Life is the span of time allocated by God to everybody at birth and ends at death! Life is a fashion, a way of living that differs amongst the people of the earth; it is largely influenced by the circumstances and the society one is born in. The Roman Catholics say: “Give us a child till it’s five and we’ll have it all his life!” They are often wrong but not always. I believe it to be true. One’s first years of life make up the person one will be, the character of a person is greatly impressed by the customs and the culture of the people amongst which it develops. The way of life is woven into the child by the home in which it is born, and the things he learns will be with him for the rest of its life; and as it grows, the social fabric of its nation will also determine its future. One’s outlook on life is shaped by the surroundings in which one spends the most important years of one’s life. One may live all one’s life in one environment and not know anything else. Thus, man is the product of a certain way of life, of a prevailing mentality!

All nations on earth have their language, their history, their culture and most have their specific religion, all these factors make up the person one is. Life’s circumstances may provoke a change of direction, and wherever one ends up, whether it is in one’s own country or abroad, one will find that to adapt to the new surroundings and different customs, etcetera, is not easy. Nobody can change the way the people live, nor should they try to, the customs, language, if different, and their culture, which is their inherited way of life, will not change to suit the intruder, the new comer, therefore to adapt is easier for some than others, but it always creates problems which may disappear later, or become worse! There was a time in my life when we never moved further that few kilometres from home; because we had to walk everywhere we needed to go! Now, of course things are very different, and the movement of people have brought massive problems, the world has changed forever! They are facts of life. We cannot leave the world because we do not like it as it is, one day we shall have to leave it, but no-one knows when, but that day is hardly ever mentioned in every day’s conversation! 

I my introduction I have mainly concentrated my remarks to a one-sided aspect of what we generally think of life. Whether we are politicians, scientists, social workers, industrialists, or just plain workers, our way of thinking is mainly centred on the physical aspect and needs. We concentrate most of our activities on what we shall eat, what we shall drink, what we shall wear, where we shall live. It may be in a house, a cottage or even a mansion, those and all other things we view as necessities. To a great degree, the physical needs monopolise most of our activities, and to many they are a daily problem. It’s a fact of life, always present ,wherever we may live. If we have any time left we spend it on pleasures, or hobbies of one sort or another, we like to feel better for a while and lough a little, and go to bed before we wake up to start again the same routine! Outside of that, I have realised that men have very little time left for what is the most important aspect of our being ‘the complete man.’ There is a part of ourselves that we can hardly think about properly; why? Because we have no time! Yet that part, which is the soul, is the most important of one’s being, because it is eternal, everything we have done, been, or acquired we shall leave behind, and suddenly, in a twinkling of an eye, we shall discover that we were so wrong not to prepare for it!

What I have written in my introduction was done purposely to describe how unbalanced is the main idea of life. This is the view man has in every walk of life anywhere in the world; there is a massive concentration on the ‘here and now’ and what we can do to make it as easy and successful as possible! All that men hope for, desire and work for, can only be achieved if one has the ‘money’, and to get it, we must work for it.  This view is totally built on, or around finance, the more money we have the happier will we be; we hope! The economy is the main program of every government; man, generally, thinks that this is the only purpose for which he is on the earth. In general, the main objective is how can we make more money to be happier? Learning, the career we want, whether we go through University, College or an apprenticeship, or just a primary education, all is done with that purpose.  In the world of men, one cannot be anything, one cannot do anything, and one cannot get anywhere, without money. All these things are very good, and one should always work hard to learn, and try to make it to the top of the ladder, this is what men strive to make, ‘a success of their life. Now, all these planning is very important, but that is not what life is all about, for there is a far more serious reason for man’s presence on earth. God takes man’s existence very seriously, and He has sacrificed a lot to make everyone’s existence really successful by faith in Chris; but His way is very different to man’s, and most men do not find His way very attractive! WHY?

