In the introduction, I made an analogy that would compare a new Christian to a shiny new car with many exciting features to explore and enjoy. But I think maybe we should adjust the picture just a little and see that beautiful new car as your new Christian life. In part 1, I pointed out the need to have the discipline to consult the owner's manual. In case anyone would have missed it, your owners manual, the instructions for operating this outstanding vehicle manufactured by God, is your Bible. In His infinite wisdom, our Lord has covered every possible situation and subject for living successfully with Him in this book. If you're reading this, I'm assuming that you had the faith to make that first step by believing in Christ, confessing that you were a sinner and asking Him to be your Savior. So if you had the faith in Him to do that, now have the faith to believe that He has the infinite wisdom to cover every one of life's situations and circumstances in His Living Word. The directions for operating every feature of this new life and for navigating every road that brings you closer to Him are in this book.
You might be thinking to yourself, this is great! I have a new life in Christ, the sins of my past are gone and I have a new hope for an exciting future beyond anything I've known so far. On top of that, now I have an instruction manual to tell me how it all works! But how do I make this thing move? Where's the key??? Well, remember this vehicle was fashioned by a far greater mentality and intelligence than ours. It can't be hot wired and it's systems can't be circumvented. It's a heavenly vehicle unlike anything you've owned before - it's alien to this world. Remember? There's only one key that makes it all work and I'll show it to you. But the choice to use it or not is purely yours. If you use it, you'll soon realize that you've started something so wonderful that you'll never want to live without it again. But it will cost you something. In fact over time, it may cost you many things you think are precious to you right now. But if you haven't walked with our God, the chances are from very good to outrageously excellent that you have no idea what precious really is. Sounds a little discomforting right now doesn't it? But I know from experience and can testify to the fact that for everything He requires of us, He gives us something far more excellent and precious in return. He may ask you for your lucky drivers hat. Something that you've worn for years and that you're extremely fond of. You might wear it with pride every where you go and might even sleep with it at night. But He may ask you for it, and if He asks you for it, He'll also give you eyes to eventually see it for the rag that it really is and in it's place He'll give you a crown! It might sound a little disconcerting to give up things that you're used to, but when you discover what you get in return, you'll realize that it's far beyond "worth it". That is if you're really serious and are willing to the use the key.
For many of us, a large part of our Christian walk involves unlearning many of the values and ideas we've picked up while walking around in the world. Our Lord's enemy, who is indeed ours also, has created a wonderland around us of cheap imitations for every good thing our Lord offers. Each of them is designed to distract us or mislead us along the road of life. In fact, let's get right to the core of his intentions, he'd like to get us to drive off the road - he wants to destroy us! We're born into a world that has had centuries of satan's negative influence. It pervades so many aspects of the world's thinking and it has a lot of influence in limiting Christians, and robbing them of their identity in Christ. From infancy we begin to learn the facts of life - things that just are. These are the laws of nature and reality in the world that as we grow - we come to know as limitations that we are bound by. If you do this one thing, that will happen every time. What goes up, must come down. It's the order of things in the world, it's the reality of life. We've learned so many things that our knowledge of the world in this age is vast. We've visited the moon and sent spacecraft to Mars. We've learned to use the power of an atom and harvested many of the sources of energy and power that we've discovered in the earth and believe that we know for the most part how they work.
But, there's a problem with all of this "knowledge"... the God that we know created all of these things that we've come to have such great knowledge of. Our God made it all! He wrote all of natures laws into existence, but He's not limited by them. Nor is He limited by our "knowledge". OK, so what's the problem? I would suggest that our intellect is the problem. What we know limits what we know. We either know too much or too little. I know, I'm sounding a little crazy, but consider this: until we "know" beyond any limitation of other thought that our God can do anything in spite of the laws of this world or of nature - we're incomplete in our realization of the truth. As human beings, we've become so arrogant in our "knowledge", that we now have to struggle to believe the real truth of what our God can do and has told us that He will do if we do our part. This is where that word discipline really begins to kick in.
You're probably thinking by now that I'm beginning to wander all over the road in this conversation, but I do have a point and I'm about to bring it home. Our great and awesome God made the rules for eveything, including how we must live and what we must do. There's only one way to get where you want to go - His way! The bible is full of our gracious Lord's promises, but most often you'll notice that they're predicated by something. In other words, you will notice that there are a lot of repreated phrases: "if you", "if my people will ... then I will", "if they ... then I will. Even you're salvation in Christ is based on a requirement - you must first believe. If it hasn't completely sunk in yet, let me help - WE'RE NOT IN CHARGE! He's given us the freedom of choice, but in reality what we're choosing is either His way - which leads to the fulfillment of all of His promises, or our own way which will lead to our certain eternal death. But always remember that if you choose His way, never doubt or contend with the fact that it is His way. You do have another choice, but let's call it what it is - the other choice is the highway ... to hell.
Oh yeah ... the key! I guess you're probably wondering about that. The one thing that makes it all begin to work. You might be beginning to understand, but let me spell it out for you to make sure: o-b-e-d-i-e-n-c-e...
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