WITHIN REACH
If you haven’t seen some of our promotional materials this month, we have a book called THE GOOD NEWS that is FREE for the entire month of March! Once April fools comes, it ain’t no joke, it’ll go back to $10.00! So check out indoubt.ca and get yourself your free copy before the month is over!
I wanted to share with you an excerpt from the book to give you a little window to what it’s all about, and how the Good News of Jesus is not as far away from you as you may think! Here’s my personal story of the Good News in my life from the last chapter of our new book!
Growing up in a Christian home, I always assumed God was far away. I thought He was a “set it and forget it” God who created me, then stepped back and focused on other things. I also thought that heaven was a place where people just eating Philadelphia cream cheese chilling on the clouds. Praise the Lord that both ideas are not true, especially since I am lactose intolerant!
We’ve seen throughout this book that the Good News of Jesus changes everything. Jesus came, lived a blameless life, died on a cross paying the penalty that we deserved, then rose from the grave, conquering sin and death once and for all. This moment in history invites change for our lives on so many levels. When we put our hope and trust in Him, we get new hearts, our desires change, communities are affected and creation anticipates something new because of it.
MY STORY
It’s easy to assume, like I have done in the past, that God is far away; that the stories of Jesus are ancient and the work He did on the cross is irrelevant in today’s culture. I’ve learned over the years that the opposite is in fact true. God started working in my life when I was a young adult in my early years of university. I always heard about God growing up and attended church with my parents as often as they could drag me out of bed. My parents are truly my heroes. I am so grateful to God for them. Anyways, as a young punk, I never wanted to be there. I always thought I was too cool for church. I would often sit in the bathroom and wait for the music portion of the service to end, then come back into the sanctuary to doodle on a bulletin while I waited for the preacher to stop preaching. It wasn’t until grade 12 that I wanted to go to church on my own. I drove to a different city, parked in a church parking lot that I’ve never been to, walked up to the balcony and waited for the service to start. I honestly look back and wonder how I even found that church or why I wanted to go in the first place. In hindsight, it was because of this truth: God was closer than I thought. He was drawing near to me when I assumed He was high up in the clouds focusing on other things. He was calling me by name to follow Him. In that service I committed my life to Christ. I remember the pastor saying, “Think of all your talents and offer them to the Lord.” For some reason I put my hand up and said to God, “Lord use me in music.” I quickly put my hand down because I had never played an instrument in my life. In fact, like I mentioned, I would always sneak out during the musical portion of the service and wait in the bathroom because, again, I thought I was too cool. The next day I got an email from a guy I’d never met who got my contact from my mom. He mentioned that he wanted to teach me guitar. He ended the email with, “I don’t teach people for money, I teach people who want to use their talents to glorify God.” My eyes were open to the reality that God was so much closer than I thought. I’ve been running, but He kept chasing. I kept pushing Him away, yet He kept pursuing even more. He never gave up on me. The moment I stopped running and turned around to face Him, I was showered with love, grace, forgiveness and peace. It truly was Good News for my soul.
WHAT’S YOUR STORY?
God pursues you too. He continues to chase after you. To draw near to you. He never leaves you. He never forsakes you. These are promises that are repeated in Scripture. You don’t have to look far and wide to find Him. He isn’t off in the distance. He’s closer than your very breath. You see, going all the way back to Genesis at the beginning of the Bible, God had a warning to Cain, Adam and Eve’s son. If he didn’t do what was acceptable to God, sin would be crouching at the door (Gen 4:7). That is the bad news we discussed throughout this book. But there is good news for your story, just like there was for mine. Someone else is at your door. In Revelation, the last book of the Bible, we read Jesus saying these words:
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Rev 3:20).
The question for you in this moment is this: who are you going to open the door to? Who are you going to let into your heart?
Where are you at right now as you read this? Are you running away from Him? Running towards Him? Casually walking in the opposite direction, hoping that He never gets in your way? I pray for you. I pray that you open the door of your heart, and invite Jesus in. Let the GOOD NEWS of Christ dwell in you richly. Let Him not only change your life forever, but be a light in your community and your world to change and inspire others to follow suit.
PRAYER
Maybe you feel a prompting in your heart to accept this Good News for the first time. Maybe you hear Jesus knocking at the door of your heart right now. I want to encourage you to open the door. Romans 10:9-10 (ESV) says, “…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”
I encourage you in this moment to pray this simple prayer to open the door of your heart:
Dear Jesus, thank you for this truly good news. Thank you for forgiving me of my sin. I confess with my mouth that You are the Lord and I believe in my heart in the beautiful power of the Resurrection. I ask you to be the Lord of my life. In Jesus name, Amen.
Welcome to the family of God! The angels rejoice and are celebrating YOU right now! Please connect with us, we’d love to resource you and help you navigate what your next steps look like! We truly look forward to hearing from you!
