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Hello everyone, I'm Mark Foley, and this is The Journey. If you've been keeping up, you know that most of my attention is given to how you effectively conduct a journey with God. Now, I'm going to stay on that because learning how to do it is essential to everything else that you want to see happen in your life. But every journey has to start somewhere. And it occurs to me that if you don't know how it starts, there's a strong possibility that you'll never really understand how living it out works. So this segment goes all the way back to the start. If you think you got it right at the beginning, great. This will be a good checkup. But if you're confused about it, I hope this clarifies it. Three things you need to lock in at the jump. First, beginning a journey with God is simple. So simple that it seems unreasonably so. Fact is, a lot of folk, in an honest attempt to help you get it right, have added unnecessary layers of procedures and words and practices that, well, I've muddied the water. A relationship with God is engaged simply. Lock it in. Second, beginning a journey with God is something that God has already set up by his design of you and by his action to create the opportunity to which he invites you. Now listen, you can't earn it. There's nothing you can do to deserve it, and nothing that you have done will prohibit it. He offers the journey and full benefits as a gift, and he invites you to accept it on simple, straightforward terms. And third, I'm going to use the words God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit interchangeably. This is a fundamental fact of the journey. All three refer to the same person: the owner, creator, and master of all it is or ever will be. Period. Lock it in. So the journey begins with a moment, a moment in which a specific transaction occurs, and from which the journey unfolds. So let's start with the moment. The moment has been referred to as the moment of salvation, or a moment of spiritual transformation, a moment of spiritual awakening, and even by the southern colloquialism, getting saved. But Jesus called it being born again. If you're going to describe something that Jesus did, it's always a good idea to use his description of it. And Jesus was explaining the moment to a religious leader of the day named Nicodemus. The story is in the third chapter of the Gospel of John, if you want to check it out. Jesus said to this religious expert, I tell you the truth, unless you're born again, you can't see the kingdom of God. Now, seeing, understanding, and participating in the kingdom of God is what I call the journey. It starts with a moment in life and lasts through eternity. And Jesus made it clear that if you want the journey, a distinct moment must occur, a moment beyond the norm of your natural understanding and experiences. You must be born spiritually. What do you mean? exclaimed Niconabus. How can an old man go back into his mother's womb and be born again? Jesus replied, I assure you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can produce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. And with that, Jesus clarified the born-again moment as one that occurs only at the act of God. Then to top it off, Jesus declared that this is a spirit-effected mystery that will never be grasped by rational intellectual thought, religious or otherwise. He said, So don't be surprised when I say you must be born again. The wind blows wherever it wants, just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it's going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit. And then a very perplexed Nicodemus asked, How are these things even possible? Great question. But remember, it's simple, so hang with me. The born-again moment that Jesus described is one in which a transaction occurs. A transaction in which there is an exchange of values. Remember, I said it's something that God has already set up by his design of you and by his action to create the deal to which he invites your engagement. The exchange of values that he offers is also simple. Amazing, but simple. All that God offers by virtue of his having died to purchase it and risen from death to prove he had done so, forgiveness of sin, eternal life with him, and his indwelling presence, with otherwise unattainable deliverables, freedom from the power of sin in your life, unbelievable love, peace that doesn't even make sense, wisdom, knowledge, understanding, courage, influence, strength. Listen, the list goes on. All that in exchange for your honest belief that he did what he said he did, and your faith that what he promised is so. Simple. And that's the deal. Too simple? Well, it may seem so, but it's true. And he designed it for you. And he designed you for it. You know that sense of fulfillment you keep working so hard to find? Now we won't go through all the things you do to try to achieve it, but you know what they are. Listen, God designed you in such a way that your complete fulfillment, fully experienced, is in the deal he offers. A deal that creates a personal relationship with him. It's a spirit-based deal that you cannot attain by any means other than your surrender to his terms. You aren't good enough, you can't work hard enough, you aren't smart enough, you aren't tough enough. Nothing you have done or ever will do will qualify you for his benefits. The offer of God requires a moment, a simple moment, an honest moment, a moment of faith in which you confess your belief that he died and rose from death to pay your sin debt. Long time ago, a man named Paul, who knew him well, explained the moment this way in a letter to a group of interested people in Rome. Here's what he said. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. Simple. A moment in which a transaction occurs and from which an unbelievable life journey unfolds. So it begs an important question, and this really is the simple part of simple. Have you experienced that moment? If the answer is yes, great. Enjoy learning about the journey. But if the answer is no, okay, just ask. Something like this. God, I don't know if I'm doing this right. But this guy says, all I have to do is believe that you are alive and that you've forgiven me. I do believe that. And I admit it. I don't think I know exactly what to do next, but I want to. So if you'll teach me, I'll do it. Now that was an honest prayer. You just started the journey with Jesus. How's that for simple? Now, let's talk about what just happened. Not long ago, I was given the opportunity to take a hop in an Air National Guard F-16. It was a remarkable experience. The official name of the F-16 is Fighting Falcon, but the pilots call it Viper. I came to understand that Falcon just does not capture what those jet drivers do with one of the quickest strike aircraft ever made. Viper may give you a clue. The 16 is a Mach 2 capable jet fighter. Twice the speed of sound. Absolutely amazing. The hour I spent in Viper 7-1, some of it at the stick, is a memory treasure. And I pull it out every now and then again to relive it. I have to tell you about it sometime. But right now I want to use part of that day to explain what happened spiritually in the moment we've been talking about. On the day of the flight, after two solid hours of preparation, which included being fitted out in a regulation flight suit, a G suit, earplugs, a helmet, gloves, a doctor teaching me how to breathe under G-stress, ejection training, that was fun, an assignment of a call sign. I will forever be known as Pops. Thank you very much. Then a no-nonsense crew chief very carefully and pointedly explained how important it was to him personally and to his reputation that I not die in his airplane. Then the ground crew ushered me into the backseat of Viper 7-1 and strapped me in. Apparently, the pilot does not simply turn a key in the ignition of an F-16 and drive away. There were a lot of people getting that thing ready to fly. And my instructor pilot, call sign Grizz, was busy in the front cockpit. Did I mention the helmet and earplugs? I could see the activity, but all I could hear were indistinct muffled sounds. I was in an unfamiliar environment, watching unfamiliar actions that I had just been told would impact my life. And while I could see, I couldn't hear. I didn't understand what was going on. Then I saw Grizz get out of his cockpit and step back along the wing route to my seat. He signaled for my attention and he mimed, can you hear? I shook my head. And he mimed again, you want to? And I nodded vigorously, yes, I want to hear. Then I saw my pilot, the commander of the aircraft, reach into the left side of my cockpit and simply flip a switch. Instantly, sound flooded my mind. I could hear. All the things I was seeing quickly made sense, and I understood the various functions and the checklist items that the ground crew and the pilot and the tower were completing. Look, it was only a moment, but it was a transformational moment. All the equipment was there, ready to go, had been the whole time. But its activation required a moment, one that the commander had to initiate in order for me to become involved in what he was doing. In the same way, before the born-again moment in your life, you saw a great deal of religious activity. You may have heard others talking about spiritual things that just didn't make sense to you because you had no frame of experience to relate to what they were saying. You were created with a need for a relationship with God. All the equipment needed to function in that relationship came with you, but it required an act of God to activate it. At your confession of need and your confession of his ability to meet that need, he acted. He flipped the switch. Your spiritual equipment came to life and you knew it. You began to understand. Not only did your spiritual equipment power up, something else happened. Something so amazing that the Apostle Paul called it the great secret of the faith. At the moment of transaction, Christ took up residence in you, his Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, in you. Now look, here's a reality that is the ultimate no-brainer. I could never have flown Viper 7-1 without Grizz in the aircraft, maintaining control as he guided my actions. In the same way, you cannot conduct your life God's way without the Spirit of God guiding you. And this is the mystery of which Jesus spoke. Christ lives in you. I know, hard to get your head around. But that's the point. It's a fact to be embraced by belief through faith. And it is that fact that allows you to engage effectively in the life journey with Christ that I talk about so much. Here's what Paul wrote about it in a letter to a group of followers in a place called Ephesus. It's in your Bible, Ephesians 3, verse 14. Check it out. And here's what he said. And he's describing the journey that flows from the transaction. When I think of all this, Paul said, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the creator of everything in heaven and earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources, he will empower you with inner strength through his spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust him. Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. And may you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now, all glory to God, who is able through his mighty power at work within us to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him and the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations, forever and ever. Now that last part leads me to know that his prayer extends to you and me, a moment of belief and faith through which all God is and has is in you. And that changes everything about how you live life. That's the deal. Hope it helps to hear about it. Hey, thanks for checking in. Don't forget to check the website, effectivesolutions.today. A new devotional is up every morning, and there's some really cool photography in the gallery. I'll see you next time.