But in all of you're human reasoning, you are forgetting what God has to say. In the Old Testament, he told his people to choose life or death. He told them, "Choose you this day whom you will serve. Choose life or death, blessing or cursing." He told them they had a choice, and God is not in the habit of offering choices unless they actually exist. You have a choice. God said so.
But some found this choice too complicated. How do we serve God, they said, and they made up a lot of complicated rules about serving God. Most of these rules, or traditions, had nothing to do with what God actually wanted. In fact, Jesus said that the people were actually using their traditions as an excuse to break His laws written down in scripture. So God had to make things easier. He gave them a new choice which was really the same choice. He said, "Choose JESUS or death." You see, when you ask Jesus to come and take charge of your life, something supernatural happens. Jesus comes inside of you, and your spirit is reborn. (Your spirit was dead before, because of your sin nature, but now it has come to life.) And, in God's eyes, you are a perfect newborn baby. That doesn't mean that you will never make mistakes. Think how a newborn baby is perfectly innocent, yet he still can't walk or talk yet. This is a realistic mirror image of the babe in Christ. God sees you as His perfect son or daughter, but He still knows that you will make mistakes. You will fall down the first time you try to walk. That's OK with Him. You don't shoot your baby the first time he falls over, do you? Neither will God. You are His very own child and He watches your first steps, your first attempts at talking with Him, at reading the Bible and following His instructions. He will tenderly direct your path, and when you stumble, He will pick you up. When you're wounded by people, you can go to Him and he will heal you supernaturally. He can do things like that.
As you become more sure of yourself, he will use you to heal the lives of others. Jesus did many mighty miracles when He lived. He healed people who had deadly diseases, raised the dead back to life, and cast out demons of addiction and lust. He said that someday He would go back to Heaven, and you would do greater works than He ever did. That's God's will for your life. He went to live with God in heaven so that the Holy Spirit would come down to earth and give you the power to do all the miracles that Jesus did 2,000 years ago. And more.
But now you are finding this all too incredible, because you haven't made the first choice yet. You can't begin to fathom miracles until your spirit is reborn, and your spirit cannot be reborn unless you accept Jesus. In Romans 10:9, God says, "Anyone who invites Jesus to be their Lord, and believes that God has raised Him from the dead, will be saved." You see, you must be willing for Christ Jesus to be in charge, and you must believe that God raised Jesus from the dead 2,000 years ago. If you can believe that God would raise Jesus from the dead, then you can believe that God will raise you from the dead. That's how it works. And if you are not ashamed to talk about Jesus in front of your friends, in front of your family, then He will not be ashamed of you someday when you stand before Him in heaven.
