ASCRPWHLE

Becoming a Christian is not very easy. It is not simple-minded. In fact, there is nothing very simple about the act at all. No one is born a Christian. I was raised in a Christian home, with a Christian mother teaching about the wonders of God from childhood. Yet, I did not become a Christian until I realized how very powerless my own world was. And that was only after a miraculous car accident. That accident was my personal "waking up" point. I have had others since, each one increasing my trust in God. Isn't it strange how we resist God, or even the idea of God? If it were not for this resistance, I am convinced that all of humanity would have long since become members of the body of Christ - all would be faithful Subjects in the Kingdom of God.
This is because God is logical, and except for this resistance, God can be seen in the very things God has created. Even more so, God can be seen in the ones who are true to God, and this is often a very momentary thing. To relieve our frustrations in this, God adopted and led a people, from Abraham and on through his line through Sarah, but perhaps long before this, and God caused His own diary to us to be written and this was collected together into one Book that is read by all throughout the world.
The Bible tells us what God's hopes and desires for us are. Therefore, we say "the Bible is good." But, not even this 'diary' can conquer our resistance. So, I believe our resistance has nothing truly to do with our ignorance, but everything to do with something else.
We are all, I regret to say, inherently selfish. We, or a very determined part of us, cling to the desire to be self-ruling in our own lives; this is pride, and God's words tell us that it is our sinful natures. Sin itself can be simply defined as: 'our disobedience to God's Will in our lives.' Genesis shows us how this sinful nature came into being - from our original parents - from Adam and Eve.
We are told that Man was created perfect, yet we find that the nature of Man was distorted through temptation from our Adversary, who was also sinful, and this nature is called our "sin nature". The source of our resistance is to be found in this lie, passed on from generation to generation, that: 'you are a god.'
Our Lord once told a leader of the Sanhedron council, who had visited Him secretly to avoid conflicts with his own cohorts, that "Man must be born again." Symbolically, we are born of "water." This is enough to live on Earth only. We are responsible for our own births in the Spirit of God. And, I must tell you, that in everything I have observed - this is a fact of life. Becoming a Christian is our very own responsibility. No one else can make us a Christian, and no one else can take away our right to becoming a Christian. And so I have come to the end of my explanation of 'why becoming a Christian is not very easy.'

Like Buddhists, we all await an 'enlightenment', an 'awakening'; but this is pure foolishness because nothing profound will ever happen in our lives until we choose to turn away from our 'selves' and turn to God. The decision is always before us to trust God or choose instead to trust ourselves, even after we become 'born again', however our trust in God has its reward - for in return for our trust, God promises to make us His own, and He does this instantly in three ways, so that we can truthfully say that we have become saved, are being saved, and will be saved, in full confidence.
It is after we decide to trust in, or follow after, or obey God, that we receive gnosis, or understanding. The ultimate enlightenment comes when we realise that Jesus of Nazareth was, and even now is, God come in the flesh to be our King, our eternal Lord. And so the proverb is indeed true that says 'The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.' When we realize that God is indeed greater than ourselves, we awaken, we become enlightened.

I have said that I 'woke up' after a car accident. This is true but the process, even then, was not a fast one. What I realized when I regained my faculties was that I had survived being run over by a large automobile (a station wagon). Prior to that, I had been on a ten-speed bicycle crossing an intersection next to my junior high school. The degree of my own selfishness was in fact so acute that I did not even consider the miracle of my survival. Instead, I mourned the utter destruction of my bike! What amazing folly. Even so, in time I came to realize how fortunate I was to escape, and then began to consider the alternative of not escaping.. What would have happened if I had died? The fact was that I could have died, and that meant that I was not as "in control" of my destiny as I had assumed. If I was not in control, was anyone? About two years later, I came to the point of being in a church, surrounded by the Church, and of being asked to make a public commitment to God in the form of Jesus Christ. All of my struggles seemed to rise up within me at that moment. I was vitally aware of this, but at that moment I had no time to deliberate with myself. It was my moment. Would I choose now to trust in God? Would I commit myself to Jesus Christ being my God? I was greatly perturbed, but I would not be telling you all of this today if I had failed to accept His grace in my life at that moment. There is an appointed time for all of us to meet with our God. I am so grateful to belong to His Kingdom!!

Jesus said there is no other one through whom we can be saved. He is our alpha and omega. He is our beginning and our end. Those who foolishly choose to keep their lives shall eternally lose them, but those who choose to lose their lives for His sake, shall be saved! You can believe in Jesus Christ!

Now, to some, this makes sense. However, to many, it is as if there is a thick fog around our minds and we remain in a kind of intellectual darkness. Like Diana was quoted to have said to a christian minister: "I'm as thick as a plank." To make the matter worse, the problem is not intellectual at all!

The problem we experience is spiritual. The understanding we lack comes when we commit ourselves to the true ruler of our lives. The true enlightment we seek is not found or discovered at all, it is given. So much for Gnosticism...