Copyright 2004 by Review and Herald Publishing Association All rights reserved

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2 Copyright 2004 by Review and Herald Publishing Association All rights reserved The author assumes full responsibility for the accuracy of all facts and quotations as cited in this book. Bible texts credited to Amplified are from The Amplified Bible, Old Testament copyright 1965, 1987 by the Zondervan Corporation. The Amplified New Testament copyright 1958, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Texts credited to Message are from The Message. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. Texts credited to NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. Texts credited to NKJV are from The New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Bible texts credited to NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. Bible texts credited to RSV are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1946, 1952, 1971, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. Verses marked TLB are taken from The Living Bible, copyright 1971 by Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, Ill. Used by permission. This book was Edited by Andy Nash Copyedited by James Cavil Designed by Freshcut Design Cover art by Lars Justinen Typeset: Bembo 12/14 PRINTED IN U.S.A R&H Cataloging Service Venden, Lee, It s all about Him 1. Christian life. I. Title ISBN

3 This book is dedicated to MARJI, my life companion whose consistent example of turning to God as readily as the flower turns toward the sun, is an ongoing inspiration to me. There are many fine women in the world, but you are the best of them all! A woman who fears and reverences God Shall be greatly praised. Proverbs 31:28-30.

4 Contents No Other Message It s Who You Know Born Twice? Time Well Spent! Be Still and Know Tell What You Know Who Wants to Fight? A Friend Indeed! Jesus: The Same Yesterday, Today, and Forever Appendix A

5 Introduction Have you ever wondered how to really give God your heart, surrender your will, develop a personal relationship with Jesus, be born again? It is one thing to know the terms, the theology, and the rules (information about God), but it can be an altogether different thing to actually know God. It s All About Him is a book on how to get to know Jesus. It shows you how a personal relationship with Jesus is the sum and substance of the Christian life. More than that, it offers tangible, practical, plain-english suggestions on how to develop and/or maintain a meaningful friendship with Jesus. It is a hands-on book that addresses the nuts and bolts, the nitty-gritty, of developing a meaningful devotional life and ministry with Christ. Chapter 1: Love relationships always involve two people. This chapter considers a personal relationship between God and you from God s point of view. Not Do you need God? but Does God need you? Chapter 2: The case from Scripture that Christianity, at its core, is not about what you do, but who you know. Chapter 3: The need for conversion and how to experience it. Chapter 4: A practical recipe for experiencing a meaningful devotional life as one of the key ingredients in a personal relationship with God. Chapter 5: How prayer is not dialing 911 but primarily commu-

6 nion with God. Also, practical suggestions on how to experience two-way communion when talking with Him. Chapter 6: Why sharing Jesus with others is essential to maintaining a personal relationship with God. How the Christian witness benefits God, others, and you. What witness is, and what it is not, and how to be an effective witness. Chapter 7: How to deal with one of Satan s most effective weapons discouragement over personal failure and apparent lack of spiritual growth. How Jesus fights for us and our part in overcoming. Chapter 8: The matchless friendship of Jesus and how He provides for every need of ours. Chapter 9: Jesus is not only personally interested in each one of us, but He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. A little girl once wrote C. S. Lewis telling how she loved his Narnia series. She mentioned having a particular fondness for Aslan (the lion) because he reminded her so much of Jesus whom she loved dearly. She then went on to say that she had tried reading some of Lewis s theological works and had gotten quite bogged down. She concluded by asking him if he could help clear up some of her confusion regarding those books. Scholar, writer, and professor though he was, Lewis took the time to reply to the young girl. After telling her how pleased he was to know that she loved Jesus, he told her not to worry about understanding the other books. Because, he concluded, as long as Jesus is your friend, I am certain that nothing too bad will ever happen to you. We can be friends with God. He is coming back for His friends, and He has made Himself responsible for seeing that we re ready to go home with Him. With a friend like that, it s not difficult to see how even the worst circumstances will ultimately have a happy ending. What a friend we have in Jesus!

7 1 No Other Message Afew years ago I attended a concert given by Michael Card, a Christian songwriter and musician that I consider noteworthy (no pun intended) because of his steady focus on Jesus. Perhaps my favorite work of his is entitled The Life, a two-album set on the life of Jesus from the cradle to His final coronation. At the concert Card came on stage and played his first song which was about Jesus. When he finished that song, he told the audience, All of the songs are going to be about Him tonight. There is really no one else worth singing about. His conclusion reminds me of Colossians 1:16-23, as paraphrased by Eugene Peterson in The Message. Everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment..... He was supreme in the beginning and leading the resurrection parade he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe people and things, animals and atoms get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death.... By giving himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to God s side.... You don t walk away from a gift like that! You stay grounded and steady in that 11

