life before death

Look into the eyes of a new born baby and you are filled with a sense of wonder - wonder at what this precious bundle of life will become.

As we grow, develop and mature, our youthful idealistic dreams and aspirations of changing the world give way to more realistic, down to earth and more modest goals of getting through another day at work or as a parent!

It's a struggle to reach our potential. Something, some force works against us, preventing us from becoming all that we can be.

We are not all that we could be or should be!

We've placed a man on the moon but we've failed to make poverty history!

Human suffering may motivate us to give to charity or even leave the comfort of our armchairs and go on a demonstration.

But the sad irony is that the same person who may go on a STOP THE WAR march, returns home to have an argument with their neighbour!

Who's To Blame?

Pointing the finger at God, politicians or the TV screen gives us someone else to blame for the state of the world, but the truth is that things are the way they are because of the lives of billions of ordinary people just like you and me!

The problem is not "out there" but "right here" within each of us.

Human Error?

Many people look at the mess the world is in and see this as evidence that there is no God.

"How can there be a God if there is so much pain and suffering in the world?" People ask.

"If there is a God, then he screwed up somewhere! Clearly there is a major design flaw..." People might argue.

Our ability for good or evil might be regarded by some as a design flaw, but to others it is considered a great gift: free will - freedom to chose, to decide for ourselves how to think and act.

But if the problem with the world is "us" what hope have we of getting ourselves out of the mess we are in?

The heart of the problem is the problem of the human heart!

Quoting something God said through a prophet called Isaiah, Jesus made this profound statement:

"Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, 'These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.'"

Where are our hearts focused if not on God?

All kinds of things, but ultimately ourselves! We are essentially, in our thoughts and actions, selfish. And history reveals what a truly destructive force it has been!

Everyday people are found guilty of crimes and sent to prison. And from time to time some of the worst things about our world today find a focus in someone like Slobodan Milosevic or Saddam Hussein who are accused of "Crimes against humanity."

We're all guilty of contributing to the mess the world is in!

We're All In Debt

In the person of Jesus Christ (the only perfect person who has ever lived and not deserved to die), God has stepped into human history and died in our place on the cross - paying each of our death penalties.

In God's economy, each of us throughout our lives goes deeper and deeper into debt because of these crimes against Him and humanity. So overdrawn are we, that there is no way of working our way out.

But through the death of Jesus in our place, all humanity's debt is consolidated - not to make it manageable for each of us in affordable monthly instalments but to wipe it out altogether!

Jesus' "credit" is sufficient to settle each of our accounts with God. The cross declares: PAID IN FULL!

We need more than forgiveness, we need to change!

We have all tried and failed to be better people: kinder, more forgiving and loving.

Best selling "Self Help" books cannot deliver what they promise because they're written by imperfect people.

Even if it were simply a matter of learning techniques, you've got to want to change in the first place and many people just can't be bothered!

Religion Isn't The Answer

Others turn to religion in search of enlightenment and a method of disciplining the appetites and desires of the body.

Many people were shocked by the harsh things Jesus had to say about the religious leaders of his day.

Admired and respected for their dutiful commitment to religious practices, Jesus saw beyond outward apearances to the motivations of the heart.

Their concern for things like ritual washing, which may have given them an external appearance of purity, covered up impurity within!

God is not impressed by mere lip-service. Religious rituals that do not engage the heart are empty and meaningless.

What we need is to be cleaned up on the inside. We need God to do what we cannot do: transform our hearts.

Such transformation is possible!

The same Holy Spirit of God that took hold of a dead and buried Jesus and gave him resurrection life can empower us to live life to the full - to be all that we can be.

And we don't have to wait until we die to enjoy this kind of life!

God not only wants us to have life after death but he wants us to enjoy true life before death!

"I tell you the truth," Jesus said, "those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life."

How Can We Be Transformed?

Jesus compared it to being born.

In the same way that we are by birth naturally the product of our parents, we need to be "spiritually" "born" so that we can become children of our Heavenly Father.

How can this happen? Through a simple prayer where we:

Admit to God that we are powerless to save and change ourselves
Recognise that we are forgiven by God for our crimes against Him and one another through Jesus' death in our place;
Choose to trust Him our lives

By His Holy Spirit God changes our lives from being focused on ourselves to one that is centred on Him. He changes us from being selfish to selfless.

Just as a baby needs to be nurtured in the environment of a loving family, a person who has experienced this spiritual birth needs to be nurtured in the environment of a spiritual family: the church.