Living in the Footsteps of Jesus
<< Accepting JesusTransformed Lives >>Learning about God
It is difficult to see how someone can follow a person that they know nothing about. So it makes sense that if you want to follow Jesus, you should learn as much about him, and God his Father, as you can. Jesus said that "anyone who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9), so whenever you learn about Jesus, you also learn about God, and vice versa. We call the strange connection between God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit the Trinity.
God has not abandoned us on earth with no way of discovering the truth about him; he has left us an instruction manual, called the Bible. Although the Bible was written by many human authors throughtout thousands of years, everything within it was inspired by God, so that it talks about the same message throughout. We can learn heaps from the Bible - why Jesus came, why he died, how to live better lives, how to love more, how to avoid sin, how to share the good news with our friends. Even people who have read the entire Bible several times still keep finding more and more exciting things that they never discovered before - because the Bible is a spiritual book, and the greatest book ever written. The Bible is also called "the sword of the Spirit" (Ephesians 6:17) - the only offensive weapon we get in our spiritual war. If you are not sure where to start, a good place is to begin reading the eye-wittness accounts of Jesus' life (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). Then you could continue on with Acts, Romans, and the rest of the New Testament. Read more advice about reading the Bible.
It is also helpful to meet up with other Christians, so you can each learn more about God from each other - we call this 'church' (or the 'body' of Christ - 1 Corinthians 12:12-26). Sometimes you have some frustrating questions to ask someone, or you might just need some encouragement from someone in the same boat as you, and church is good for this. However, church is more than just a building, it is a group of people - people who are 'brothers' and 'sisters' through Jesus - so you would do well to get to know and love your spiritual 'family'. If you live in Kalgoorlie, then you can come and visit our church.
Getting to know God
It is one thing to learn all about someone, but it is another thing entirely to get to know them. That is why it is critical that you spend time with God each day - he is now you spiritual 'Father', so you can talk to him and relate to him just like your physical father (although God is like the 'perfect' father). We call talking with God 'prayer'. Some people are very afraid of the idea of talking to God - I mean, he is the God of the universe - why would pay attention to someone like me? Well, since Jesus died for us, God sees Jesus standing in our place - to him we are sons of God, just as Jesus is! So never be afraid to talk to God - if you trust in Jesus then God is now your Father! Whenever you pray to God, he is listening, and he hears the cry of your heart - not the words from your mouth - so it doesn't really matter exactly what you say. You should also listen for God's replys to your questions and concerns - he often speaks through the Bible, and can also speak as a little voice in your mind.
Once you feel comfortable praying to God, it is a very good idea to get together with just one friend who you know is also a follower of Jesus, and pray together with them. You can each share your burdens with the other person, and pray for each other throughout the week.
Talking to God regularly and learning to trust him more each day safeguards you against one of the biggest traps for Christians - to think that we are good enough to get to heaven on our own credit. Some people live such good lives that they begin thinking that by their actions they can earn their way into heaven. This is a lie! The very reason that Jesus came and died for us was because we could not get into heaven by ourselves! The more you trust in God, the more you will realise how much you need him.
Telling others about God
Someone once said that "the only reason we are still alive is to bring others into God's kingdom". And they are right - if our sins are forgiven, there is nothing stopping us from being with God for eternity in heaven, which is far better than the world we live in now, to say the least. God has only kept us here so that we can spread the fantastic news about Jesus' death to pay for our sins. Most Christians find this very difficult to do - we just feel embarrassed by our faith, and scared at the thought of telling others about it. But the descision to follow Jesus is also a descision to leave behind the ways of the world - they things which our culture says are important - so that Jesus can be number one in our lives. By nature this means that we will be very different to the people around us - we will be more loving, more generous, more moral, more honest - and God will use our transformed lives to draw other people to himself. Studies show that people remember far more (about 80%) from what you do than from what you say. So while it is important to tell people about the gospel, our message will have no power, no credibility, if our lives do not reflect the same message that we speak. See more about telling your friends about Jesus.
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