What's the Problem with Jesus?

WHAT’S

THE

PROBLEM

WITH

JESUS?

JOHN HYDE

Copyright © 2008, 2013 John Hyde.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Cover illustration by Whitney Miller and John Hyde

All scriptural references taken from the New American Standard version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-1421-6 (e)

WestBow Press rev. date: 11/19/2013

CONTENTS

Dedication

Introduction

What Is YOUR Problem With God?

Chapter 1.   Laying A Foundation

Chapter 2.   Growing In Faith

Chapter 3.   Living For God Daily

Chapter 4.   Finding Freedom

Chapter 5.   Finding The Root Of Your Problem

Chapter 6.   A Little Self-Examination

Chapter 7.   Resolving Your Problem

Chapter 8.   The Summation Of It All

Chapter 9.   Parting Shots

Epilogue

About The Author

DEDICATION

I am dedicating this book, and hopefully the influence it will bring on countless lives, to my beautiful wife of 38 years, Lydia. I am extremely blessed and grateful that God gave Lydia abundant patience. Many, many years of camp ministry has not always been easy. She has been my steady companion no matter what came our way. Our four children, Joshua, Caleb, Rebekah, and Andrew could not have asked for a more wonderful mother. The two daughter-in-laws, each our favorite, are blessed with a mother-in-law who deeply loves them. Our two grandaughters, Cadence and Anna, have a grandmother Kissie who brightens their days with incredible love. And now two grandsons, Jaden and Jackson as well, receive abundant love when they come our way.

I would also like to acknowledge my youth minister friend, Mike Taco Romero, for giving me the inspiration for the cover. He said it needs to be bold. The design then came to me while driving down Texas Avenue in Bryan.

Special thanks to Whitney Miller, student at The University of Texas, Austin (we Aggies call it t.u.) for doing the cover art.

INTRODUCTION

I go by a cemetery on the way to my job every day. I frequently observe family crowded around a hole in the ground, saying their last goodbyes to a loved one being put into that hole, never to be seen again in this life. Is that all there is?

We are born, we live, we die, and we are put in the ground. Is that it? Every one of us comes to a common end. Death never misses any of us. But is that it? Is there really eternal life? Is there something beyond our grave waiting for us on the other side? I believe there is, and what waits for us through death’s door is dependant on our decision while we living on this side. You’ve seen The Price is Right on television with the choice of door numbers one, two, and three. But in this life, there are only two doors to choose from. The price has been paid for us to enter one of them. If we do nothing, the other door is selected automatically. Have you chosen your door, or have you done nothing?

There was a time in America that you could freely talk about God and enjoy a life connected with Him without being looked upon with disdain by others. Or so it seemed to me. I cannot recall people being offended at the mention of Jesus. I remember when I plugged in to God through Jesus Christ by asking Jesus to come into my life as a boy of 13. I was completely changed by His grace, and was so excited by it that I had to tell everyone I came across about what happened to me. Most everyone was happy for me, I don’t recall offending anyone, but finally having had enough of my giddiness, one old deacon in the church told me it was time to settle down, I was starting to act like one of them charismatics. Whatever that meant, I didn’t know at the time.

Over the course of some forty-five years of my life since then, I have witnessed a tremendous change in the collective attitude towards God in our country, and that is what I wish to write about in this book. I want to know specifically what your particular problem is with the God who has made my life worth living, the God who spared me from a destructive lifestyle, and who paid a price for my life which allows me to go to Heaven when I die, instead of Hell, which is what I deserve.

I am quite frustrated with people who have kicked the God I know out of society over the years, in one realm or another, often without a hint of protest from those who know God, and who, together, make up what we know of as The Church. This body of believers has been strangely silent for too many years, I suppose because of conditioning by non-believers, who say that they are offended, and who often file lawsuits to shut down the believers, believers have largely kept their mouths shut. After all, we are admonished to turn the other cheek.

A politician recently running for the highest office in this land often talked of Two Americas, or at least he did last time around. His two Americas are the haves and the have-nots. It’s kind of blurry where you draw the line, as most of the have-nots would be haves in much of the rest of the world.

My idea of two Americas would be the believers and the non-believers, and I concede there’s probably a lot of blurriness there as well. But it doesn’t have to be that way, because the Holy Bible made a pretty clear distinction between the two over two thousand years ago, and the standard has not changed. I have always known a God who loves me unconditionally, who is patient with me, who stands beside me no matter what I go through, and who has actually saved my life on more than one occasion. I can talk to Him at any time, at any location. Even though prayers were banned in school long ago, it didn’t prevent me from praying. I can’t think of anything that would prevent me from conversing with my Heavenly Father. He even talks back to me many times, although not in an audible voice like you would hear from across a room. I have never known God to leave me abandoned in any situation, I have never suffered unduly in terms of hunger, lack of shelter, or any other basic needs. There have been some really tough times, but He has always been with me.

He hasn’t given me everything I always wanted, as God knows what is best for me, and He knows what the best time frame for things I need is as well. All in all, for some 58 years now, I would say that God has been good to me, even when I didn’t realize it at the time. In fact, many times I enjoy God’s blessings without even realizing that many things that happen are a direct result of my relationship with Him.

