.
The following comments from author C. S. Lewis get to the heart of the issue very quickly:
“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. ... Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God."
If you haven’t taken time to seriously consider the teachings of Jesus about Himself and the testimony of the Bible, we encourage you to make it a priority today. Giving your life to Jesus opens the door to hope, freedom, joy, and peace like you’ve never known before. Jesus doesn’t promise an easy, pain-free life, nor is He a quick path to health and worldly prosperity. Instead, He offers real friendship with God, and the strength, life, and joy that allows us to have victory during hardships and that makes the good times meaningful and fulfilling.
The exciting thing is that giving your life to Jesus is the beginning of the adventure. What follows is a life led by the Spirit, growing in faith and character, and stepping outside of our own limitations and selfish aims to be part of something bigger than we can imagine: a story of Redemption that has touched every continent and transformed millions of lives.
You’re invited to be part of this. To know Jesus. To be filled with the Spirit. To be light in the world and make an impact for the glory of God. That’s what it’s all about.
