Where to Begin

You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29:13

It's not always a simple question to answer, when someone wants to give his or her life back to Jesus and wants to know where to start.

Some people say the person asking himself or herself that question, just needs to come to "the throne of Grace," to return to church. But is that what Heaven really means in saying to seek God with all our heart? (Matthew 11:28, Jeremiah 29:13)

My walk back into the fold of Salvation began at home prayer meetings, after an acquaintance who I had not heard from in a long time, called the office where I was working, was surprised to hear my name and voice, and said to come to a friend's house with her, for Bible study.

Maybe coincidentally, I'd also felt a call to start going to Bible studies at the church I'd joined years before. And the more I heard from the Bible, during study with the church, the more I hungered for the righteousness we have in Jesus.

I read from the Bible, made sure to read verses in context of whole passages or even whole books of the Bible, took notes, placed question marks next to passages that puzzled me, and prayed and waited for answers.

As we studied, some answers arrived almost immediately. Other answer were years in coming. But one thing is sure: With faith, there are answers.

For example, someone may wonder, what did a pastor mean when he preached, recently, that Jesus will, one day, put one foot down while the other foot remains in Heaven?

I think that's a great question, and it's best answered through personal or group discussion with that particular pastor. That pastor may be willing to talk with someone long distance by phone, and may be willing to follow up with mid-week Bible-study sessions on Facebook Live.

And that could be a great starting point for that person who wonders what the pastor meant.

"Faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of God." (Romans 10:17)

What does not seem good to do is to try starting out, in the word (the Bible word) all on your own. Rookie mistakes with starting out that way can be trying to read the Bible from front to back, starting at Genesis, or, on the other hand, trying to start with a metaphorical, prophetic book, such as the book of Revelation at the Bible's end.

Guided Bible study, with prayer and at least some oversight by a pastor, is the best way to start. And, if the study leader is on a certain topic and is a good storyteller, that's all the better.

I remember one study series, at a women's shelter. The leader there chose a study about Nehemiah and Sanballat. She focused on Nehemiah's courage in building the walls that safeguarded God's people, in the face of physical attacks by Sanballat and others. The study leader's voice was so commanding (not theatrical), that I wanted to read the next passage and the next, despite my not liking war stories. And, years later, I was able to use that experience to encourage myself to read other books of the Old Testament that dealt with war and oppression. And I was able to put everything in proper historic context, because of how the study leader had explained, and because of where, in the Bible, she had begun.

That also means read-the-Bible-in-a-year study guides probably also aren't the best way to start. And, again, only getting the Grace we find in going to church on Sunday in the sanctuary, may not be the most strengthening way to begin again in Jesus.

We really do have to seek Him with all our child-like heart, with questions and a willingness to hear and to learn what's true (and, sometimes, with a deeply-felt calling to be cleansed, washed, freed of past sins, buried in the purity of baptism and born-again to a spiritually new life).

Then, understand that the life Jesus gives us is like a pilgrim's journey, with both death and great joy along the way.

By the way, if I were to guess, I would say the pastor who I've mentioned, is probably expecting the church to return to Israel in years to come. That may mean that we who are the church today (we who are Jesus' feet today) may, some years from now, be in that place of waiting that we call Heaven — while Jesus is here in earth again, putting His foot down against problems in Israel. But how could that be?

There's a Bible passage that says the Mount of Olives, in Israel, will one day split in two through great force, maybe settling some dispute that has troubled this world: where some youths opposed to Israel have grown up throwing grenades at Israel's hills, and where some, in Israel, have forgotten Christ and choose to say sins are okay.

The Bible says Jesus will return to this backslidden world, taking the same route that He walked in ancient times (Acts 1:11). That may mean Israel will see believers in Jesus praying and walking again on the Mount of Olives.

“Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is He, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zechariah 9:9)