If it works for you?

I get the opportunity to share some of my story in schools, prisons, events and it is a real honour. I don't get to do this because I am anyone special, far from it, I get to do it because I have had my life completely transformed by a living God. I have moved from the position of God being a possibility to having experienced him and seen him at work in my life.
I often get the response to this something like this, that's good for you mate, I'm pleased that has worked for you, whatever works I guess. I even read a newspaper article yesterday that advocated going to religion to help with mental health issues, stating if it works why not. This is so much of the culture that we live in, the message is truth is found within yourself, what works for one wont work for another, it is relative to each person.
This is so dangerous and so illogical when we use this theory on other areas of our lives, imagine me saying I don't think jumping out of this plane will mean I crash to the floor I will just float, another says you will sprout wings, another says you will softly hit the floor. Does what those people think or feel change the situation, the truth is that they will all hit the floor at breakneck speed. The thing you and I do before we jump out of that plane is find out what the truth is, we begin to understand gravity, that a parachute is probably the best method for reaching the ground safely. We conduct some tests, we watch others, we examine the evidence and we then feel certain we have it right, we excercise some faith to jump out of the plane.
This is logical, so we need to apply the same logic to our own lives. You see we are all in a plane and that plane is going to crash (death) we need to decide what method is best going to take us through this crash, we need to find that parachute. Some people are going to come to you and say so many different things, you need to weigh up the evidence, listen to the experience of others who are jumping or who have jumped, you need to find out the truth. There is only one method that will get you out of plane safely and that is to slow you down to such an extent that you don't hit the floor with a crash that kills you.
Jesus Christ is your parachute he is the one who came to rescue you, can I challenge you to start thinking about some of these questions;

Where did we come from?
Where do our morals come from?
Why is there so much suffering in the world?
Why is there so much order in created things?
Why was there so many predictions about Jesus Christ before he ever walked the earth?
Why was Jesus able to do so many miracles?
Why is there so much evidence for Jesus, in written form, in archeaology, in human experience?
Why is there something missing in our lives, this eternal hunger for something more?
Why has the Bible never been proved wrong in thousands of years yet so many other things, theories just come and go?

There are answers to these questions, the real question is do you want to hear them?
georgeosborn@avantiministries.com

Sand & Rock

I have not long been a Christian in real terms, about 4 years now. One of the things I always used to think prior to becoming a Christian was how sure life seemed. It seemed obvious to me that there was probably no God, that we were some random accident, we die and turn to dust and there you have it. So why do I believe the polar opposite to this now?
One of the things I noticed since being a Christian is how my previous beliefs were very often simply what others thought and what others had told me. There is a general agreement in the western world that we are merley matter, to be honest that is a very comfortable thought that way I don't have to think about my behaviour and I can do exactly what I want when I want! However I soon realised that I was excercising a set of beliefs based on what I thought was the truth and really I had never examined the evidence for what I believed, just kinda hopped on the band wagon and agreed with whatever the culture said. Then as I looked into Christianity I realised there was a wealth of evidence here, a wealth of experience of millions of Christians and that these beliefs had not changed since the dawn of time. I looked back at my own beliefs and saw how often I had changed what a I thought depending on whatever philoshpy had blown my way, in fact when I looked back 100 years I saw how differently everyone thought, then again I looked back another 100 years and sure enough the culture thought something else and so it went on. The thing I noticed is that Christianity hadn't changed, sure there was some mild change but the core of the message was that we are sinners in trouble and Christ has come to resuce us if we turn to him. I realised that my belief prior to Christianity was an act of faith, ie. trusting something without having 100% proof. Then I saw that we all have faith in something, whatever our world view is. I then came pretty quickly to the conlcusion that there was just soooo much evidence for Christ and what he did that I couldn't run away anymore. Have you investigated the claims of Christ? If not, drop me a line, I would love to help you do that, Jesus said build your life on me the rock not on sand that is ever shifting with time....your life depends on it! georgeosborn@avantiministries.com