15. Give Life, Sustain Life, Save Life

PART I:

God is the Creator of all three areas of life: the giving, the sustaining and the saving. He has chosen each of us to carry out certain responsibilities. We can reach our full potential by becoming willing to take the steps under God’s direction.

GIVING LIFE: It takes a man and a woman to give life. In God’s plan, this happens when two people love one another, marry and want to start a family.

Often, life is given as a result of lust, or an “accident” (unwanted pregnancy). We see “babies having babies.” Problems result, such as divorce. Single parents try to sustain life without having the tools to do so. There are various reasons for failure to sustain life in a positive way.

Some parents just don’t want to accept the responsibility of sustaining life; others try to “get even” with each other by pulling the child in two different directions. Some want”carbon copies” of themselves in raising children,. and others simply are incapable because of lack of knowledge, love and understanding.

The end result is often the same: Leave the rearing of the children to “someone else,” the school or the juvenile system (the courts). It takes very little effort to give life. It takes a lifetime to sustain and save life.

SUSTAINING LIFE: Our parents, either natural or adopted, teach us to grow. They educate us. They guide our lives and act as role models for us. They allow us to experience life and to choose our careers. They support us in our decisions.

Our parents advise us, but do not control us. The lead, but do not push they understand, but do not condemn. They love us through all the seasons of our lives.

When natural parents cannot do these things for various reasons, we look for someone who will. Some of us are very lucky if and when we find people to fill that role because we are helped to grow and find ourselves. We learn to love ourselves and can then love others.

SAVING LIFE: Jesus came to save our lives. He came through God’s love; by His grace, we have salvation. It is only through Jesus Christ that we can see God. He reunites us with our Father, the Creator.

Jesus paid for us with His life while we were still sinners. He takes a chance on you and me. We are not mistakes. We are mysteries, unraveling the unknown about ourselves each day as we grow and expand, create and discover.

PART II:

As I look around and get in touch with all the hurt that has encompassed young teenagers today, I tell them not to bathe in self-pity because of rejection or a difficult childhood. They are using these misfortunes as an excuse to be “bad”.

I tell them to take life as it comes, – deal with it, conquer every situation that comes their way – and appreciate how they got where they are today. Someone gave them life, someone sustained life for them, and someone loved them enough to pay the price to save their lives for all eternity.

As you know, it takes very little effort to five life. God, in His infinite wisdom, created life and then gave power to His creations to recreate life.

Unfortunately, life can be given through lustful actions with no love at all. Sometimes babies are made through sexual satisfaction without love, – sometimes through incest or rape.

Since life can be given very easily, it isn’t very important how you got here. In today’s “modern” technology, life can even be given by way of the test tube (test-tube babies). It can be given by implanting a sperm into an egg and having a surrogate mother carry the baby until it’s born.

Many times, the person who brought you into the world is unable to sustain your life. Some of us had natural parents who gave us life and then gave us away. The put us up for adoption or left us on doorsteps.

Genealogy is not as important as having someone to nurture and love you, – to bring you up. If no one would take the newborn and begin to mold it, teach it, take care of it, feed and nourish it as you would take care of a flower, then that life would soon die.

Often someone other than your natural parents will teach and guide you, bring you up through school, direct and sustain your life. Many of us go through our entire lives and go no further than this second phase.

I would like to introduce to you the most important phase. Meet God, Who through His only-begotten Son Jesus will take that given and sustained life and save it for eternity, so that you will never die.

Through grace, He saves your life, and then helps you find your real purpose here. It is the power you receive through Christ Jesus that gives you a more fruitful life.

Sooner or later, we accept the fact that we do a pretty poor job of sustaining and maintaining our own lives. Once we allow Jesus to take charge of our lives through the Holy Spirit, we find our true purpose in life.

In giving your life to Jesus, you will be directed and sustained, and you will find the void filled up. The missing link within each of us is the yearning to communicate with our Creator, our Father God.

So I’m telling you, young people, – do not continue to have pity on yourselves about the hurts or your biological mother or your genes. Know you can’t do anything by yourself. You need love; you need others.

Become more concerned with what you do with the life that has been given to you. The important thing is that you can have a fruitful and successful life.

Jesus is the only One Who can give you that fruitful life as well as eternal life. He loves you, and it is His desire that you accept Him as your Lord and Savior, so you can walk with Him always.

Each one of us has a built-in need to see God and worship Him. We cannot do this on our own; we have fallen short. Only through Jesus can we have this most-needed fellowship. He stands with open arms, hoping that we will use our free will and choose Him.