8 It s All About Him! bond of trust, constantly tuned in to the Message [Christ], careful not to be distracted or diverted. There is no other Message just this one. Every creature under heaven gets this same Message. There is no other message, just this one. It s all about Him! It starts with Him, it ends with Him, and He is everything in between. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus! That s why I like the song More About Jesus. More about Jesus I would know, More of His grace to others show; More of His saving fullness see, More of His love who died for me. More, more about Jesus, More, more about Jesus; More of His saving fullness see, More of His love who died for me. It s all about Him! There is no other message, just this one. Jesus! Only Jesus! It reminds me of a bumper sticker: After Alaska, everything else just looks like Texas. It inspires me to say, After Jesus, everything else is hardly worth talking about! It s all about Him, and it keeps coming back to this one thing: Jesus and His Father just want to be friends with you and me. In fact, the Old Testament and the New Testament could fairly accurately be boiled down to one question: God asking Can we be friends? That was His plan from the beginning; that s why He created Adam and Eve. He wanted to enlarge His family circle for love and friendship. Unfortunately, Adam and Eve thought it best to break up. When I was younger, guys and girls who were romantically involved were referred to as going steady. Then, if the romance ended, it was known as breaking up. Adam and Eve decided it would be best if they broke up with God. Breaking Up Is Hard to Do Has anybody ever broken up with you? How did it feel? I can remember my first girlfriend. Kathy and I became special friends toward the end of eighth grade. An evangelist came to our town to 12

9 present a series of meetings in a local church, and Kathy asked her parents if they would drop her off to attend those meetings. I asked my parents the same thing (our parents were delighted we had such an interest in attending religious meetings). And those were wonderful meetings! I remember sitting at the back of the church in a room intended for parents of small, restless children. It had a glass window that looked into the sanctuary, and a speaker that piped in the sound, but it was really quite private. Kathy and I sat side by side on folding metal chairs in this dimly lit room. Music played as a chalk artist did a special drawing at the front of the church, which he showed off under black light as he completed it. The main house lights were dimmed in order for the audience to get the full effect of the blacklit picture, and it was during those magic moments that my right hand bumped into Kathy s left hand. Before either of us quite knew how it happened, we found ourselves holding hands. I ll never forget the electrical charge that raced from my neck down my spine as we touched! I had no idea that holding a girl s hand could do such a thing to a guy! Oh, those were wonderful meetings! I think we made it to every one in the series. We finished off our eighth-grade year and continued our romance through the summer. Kathy had an Old English sheepdog, and when I d visit we took it for walks in her neighborhood. We both had Honda 90 motorcycles but were not old enough to ride them on the street, so our parents would take us to high school parking lots where we would ride together. Romance! But summer ended, and so did our romance as we arrived in high school and I watched Kathy walk off into the sunset with Jim Bargas. I don t remember very many names from that school year, but I remember Jim Bargas! He was a tall sophomore who had a driver s license and his own car. Heartbreak! I hadn t known romance could send a shock down your spine, nor did I know that it could fracture your heart as well. I was so deeply hurt over that breakup that it was two years before I had courage enough to pursue romance. This time the relationship lasted nearly two years, with an ending that caught me by surprise. One 13 No Other Message

10 It s All About Him! Friday evening I noticed Greg s car in front of Lori s house as I came to visit. I naively assumed that he was there to visit one of Lori s three sisters. Shortly after I arrived, however, Greg said good night and left me alone with Lori, who snuggled up to me and said, ever so tenderly, I think that it would be best if we were just friends. When a girl tells a guy that she just wants to be friends, he needs to understand that what she means is: Please don t come to see me anymore, don t call me, don t write me, don t send me gifts or flowers, don t hang around with my friends, don t talk to me at school... because I just want to be friends. I went home that night so devastated that instead of going to bed, I went into my parents room and stood beside their bed until my mother woke up and asked me what was wrong. Tearfully I told her that Lori had just broken up with me and that I didn t know what I was going to do. As I stood there, broken, in the darkness, my mother gently and tenderly comforted me with these words: Lee, there are other fish in the sea. Would you have felt comforted by that? I wasn t even a fisherman, and I had no interest in the sea. Heartbroken! I remember going to the library to study for a test and being unable to concentrate because I kept remembering the times I had studied there with Lori. I tried going for a drive, but I was ambushed by the memory of Lori riding in the passenger seat. I thought perhaps a walk in the forest might help, but found myself remembering similar walks with Lori. Breaking up is devastating! I tried to win her back with a poem and a flower. I still remember the last stanza in the poem: So goodbye, but before I finally depart, Let me tell you, you still have a piece of my heart. It s only a piece, just a small little token, But pieces don t happen unless things get broken. 14