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Diagnosis & Repair
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Our mission is to live a peaceful life, and to help as many others as we can to do the same.JobsMost people have heard (and some actually believe and live accordingly) that money can't buy happiness, and it's true. It is a good feeling to do a job well and provide for yourself and your family, and maybe even have a little extra to help others. We are "hard-wired" to enjoy that. But even a fulfilling career and a generous heart isn't enough to deeply satisfy. I have had a lot of different jobs in my life, some of them were dream jobs that I always wanted. Being a mechanic wasn't really one of my ambitions, yet I am content because I have found that what you do for a living is not as important as what is in the heart. Peace and fulfillment are not dependent on your job or your "success" at it. PeopleSurprisingly, peace and fulfillment are not really found in other people either. Good relationships and a happy marriage and home are wonderful things, but they are more the results of inner peace, not the source of it. As many people find out today, even finding Mr. or Mrs. Right often ends in disappointment no matter how hard they try to make it work. Romance, marriage, intimacy and family life are designed be the greatest sources of happiness and fulfillment, but they are also the greatest challenge we face in life and can also bring the greatest disappointment and pain when things don't go right. We can and should try to "choose wisely and treat kindly". That is excellent dating and marriage advice, but it is easier said than done. Mistakes and choices from the past often have lasting consequences and since we can't change the past, from a human perspective it appears that some things can't be fixed. So for about half of the people who get married today, whether due to past mistakes and choices or failing to meet present challenges, the happiness we thought the relationship would bring us sometimes turns into misery and loneliness. What's missing?Upon close examination we may find that our lack of peace often happens because we have made money, career or those relationships the most important thing in our lives. This can take many forms but at the core I believe this is true. Even as important as the people in our lives are, there is another relationship even more important that we often forget about, or maybe never knew about. We must discover and remember that romance, love, marriage and family are only types and shadows of the relationship God wants to have with us. Even if we have a great marriage and family, if we build our lives around other people and don't really know our heavenly Father, we still will not be fulfilled and will not have complete peace. Our lives will only be a shadow of what they were created to be! Our physical and emotional lives may be full, but there may be an inner turmoil instead of peace because there will still be an eternal, spiritual element that is missing. GodAs esoteric and spacey as it may sound, God created us to find fulfillment in Him. It was His choice and His plan to make us that way. There is nothing we can do about it whether we like it or not. We can complain about it or deny it, but it doesn't change the facts. Though in this life we may fool ourselves into thinking that our complaining and denying has done some good, one day we all will find out if there is a God and if He rules the universe. Since we can't beat Him, maybe we should join Him. If it is possible, it is certainly in our best interest to find out how to get into a right relationship with our Creator. Every people group around the world has tried to discover that path in one way or another. Hunger for the eternal is a "built in" desire in man. It is a mystery, but it is one that has been and will be revealed to those who will listen. God broke into history personally, came as a man, revealed Himself, purchased us back from sin and disobedience with his own blood, explained His plan and then wrote it all down in detail. What more could we ask for? SinThe main problem is that we have been estranged from God by our lack of obedience to Him, by our sin. When we let other things, activities, desires or people take the place that God deserves in our lives it is idolatry. Idolatry is the thing first commanded to avoid and out of it springs all the other sins. Because of our misplaced love, attention and worship we do not care for others or for God as we should. The irony of human existence is that we blissfully accept, cling to and defend our spiritual blindness while simultaneously living in misery because of our estrangement from God and lack of peace. We yearn for more, knowing that something is missing but are too proud, busy or apathetic to seek out the truth. Why continue like that when God has made possible the restoration of that broken relationship? He has made it possible for us to receive the fulfillment and peace we yearn for. He's done it by giving His Son Jesus as a sacrifice to literally take the punishment for our sin. He is the only One that can clear the way back to God. That is what the cross is all about. New LifeWe don't deserve such a loving gift and sacrifice, but He gave it anyway. And for those who accept His forgiveness, a great miracle happens: Though Christ was crucified and our "redemption" (buying us back) was complete 2000 years ago, the spirit realm transcends time and God is not limited by it. When we embrace His love through accepting Christ, God actually identifies us with Christ or makes us one with Him. That is our inner man, our spirit, the hidden man of the heart is joined with Him and his sacrifice becomes ours, it is applied to us. God takes our old sinful, spiritually dead, separated from God inner man, and supernaturally reckons him dead and crucified with Christ, so that the punishment He took for us becomes effective for our lives, then we are indeed crucified with Christ. But better still, just as we died with Him, we also get to live with Him, His resurrection becomes ours and we rise from our spiritual death and through a new birth, a new start, one that is clean and fresh, we live a new life; where it is no longer we that live but Christ that lives in us; forgiven and clean enough where God's Spirit can now actually live inside us. Our very bodies become His temple!! TruthThat sounds pretty wild, but that is what the Bible teaches that Christianity is all about! It's not a bunch of rules and regulations, it is a new life where God is welcomed into the heart and transforms the inner man through a tremendous miracle bought and paid for through the very life of God's Son on the cross. Please remember this is not all automatically applied to everyone. We have to honor God's gracious work through our faith. Spurning and mocking or pretending it didn't happen and ignoring what He did is an affront and insult, and that added to our other sins will demand judgment from a just God. But humbly confessing your sins and accepting His free gift brings grace and mercy. It is each individual's choice. Man can once again live in fellowship with God, just as He originally intended. With that comes peace and contentment, no matter what your circumstances. If you do not yet know Christ you can pray and ask Him into your life right now. If you would like to learn more, this site may help: www.online-summit.org . It's your mission too...If you know Jesus as your Savior already, He wants you to live as a missionary no matter how you make a living. There are many ways to do that:
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Located
off of Cedar Road in Great Bridge.