Guest Post by Richard Rogers. Richard writes daily posts via his Facebook page. Follow him on Facebook here.
Life is all about relationships, the ways in which we connect with each other or how we behave toward or deal with other people. We, as human beings, are social creatures. We need each other! We all require love, encouragement, support, fellowship, and the myriad of other benefits that are possible because of relationships. In fact, our relationships with others help to mold and shape how we view ourselves in relation to the world around us. Attesting to the importance of relationships is an abundance of evidence that when people are isolated from social interaction for extended periods—such as enduring the punishment of solitary confinement—they can suffer detrimental emotional and psychological effects. Our relationships help to define who we are as individuals who are social by nature. The conglomeration of these relationships or human associations and the conventions, institutions, and patterns of thinking and behaving resulting from them is what we call society! Human relationships date back to the Garden of Eden when God said: “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” (Genesis 2:18) Life is all about relationships with other people, and everlasting life is all about a relationship with one man—the only One who has ever walked on earth as both God and man—the Lord Jesus Christ!!!.
Just as positive associations with other people are essential to our physical and emotional health, we all desperately need to enter into a relationship with Jesus, our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, through whom we have the exclusive opportunity for communion and fellowship with the heavenly Father. Of all the bonds that we will ever develop, emphatically, the most important one by far is a relationship with the Savior of mankind, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ! It is absolutely essential that each of us has, not just a knowledge of, but a personal relationship with Christ. Not our good works, not our service to others, nothing else can do it—the development of this one relationship or the failure to do so alone will determine whether we spend eternity in God’s presence in an unimaginably glorious paradise called heaven or eternally separated from Him in an equally real place of everlasting punishment called hell. In this earthly life it is essential that we choose and develop our relationships carefully. Likewise, our eternal security hinges on wisely choosing to open our hearts to receive Christ who longs to come inside and fellowship forever with you and me. Jesus, who died that we might have life, extends to all this invitation: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. (Revelation 3:20) Faith opens the door to an outpouring of God’s grace and an everlasting relationship with Christ Jesus!
