Most of us have someone in our lives that looks up to us. Whether it is a child, a friend, or even someone that just watches our life from a distance.
These people cannot see our hearts. They can only see our actions.
What are we teaching them with our actions?
Even if we tell them with our words to do one thing, but we show them with our actions by doing the opposite, aren’t we just teaching them to lie and deceive and deny the things in our lives that we know are bad – not teaching them to actually do good?
For each one of us, OUR LIVES ARE AN EXAMPLE TO SOMEONE.
So what kind of example is my life today?
I can’t change the example that I’ve been in the past. Yes, there is a lot in my past that was a shameful and horrible example to those around me. I led so many people down the wrong path with my choices, with my example.
I can’t change the past.
The past is done.
But what I can do, is live a life today.
I can make a choice for change in my life today.
And I don’t have to do this change alone.
For some that don’t believe me yet, and think that I’m silly and confused and naive – with my “Jesus this, Jesus that” talk – I understand.
Really, I understand.
I was there.
I made the same jokes.
I lived a life of example for all of the wrong things.
The excess and selfishness that was a part of my everyday life wasn’t good for me or anyone around me. In fact, I would never want my daughter to be a part of many of those same things – those guilty pleasures that I tried to hide and keep secret, but that were so obvious to anyone really watching my life. Doesn’t the fact that I wouldn’t want others to follow in my footsteps a sure sign that something is wrong?
I would never want my neice and nephew to be a part of those same things.
I would never want my friends and family to be a part of those same things.
But you know what? I led them into those traps with my example.
I even thought that I was showing them how to have fun – and YES, WE ALL NEED FUN IN OUR LIVES.
But, I led them straight to the slaughter of excess, we were laughing together all the way – until we started to see the evidence in one way or another that it wasn’t all fun and games. We started to find out that these bad decisions actually did have consequences – in the effect they have on others, in the effect they have on our lives, even in the effect they have on our health.
If you don’t see the cost yet, please just know that there is a cost.
But this is not a sad story.
This is a story of victory.
This is about change.
My eyes are now open.
Isn’t it clear that I was blind before? Don’t you see how I can now see the consequences that before, I wasn’t even aware of and didn’t even care about?
Yes, this is the type of healing that I’ve found.
The reason that I couldn’t see these consequences is because I was also deaf.
I couldn’t hear the truth in this message of a man named Jesus. A man who is not just a man, but who is God. Yes, God came in the flesh to this earth in the body of Jesus. I know, if you don’t believe yet – if you are deaf like I was – it sounds silly. It sounds like something along the lines of the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus – it sounds suspiciously like religion, that thing that has been a terror and an attrocity throughout history.
But I now know that Jesus isn’t a religion. It isn’t about practicing church on Sundays. It isn’t about pretending to be better than other people because you call yourself a Christian. It isn’t even about following a set of rules.
It’s about getting to know this God-man who is 100% man as Jesus, and is 100% God as Christ.
And Jesus Christ offered us each a promise. “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” – Romans 10:14
And yes, you will say – “But that makes no sense. That makes no sense at all.”
And you might even ask questions like “But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?” – Romans 10:14
And I encourage you – don’t worry about trying to run before you learn how to crawl. If you don’t yet know Him, just hear this Good news. Just take Him at His word and seek Him. Be healed from your deaf ears, be healed from your blind eyes, and see that there is a need for change in our lives.
Go to a quiet place, determined to block out all distractions. Get still, quiet, and serious with God. Tell God that you are serious about what you are about to pray. He will hear you. Even if you have done this before, there is nothing wrong with asking again.
Please read this prayer and tell God either in these or in your own words –
“Jesus Christ, I want to know you. Please save me. Please come into my life and heal me and change me.”
Think about the things that are a part of your life that need to be changed. These things are called sin. Sin is what we want help removing from our lives. Jesus Christ told us that if we call on His name and believe, that He will send us a guide and a teacher – a Holy Spirit that comes into our lives to help us. This Holy Spirit will show us the sin in our lives that needs to be removed – this is called “conviction”. It is like a conscience on steriods to help us clean up those things inside us that need to be corrected.
When we choose to listen to this voice of correction and guidance and choose to turn away from sin and instead seek a new and changed life – this is called “repentance”.
The Gospel – the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John teach us about the life of Jesus Christ. I cannot include the whole gospel in this post, so I encourage you to read the Bible and get to know this Truth for youself. Here are some of the essentials of the gospel –
Jesus Christ is the Son of God the Father. God the Father is 100% spirit. Jesus Christ is God come in the flesh to earth, who was born to his virgin mother Mary, who lived a blameless life of teaching hope, faith, truth and love, who was persecuted by the religious leaders of the day, who was innocent, but was tortured and crucified on a cross at Calvary for me and the sins of all others. After 3 days, He was raised from the dead to be seen by many witnesses, He ascended into Heaven, and He is alive today. His promise is that if we believe in Him, we will receive salvation, and He will come and live in us, and through us – changing us from the inside out.
Once you are comfortable with praying the above prayer and you mean it, and you are aware of those sins in your life that need to be changed, and you want to repent, try reading this prayer and telling God either in these words or in your own:
“Heavenly Father, I lift this prayer to you in the name of Jesus Christ. I confess that I am a sinner and that I have sinned against You. I ask You to forgive me for all of my sins and I repent for my sins and I choose to follow and obey and accept Your Son Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I receive You now as my Lord and Savior with all of my heart. I believe that Jesus Christ is my King and my God and the Lord of my life. I believe that Jesus Christ is alive in me, and I declare that Jesus Christ is the Lord of my life.”
Now that our salvation is firmly in His hand, we want to grow and learn in this renewed life in Christ that we have received. Time spent in prayer, time spent reading His Word in the Bible, time spent praising Him in songs and prayers and words and actions, time spent with other believers sharing and encouraging and learning with each other – all of these things will make us more aware of His presence and His change in our lives. This is what many will call being “drawn near to the presence of God”. The more that we seek Him and make Him a part of our daily lives, the more that we will be aware of His presence and His touch on our lives.
Unfortunately, not everyone that acts religious is actually alive with Jesus Christ in their lives. So, please, it is important to actively seek God for yourself in your daily life, and not to just fall into a practice of listening to religious teachers one day a week.
By actively seeking God for yourself, you are making Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit in you your teacher. You will then become more aware and able to discern the truth of the Word of God for yourself instead of relying blindly on a religous leader. Our trust is in God and in the Truth of His Word, not blindly in someone that could either be leading us along the right path or along a path to destruction.
Find a place where others are gathering to seek God, and where you can see that they are teaching truth from the scriptures provided to us in the Word of God, the Holy Bible –
And be the life that is an example to those around you.
Don’t be a religious person, be a loving and renewed student of Christ.
Let your light shine with the change that you are seeking.
And step away from the old life of darkness that leads to consequences, guilt, shame, and regret.
Have a blessed day, friend. And I hope that you find a renewed and healed life, full of the things that matter, both for your life, and for those that see your life as an example for their own.
Harold J. Ballinger 