What’s your purpose? What’s your goal? What drives you in the life?

If you don’t know the answers to these questions, you will wander aimlessly in life. A few blogs ago, I described the way that I came to know Jesus, began to love Him and decided to follow Him with my life. Speaking of which, the best I can see, this is the aim, the purpose, the goal of everyone who calls Jesus, Lord and Savior. I say it this way for my life. I want to know, love and follow Jesus in community. As I read through the Bible, this is the aim of all believers. To know, love and follow Jesus in community.

Knowing Jesus. In order that we may know Jesus, we must begin by putting our faith in Him. He left the majesty of Heaven from all eternity to enter our miserable experience on this earth (in comparison). He became one of us. He was 100% man. (also 100% God) He experienced everything we experience. He taught us how to live. He lived a sinless life. Then he went to the cross to pay the price for our sins since we have all sinned and fallen short of His glory. He died on a cross, crucified for our sins and if we put our faith and trust in Him, he will forgive us of our sins, purify from all unrighteousness and make us clean once again. He adopts us into his family, makes us new, and fills us with his Holy Spirit. This experience when we put our faith and trust in Him is the beginning of knowing Jesus. We begin to know Him personally. Yes, anyone can read the Bible, learn facts about the person of Jesus, but to know Him personally we must begin with a personal relationship that begins with faith and trust in Him for redemption and new life.

As a believer, Jesus goes with us everywhere we go in the form of the Holy Spirit. He lives within us. He empowers us. He enable us to live for Him. He teaches us new things all the time, if we will listen. Speaking of listening, if we want to know Jesus, we must be willing to listen to Him. Just as we go through life learning what it means to be human or a part of our family or a US citizen from our experiences, we learn what it means to be a son or daughter of Christ. We learn what it means to be a part of the family of God. We learn what it means to live according to love and the spirit instead of by rules and regulations. If we want to know Jesus, we must listen to Him through the Word. We must read his love letter, the Bible so that we may know the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and how they interact and share their love with us. We must listen when we pray. We must listen when the more mature and those gifted teach. We must listen in our communities of faith. We must listen through our experiences as we go through life so that we do not miss valuable lessons that the Father wants to teach us. Then, we will begin to know Him.

There are many challenges we have in knowing Jesus. Too often, we depend on others and know Jesus only by what others say or teach. While it is very helpful to allow others to teach us and tell us about Jesus, the amazing part of the Christian life is that we can know Him personally and directly. Sit down by yourself and read the Bible. Pray and talk to Jesus. Be sure to listen to what He might say as you meditate on His Word. This is an amazing opportunity to know Him personally. Spend time in personal worship. Spend time journaling to Him about your experiences and how you would love for Him to interact with you. Never neglect your personal relationship for the poor substitute of hearing about someone else’s relationship. However, once you grow and develop your personal relationship, you can continue to know Jesus through other believers who also know Him. After all, God has gifted others with the gift of teaching, preaching, prophecy and the like.

Our first goal, challenge, purpose in life is to know Jesus. Without doing that, we lose the ability to love and follow Him. More on those in the next few blogs. Today, ask yourself, how am I getting to know Jesus better? How am I taking advantage of the opportunity to spend time with Him? How am I neglecting that? What do I need to do to put first things first?

Ever feel lost?

If you are a man, the answer to this question is of course, “No.” Not that we ever admit anyway. However, if we have any years to our lives, it’s probably inevitable that we’ve felt lost a time or two. Of course, I’m not talking about navigating our way to a particular destination, but more navigating our way in life.

Here is the great part, if we know Jesus, He will direct our paths. It’s like having constant GPS built in and it never runs low on battery!

Remember back in the day, pulling out a big old 80 page Atlas??? I loved that thing. Folded it in half and put it between the seat and console in my 1987 Toyota MR2. I would scour through that thing, planning my route and keeping a close eye on it as I drove to my destination.

When GPS started becoming popular, I pushed back at first even though I love new technology. I wasn’t sure I could trust it. Ironic for a guy who imagined in August of 1991 while driving to college with the dream of becoming a computer programmer, wouldn’t it be neat if you could type in your destination and hit search and it would find the best route for you?!? If only.

However, I also was hesitant to accept this new technology for another reason. As you drove, you could only see the next step in your journey. You couldn’t see the next 8 turns down the road and your final destination. You could only see the immediate road ahead of you and the next turn.

That takes trust. I have felt lost time and again using GPS, but I’ve never actually been lost. That’s the great thing about knowing Jesus. He will direct your path. Day by day, turn by turn. If you follow Him, He will direct your path. You may not know how many turns to your destination, but you can be sure He knows where He is taking you and you can trust the directions.

If you ever feel lost, just check your life to see if you are following Jesus. If so, you might feel lost, but you are always found and on the right path to an incredible destination.