Discovering God's Purpose For Your Life

  Last month we discovered God's primary purpose for your existence is to know Him in a personal, forever love relationship. When you begin your relationship, it leads to fellowship ... a life long process of daily living in harmony with God as your heavenly Father. Nothing you do, will ever change your Father's love for you. Nothing! Your earthly father may or may not love you, but God loves you unconditionally. You may mess up, rebel and choose to disobey God. You know it's wrong, but God doesn't dump you or kick you out of His family.

You'll be out of harmony for how God wants you to live because you're living or acting your way, not God's.

Your fellowship with God is damaged. Things just aren't right between you and God. When my son disobeyed me and brought the car home past his curfew, I didn't bless him with $100.00. I was upset, grounded him and didn't allow him to drive my car for a few weeks. However, my love for him didn't change.

  When your fellowship is broken, what do you do? The answer is in 1 John 1:9 in your Bible. Read it. Ask God to show you unconfessed sin. Agree with what He shows you is wrong. Ask God to give you grace to stop sinning. Stop it! If you stumble and mess up again, repeat this process, get up and keep going. Don't stay down. Followers of Jesus "May trip seven times, but each time they will rise again." (Prov. 24:16 NLT)

Never give up! A failure is someone who does nothing and gives up!

  Remain in fellowship. Spending time with your Father keeps your relationship alive and helps your love for Him grow. The more you spend time with Him getting to know Him, the deeper your relationship will grow. The more you say NO to sin and trust in Jesus to live His life in and through you as you yield to Him, the less you'll sin. By allowing Christ in you and His Word to remold your words, thoughts, attitudes and actions from the inside out, you'll become more like Jesus

Christians will never be sinless.. but as they grow in their relationship with Jesus, they should sin... LESS!

  As you become more like Jesus, you'll live like Jesus. Your life will be a walking, talking advertisement for Jesus and His Kingdom. You'll have His heart for people around you and see the world through His eyes. You'll introduce others to Jesus and help them find the way to heaven.

Nobody likes things that are fake and phony. There are a lot of fake and phony Christians in the world today. Don't you be one. If you are, you're hindering the work of The Kingdom Of God. Get right with God today.

BE THE REAL DEAL!!

Why Are You Here?

Why do you think God created you? People come up with many answers. Some think it's to live like the rock band Kiss sings, "I want to rock and roll all night and party every day." I've heard people say things like, "God wants me to just have as much fun as possible, to make a positive difference in this world, to have a family, to be rich, to be a good person, to be a missionary, to do Kingdom work," and much more. Two of the most common questions kids ask are, "Why am I here? Why did God make me?" 

However you came into this world, you can be sure that you are no mistake, you're not here by accident and God truly has a plan or purpose for your life. God isn't keeping it a secret from you or want you to guess what it is.

This is huge!

God created everything in existence through His Son Jesus Christ. God's book The Bible reveals, "Everything was created through him and for him." (Col. 1:16 NLT) "For you created everything and it's for your good pleasure that they exist and were created." (Rev. 4:11 NLT)

How awesome is that? The infinite, all-knowing, all-powerful, miracle working God, who spoke and the world came into existence, who knows the trillions of stars by name, who is incomprehensible, created you.... for himself!! You were created for God so he could enjoy a personal, forever love relationship with you. That blows my mind. I can't grasp it. Can you?

If the Bible says something it is true. It doesn't matter what your feelings may say, it's what God says that you must believe. You may think you're not good enough for God to want you, nobody cares about you or could love you, even God. But God says don't believe that lie. God says, "The bottom line is that I created you, I know all about you, I understand you, I know the good, bad and ugly about you. I simply want to enjoy you and love you.!" You need to get this into your heart. By faith, trust in what God says is true and believe it. Your feelings can fool you and mess you up. Not God. He never lies. The Bible says, "he cannot lie." (Titus 1:2 NLT)

Many people think once they're born, they already have a relationship with God. Not true. You exist as a creation of God, but you are not yet a Christian, member of God's family and one of his precious children. A Christian is someone who has a personal relationship with God. This relationship isn't something you're automatically born with, can buy or earn. Why? God says we are all born separated from him because of sin. "Your sins cut you off from God." (Isaiah 59:2 NLT)

All of us are born with sin in our hearts and cut off from God. Sin makes your heart dirty. Sin puts a wall up between you and God. "All have sinned and are not good enough for God's glory, and all need to be made right with God by his grace, which is a free gift." (Rom. 3:23-24 CEV) Sin is basically living life your way, not God's way as taught in the Bible. It's not letting God be the boss of your life. It's breaking God's laws and Ten Commandments. The truth is, none of us are perfect, we all mess, have sinned and are separated from God.

God is holy and pure. He hates all sin and it must be judged and punished. He can't accept a sin dirty heart into heaven. "The payment for sin is death, but the gift God gives freely is everlasting life found in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 3:23 GWB) The punishment is to spend eternity separated from God in a place called hell. It's a horrendous place of agony and torment beyond all comprehension forever! Because of sin, everyone born is destined for hell.

You've probably seen the bumper sticker that says, "God Loves You!" You may wonder, "If God loves me, why would he send anyone to hell?" God never sends anyone to hell. He desires everyone to have a personal relationship with him and live with him forever in heaven. to guarantee this God provided a way for everyone to be made right with him, have their sins forgiven and be rescued from hell. The way of escape is Jesus. The Bible says instead of you being punished for your sins, God punished Jesus. He paid for your sins so you wouldn't have to.

The Bible says, "Christ carried our sins in his body on the cross so that freed from our sins, we could live a life that has God's approval." (1 Peter 2:24 GWB)

That's great news for you!

Jesus shed his blood and died on a cross to provide a way for you to escape God's judgment, hell and spend eternity in heaven. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16 NIV) "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved." (Acts 16:31 NLT) How cool is that? To have our sin dirty heart washed clean and made acceptable to God all you have to do is believe in Jesus, believe the Jesus is everything the Bible says he is. By faith, accept his death on the cross as payment for your sins.

Have you ever deliberately done that? Are you sure you're going to heaven when you die? Are you really a Christian and one of God's children? When you believe in Jesus you become God's precious child and God becomes your heavenly Father. "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." (John 1:12 NIV) When you simply come as you are to Jesus, believe in him and receive him into your life, your sin-dirty heart is washed clean. You're made acceptable to God. The wall between you and God comes down. You begin the most awesome love relationship you'll ever have with the God of all creation. It's a relationship you were created to have, but you must choose to have it. Then, you begin a life long process of becoming all God has designed you to be.

I want to help you to do that. But first, maybe you need to make sure you are a Christian and follower of Jesus. Genuinely pray this prayer from your heart:

God, I am a sinner. I am living my way, not yours. Forgive me of my sins. I believe Jesus died for my sins, was buried in the grave and rose from the dead into heaven. I receive Jesus now into my heart and life. I'm all yours. Help me to turn from my sins and follow you all the days of my life. Thank you for loving me and rescuing me. Amen.

Congratulations. God wants your life to be all about Jesus now.

Christ lives in you. He comes to take control of your life

Now the journey begins or maybe you prayed the prayer because you drifted off the path following Jesus. The road ahead will be exciting. it may not always be easy, but Jesus is always with you. He'll see and know everything that is happening in your life. What he wants to see happen first and foremost is that you become like Christ. In these monthly articles we will journey together on the road to you becoming more like Jesus Christ. The journey won't end until you get to heaven. On the way there, you will experience all God created you for, all he created you to be and experience the relationship he created you for.