Chapter 1: Changing Directions

Let me start by taking you back a few years. As a boy growing up in the country, only a few things seemed more important than bicycles, dirt bikes, and BB Guns. It’s a true story. I wasn’t a perfect kid growing up, but there did come a day when I decided to change directions; however, at times, it seems like my redirection came a few days late!

For instance, there was the time when one of my friends had conned me into letting him shoot my BB gun, and before I realized it, he shot out most of the headlights of the old broken-down classic cars my dad had behind the garage that were a hopeful project one day in the future. There was a time when a few of my sister’s friends and I thought that it would be a good day to take out the dirt bike and 4-wheeler and go jumping terraces in a cornfield a mile or so away from my house.

The field had not started growing yet; however, the seed had been planted already and did not grow where we were riding. We all had to chip in and pay back the farmer for that little rendezvous. And growing up in the country, close to town, as soon as I was a teenager, I lived on my bicycle and would ride into town to hang out with friends to get away from home as often as possible. Looking back, I wasn’t perfect, and I had access to far too many options that required a little bit better direction and navigation than I had at the time.

One of my favorite stories of Jesus getting in trouble as a child was the time they went up to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration. As Luke tells the story, Jesus was 12. When He was in Jerusalem as a boy with his parents, He sat with the religious leaders of the day in the temple, listening to them, answering questions, and questioning them. He wasn’t running off to get into some sort of trouble that could have easily been prevented by a little bit of redirection. He wasn’t playing games that would deteriorate the mind and heart.

All the while, Mary and Joseph spent three frantic days searching for Him. When they finally found Him—understandably anxious and upset—Jesus simply turned to them as if nothing were wrong, assuring them they had no reason to worry (Luke 2:41–52). It is almost humorous from a distance, yet deeply relatable and poignant through the eyes of a parent.

Jesus never traveled the same direction the rest of the world was traveling. He traveled against the flow of the world. I believe that He enjoyed going against the grain and pushing buttons. He touched lepers, talked to a Samaritan woman, ate with tax collectors, befriended sinners and fishermen. Jesus saved these people from Satan, and as the Bible puts it, He had no place to lay His head or call home (Matthew 8:20).

Take this picture of Jesus and hold it up against your own perception of what you think His life looked like. What do you see when you compare the two? Do you see a similar picture, or do you see a completely different picture? Do you see yourself as someone who loves unconditionally as Jesus did? Or do you see someone who is judgmental, harsh, and partial toward some people but not others; do you see a hypocrite? Jesus says in Matthew 25,

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people from one another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And He will place the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world. For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger, and you welcomed me, I was naked, and you clothed me, I was sick, and you visited me, I was in prison, and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You a drink? And when did we see You a stranger and welcome You, or naked and clothe You? And when did we see You sick or in prison and visit You? And the King will answer then, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to the least of these My brothers, you did it to Me.’” (31-40; NKJV)

You see, Jesus isn’t worried about what the world thinks. He is the Son of God, and He created the world just as He intended to create it. As it says in Genesis 1:31:

“And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind.” (John 1:1-4)

But then Satan came along and took what was good, twisting it toward something worse. As it says in Genesis 3:1:

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?”‘” (ESV)

Stop right here for a moment. Satan questions Eve about the authority of God and eventually coaxes her to turn away from what God had commanded—His one and only commandment at this point in time. Eve had known what the right thing to do was; however, she was blindsided by Satan and deceived into believing a lie. And the lie was this, Genesis 3:4:

“But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die.’” (ESV)

Eve was tricked again by Satan into believing that this death God had spoken of was in the form of a physical death, not in a spiritual manner of death. Because of Satan, Adam and Eve changed directions from living life God’s way to living life Satan’s way. It took God to send Jesus, His only Begotten Son, to correct and fix this brokenness for us through His death on the cross and bring about a way for us to change directions back to Him (John 3:16, 14:6). Through one man, sin entered the world and the life of every person upon it; through one Man, sin had been conquered forever (Romans 5:12-21). Satan is always trying to get us to turn from God and to follow him.

No one is innocent; we are all guilty of being distracted by Satan’s trickery; however, we have also found our saving grace in Jesus, our Redeemer.

We must remain keenly aware that the potential to fall back into Satan’s trap always exists. When we notice a fellow believer stumbling into the enemy’s snare, we have a clear responsibility to gently make them aware of their condition. We are called to this task in Matthew 18:15–16, which says:

“If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that ON THE TESTIMONY OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY MATTER MAY BE CONFIRMED.”

“Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”

(Galatians 5:19-25)

This scripture is self-explanatory; there is nothing I could say to make you, the reader, understand it any clearer. These verses spell out clearly the sins of the flesh and the Fruits of the Spirit. Ask yourself now, though, which is evident in your life. What do you see? Be honest with yourself because God already knows the answer and the intentions of your heart; do you know the answers and intentions of your own heart? You can—and with God’s help, you can transform a bad response into a good one, shifting from self-serving intentions to righteous ones. You just cannot do it alone.

The only way to change directions is with the help of God, with an internal conversion from lost to found, hopeless to hopeful, suffering to thriving, from sinner to saved. Jesus is the way to make this change, as He said, “I am the Way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6).

“For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES.” (Hebrews 10:26-27)

Jesus is the way!

Jesus is the truth!

Jesus is the life!

So let us all take hold of Jesus Christ, our Redemption and Salvation, and take advantage of the full reward and inheritance that awaits us as Children of God (Eph 5:5; John 1:12-13; Romans 8:14-17), so that we may hear in the end:

“Well done, good and faithful servant.”

(Matthew 25:21, 23; Luke 19:17)