Your Life Is Not An Accident

“For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.”
Isaiah 45:18

“…before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me…”
Isaiah 43:10

Life is not an accident.

Evolution would reduce people to being nothing more than a monkey with debts but God has elevated you to being a child of His.

When the Bible says ‘Father’, it is a literal translation – we are meant to have a father \ child relationship with the Lord and you were meant to enjoy that relationship, not with some far off god, not with a remote, distant concept of what you believe god should be but the one true personal God that loves you above all else.

In John 1:18 we are described as ‘the most important of all things made’. In Psalm 17:8 we are described as ‘the apple of His eye’.

“Before I formed thee in the [womb] I knew thee…”
Jeremiah 1:5

“Long before He laid down the Earth’s foundations, He had us in mind.”
Ephesians 1:4

The Bible says that God made us in His own image. He has feelings the same way we do. He knows us, He understands us and He loves us.

Like any parent, He wants the very best for His children. But, as any parent will tell you, a child’s own free will can often be their undoing.

We went astray. We didn’t want to do things our Father’s way – we wanted our own way.

Our Father created us with the intention of having eternal life. Like any responsible parent, the rules of the house had to be laid out and the consequences of breaking those rules had to be clearly stated.

Despite that, we wanted to do our own thing so badly and with so little thought for the consequences that we broke those rules, and through our own actions, introduced physical death into the world. Our bodies, that were meant to last an eternity, now grow old and frail.

The Bible uses the term sin when we fall short of God’s ideal for us. The Bible makes it clear that we have all, without exception, fallen short at sometime.

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”
Romans 3:23

To sin means death and not just a physical death but a spiritual death as well. Sin separates you for all eternity from God because He will not allow sin to enter Heaven.

We knew what the rules were and what the consequences of breaking them so we can’t blame somebody else or shirk the responsibility.

If we have all sinned and sin means you can’t get to Heaven then Heaven must be a pretty empty place then, right?

There is one way you can deal with your sin.

If sinning equals death then what if somebody else died in your place for your sin so your slate could be wiped clean?

Your Father in heaven had a plan to deal with the consequences of your actions and save you from your sin and the question we must now ask ourselves is this;

“What must I do to be saved?”
Acts 16:30

God sent His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.

Jesus showed people what God was all about. He healed the sick, He fed the hungry and He was a friend and comforter to the lonely and most isolated of society.

Christ came to die on a cross for all the sins of man. He took every sin on His own head and died for that sin so you would not have to.

Christ himself did not sin – not once in His life. For Christ wasn’t a reflection of God in the same way we are – Christ was much more than that.

“Those that have seen me have seen the Father”
John 14:9

He was a perfect sacrifice for you and me and took the death due to us on himself and died on the cross.

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 6:23

Because He had never sinned death could not hold him and He rose on the third day. That resurrection saw the completion of God’s plan to deal with your sin.

If you will accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour then, thanks to the sacrifice that the Lord made for you, your sin can be forgiven and your slate wiped clean.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
John 3:16

We live in a society today that teaches us that all roads lead to God but God never said that. The Bible makes it clear that there is no other way to deal with the problem of sin.

“Jesus said… I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me.”
John 14:6

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not in the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God remains on him.”
John 3:36

You cannot buy your way in. You cannot talk your way in. You cannot earn your way in by good works.

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us…”
Titus 3:5

Jesus Christ is the ONLY way.

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved”
Acts 16:31

“He that believes on him is not condemned: but he that does not believe is condemned already…”
John 3:18

There is a story in the Bible of the Prodigal Son. His father was a very rich man and whilst the son enjoyed the trappings of his father’s wealth, he felt his older brother was getting more attention than he was and didn’t like it.

One day he asks his father for his share of the family wealth and then he takes himself as far away from his fathers home as he could get and blows it all on the mother of all non-stop parties. The Bible describes it as ‘wild’ or ‘riotous’ living. You can just imagine what somebody young, incredibly rich and desperate to have as much decadent fun as he could, might get up to.

But eventually the wild living caught up with him. Eventually the money ran out. When the money ran out so did his ability to throw wild parties. When he couldn’t throw wild parties his friends deserted him. He then couldn’t even afford the basics. He ended up sleeping rough, trying to earn a meagre pittance by hiring himself out to care for a stranger’s pigs. It got so bad he actually tried to help himself to some of what the pig was eating.

At some point while he was living like this he must of realised what a horrible mistake he made. I bet he thought back to the times spent at his father’s house much more fondly now. While he was picking through the straw and filth on his hands and knees, marshalling the pigs around, he must have thought that dad’s rules weren’t so bad after all.

So he decides he can’t live that way any more. He realised that what he did was wrong and that he had messed up big time. So he heads for home to see if he can repair the damage he has done and fix the relationship with his father.

You can only wonder what was going to through the son’s mind as he saw his father’s house some distance off. For all he knew his father was going to frog march straight off the estate as soon as he got to the front door, reminding him what a disappointment he was as a son. Maybe his father wouldn’t talk to him at all and simply ignore him.

While the son was still a distance from the house, his father caught sight of him. And his father’s reaction? He ran to greet him, throwing his arms around him – he had his son back safe and sound. The son apologised for what he had done but the father was just glad to have him back where he belonged – home safely with his father.

So it is with God. He doesn’t care where you have been or what you have done. What’s past is past. There is nothing you could have done to make your Father in heaven love you any less. One character in the Bible, King David, was a murderer, adulterer and a liar yet later on God would describe him as a ‘man after my own heart’ – there isn’t such a thing as a point of no return with God. All He wants is to see you, His child, safely home.

If you want to have that relationship with God and want your sin problem dealt with, then I would ask you to pray this prayer:

“Father, I come before you as I am with all my faults, problems and addictions in the knowledge that I have lived a life that has excluded you and my sins have separated me from you.

I am truly sorry, and now I want to turn away from my past sinful life toward you.

Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again.

I believe that your son, Jesus Christ died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer.

I invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward.

Please send your Holy Spirit to help me obey You, and to do Your will for the rest of my life.

In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.”

If you prayed that prayer then may I be the first to welcome you home.

As a way to grow closer to Him, may I suggest that you spend some time each day on prayer – talk to God as you would a close friend and father. Trust me, nothing you have to tell God will shock Him and no skeleton in your closet will ever change the way he feels about you.

Get in the habit of reading the Bible. Start with the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. This will give you a good grounding.

Find a local church where you can worship God and where fellow believers will be able to answer questions and support.

God bless you...