So many people who believe in Jesus are wondering – why isn’t my life all that I expected? Why isn’t my life everything that the Bible promises that it should be? Well, it turns out that those people, probably aren’t living the important stuff. BELIEVE THAT HE IS So, back to that question that I just asked you: What sort of a life do you think that God wants for you? Well your answer to that, I guess, is going to depend on two things: Whether or not you believe that God actually exists, and what sort of a life you’ve had so far. Those two things more than any others are going to shape your answer to that all-important question. I’ve thought an awful lot about the life that I’m living, and the lives that other people are living. You see, I have more opportunities than most to reflect on the lives of other people. You can imagine that I receive a lot of feedback from listeners to these radio-messages from right around the world: Letters and phone calls and E-mails, and messages on our website at Christianityworks.com – lots and lots of feedback. The abject misery of many of those people’s lives at times rocks my faith to the core: The woman in London who had to sell her body on the street just to get food on the table; the guy who was on the brink of suicide; the woman whose husband had just left her for another woman; the elderly man who lost his wife of fifty-four years. So many people share the deepest despair of their lives with me, and at some point, you have to ask yourself the question: "Hang on. Is God still on His throne? Is God the God of love for real? In fact, does He exist at all"? Am I suggesting that everybody’s life is a mess? No, not at all, but it’s as plain as the nose on my face that we all go through difficult times: Times of tragedy in our lives that leave us wondering about this so-called God. And in between the times of tragedy, sure, there are high points; there are times when things seem to be chugging along just fine, and then there’s that dull monotony of the daily repetition of the same old routine. So it doesn’t seem to matter so much what particular cycle of life we’re in – a trough or a crest of a wave, on the up or on the down, you can come back to the question: "What sort of a life am I living, and what sort of life does God want me to live"? That’s why I produced this radio series. It’s called Your Road to a Stunning Life. Indeed I’ve written a book by the same name, because I’m utterly convinced that God wants you and He wants me to live an absolutely stunning life, difficult though that may seem for some people. So if it’s true, if God really does want you to live a stunning life, how do you actually get yourself on that road? The what is pretty meaningless without the how, wouldn’t you agree? Well, that’s what this series and my book are all about: How to live a stunning life how to get on that road. You and I have heard it a million times: This life is not a dress rehearsal. We get one chance at each day and pretty soon, it’s going to be over. Lao-tzu many, many years ago said the journey of a thousand miles begins with? The first step, so here (as far as I’m concerned) is the first step. The very first step along the road to a stunning life is simply to believe that God is God; that He exists; that He is who He says He is. I know, it sounds trite; a bit too obvious; a bit too simplistic, doesn’t it? "Oh, give me a break, Berni. I don’t need platitudes in my life; I need some real, grassroots how-to to help me to get through the stuff that I’m going through. It’s hard-going, you know." I know you do, and I know it is, and that’s why I’m sharing this first step with you. Let me say it again: The first step is believing that He exists; that He is who He says He is, because it’s a step that has some significant consequences. We live in a world of cause and effect: You do this, then that happens. Sometimes the consequences are predictable; sometimes they’re totally unpredictable. In this case, the consequences of taking that first step are completely predictable. This is what God says will happen to you if you believe in Him. Hebrews 11:1-8: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. Indeed by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that were not visible. By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain’s. Through this he received approval as righteousness, God Himself giving approval to his gifts. He died, but through faith he still speaks. By faith, Enoch was taken so that he did not experience death, and he was not found because God had taken him, for it was attested before he was taken away that he had pleased God. And without faith it’s impossible to please God, for whoever would approach Him must believe that He exists, and that He rewards those who seek Him. By faith, Noah (warned by God about events as yet unseen) respected the warning and built an ark to save his household. By this he condemned the world, and became an heir to the righteousness that is in accordance with faith. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance, and he set out not knowing where he was going. See, when we step out on that road in faith, believing that God exists, God’s Word tells us that we’re going to receive these things: First, His approval and acceptance; second, freedom from death; third, His rewards; and fourth, an inheritance. That’s what that passage that we read just tells us. Like Abraham, when we step out on that road, we have no idea really where we’re going to be headed; simply God’s promise to approve us, accept us, set us free from death, reward us, and give us the most amazing inheritance. Come on; if that’s not a stunning life, I just don’t know what is. Yeah, I know, I know. You’re going through all this stuff, right? It’s hard, right? How does any of this make any difference whatsoever to all of that, right? But let me tell you something. When God promises us something, even something spectacular like this, He delivers. And when God delivers, that makes all the difference. It completely changes your life. CHRIST AS YOUR CORNERSTONE Just recently, I was invited to visit India to participate in the laying of a foundation stone for the Lutheran Central Cathedral in the city of Guntur in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Now, Guntur isn’t far from the Bay of Bengal – a bustling thriving city, and the Lutheran parish is made up of about 25,000 people. I visited just one of their churches in the parish, St. Matthew’s in the suburb of Brodipet. There were - I’m guessing... I don’t know - somewhere between 4 and 5,000 worshippers there. It was a day of great celebration because we were laying the foundation stone of a 10,000-seat cathedral, to be built over the next two-and-a-half years. The service on the Sunday started at 9 am and it finished around 1 pm with the unveiling of the foundation stone which, amongst several other names, has my name chiselled in gold letters in the granite. So when some young person looks at the stone in a hundred years’ time when I’m long gone, they’ll wonder: "Who is this guy with a funny name, Sri Berni Dymet, from Australia, and what was he doing there"? I had the chance to meet the architect of the cathedral and he showed me the plans. I tell you, what an amazing structure! Huge as you can imagine, if it’s going to seat 10,000 worshippers at one time. When the crowds had disappeared early in the evening, they asked me to come back out into this wide-open space, to share the Word of God with some of the young workers who’d been toiling away for the last thirty-six hours nonstop behind the scenes,...

Released on 17 Apr 2022