There Must Be Something More

35 | Gift Of God

The ice melted in my tea, but I didn't dare take a sip. There was a stirring feeling inside me that indicated if I did anything else while Steven talked, I'd miss something really important.

"Which destination are you going?" he asked. He looked us in the eyes for a moment, and then looked back down his booklet. "The problem is even though we want to go to heaven, we cannot. Because all of us have sinned. Sin separates us from God and men have tried everything to be connected back to God but we always fall short."

Samuel and I didn't say anything.

Steven looked up again. "Haven't you ever wondered why there are probably millions and millions of religions out there? It's because people seek God, but they seek it in the wrong way and in the wrong places. They think God is some kind of religion. They think rituals and practices are their way to salvation and to God. But it's not. It's Jesus. The only way to be saved is to accept His gift of eternal life and repent of all of your sins. Keep repenting when you sin. And remember, don't do sins all over again just because you can repent for it--true repentance is completely turning away from sin. True repentance is obedience to God.

"The Bible says in Romans chapter three verse twenty-three: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," he said, "that means we have no access to heaven because we all have sinned. And God cannot let something unclean into His kingdom. And what does sin do? It hurts us, our families, our friends, and most of all, it hurts God. And what's more? Sin is punishable by eternal death--to perish in hell.

"Which brings me to another verse in Romans chapter six verse twenty-three: For the wages of sin is death..." he paused. "We are all doomed to spend a lifetime in hell because of one sin. The Bible says only one sin can separate you from God. Isn't that sad? Isn't it tragic to live a life on earth where people mistreat you, misjudge you, where you have never-ending trials and only to find out after you die you're going to perish?

"God thought so too. And because He loves us so much--you can never even grasp or measure or comprehend how much He loves us--He sent his one and only Son to this earth, to leave His glorious kingdom in heaven to actually die as a payment for our sins. He was the perfect sacrifice. And He conquered death. He rose from the grave after three days. And now He lives and is waiting for you. That's why, what complete the verse is '...but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.' And you don't know how happy He is right now knowing you accepted Him into your life."

Samuel turned to me and smiled. "I'm real happy too."

I smiled too.

"Jesus is our Savior," Steven said. "He is the only solution so we can change our destination from perish to eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son. Jesus took our place. It should have been us on that cross, it should have been us who was killed because it is our sin, after all. But He loves us too much. Grace saved us. His gracious love is immeasurable, so devoted. He became the sacrifice and died on the cross for our sin so we can be restored back to God.

"It says in Romans chapter five verses eight to ten: but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life.

"The verse says that God doesn't love us because we do good nor He saved us because we do good--He loves us and saved us because we are His. We belong to Him. And unless you know that, life will always feel like there's something missing. Life will always feel empty even though you think you've done everything out there.

"That's why He tells us that all we need to do is to repent of our sins and accept His love and gift of eternal life. When you do this, you'll find yourself wanting to do what the Lord thinks is best for you than what you think for yourself. Know this--the Lord will always know what's best for you. Not you. Not your mom. Not your friends. Not anybody. The Lord.

"I know it because I'm a witness. I used to think being a guitar player in a rock band was what's best for me. I wanted to be a famous musician. I formed a band with my friends and we played on different stages. We became famous in our city."

Samuel's eyes widened. He slapped his forehead. "Wait--are you one of the members of Black Souls?"

Steven smirked and nodded.

"Oh, man, my little brother loves your songs. He was so devastated when the guitarist--you--left the band for no reason."

"I do have a reason," Steven said. He tapped his chest. "My God. I found someone better than my love for rock music. I thought that was what made me happy. But in all those years being an unbeliever, I was miserable. I used to date a lot. Get drunk. Do drugs. Smoke anything. You name it. I hated my parents. I cursed a lot. Oh, man, how could I ever think I was happy back then? I was so not. The enemy covered my eyes from the truth."

I nodded in agreement. "How did you meet God?"

Steven smiled, and his eyes twinkled. "Meredith."

I caught my breath.

He chuckled. "This one I haven't told you. Meredith and I used to live in the country. My family and I moved there when I was nineteen. I hated the fact that they moved me out of the city where my band would have more chances on being discovered. Meredith was twelve years old. She would often run through the fields while I watched our cows and sheep. She liked to ride our sheep and I usually just leave her be. But then she followed me to our porch one day. She had colorful sticky notes in her hands. I let her. I thought she was just playing around.

"My guitar was placed by the door to our house. And she practically sprinted towards it and slammed a sticky note on it. I was so frustrated. I yelled at her. She started crying. I quickly felt guilty, mostly because her parents were a few feet away. And so I apologized and asked her what the note was about.

"It was the very first verse I heard. Matthew chapter eleven verse twenty-eight: "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

"She didn't really elaborate. She just smiled at me and said, 'Jesus loves you so much!'

"And I asked her who Jesus was. And she told me, 'The One your soul really needs.'"