What are the two big obstacles to our living a fulfilled life?  Psychologists have arrived at this answer and we ourselves know in our hearts that this is true. It’s not the lack of money love, sex, emotional support, friendship – not all these, but our two big monsters really are :  Fear and Guilt. To varying degrees and whatever your age, everyone is troubled by anxieties concerning either our current or future status.

Once upon a time, people used to believe childhood was a carefree time for children had little to worry about. Not so today. Our young generation today are pressured to make the grades in school, whether they get into the course they want to enter, whether they gain respect and popularity among their peers and a host of other anxieties – both real and imagined. Adults have fears of physical aging and health deterioration, inadequate finances, social inadequacy or emotional/spiritual health. In some sense these fears loom even larger today than in bygone days when a good education promised job security and a good marriage provided a woman lifelong security – “till death do us part.”  Not so today. With the stormy unpredictable state of our current world economy financial and job security is tenuous. In the area of personal relationships, love and marriage have become make and break affairs.

It is precisely because of the plagues of fear and guilt many people in western societies pay thousands of dollars to their psychiatrists. I think it is ironical that these same people did not first consider the Good News of the Bible that Jesus Christ offers unequivocal and complete freedom from fear and guilt free of charge. Just reflect on this.

Yet it is particularly in the traditional Christian countries, I see lost people putting their trust in their shrinks while others have deviated to trust in the occult, in séances and mediums. This too is all so ironical. But the big question is: WHY?

I’ve been asking this question for more than one month now and I’ve come to this conclusion. The problem I think lies in people having wrong expectations of Christians and false hopes about Christianity. Quite a significant proportion of new Christians and certainly more non-Christians expect that Christians are somehow better people being sanctified and all that. And many new Christians themselves as well as their family and friends may think they will be instantly transformed by holy baptism.

However the truth is somewhat more complex than this. The process of regeneration and sanctification in a Christian’s progress is continual and lifelong. It is not a cookie-cutter’s job. God is not slow to work as the Bible tells us but He works to His eternal purpose and timeline for each believer. The failure to grasp this fundamental fact has led many to become disillusioned with both the Church and Christianity.

It is imperative that people should fix their eyes on the claims of Jesus Christ and pay attention to what the Bible actually promises instead of looking at the behavior of members of their congregation, church politics and leadership etc. which could create doubts and throw them off the path they should earnestly, patiently pursue by God’s grace.

Personally I find most beneficial to dwell on and constantly be reminded of the compelling claims of Jesus. The Bible says that Jesus personally carried our sins in His own body and nailed them on the cross, thus paying the ransom for our sins to set us free. Why is this so difficult for some people to accept as the plain truth? Is it easier to believe in yourself then, to believe you don’t need a God or you don’t need to be saved? Look seriously at the compelling evidence of the life of Jesus and His claims to be who He is before you reject His Promise and the Good News He brings.

Summer 2011 has swiftly come and gone and the fall colors are outside my window in breathtaking shades of yellow, gold, red and brown. If you have been either simply ignoring or actively rejecting the claims of Jesus Christ, I urge you to reconsider. Consider some of the compelling evidence and claims of Jesus revealed in the Bible because all too soon our lives like autumn leaves will drift, decay and return to dust for as the Bible says : “From dust we came, to dust our bodies shall return.”

Allow me to just point out four claims and Biblical evidence of Jesus Christ’s divinity which I find most compelling.

1)      His Supernatural Birth :  Well, with Christmas being not too far off, let’s just dwell on the miracle of Jesus’ birth. He was as the Bible puts it “Begotten of God and born by a virgin.”

2)      Jesus wielded power over the forces of Nature as well as the dark demonic world. He stilled a raging storm of wind and waves – “Who is this? Even the wind and waves obey Him!” (Mark 4:41)

Even demons recognized Jesus and knew he had authority over them.”Moreover demons came out of many people, shouting You are the Son of God!” Luke 4:41)

3)      Jesus demonstrated supernatural power over Death and Diseases. Not only were there numerous accounts of his healing the blind, deaf, crippled and terminally ill but He even raised the dead in more than one incident recorded in the Bible – Jesus raised Lazarus back to life (John 11:38-53) and He also gave a grieving widow back her only son by raising him from the dead.(Luke 7:11-16)

4)      Jesus predicted five times concerning His own death and the fact that He would rise from the dead. His resurrection was the most sensational event in all of history and this fact has been attacked by anti-Christians again and again but has remained unassailable. In fact, one British lawyer, Frank Morrison, who was convinced that the Resurrection was a fantasy, set out to expose the myth of Christ’s resurrection. However all his research ended up persuading him against his will that the resurrection of Christ was indeed a historical fact. As a result he wrote the book, Who Moved the Stone? which he originally entitled, “The Book That Refused to Be Written.”

History recorded that the body of Jesus was embalmed with 100 pounds of wet spices and then wrapped in linens, then placed in a solid rock tomb. A boulder nearly 2 tons in weight was rolled by levers to secure the entrance and because Jesus had publicly said He would rise from the dead in three days, a guard of trained Roman soldiers was stationed at the tomb. A Roman seal was affixed to the tomb entrance declaring it government property. However, three days later the body was gone. Only the grave linens remained.The boulder formerly sealing the tomb was found up a slope, some distance away from the tomb.

In Matthew 28:11-15 the Bible tells us that when the guards revealed the mysterious disappearance of the body, the chief priests bribed the soldiers to say that the disciples had come at night and stolen the body while they were asleep. What a ridiculous excuse! Besides there was historical record of Jesus appearing to his disciples and others after He had risen from the dead.

Therefore believe that He is indeed Risen and Alive and know that Jesus also declared He had come “that we might have life and have it abundantly.”  (John 10:10).

            Whenever I feel myself threatened by fear or guilt, I’ll remember the advice of Jesus: “Don’t worry about what you are going to eat or drink or wear. Your Father in heaven loves you and knows what you need… Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” ( Matthew 6:25-33)