60100.1 Introduction

When you have asked Jesus Christ into your life, it is important to begin to learn about the wonderful life God has planned for you. Jesus promises to take our ordinary, self-centered lives, and make them exceptional and rewarding. 

It only makes sense that the One who created us knows what is best for our lives and can fill them with meaning and focus. By letting Jesus direct your life, you will truly experience purposeful living and a life filled with adventure. 

In his booklet, My Heart, Christ’s Home, Robert Boyd Munger wrote about how Jesus can make this difference in our lives. When Munger gave his heart to Christ, he imagined Jesus as the new guest he had invited into his home. Munger explains how his relationship with Christ changed everything else in his life. 

“One evening I invited Jesus Christ into my heart. What an entrance He made! It was not a spectacular, emotional thing, but very real. Something happened at the very cen­ter of my life. He came into the darkness of my heart and turned on the light. 

He built a fire on the hearth and banished the chill. He started music where there had been stillness, and He filled the emptiness with His own loving, wonderful fellow­ship. I have never regretted opening the door to Christ and I never will. 

In the joy of this new relationship I said to Jesus Christ, ‘Lord, I want this heart of mine to be Yours. I want to have You settle down here and be perfectly at home. Everything I have belongs to You. Let me show You around.’” 

Munger writes of the different areas of his life as “rooms” of a house that Jesus now resided within. He imagines Jesus looking around his house, offering to change each room, “removing the filth and making it warm and clean.” 

For example, the “Study” of his heart represents the books and magazines he read. For us today that would include the TV programs that we watch and the Internet sites we visit. Ashamed of the things he had been putting into his mind, Munger writes, 

“Red-faced, I turned to Him and said, ‘Master, I know that this room needs to be cleaned up and made over. Will You help me make it what it ought to be?’ ‘Certainly!’ He said. ‘I’m glad to help you. First of all, take all the things that you are reading and looking at which are not helpful, pure, good and true, and throw them out!’” 

One room, the closet, was so private Munger felt ashamed. But Jesus reminded him that His light can change even the darkest areas of our lives. 

Munger’s story illustrates how Jesus can bring meaning and purpose to your life as you surrender to Him and apply God’s promises to your life. These promises are contained in His Word, the Bible. 

The Bible tells us that it is God’s will that we grow in our relationship with Christ, and live the tremendous life He planned for us (Ephesians 2:10). As we study and apply God’s Word to our lives, we really begin to live a life that finds its purpose in Jesus Christ. This course is all about the adventure we experience in life when we let our relationship with Jesus direct our lives. 

Running a Marathon 

If you have made the decision to receive Jesus as your personal Savior and Lord, you have begun an exciting journey with Christ that will never end. 

The Christian life is more like a marathon than a sprint. At the beginning of a race, competitors always feel great and have lots of energy. However, you can’t expect the emotions that you are feeling as you begin your walk with Christ to carry you through when the pressures of daily life are upon you. 

Running a marathon requires a great deal of time in training. But training time definitely pays off in helping a runner to run a better race. 

In order for you to run your best race for Christ you need to spend time in training. Is Christ at the finish line, or is He actually running the race for us? God wants you to glorify Him in the Christian life, and is totally committed to your success, and His Holy Spirit will empower you and help you during each mile you run in life.