We are bombarded these days with reality television programs. Most people agree that these programs are not really "reality", but in fact are produced and edited for entertainment purposes. In a spiritual sense, I completely disagree. What you will see on most of these programs is SPRIRITUAL REALITY. We live in a spiritually lost and dying world, in desperate need of God. Even some proclaiming Christians who have participated on these reality programs, are in reality, reflections of a mass amount of "Christians" in the world today; they claim to be Christians, but they do not say and do what God commands of them.

Does God exist? - Do you need God? - Do you want to know what God requires of you?

Below you will find something we like to call "Reality Chat". Instead of watching one of those reality television programs, why not entertain yourself by reading a reality internet chat between two people. You will learn a lot about these two people, both with extremely different points of view. As you read their conversation, make a point to choose sides along the way and see if you can relate to them. If you are in a hurry and want to skip to a certain section, use the following links:

Steps to becoming a true Christian

Reality Chat Section Links.

Don

Can you prove to me that there is a God?

Don, you're a very intelligent person, certainly more educated than me, and I know that we could go back and forth on this issue forever. The bottom line is, no, I can't prove to you that there is a God. Believing in God requires faith, similar to the faith that you put in your doctors. There are mountain loads of scientific evidence which, if believed, help to prove that there is a God, but as with many things in life, believing in God requires faith. Even if you don't believe in God, you still have to have some type of faith based belief. I mean how was this world created? How did we get here? So far, science has been unable to prove these things completely, so regardless of what you believe, you have to make a choice as to what you are willing to believe.

Don, you believe that the television set that you have at your home was created by a manufacturer, right?

Your television set came with a remote control that has many buttons on it. You press the button that says channel up and the channel changes to the next higher channel. You press the button that says volume down and the volume being produced from the speakers in your television set lowers. Every television set ever made was designed and created to produce a picture for our eyes to see and audio for our ears to hear. Televisions were designed by humans to be used by humans. Every single part in the design of a television set has a purpose for which the creator intended. With each of these parts designed and created for a specific use, even if we were unable to document the first televisions being manufactured, it would make perfect sense to think that a television set was purposely designed and created by someone. It's very simple logic! And if that's simple enough to understand, then using the same logic, does it not make sense that with the unmatched design and creation of this world and the human body, that it had to be designed and created by a Creator for a specific purpose?

Chrissy

Don, you've known me forever and you know that what I am saying is only because I care for you. Yes, God's Word does say "Judge not least ye be judged", but you are using that scripture (against me) out of context, and I'll get back to that in a second.

[Steps to becoming a true Christian - Step 1 - Determining your need for God]

God's Word says that ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). We've all broken at least one, if not more or even all of the Ten Commandments.

Are you telling me that you've never done anything that could be considered to be wrong, when considering every one of your THOUGHTS, WORDS or DEEDS? As a child or even as an adult, are you going to tell me that you've never told or even thought about telling a LIE? And you've never taken anything that was not yours when you were little, right? I stole a pack of bubble gum from a store when I was a kid. The eighth commandment is "Thou shalt not steal". Yes, that's right, Christian Chrissy broke the eighth commandment and that's not the only one. I've used God's name in vain. What I mean by that is I've spoken God's name in a sentence without giving any thought to Him whatsoever. If I were to say, "Don Durfy that hurt", I would be using your name Don, in vain. Likewise, I've used God's name in vain. The second of the ten commandments is, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain". By God's standards, I've done far more wrong in my lifetime than just breaking those two commandments.

Did you know that God judges us even by our thoughts? You said that you have been faithful to your wife, and I believe that's true, but have you ever even thought about being with someone else, maybe even before your marriage? Have you ever fantasized about stuff like that? Jesus said that whoever looks upon someone with lust has already committed adultery in his heart (Matthew 5:27-28). The seventh commandment is, "Thou shalt not commit adultery". I've seen you get angry Don, and it's not a pretty sight! Have you ever been mad enough at someone to wish harm on them? If you have, Jesus said, that by His standards, you've committed murder (Matthew 5:21-22). The sixth commandment is, "Thou shall not murder".

Even if we had lived perfectly according to God's standards, from the moment of our births, we would still be considered "sinners" by God. The reason for this is that Adam and Eve were the first human sinners, and since all mankind come from Adam and Eve, we carry sin's curse even unto our birth.

No matter how you look at it, we are all sinners and we are in desperate need of God. [Continue to step 2 - Recognizing that there is a just penalty for sin]

Oh yes! I almost forgot. "Judge not least ye be judged" simply means that we are to be very careful in how we assess our spiritual judgments of people. God will be our ultimate and final judge; and He will by all means hold us accountable to His standard of judgment for each and every spiritual judgment that we make on someone else. However, it does not mean that we are not to judge in all circumstances. God said that we are to judge with righteous judgment (John 7:24). That means that we are to only make spiritual judgments on people according to the Holy standards of God and God alone. If people do not line up with God's standards of living, we should share this with them out of our love and obedience to God. So, in a sense, making a spiritual judgment is part of our duty to God.

