What is the core reason why you choose to have a relationship with Jesus Christ?

Good morning Daniel!

Thank you for the opportunity to give some input and my answer to the question you pose. But before embarking on my ramblings, may I comment on something you said?

You said, “as I wrestle with this question”.

I am please to see that you are wrestling (I like and use that word extensively but not in the pseudo–wrestling format of the WWF!!!!) with what I consider fundamental issues of faith in general, and of our Christian faith in particular! Bravo! These questions continue to surface throughout life, in my experience, but take on different hues and nuances each time they do. We must be careful that we do not, as Paul cautioned continually dwell on the SAME ELEMENTARY issues over and over.

Heb. 5:12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!

Heb. 6:1 Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, 2 instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

Contrary to what some would take from Paul's instruction, I assure you that this teacher still faces questions of faith and some are 'elementary' in nature!

But I want to assure you that a faith which is not continually facing and meeting challenges is one that is merely dogma, distant and dry, intellectual candy but experiential flotsam! So, welcome to the Christian dialogue on what constitutes our faith. I want to say “Thank you” for the opportunity to engage you and this question with which you wrestle! I will be interested in your conclusions after getting several responses!
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What is the core reason why I, David, choose to have a relationship with Jesus Christ?

I am approaching this from a personal, experiential perspective rather than the theological theoretic perspective of why I should choose a relationship with Jesus Christ. It goes without saying that God has called, God has regenerated, God has enabled . . .

But even in the world of faith, and particularly within our theological understanding, there comes a point at which we make the conscious decision to acknowledge Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour. I understand your question to be, why did I make such a decision? Before getting to that, may I take a few of detours?

Detour #1. God in his wisdom has created humanity as a complex conglomeration of various drives and abilities. By this I would mean our emotions, our intellect, our hungers or desires, our capacities. There are aspects of religion in general which appeal to any of these individually, and I would suggest that as you survey christendom, you can see specific denominations which cater to more individualistic aspects of this created whole. So, this detour was to bring to the front the idea of complexity of humanity.

Detour #2. St. Augustine said that we are restless until we find our rest in God (paraphrase). in other words, as the writer of Ecclesiastes says, God has placed eternity in our hearts. Or, to put it another way, there is sense of incompleteness which is an inherent aspect of human existence. yes, this even in spite of the complexity mentioned in #1.

Detour #3. To make it eminently personal, there was a time in which you sensed a personal incompleteness in your life. You found that Jeanette, from all of the ladies you had encountered met that need and those needs of your incompleteness in a way no one else could. Options! You were faced with a dilemma – should you make a commitment to this one or should you continue to look perhaps for someone who would meet your incompleteness in a better way?

Detour #4. I know that you sensed that all of the incompleteness with which you were created would be met in a relationship with Jeanette, so you became married. Now I ask you to consider, in an objective way if you can, how you, Daniel are more complete today than when you were prior to your marriage to Jeannette! You may believe and feel that things are “as they were meant to be” and that is true because now you see the fulfillment of the completeness without which you were born!

Now let's get back on the main road again.

If we are honest, heritage play a significant role in our religious perceptions and experiences. This is good to a point, but at some place in our adult life, we need to come to the point where we make the decisions our own and our own convictions are rooted in the decisions we have made. It is at this point that you are asking me to share why I am involved and dedicate my life to the relationship with Jesus Christ.

All of the detours are significant for me.

• The recognition of the incompleteness in myself, the options of various religious avenues to satisfy that deficiency.
• The encounter with Christianity through the parental home.
• The encounter of faith though denomination closeness.
• The exposure to various formats of the Christian faith – Mennonite, Calvinistic, Arminian, reformed, Charismatic, Catholic, Orthodox (Greek, Russian, eastern), Coptic . . .
• The gradual realization that these were merely peripheral to the deficiency I was seeking to remedy.

You may notice that there is highly intellectual component to my faith journey! And, my own graduate studies have been their own instigation and continue to be one, to search out the genuineness of faith traditions.

Now, in spite of all of this, or perhaps because of all this, I came to the point where I realized that more than a “church”, or a denomination, or a religious tradition, what characterized my personal incompleteness was not going to be completed in any of these formal pursuits!

Through my study of the Word of God I came to realize that God's desire and plan for humanity was to allow them the privilege of relationship with Himself. We gain glimpses of this in the Hebrew Scriptures as we see those whom God permitted to have a closer relationship with Him – Moses, Abraham, David, Nathan, Samuel the prophets . . . but these were mere mirages, so to speak, they spoke of some other reality which we were to anticipate. true to his word, God provided that “in the fullness of time”, “when conditions and timing was right according to His divine plan”, God sent His Son.

Yes, we know that in an intellectual way, in a historical way, and in a biblical way. But THE pivotal fact on which my decision hinged and hinges, was the fact that this was the final step in God making HIMSELF available for relationship in a new and personal way which had previously not existed! Immanu-el - God WITH US. There it is! In bold face! God placed Himself in the world as a means of providing us with unequivocal evidence that He was there to remedy the incompleteness with which we struggled!

Jesus commented, Matt. 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ” There it is! the promise of rest, of freedom from struggle to satisfy that incompleteness with which we were born!

It was jeremiah who stated it centuries prior in these words, Jer. 29:13 “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” There is another key ingredient: we do not merely come to Jesus and find rest, as good as that may be, like purchasing something which temporarily satisfies at some store! No, this satisfaction, this completeness, this rest comes only to those who do so with “all there heart”! There are no half measures here, no trial periods, no quasi-faith involved! It is all or nothing, because Jesus permits no competition! Man cannot serve God and money is one way of this being declared by Jesus!

So, in summary, why has David chosen to be in relationship with Jesus Christ? He is the only way that gives coherency to all of life, to me individually and to the way in which I see culture unfolding. The exclusiveness of Jesus claim, stands strong and heralds across time, “I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE, NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER EXCEPT THROUGH ME!”

It is in Him that I have found the answer to the incompleteness of life and the cohesiveness of personal, family, religious and cultural life. But more than that, this becomes the experiential base for believing that what God has said will also come true regarding the future! Hallelujah!

I do hope this in some way gives you an answer to your question!

David