Greg Laurie - Let God Change Your Life: How to Know and Follow Jesus

LET GOD CHANGE YOUR LIFE

Published by David C Cook

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All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes,

no part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form

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The website addresses recommended throughout this book are offered as a resource to you. These websites are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement on the part of David C Cook, nor do we vouch for their content.

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The author has added italics to Scripture quotations for emphasis.

LCCN 2010941778

ISBN 978-1-4347-0207-4

eISBN 978-1-4347-0368-2

2011 Greg Laurie

Published in association with the literary agency of FM Management, 24981 Dana Point Harbor Drive, Suite 110, Dana Point, CA 92629.

Portions of this book were previously published by Kerygma Publishing, Greg Laurie

How to Know God in 2006, ISBN 978-0-9777103-1-7

Making God Known in 2007, ISBN 978-0-9777103-6-2

Discipleship: The Road Less Taken in 2009, ISBN 978-0-9801831-6-0

Portions of this book were also previously published by Harvest House Publishers as Discipleship: Giving God Your Best in 1993 Greg Laurie, ISBN 978-1-56507-039-4

The Team: Alex Field, Sarah Schultz, Renada Arens, and Karen Athen

Cover Design: Amy Kiechlin

Cover Photo: iStock

First Edition 2011

To Jonathan Allen Laurie,
a growing disciple of Jesus Christ of whom I am very proud

Contents

Part One:

1. GODS CURE FOR HEART TROUBLE

Part Two:

Part Three:

15. THE THREE Ws OF EVANGELISM

INTRODUCTION

It has been said there are two things that are true of every person: We all want to be happy, and we are all going to die.

From the moment you and I were born, we have been on a quest. What weve been searching for hasnt always been clear, but we all want our lives to have meaning and purpose. And we want to be happy.

For me, this search began at a very early age. I was born into a chaotic environment. My mother, an alcoholic, married and divorced seven times. I had to grow up fast and learn how to take care of myself. And as I observed the adult world into which I had been immersed, as I watched all the drinking and partying, I thought to myself, I dont want to live that way. But by the time I was in high school, I was out drinking and partying with the best of them.

Then the 1960s drug revolution emerged on the scene. Rock stars such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison told us to expand our minds through drug use. I had been told that if I took drugs, I would become more aware. I definitely wanted to be more aware, so I started taking drugs, and I became more aware all right aware of how miserable I felt.

Eventually, I went from smoking pot to taking LSD. But as our rock icons died one by one (Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison all died, ironically, at the age of twenty-seven), I knew this was not the life I wanted to live.

I narrowed my search through the process of elimination. I knew what I sought wasnt in partying. And I didnt find it in drinking, affluence, or drugs. As far as I could tell, it wasnt in the adult world I had observed.

Then one day on my high school campus, I saw a really cute girl. A friend of mine was talking to her, so I walked up to them and waited for a chance to introduce myself. As I stood there, I noticed that in addition to a textbook and a notebook, she was carrying an unusual-looking book with a black leather cover and gold pages. I thought, Oh, no! Thats a Bible. This girl is a Jesus freak. What a waste of a perfectly cute girl! I thought Christians were all a bit crazy. Something wasnt right about them. Why would anyone come to school carrying a Bible and talking about God as though He were her next-door neighbor? Dont get me wrong I believed in Jesus. I had seen all His movies, and what I knew about Him (which wasnt much), I liked. When I was in trouble, I always called on Jesus. He was my God of choice in a crisis. But I never realized that Jesus could be known in a personal way.

One day at lunchtime, I was walking across campus and noticed the Christians out on the front lawn, singing songs about God. I sat down a few feet away, close enough to eavesdrop on their conversation (because the cute girl was there), but not close enough for my friends to assume that I was actually one of them, which would have been social suicide. As I listened and watched them sing songs about God, I thought, Look at these crazy people they are so weird they are so demented and they are so happy!

Then I tried a new thought on for size: What if the Christians are right? What if God can be known in a personal way?

Then a youth pastor named Lonnie got up and spoke. I dont remember most of what he said, but I do remember one statement that hit me like a lightning bolt. He told the group, Jesus said, You are either for Me or against Me. I thought, Well, these Christians are definitely for Him. And I am not one of them. Does that mean that I am against Him?

He continued, If you want to give your life to Jesus right now and be forgiven of your sin, I want you to get up and walk forward, and I am going to lead you in a prayer. There is no way I could do that, I thought. I would like to know God. I would like to have happiness and peace. But this wont work for me. I am not the religious type. I am too cynical, too mad at the world.

Amazingly, I got up anyway, went forward, and prayed along with a handful of kids who did the same. It was as if time stood still as I called out to God, Forgive me of my sin; come into my life.

I remember that as I finished praying, it felt like someone lifted a big load off my shoulders. And indeed it was lifted. The burden of sin and guilt I had been carrying for the first seventeen years of my life had been removed.

Then the school bell rang. Back to class!

But before I left, that really cute girl came up, hugged me, and said, God bless you, brother. I thought, This is good being a Christian! But she and I never became more than friends. Or as my new Christian friends would say, she was a sister in the Lord.

But God used her to get my attention. As I began to meet other Christians and grow in my newfound faith, I discovered what God was really like. I learned what it meant to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Many people today hold on to preconceived notions about God. Some envision God as an angry, hostile, and uptight Supreme Being who is in a perpetual bad mood and waiting to nail them when they sin. Others may think God is strange, because they have known strange people who call themselves Christians. Yet lets not blame their weirdness on Christianity. They were probably that way in the first place.

So what is God like? How does He look at us? And more importantly, does He approve or disapprove of us?

We find the answers in the pages of Scripture, where God reveals Himself. Jesus gives us a snapshot of God in the parable of the prodigal son. I think it could be more appropriately called the parable of the loving father, because Jesus portrays God as a heavenly Father who deeply loves us and desperately misses us when we go astray.