Chrissy, I knew you could be long winded, but WHOA!

Since I've committed all of these sins, am I suppose to believe that God is going to send me to hell when I die?

[Steps to becoming a true Christian - Step 2 - Recognizing that there is a just penalty for sin]

God is a perfect and Holy being. He does not Lie! He is just! He is incorruptible! With that in mind, think about how our justice system works. Let's say that a state's penalty for rape is a mandatory lifetime sentence in prison. A person in this state who has committed rape now stands before a judge for sentencing. The convicted man conveys regret and remorse for what he has done and pleads with the judge for mercy. Would a just judge sentence this person based on the required sentencing by law, or would a just judge break the required sentencing law and sentence him differently?

I have a hard time believing that! I don't believe that Hell exists, but I've heard some refer to it as a place to party after you die and that's sounds better to me. If I did believe in God and Hell as you describe it, I do not believe that God would do something like that. How could a loving God do this to people He created?

Chrissy

Yes, we've all sinned, but no, it is not God's will for anyone to perish in hell (John 3:15-18).

[Steps to becoming a true Christian - Step 3 - Acknowledging the price that was paid to cover sins penalty]

Let me go back to the example of the man convicted of rape. Don, give me some leeway and go with me on this. Let's say that you are the person convicted of rape. You're standing before a just judge who can't be bought and he is about to give out your penalty sentence. Oh yeah, the girl you raped, well, that was the judge's only daughter! You can imagine that the judge is furious with you! To everyone's but the judge's surprise, the judge's daughter steps in the courtroom. She says "Father, I am willing to do as you have asked. I am willing to accept the penalty of death so that this man can go free." So the judge says, "Daughter, you now bear the guilt of every crime committed in my state and I can't stand the sight of lawlessness. Guards, take her away for execution."

You see, there was a legal loophole in this hypothetical story. This judge created and founded this state, and this judge wrote all of the laws and the penalties for breaking them. However, he also wrote that if his daughter, who never broke a law, was willing to accept the penalty for all crimes in his state, then anyone who had committed a crime in his state, could go free.

I told you, I'm not great at analogies, but here is the true story. God created all mankind and He wrote all of the laws for His creation. He also wrote a clause as a way to save His creation from eternal damnation in hell. While we were still sinners, and while God was furious with us for breaking His laws, He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, from heaven to this earth in order to bear the penalty that He set for all of mankind's sins (Romans 5:8). Unlike us, Jesus Christ is solely of God, and was sent from heaven, conceived in Mary by the Holy Spirit. Since man did not conceive Jesus, He was born without sin. Furthermore, He lived a perfect, holy and sinless life.

The crucification of Jesus Christ was unlike any other. I know of no other record of any worse scourging, than that of Jesus Christ. He was whipped until much of His flesh was removed. His beard was plucked from His face. A crown of thorns was driven into his head. Nails pierced His wrist and feet as He was hung on a cross. Jesus Christ is and was of God. He had within Him the ability to call on all of God's power, including legions of angels. Yet, He was fully human, which means that He felt every inch of pain that a normal man would have felt. There is no human that would have or could have endured the sufferings of Christ. Keep in mind Don, it is not as if He stepped into a situation that He could not escape from. Unto death, He retained the power to remove it all. Jesus Christ had a choice, and He chose to be obedient to His Father, to carry the full load and penalty of sins with Him to the grave in order to offer you and I salvation. [Continue to step 4 - Having a desire to change from an old life to a new life]

[Steps to becoming a true Christian - Step 4 - Having a desire to change from an old life to a new life]

That's a touching story Chrissy, and let's just say that I believe it to be true. Am I not free of the penalty of sin, since Jesus died and took the penalty of my sins away?

You're so close to being right on, but not quite. Remember, God wrote the laws for His creation and most of these laws have carried on right into the new agreement that we have with God when He sent Jesus Christ. While Jesus was on this earth, He taught people how they were to live. He taught people that He was the example to follow. His life was perfect and sinless. Jesus also taught that anyone who claimed to be a Christian, but did not live by God's Holy Word, that this person was a liar and that God was not in them (1 John 2:3-7). So no, we can't stay the way that we are and expect to get past the final judgment of God. Jesus said that no man can come to the Father, God, except by Him (John 14:6). Jesus said that if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that you will be saved (Acts 16:32). Jesus did not say, believe in me, He said, believe on me. That means you can't just believe that Jesus Christ was sent by his Father, God, and died for you to be saved, but that you must believe on Him. I think about it this way....you must not only believe in Him, but also to be willing to follow after each command and standard that He set for us to live by. [Continue to step 5 - Repenting of your sin's]

[Steps to becoming a true Christian - Step 5 - Repenting of your sin's]

First you want me to believe in God, and now you want me to live like Jesus Christ? You are asking for the impossible!

