This is possibly the most important question you can ask yourself. Who rules my life ? Because the answer to that question will give you a pretty good idea as to how your life will turn out. Just what sort of person will you have become by the time your life on earth is finished …
It will depend on the habits you have developed in the course of your life. And those habits will depend on how you reacted to the circumstances, ideas and people around you.
Are you aware of those influences ? Are you aware of what they are doing to you ? Are they good, or bad, or do you not know ?
Well, there is one over-riding influence we need to be aware of and to listen to. It is an influence which has only our true and fundamental welfare at heart. It concerns itself with truth and reality; it concerns itself with who we are and who we should be; it concerns itself with where we are going in this life, and what sort of person we will end up being.
That influence is Jesus Christ as expressed in the New Testament of the Bible. In verse 15 of chapter 1 of Mark’s Gospel in the New Testament of the Bible, we find these words about what Jesus did at the commencement of his ministry. It states that Jesus said:
the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: Repent ye, and believe the Gospel
Because the kingdom of God is at hand – and it is as much at hand now as it was in Biblical times – we must Repent and Believe the Gospel.
The Kingdom means God’s Kingdom. God’s reign. God’s rule. God’s authority; God’s power.
Because they are all there, and all true, Jesus commands us to Repent – that is to turn to God; to turn away from our own selfish ways, and our own godless ideas, and come to God, and treat him as God ie as King of our lives – the one with the right to tell us how to behave, and what to do. But also the one who will guard and protect us against all enemies – and who has the power to do that.
But turning to God and understanding that he alone has ultimate power and authority should cause us to realise that we are sinners in the face of the one who is all perfect and pure. The one who is HOLY.
How can we approach to PERFECTION and to PURITY and to TRUTH ?
The Gospel.
The good news that Jesus Christ has already paid for my sins and my rebellion against God. He has paid the penalty, and I go free, pardoned by God.
I can do nothing of myself to put myself right with God. NOTHING.
Only he can do that. Only he has done that.
It does not matter how good I try to be – it will never be good enough. It does not matter how religious I am, or how much I go to church or observe whatever religious practices, nothing can put me right with God.
Only Jesus sacrifice at the cross can do that.
But having seen that you can do nothing, and having seen that and accepted that only Jesus can do it, and has done it for you; having repented and turned away from living a godless life, your only way forward is obedience to God. Not to yourself, or to the religions or philosophies of man, but to God himself directly.
No church or organisation can be an intermediary between you and God. It is for you to come to God directly, and to apologise to God directly, and to make up your own mind that what he says is right, and that you will endeavour with his grace and help to live as he says.
And you will know what God wants by reading the Bible, and heeding the teaching of Jesus Christ and his apostles.
Christian Preacher
Christianity 