I believe that it is long past time for believers to start standing their ground for our God, for he does not belong exclusively to me, or any of us. He is God. He doesn’t need us to defend him, He doesn’t want us to go out and kill anyone because we feel that He is being attacked. He can take care of Himself. The God I know is Love. That’s all he has ever been to me. He doesn’t sit on His throne waiting to zap me if I misbehave, but He has chastised me more than a few times when I have strayed from His loving arms, just as my earthly father did many years ago when he was alive. I have to wonder why so many of us as believers are afraid to even speak of God in our everyday conversations. I know… . we don’t want to be laughed at, or made to feel peculiar. I think I got over that years ago, yet I recall many, many situations where I clammed up when I knew I should have spoken out. No more… I have found a boldness about my advancing years that is most refreshing. I am and have been for a while at a point where I really don’t care what others think or say about me when I talk about my God, and specifically about Jesus, the One who saved me.

If you have a problem with this, I guess I could use the common expression, Get over it, but that’s a little harsh. I would rather know why you feel as you do about God, and what took you to that point over your years of life. I wish to share many stories of how I have seen, felt, and been washed over by the presence of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The same God who I believe created the universe we live in, and all that is within it, is the same God who knows my name, and knows how many hairs I have on my head, and can keep up with the count even though I lose many of them daily.

This same God of old is new and refreshing to me every day. I see Him at work constantly, even though man has tried all through history to wipe Him out. That word… . History… . is really His Story.

God has been at work ever since man was created by Him, trying to redeem mankind unto Himself even though he is a stubborn and stiff-necked being. (I know, you might not believe we were created, but evolved, that’s okay right now). Perhaps your stubbornness is why you have problems with God, but that’s okay too, He has seen it all throughout history, you’re really not much different than the Israelites who wandered in the desert for 40 years because of their stubbornness when the trip from Egypt to the Promised Land should have taken just a few months. I wonder how much longer your journey will be before you finally see God for who He is… Love. God loves you. You need to know that GOD LOVES YOU. You cannot escape it, no matter who you are and what you have done, God loves you just as you are. If you come to Him, He will make you into what He intended for you to be even before you were born. You will live a life unlike anything you ever imagined. But you have to make the move, you have to lay yourself down, and let Him pick you up. Then and only then will your journey begin that will ultimately take you to His house.

I am writing this book very simply. No big words to stumble over, no deep theological statements to be bogged down by. I quote a few scriptures for reference, however, it is my desire that you look up much of what I refer to in the Bible to read it for yourself. I don’t want you to think this is just my interpretation. I am a simple person, so I believe it is the best way to communicate. I often read opinions and articles filled with so many fifty-dollar words that when you finish, you have no idea what the author said. Not so in this book. There might be a couple of five dollar words, but most words are a dollar or less. I want you to understand, above all else, that God loves you, and unless you understand this, you have missed the greatest experience in the entirety of your life. In fact, you will miss God altogether for all of eternity.

WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM WITH GOD?

Maybe your problem with God is that a person you loved died much too young, and you got mad at God for taking that person away.

Maybe your problem with God is that you were molested by a member of a church or of the clergy, and you can never trust a church member again and you blame God for it.

Maybe the problem is that you can’t believe that God would ever take you in because you have done so many bad things.

Perhaps you want to party and live your life with you in charge, and you think that if you follow God, life will be boring and stiff-laced.

It could be that you had a horrible father when you were little, or maybe none at all, and you can’t relate to the idea of a Heavenly Father.

If you are a woman, maybe a man did bad things to you, and as God is a male, you can’t relate to Him other than with hatred like you have for all men.

Maybe your problem with God is that you crave for something, so you fill your life with drugs, alcohol, maybe sex, or fast cars, or hard partying, or even riches, not realizing that only God can fill that big hole in your heart.

Maybe you are a liberal who thinks that man alone should be in charge of this world, that to profess a belief in any kind of god is a display of weakness and an inability to lead.

Perhaps you reasoned at one time that God can’t exist because of so much evil in the world. If there really were such a being as God, he wouldn’t allow all the wars and evil acts that mankind perpetrates upon one another. We war because we are broken.

Maybe your problem is that you follow some other religion, you have known it since childhood, you think its right, yet there’s just enough doubt in your mind that this is the way to caused you to look around at another belief system and you are confused.

Your problem with God might be that you are going outside of the Bible for teachings on Christianity, listening to others without checking facts, or reading other books instead of The Book.

Whatever your problem with God is, I encourage you to read with an open mind what is contained within this book. We all live our lives with the expectation that we will arrive at an old age, retire, and then do the things we really want to do. There is no guarantee of this, and you know it.

Look at any obituary page, and see the wide variance in ages of those who have passed. You might think… If God was a loving God, why do babies die?

I can’t answer that, no one can. God alone knows the reason. A Christian does believe that babies go to Heaven, as they have not yet reached the age of accountability, when they clearly know the difference between right and wrong, where they understand that they will be held accountable for their actions on this earth. For some, this may occur at the age of five or six, others may be into their teens, but the age of knowing this rarely goes past early teens. Statistics would indicate that most decisions to follow the leadings of God in life will occur at an early age, once a person passes 18 and leaves home, the decision to follow Christ drops off dramatically. This is most likely because their mind is then set on pursuit of self and the things of the world.

However, there are exceptions, as there are with anything. I have known some people who decided to become a Christian while in their eighties. They have come to the end of their lives, realized it was empty and vain, and realized even more the reality of separation from God in eternity, and crossed over that threshold into belief. Sometimes there are deathbed confessions as people are literally afraid of dying and going to Hell, something they would not acknowledge in life until suddenly faced with the real prospect of going there.

Growing up in a Christian home was no guarantee that I would absorb through osmosis the faith of my father. I had to make my own decision, and I did at the age of 13. I