You're right! It's impossible for anyone, on there own, to live like Jesus.

That is why you first must recognize that you are a sinner and then repent of your sins. See, you must not only recognize that you have sinned against God, but your response to that recognition must be repentance.

Repentance is simply recognizing that what you've done in the past was wrong and more importantly, turning away from your past sins and going in the complete opposite direction. You've broken God's law in the past, so repentance would be recognizing what you've done was wrong, asking for forgiveness, then turning around and walking in obedience to God's law.

When you recognize that you are a sinner and are in need of God's love and forgiveness, you repent of your sins towards God and ask God's son, Jesus Christ to come into your life.

I've told you about God the Father and His Son, Jesus, but the key to living like Jesus is the power that Jesus gives those who believe on Him. When Jesus comes in to your life, He gives you the power of His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is what enables us to live without sinning. [Continue to step 6 - Say what you mean and mean what you say]

God is made up of three persons, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

If ants could reason like humans can, I imagine that ants would ask questions similar to that.  Like, why do some of us ants get treated like enemies of humans while other ants get to live peacefully in ant farms for a human child's amusement.

Humans deal with ants in any manner that they choose. Some humans choose not to care for ants and to leave them on their own. They take the approach of, if they live, they live and if they die, they die. Some humans choose to kill ants for various reasons; mostly to benefit themselves. Some humans choose to pester ants and some even play with ants. Most humans make their decisions about how they deal with ants without thinking in the least what the ant wants or what the ant's best interest is. We deal with ants according to what we think is best and most people could care less about how the ant feels.

Because we think on a human level, we can not know or understand the full plan and purpose of God. Thinking on a human level, it would not make sense why God will allow bad things to happen to good people. Thinking on a human level, it would not make sense why He would create us, knowing that we would sin and then send His Son to die as a sacrifice for our sins. There is no way we can fully understand the perfect plan of our Creator God. Here is what we can understand and have complete assurance in: God is concerned for our best interest. God loves us with perfect, agape love. God can take something bad and make good come from it. God has promised not to allow anything to happen to us that we could not bear without His assistance. All we have to do is to put our complete trust in Him; and for those who believe on Him (trust and do as He commands), He has promised that death is only a passing from life on this earth to everlasting life in heaven.

When Adam and Eve sinned, part of the penalty for their sin was that the earth would be cursed. The earth went from a perfect self sustaining creation to a sin cursed land, slowly on its way to complete and total destruction. God's Word says that one day everything on this earth will be destroyed. Since the earth is in self-destruct mode, we will experience things while living here that are destructible. Not everything we experience on this earth is because, for example, God says, "Let's see, I think I'll create a tornado today!". It is simply because the earth is responding to the curse that was put upon it. That is not to say that God can't create tornados by His command to accomplish His purpose and plan, because He can; but we need to understand that bad things will happen simply because we are living in a sin cursed world.

God does not force people to follow His ways. Everyone is given a choice.When people do bad things, blame people, not God. On a human level, we would think again, that a Creator is responsible for the actions of His creation, but if we think that way, we're thinking like ants.

Even if some of us spent our lives loving and caring for ants, we would still have to uproot and move many of them from the homes that they laboriously built. Do you think that ants are going to understand when we take a shovel and plow through the home they built because we are trying to protect them? To test my theory, why don't you try it! Just put your hand down on top of an ant's home and call out to the ants, "Get on my hand little ants; I'm going to take you to a safe, protected place". What's going to happen when you do that, Don?

Don, you just showed a perfect contrast between humans and God. If you were trying to help ants, and the ants hurt you, you would kill them. Now think about how God responds to us when we hurt Him. He could eradicate this world with less resources than it would take for you to eradicate a pile of ants, and yet He doesn't. He offers love and forgiveness to us. He created humans and they broke His rules. He sent His Son to pay the penalty for their disobedience and yet, they did not believe He was the Son of God, so they murdered Him. Wouldn't you say that God has been stung enough to strike back?! Still, He doesn't! Instead He offers agape love. He offers undeserved mercy. He offers forgiveness. He offers salvation. He offers everlasting life.

God's plans and purposes are holy and perfect, but unless He is in your life, His ways will seem wrong and foolish to you. There are things that I may never fully understand about God, but because of Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit abiding in me, through faith, I can trust fully in Him. No matter what He allows to happen to me, I have complete assurance that He has my best interests in mind, and even in death He will give me a new life, everlasting life with Him in heaven!

