I was sitting out on our patio enjoying my morning cup of coffee when I heard a frog along the edge of my decorative pond. This morning’s discovery is my first "frog sighting" of the season at the pond. I’m always amazed how frogs and water bugs find this little oasis of water in a land of lawns and trees.

I’ve been anxious to write you again, not wanting to allow too much time to pass between my last letter and this one. That’s because I feel I only gave you part of the story about how a person connects with God, establishing a personal relationship with Him.

What I was trying to say is that we’re alienated from God as a result of our sinfulness. God bridged that gap with the coming of Jesus and His death for us on the cross. He died so that we might live.

I recall the story of a Vietnam veteran standing in front of the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial in Washington, DC. The man was so absorbed in his moment at the wall that he wasn’t aware of the reporter standing nearby. The vet was tracing his finger back and forth over one particular name on the black granite wall of the memorial. He kept repeating, "He gave his life for me."

I wonder: what would it be like to live with the knowledge that someone sacrificed his or her life so that I might live? I can’t be sure, but I suspect I’d have a deeper sense of the significance of my own life, because someone was willing to die for me. I might also feel that now I was living for two people: myself and the one who died for me.

I think you know where I’m going with this. Christ did die for me. He also died for you. Yes, you can personally apply what He did on the cross as having been done for you. If you were the only person on earth, He would have died for you!

This great truth should change forever how we view our own lives, who we should strive to live for and please. We were rescued at a tremendous price.

If He died for me I should be willing to live for Him. How can I ever live the same since I’ve become the object of His sacrificial love?

Accepting the forgiveness God offers through His Son Jesus Christ is the first step in getting connected with God in a personal relationship. I would encourage you to do this if you have never done so before. The second step is to turn over our lives to Him, to live for Him, serve Him, seek to please Him.

A relationship with God is not all that different from a relationship with anyone else in that it must be two-way. We are to be givers as well as receivers.

Have you ever had a relationship where you felt you were always giving but never receiving? Such a relationship can’t deepen and grow. In fact, it probably won’t last long. A healthy relationship involves a mutual exchange.

If I ask God to forgive me, go to Him for help when I’m in trouble, and in a variety of ways only come to Him when I need something, I won’t have a healthy relationship with Him. If the Lord is going to be my God, I must be His person.

In human relationships this give-and-take often involves compromise. This is because no one person has the corner on truth. Our relationship with the Lord is different because He does have the corner on truth! Jesus said that He is the way, the truth and the life. A relationship with Jesus Christ, therefore, requires something other than compromise: it requires obedience.

This means that I must give leadership of my life to Him. It’s a complete shift of perspective as to whom I’m going to try to please. I no longer seek to first please myself, my wife, the people of my church whom I pastor, my parents, or anybody else. My commitment is to please Jesus Christ.

Can I be so bold as to ask if you’ve ever made a once-and-for-all decision to give leadership of your life to Jesus Christ? I’ll be anxiously waiting for your reply.

A fellow seeker after truth,
Dave