Do You Need A Second Chance?

Our magnificent, loving, kind God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is in the business of second chances.  I had gone to church my whole life.  We prayed before dinner every day and I even went to AWANA every Friday night to play games and learn about Jesus.  I was very active in our teen youth group when I got older and would have died believing I was a Christian.

I prayed to the Lord Jesus when ever I needed His help.  He was a natural part of my life.  Or so I thought.

When I was around 16 I went shopping in Oak Park for some clothes.  I worked hard as a waitress and enjoyed spending my money on nice things.  That day there was an outdoor concert  being held right in the middle of all the shops.  

It was a Christian concert and it was beautiful to listen to the teenagers and adults singing their praises to God in a public setting.  As I stood and listened to the beautiful music a small group of teenage girls came over to me and began to chat with me.

They were very kind and invited me into their apartment just around the corner to chat some more.  I went with them and as we sat in their living room they asked me if I knew for sure I was a Christian.  

I told them I was and I had been all my life.  I could tell though that as we visited together there was something different about them.  They had an inner glow, an almost irresistible love for God that I knew I did not have and that a part of me really was aching for as I experienced it.

I felt an inner voice saying to me, "You don't want what they have.  You would have to give up the sexy way you love to dress and stop smoking pot and all the fun things you like to do."

One of them point blank finally asked me to give my life to Jesus at a deeper level and I told her I would have to think about it and I quickly left the apartment.

I had chosen to turn my back on the Lord's invitation to a deep, real, intimate relationship with Him.  From that day forward my life began to spiral downward.

I lived my life on my own terms.  Making choices from my own agenda, never thinking for a moment about how God would like me to live.  I stopped going to church because of a disagreement I had with some actions of the pastor there. 

I lived like that for 16 more years.  I got married and had 2 beautiful children who were my life.  My kids gave me great joy, but I was very empty inside, my heart ached for more in life.  Life was hard and it wasn't working out the way I thought it would at all.

A dear friend of ours would come over almost every Saturday night to sit around, drink beer and have dinner with us.  I always loved to learn, that is one of my highest strengths.  One Saturday night our friend noticed I was reading a new age book on a different kind of religion.  He asked me if I felt I was a Christian and I quickly answered, "Yes.  Of course."

He then randomly opened the book and read a paragraph and asked me if that sounded like Christian doctrine and I said, "No, it doesn't."

He then said that he didn't think I should be reading something that teaches a different doctrine then Christianity.  I agreed with him and he suggested I throw the book away and I did.

He said next time he came over he would bring me some good books to read on Christianity versus New Age religion that I would enjoy reading and I thanked him.

His books were very interesting and I read them quickly.  

One night I was laying in bed just randomly reading in the Bible.  I came upon John chapter 14 in the New Testament.  It is the Lord Jesus talking with His disciples, explaining the love relationship between Him and His Father and Their children.  

All of a sudden my heart was deeply moved by how much God loves us.  I was amazed at the depth of His love!  At that moment I felt the presence of the Lord Jesus right next to me and I knew He was calling me to Himself.  I knew that He personally loved me very deeply and wanted me to join Him in life.

I fell deeply in love with Him on the spot and responded to His invitation with a resounding, "Yes!"  I was instantly changed!  So much of the pain I carried around in my soul just vanished!  I knew I was now connected to God like I had never been before and I was very happy about it.  I had found my way home finally after saying no to Him almost exactly 16 years ago to the day I rejected Him in Oak Park.

I felt loved for the first time deep inside of me.  I new God was real and that He was going to be with me the rest of my life!  It was the best day of my life and I am eternally thankful to our loving, kind God for giving me another chance!

It has now been 30 years of walking through life daily with the love of my life inside of me, carrying me through every joy and sorrow I have lived through.  The Father, the Lord Jesus and the wonderful Holy Spirit are my best friends.  They guide and direct me.  They love on me daily and I live to do Their will on the earth.