Like I said Don, this world is in self-destruct mode! Don't blame all of this bad stuff on God. Humans sinned against God and started the self-destruction process, but hey, if you want to be mad at God, good luck with your battle.

Don't you realize that as helpless as the ant is against a human being, we are innumerable times more helpless against Almighty God? Even if God did not love us, and did not have our best interests at heart, even if He did not have a purpose and a plan for us, how could we fight against Him?

You can be angry at God, but you will be fighting a battle that you just can't win.

[Steps to becoming a true Christian - Step 6 - Say what you mean and mean what you say]

The Bible says that one day, at the final judgment, every knee will bow to God and every tongue will confess that He is God, that He is Jesus Christ, Lord of all. It doesn't matter what you say now. One day your own mouth will acknowledge that God exists and that He is who He said He was.  Don, if you do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, then Jesus said that He will not acknowledge you before His Father, God on the day of judgment. Until you repent of your sins, ask Jesus to come into your life and follow in God's ways, you are considered to be a lawbreaker by God and are subject to the penalty of Hell. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ cannot be a covering for your penalty until you acknowledge your sins and accept the fact that Jesus paid the price for them.

You know what, I forgot all about this until now, but I actually did that when I was a teenager. A girl I liked at the time, invited me to go to this youth service. During the service, the preacher said that if anyone wanted to be saved, just repeat after him. I wanted to impress this girl, so I said the little prayer that the preacher said. So I guess that makes me a Christian after all!

Chrissy

No, I am afraid not Don. The Bible does say that if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is Lord, that you will be saved, but the thing about God's Word is, you can't just accept one part of it and leave out the rest.

You could say with your mouth and believe in your heart that you are now the son of the President of the United Sates. After all, maybe someone told you that if you said that you were the son of the President, and believed in your heart that you were the son of the President, then you would indeed be the son of the President. Try walking up to the White House front door and see how far you get with Secret Service.

Because Don, your friend would only vouch for you based on what He knows about you. If you came with a bomb strapped to your chest, you wouldn't be acting like the person your friend knows you to be; you would be acting like a terrorist or some crazed maniac.

Just like your friend, when it comes time for the final judgment of God, Jesus Christ will be vouching only for those who He knows to be truly His children. He won't vouch for those who said a prayer of salvation and didn't mean it. He will only vouch for those who's DNA matches His own. [Continue to step 7 - Understanding what it means to be a true Christian]

[Steps to becoming a true Christian - Step 7 - Understanding what it means to be a true Christian]

Are you saying that when you become a Christian, you get the DNA of Jesus Christ?

Unfortunately and sadly, that's true. Jesus said that the road to heaven is narrow and few travel it, but the road to Hell is wide and many travel it.

Let me make something clear though; even after I became a Christian, although I wanted Jesus to completely control my life, I found myself sometimes taking back control of my life and doing things my way. This was clearly a sin and it is something I am ashamed of. My point is, even after a person is truly saved, there  MAY be times that they fail to live up to the standard of Jesus Christ. I am not saying that there WILL be times, because Jesus Christ certainly empowers us to overcome sin. Even so, we must make the choice to let go of our sinful human nature and let the Holy Spirit control our thoughts, words, and deeds. This is a choice that has to be made constantly, and I've not known a person yet who has been perfect from the moment of salvation on. Again, that is not to say that Jesus Christ is at fault because He is not. Anytime a Christian sins, it is because they have failed to call on the power of Jesus Christ that is with in them, not because the power of Jesus Christ was not powerful enough to overcome the sin.

Many times when a person truly becomes saved, although they desire to follow the standards of God, they need to learn them before they can perfectly follow them. The power to live holy, pure, perfect lives, comes from the moment of salvation, however, acting on that power requires spiritual growth and maturity. For some Christians, they grow and mature quickly, for others, it takes a little longer. Nevertheless, true Christians will continually grow and mature spiritually; that is part of the proof that you are a true Christian. Just like babies who try to walk for the first time, some babies get right up one day and start walking, while other babies need hand holding and help in order to learn how to walk. No matter what, to prove that a baby can walk, you don't ask the baby if it can walk, or how old it is, you simply watch it and see if it can walk. If the baby walks all of the time, the baby proves that it is a walker. If the baby crawls all of the time, then the baby proves that it is not a walker.

God watches over us. He need not ask a person if they are a Christian, how long they have been a Christian or how much knowledge of His Word that they know. A person proves what type of Christian they are simply by how they live their life. Those who have truly become Christians will walk in the ways of Jesus Christ, those who have not will walk in their own ways. [Continue to step 8 - A simple prayer to complete steps 1-7]

Steps to becoming a true Christian