IT IS ALL

INTRODUCTION

Ofttimes, people are ‘secretly’ reminded of their past sins and failures by circumstances they encounter. And this may cause many people to harbor a privately held low self-image and plagues them, at some level, with a low self-esteem. And if that isn’t enough, there are those around us that will remind you of your past or present inadequacies. Sometimes out of spite or in order to elevate their own image. That is bad news.

Here is the Good News. You don’t have to live in that cage. You do not have to be chained to that rock of humiliation any longer. There is a way to free yourself and to erase that past from the annals of shame, guilt and self-incrimination.

Let me repeat and restate a quote from a book I will leave unknown:

Here is a Mystery: 

Believe it or not, and as strange as it may seem, there is a Power which exists that is able to transform your life, so radically, so completely, so thoroughly, that those who knew you beforehand, would hardly recognize you afterwards.  In fact, you would hardly be able to recognize yourself when the process is complete.

You might even have to ask yourself, “Can I really be that man or that woman who went about under my name before?”

You are, in one sense the same person, but in another sense, you will have become someone utterly different.

This intensely real power, can pick you up today – right now – from the midst of loneliness, failure, ruin, misery, despair or any difficulty, and in the twinkling of an eye, as Paul said, begin to solve your problems, smooth out your difficulties, cut you free from entanglements and place you clear, safe and happy upon the highroad of freedom and opportunity.

It can lift you out of a socially, spiritually or morally invalid bed and make you sound and well.
It can free you to go and shape your life as it should be.
It can throw open the prison door and liberate the captive.

It has a healing balm for the bruised and broken heart.

This Power can teach you all things you need to know, if only you are receptive and teachable.

It can inspire you with new thoughts and ideas, so that your life’s work may be truly original, meaningful and lasting.

It can impart new and wonderful kinds of knowledge, as soon as you really want such knowledge – glorious knowledge – strange things not taught in schools or written in books.

It can find your true place in life, and put you into it, too.

It can find the right friends for you, kindred spirits who are interested in the same ideas and want the same things that you do.

It can provide you with an ideal home.

It can provide you the type of  prosperity that means freedom.  Not as the world knows prosperity.  But the type of prosperity that means true Freedom.  Free to be and to do and to go as your soul calls.

This transformation, for some people can begin as soon as they discover it and embrace it. For others, it may take time, as they unpack or relieve themselves of “the old person” and embrace the “new”.

What is this Power? This power, as I put it, is actually a Person. He is the Person of Jesus Christ. And you must possess this Person and you must allow Him to possess you, before this Power can transform you and your life as I have described..

Actually, it is not me saying these things. It is Jesus saying these things. And He says that this can only happen, “If you abide (live and find your being in) Him and His Words abide in you”. You must mentally and emotionally leave everything of this world, all that you possess and everything that possesses you. You must leave them behind, and follow Jesus – adapt and follow His teachings and His life –  in order to experience this Transformative Power.

Jesus said you must deny yourself of your personal “fleshly desires”, that is things that you lust after, the frivolous wants, likes and desires that only satisfy the ego. You must deny yourself earthly relations and pursuits and seek Him for this Power to be at work in you. Forget what this world has to offer, and spend all of yourself on Him and His Calling. Then, and only then, can His Promises be yours.

Once you have truly encountered and embraced this power a transformation will take place. The Bible says you will become a new creature, It is then that you might ask yourself, “Can I really be the man or woman who went about under my name six months or six years ago?  Was I really that person?  Could that person have possibly been me?”

And the truth is that while in one sense you are indeed the same person, yet in another sense you will be someone utterly different.

I had been a practicing, sold-out, surrendered-to-Christ, Christian for about 15 years when I read the aforementioned excerpt. It so happens that I had become disappointed with my experience of church, and with Christians.

It seemed that the Christianity I had found was little more than a religious exercise of unrealized expectations.

Sure, the Christians I met acted differently than people who did not believe or follow Jesus. But just under the surface, their “old selves” were lurking.  And too often, the “old selves” of these Christians could be lured out into the open with just a slip of the tongue or an inadvertent act.

And, I was tired of the high cost of this Westernized style of Christianity which gave a very low return.  I was tired of the excuses offered when the behavior of the “Hope” talked about did not match the promised demonstration of faith.  The miraculous I heard about had been evasive. In other words, what I was seeing within Christianity was not what I was reading in the Bible. Not even close!

