Lesson 2
You're Still Here
By Dr. Robert Fieldhouse, Disciples Path Ministry – St. Augustine, Fla.
You're still here! Congratulations on making it to Lesson 2! Don't make light of those opening sentences. You had a choice and decided to take another step forward. I wonder if your decision came about by that little nudge from God. Okay - ready? Let's go!
The question I pose to you is, "Does the God of the Bible exist?" Also, "Do you genuinely believe in the God of the Bible?" After some discussion and reflection, you decided the answer to both questions was yes, I assume, and hope. However, you have many questions. A positive outcome from your decision to believe in God was that you now have questions for God, but not so much about God. You know that knowing about someone is not the same as knowing someone. We agreed that to know someone and not simply know about someone demands that we must have a conscious personal relationship with them. Armed with that knowledge and understanding, let's take another step forward. Here is an example of a way to start strengthening your conscious personal relationship with Him. Talk to Him in the morning before your day begins. It only takes a couple of weeks before doing the same thing the same way becomes a habit. Allow me to share the first step that helped me and has helped many more who also struggled at the beginning of their journey.
Find a comfortable, safe, quiet space. Close your eyes, take a few breaths, and clear your mind as best as possible. Until you find your own words, may I offer these to you? When you feel the time is as good as it will get, open your eyes and slowly read the following as if God were physically right there with you, holding your hand.
God, before I start this day, I surrender my emotions to You. I want You to be the LORD of my feelings. I want You to control my mind and my emotions. I surrender my heart to You. I want You to fill me with Your love. I ask all this in the Name of Christ Jesus – Amen.
As you continue your journey, strengthening your relationship with Jesus, your own words will come to you. Write them down and date them in your journal. What journal? Well, that discussion will come soon. For now, write them, date them, and keep them safe. Always remember that there is no right or wrong way to talk to God right now. He knows your heart and understands you are trying your best to have a conscious personal relationship with Him.
Further, He hears your words, even when words are not spoken aloud. He sees inside your heart. When talking or praying, I often must ask Him to look inside my heart because I am at a loss for the words to describe what I am trying to say to Him. God knows us better than we can even know ourselves. Keep that last sentence in mind as we continue through these lessons. As you keep studying, you will discover that God knowing us better than we know ourselves is such a powerful Blessing. Later, we will discuss how even when we can't talk for one reason or another, His Holy Spirit speaks or intercedes for us. It is all about your sincerity. However, let's move on for now and for this lesson.
Should you decide to continue your Biblical studies, you will be introduced to one of the authors of Scripture who actually walked, ate, slept with, and Jesus personally invited Him to follow, record, and learn from Him to continue His work after He had to leave this realm. I hope and pray to introduce you to Him because he is my favorite. As you will learn in this lesson, he deeply affected me, answered my questions, and showed me how simple all this can be in just a few Verses! The back story of the Verses will be explained in detail later, but for now, we will reflect on those Verses. Everything in the Bible, as well as everything we must know to have our conscious personal relationship with Christ Jesus, is found in the following words:
The author wrote, 37 "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Mt. 22:37-40).
I must admit that initially, I got stuck on part of this, so it took me a while before God clarified the issue for me. This is the part that hung me up - with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. My mistake was taking the words literally. In other words, as explained in the ESV Study Bible, these "do not represent rigid compartments of human existence, but rather refer to the whole person." Jesus was saying it that way so we would learn. He was explaining that we must fully and completely love the LORD, our God, with every bit of our being. Once we can do that one thing, the rest falls into place for us. Now, let's look at where we are on this journey.
You believe the God of our Bible exists. You genuinely believe in the God of our Bible.You know that God loves you no matter what you have ever said, done, or even thought.You have questions for God that must be answered. You now understand that to get your questions answered, you must first have a conscious personal relationship with Him.
You know that to have a relationship with anyone, you must spend time with them, which takes effort and commitment.
You know that, at least for now, listening with an open mind and heart is crucial. You now know that everything will begin to make sense once you make the conscious decision in your heart, mind, and soul to love God completely.
Think of all that this way. By accepting everything so far and by making your honest commitment to love God with all your heart, mind, and soul, you have everything to gain and nothing to lose in the reality you exist in presently. Jesus once told one of his Disciples, 29 "You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen yet have believed" (Jn. 20:29).
Before we can expect to move any further on this journey and make significant progress, you must comprehend what has been presented so far. What we have discussed up to this point is the most challenging part to wrap your head around. Nope! It's not all that exciting, funny, or entertaining, but the foundation must be solid. I aim to help steer you around all the stones I tripped on while traveling down this path. Nothing you are trying to learn here will be easy, but it is simple! Can you figure out why I can say that yet?
Disciples Path Ministry - St. Augustine, Florida