Why be a Christian?
Life is full of suffering that is caused by our destructive behavior. So how do we stop that behavior? The truth is we can't stop all of our destructive behavior. We can try on our own to stop some of it, and have partial success, but a lot of it still happens too often to stop the suffering. And the side effects of our attempts often cause more suffering. Discipline done improperly can cause hurt feelings, distrust, an angry attitude, self-hate, lack of self-worth, rebellion, hardness of hard, etc., etc..., which causes more destructive behavior. Lack of discipline causes the continuation of destructive behavior. The one who created everyone gives us the real answer to this dilemma. This is one of the best reasons to be a Christian. God, our creator, loves and values us so much that He sent Himself in the person of His only Son Christ Jesus, to not only fully suffer and sacrifice Himself, taking our punishment for our sin upon Himself so we don't have to suffer that punishment if we choose to believe in Him; once we believe in Him He uses His power to set us free from being slaves to our sinful, destructive nature. By His Holy Spirit, He instructs us, and coaches us, and by His help transforms us more and more into His perfectly good likeness. Only God is perfectly good, and only He can do this. But instead of making us His slaves or puppets, He gives us the choice of what we want. We can choose to believe in Christ Jesus as God has presented Him to us (which also includes believing what God, our Father in Heaven and our Savior Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit, tells us), or not believe and stay slaves to sin. I know this to be true. Before I knew God existed, He through life experiences made me want to be good to stop the suffering I was causing. I tried on my own to be good enough to stop causing suffering and failed. When God in Christ Jesus finally convinced me that He was real and perfectly good, I chose to believe in Him and therefore willingly commit myself to follow His instructions. I have, and still am, experiencing His power and help to overcome my destructive behavior(sin). Not only this but God also answers my prayers as I ask Him to remedy the suffering I have caused. Sooner or later He will release me from this sinful body and give me a new perfect body that will not have a sinful nature and take me into His perfect Kingdom. A Kingdom without suffering because then we will have been completely free of what causes suffering. God tells us all this is through His Word the Bible. This is another reason to be a Christian. "But" you may say "how do I know that this God you have spoken of is actually good?" I found out by reading about Him in the Bible, the book He wrote through the hands of men. I have already mentioned a "clue" about how perfectly good God is. Instead of just punishing us for our destructive behavior, perfect God chose to leave perfect Heaven in the form of His Son and come to earth as a man, Christ Jesus. God's Son gave up perfect Heaven to become a homeless man who was despised, and rejected, falsely accused, beaten, and put through an agonizingly torturous death in order to take our punishment upon Himself so we wouldn't have to suffer that punishment. God made it so that all we have to do to be forgiven by Him, for our sin and all the suffering it causes, is to honestly decide to not sin and believe in God. To me that shows amazingly good character! As I read the Bible more, I found out that God's way is to love your enemies, instead of hurting or kill them. I found out God's way is to help the needy, to count others more important than yourself, to forgive people instead get back at them or hold grudges. I found out that God's way is to care about people and share as much as possible. I found out that God's way is to be responsible and careful instead of irresponsible and reckless. And more wonderful things about God's character is that He, knowing we can't do this well on our own, chooses to help us successfully be good. And God forgives us not only for what we have done in the past, but for what mistakes we will make. He will never leave us or forsake us, is closer to us than a brother, and cares about every hair on our head and every tear we cry, and as long as we seek Him first, He will meet our every need.
Life is full of suffering that is caused by our destructive behavior. So how do we stop that behavior? The truth is we can't stop all of our destructive behavior. We can try on our own to stop some of it, and have partial success, but a lot of it still happens too often to stop the suffering. And the side effects of our attempts often cause more suffering. Discipline done improperly can cause hurt feelings, distrust, an angry attitude, self-hate, lack of self-worth, rebellion, hardness of hard, etc., etc..., which causes more destructive behavior. Lack of discipline causes the continuation of destructive behavior. The one who created everyone gives us the real answer to this dilemma. This is one of the best reasons to be a Christian. God, our creator, loves and values us so much that He sent Himself in the person of His only Son Christ Jesus, to not only fully suffer and sacrifice Himself, taking our punishment for our sin upon Himself so we don't have to suffer that punishment if we choose to believe in Him; once we believe in Him He uses His power to set us free from being slaves to our sinful, destructive nature. By His Holy Spirit, He instructs us, and coaches us, and by His help transforms us more and more into His perfectly good likeness. Only God is perfectly good, and only He can do this. But instead of making us His slaves or puppets, He gives us the choice of what we want. We can choose to believe in Christ Jesus as God has presented Him to us (which also includes believing what God, our Father in Heaven and our Savior Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit, tells us), or not believe and stay slaves to sin. I know this to be true. Before I knew God existed, He through life experiences made me want to be good to stop the suffering I was causing. I tried on my own to be good enough to stop causing suffering and failed. When God in Christ Jesus finally convinced me that He was real and perfectly good, I chose to believe in Him and therefore willingly commit myself to follow His instructions. I have, and still am, experiencing His power and help to overcome my destructive behavior(sin). Not only this but God also answers my prayers as I ask Him to remedy the suffering I have caused. Sooner or later He will release me from this sinful body and give me a new perfect body that will not have a sinful nature and take me into His perfect Kingdom. A Kingdom without suffering because then we will have been completely free of what causes suffering. God tells us all this is through His Word the Bible. This is another reason to be a Christian. "But" you may say "how do I know that this God you have spoken of is actually good?" I found out by reading about Him in the Bible, the book He wrote through the hands of men. I have already mentioned a "clue" about how perfectly good God is. Instead of just punishing us for our destructive behavior, perfect God chose to leave perfect Heaven in the form of His Son and come to earth as a man, Christ Jesus. God's Son gave up perfect Heaven to become a homeless man who was despised, and rejected, falsely accused, beaten, and put through an agonizingly torturous death in order to take our punishment upon Himself so we wouldn't have to suffer that punishment. God made it so that all we have to do to be forgiven by Him, for our sin and all the suffering it causes, is to honestly decide to not sin and believe in God. To me that shows amazingly good character! As I read the Bible more, I found out that God's way is to love your enemies, instead of hurting or kill them. I found out God's way is to help the needy, to count others more important than yourself, to forgive people instead get back at them or hold grudges. I found out that God's way is to care about people and share as much as possible. I found out that God's way is to be responsible and careful instead of irresponsible and reckless. And more wonderful things about God's character is that He, knowing we can't do this well on our own, chooses to help us successfully be good. And God forgives us not only for what we have done in the past, but for what mistakes we will make. He will never leave us or forsake us, is closer to us than a brother, and cares about every hair on our head and every tear we cry, and as long as we seek Him first, He will meet our every need.