Still, there was that quote, and that quote haunted me.  It was as if someone or something continued to whisper it into my mind.  It whispered the Christianity I longed for, the Christianity I so desperately needed. This haunting would not leave me.

I reasoned that I was a changed person.  I had decided to stop certain behaviors and start others.  But, I still struggled with hidden thoughts and desires.  I still had few friends outside of family.  I continued to struggle financially.  I had no confidence or courage.  My past was a constant reminder of my failures.  My future was full of uncertainty.  I clung to the promise of becoming a ‘new creature’ and the promise of heaven, but my grip was growing weak.

I was certain I had not experienced a real “deliverance”.  It was still me doing the work.

It was not that I was “looking for more” in my walk with God or from the Church. I was looking for “THE WALK” found in the Bible. I reasoned that the problem was not God or the Bible nor was it other Christians or the Church. I reasoned that the problem was with me and my understanding. I struggled to imagine that I had misunderstood the truth of the Bible, the truth about Jesus, salvation and just about everything else concerning God. I knew I could not go on playing this façade. I had to find the truth or I would give it all up. Wretched man that I had become.

I thought, “If God cannot get out of heaven and be real to me, help me, and change me right now, what earthly good was this to me?”  And, yes, I know what you must think of me by now.  But, this is how quickly I was sinking in despair.

I needed help and the Church would not or could not throw me the life ring I needed.

So, with caution and trepidation, I read this little book my wife had found in a discarded pile of books at a local church.

I could not agree with everything written in this book.  My religious training would not allow me to agree.

But as I read this excerpt and quote from a little book, and I found a staggering and life changing Truth:

The Bible is not just a book of “stories” about God, Jesus, Satan, some garden someplace named Eden, endless genealogies, the despair of sin, death and misery. Then there are the rules of “do and don’t”, hundreds upon hundreds of seemingly unrelated events, culminating with a hope of a future promise to escape God’s judgements and to live with Jesus, forever in heaven. Was I expected to know all of this and somehow conform my thinking and my life to the 1,189 chapters, 31,103 verses and 807,361 words in the Bible?

No. A thousand times no! The Bible is a love letter breathed out by God, addressed to and for every man, woman, boy and girl ever born.  It is written in a language and a style that anyone can understand if taken at face value. This is why Jesus is called the Living Word of God. He is the Logos. He is the translation we need to know and understand. And, once you understand This Hidden Truth of the Bible and learn how to apply this Truth every day, NOTHING WOULD EVER BE THE SAME.

Finally, a simple and plain language that penetrated my mind, my will and emotions and seeped deep into my soul and spirit. And everything in my life changed in amazing and wonderful ways. If fact, upon reading and absorbing the truth presented to me, I realized that this Power had been working in and around me for years, and it was only at the right time that I became aware of His presence.

My life to that point, was a life of tragedy. As a child I lived in a violent and broken home. I was passed around to family members. Once an adult, I replicated these same failures. No children of my own. A broken marriage. Poverty, sickness and failure. Then, all of that change in what seems what was a “twinkling of the eye”.

I became healthier, body, soul, mind and spirit. Our marriage was restored. I became part of a family. We had children. I found amazing success in business. I had found my greatest joy and purpose in life from My walk with God. (Please understand that all problems did not just go away. I was still living in a broken world and as Psalm 34:17-19 says, “The righteous cry out and the Lord hears and rescues them from all their troubles. The Lord is near to the broken hearted, and He saves those who are crushed in spirit. The afflictions of the righteous are numerous, but the Lord rescues us from them all”.  You do not need to live chained to that rock of human suffering any longer!

I want to share this great discovery with you.  I want to share it with everyone and anyone who is willing to hear. And for those who are hearing this for the first time, you are the fortunate ones. You have no religious clutter that must be removed before you can hear and accept what I am about to reveal. For those who have are already religious or have been in a Church for any time, you will have some extra work to do.

I will attempt to keep this simple and straight forward. So, to begin, (Please click on the link to Chapter 1, below).

Your Brother and Friend,

Mike Young.

NEXT: It Is All Good News – The Great Mystery – Chapter 1.

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