Do you need a second chance with God?  Are you living a life fully committed to the King of the universe, the great and mighty I Am that created you and longs for you to experience Him at a deep, intimate level?  Do you know how deeply loved you are by the beloved Trinity?  Is that love transforming you into the mighty one the Lord has destined you to be?

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2., "Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. ²¹ For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain.  For He says:

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."  

I do plead with you to give your full self to the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and the only way to Father God.

"Jesus answered, 'I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'"  John 14:6 NIV.

Father God says, "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29:11.

Is your life not turning out the way you had hoped it would?  Are you walking around with great pain in your soul and not finding any resolution to that pain?  Our heart cannot be full without the Lord Jesus residing inside of it.  He created us to need Him in our spiritual hearts.  We are spiritually the walking dead without Him living inside of us seated as Lord,King and Lover of our souls over our lives.

He proved His profound love for us when He became a human baby, lived a sinless life for 33 years, allowed Himself to be tortured and crucified as a sin offering to pay for all of the sins of all humanity for all time and rose again from the dead on the third day.  After 40 days of revealing Himself to His followers He rose into the heavenly realms and is now seated at the right hand of Father God praying for you and aching to have you as His own.

He suffered terribly as He walked through the last moments of His life because He loved us so much. 

"Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God's throne."  Hebrews 12:2

Each one of us was that joy!  You were that joy He focused on as He was beaten, nailed to the cross and crucified.  He died to set you free to be with Him forever!  He could have stopped the process at any time.  He is God!  But He chose to pay the price for all the things you would ever do against His holy rule which is what we call sin so that you could have the chance, to make the choice to allow Him to become your King, Lord, and your very best friend forever more.

 When ever I am in a very difficult, painful situation and wonder why I have to go through this if my God really loves me, I meditate on His suffering and the fact that He could have stopped it at any moment but didn't because of His love for me.  I then am reassured of His love and rest in His tender care to get me through what ever trial I am walking through at that time.

Do you want to know the love of the divine Savior Jesus Christ, King of the Universe,  Lord of all, Father God, and Holy Spirit for the first time or at a deeper level?  Then pray this prayer with me and mean it from the bottom of your heart.

Dear Lord Jesus,  I need You!  I have tried to live my life on my own terms, away from Your goodness and love for me.  I don't want to live that way any longer.  I fully give myself to You to be my Lord, King, and Savior.  I turn away from living independently from You and Your Kingdom's ways.  I give my heart, my body, my all to You forever more.  

I believe that You left Heaven, came to earth in the form of a human being, lived a sinless life and died a horrible death on a cross to pay for my sins that I have committed against You.  I believe that You came back to life on the third day and ascended to Heaven where You are seated with Father God forever more.

Please come into my heart and help me to grow and become all You have planned for me to be.  Show me the plans you have for me please.  Lead and guide me every day.  Teach me Your ways and fill me with Your Holy Spirit great King!  

Help me to know how much You love me and open my spiritual eyes to see You and Your Kingdom more and more every day!  Amen.

If you have prayed this prayer, please send us an email at [email protected]  and we will put you on our prayer list to be prayed for regularly and send you some free materials that will help you grow in the Lord.

All of our free resources are available to help you start out on the right foot walking with the Lord in a deep intimate relationship.  Everything we offer is to help people grow spiritually and naturally mature.  Commit to spending  most of your leisure time learning more and more about how magnificent our God is rather than frittering it away on Facebook, video games, etc.

The Lord Jesus, Father God and Holy Spirit want you to get to know Them and the only way you will is by spending quality time with Them just like you need to do to get to know anyone intimately.  Our resources help you learn how to connect with the Lord more and more each and every day.

Father God I pray that You will release the well of Your profound love upon the reader of this article so they can taste and see how good You really are!  Amen.

You are loved with an everlasting love dear one,  Commit to become the mighty person your King, the Lord Jesus Christ has ordained for you to be!

In our King's service for His glory alone!

Lady Gail Hubbard Ciarrachi, IKKBT

www.SaintsoftheHolyOne.com