The group Abba sang “Money, money, money…. It’s a rich man’s world” it is not true, not really, but the system of the world is built on it, according to the Bible, money is the god of this world. Another song is nearer the truth for it says that: “the best things in life are free”. If you analyse seriously these statements, you will arrive at the conclusion, that man’s true happiness comes from the elements for which he does not need money, because man has received freely from God all that he needs, to be able to enjoy things we get from Him, freely! That important part of man’s life, happiness, contentment and human relationship built on friendship, one cannot buy and yet without it man is just an island; thus, the best things in life are free. How much have you paid for your wife to love you? Loving someone, whether a wife, a husband, a child or anyone else is free and we get a lot of pleasure from loving and being loved! When I first saw my wife to be, I felt something lovely inside me because I saw the most beautiful being on earth!  

What have you done personally to live?  How much did it cost you to be loved as a baby, when so weak and so helpless, you were cared for by two people that, because of their love for each other, willed you into their family? The answer is nothing! Have you ever thought that life, your life, is a gift and how you can keep it forever? Who gave it, your mother brought you into the world, but she did not give you your life, you only began to live when you breathed your first breath and you can only stay alive until your last, which is already predetermined by the One who gives life, God! Now that you are alive would you sell your life? If it were possible, how much would you sell it for? It might be a silly question but it makes one think. In history men really sold themselves to a master, to pay their debts, thus they remained slaves till death. At the end of the argument: ‘What is a human being’? A human being is a miracle, the whole gold of the world could not make a man! To make man finance does not come into question, life is a gift, God gives life for nothing and for as long as He wants to. That’s another fact of life! Today, most people, especially in the western world, do not believe in God, many do believe in a certain god, the way to the God of the Bible, the true God, one needs to believe in Jesus Christ, who said: “I am the way, the truth and the life, no mas comes to the Father but by me!” (John 14:6) But whether you believe in Him, or not, God never changes, He remains loving, compassionate, but always just, He is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, 

The Bible says: “The God who has made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He gives life and breath and everything else” (Acts 17:23-28.) It is the first breath that ignites life, that is how God gives it. God gave to you your life, and you will have it for as long as He has determined for you to have it. When the last second has come, all the money in the world cannot buy anybody another minute, God gives it and He ends it! It is absolutely free! David the greatest king of Israel writes in one of his Psalms: “For you have created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful and I know it well… All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139:13-13-16.)  You might not agree with that statement, but it is a fact of life and there is nothing you can do about it. You may not even believe that there is a God, but what you think does not change reality one iota for, ‘God is, and He rewards those that earnestly seek Him’ (Hebrews 11:6.) 

I shall take just one example: Friendship; true friendship does not depend on how clever one is. It does not depend on one’s social standing or on one’s financial status. If you have a friend that is your friend because of what he can get out of you, he’s not a friend he’s a leech. From friendship we can branch out on so many other things, or people that have largely contributed to this wonderful discovery that the best things in life are free. So, is there a way to a better life? Yes! But to get it one has to completely change one’s direction and turn away from that crazy attitude we have of life, and begin to be serious and discover that to get this great life, you must believe that there is more to you, as a person, than the life you have lived thus far, and how you have lived in the light of eternity. To assess all these important factors, one must begin to seek after God, through Jesus-Christ, His Son, for, when one has found Him, one will never be alone, Jesus becomes one’s Saviour and one’s best friend. 

Man is made up of a body, a soul and intellect. He will not have any possibility of finding this true life, which is accessible to all, unless he approaches it with, firstly: the realisation that somehow, he must break away from this biased outlook of life as mentioned previously, for men are psychologically moulded into a godless world whose way of life is generally anti-God; secondly: he has to find the will, and the way, to cater for the complete human being that he is. Why is it so serious? Because, ‘Man is an eternal being’. The soul is what one really is, the body is the shell it lives in, the soul lives forever, it is an eternal spirit. So, death is not one’s end, No, it is just another beginning. This is another fact of life! Have you ever given any thought about your soul? I do not know what you think; reading these lines you may be suddenly struck by a discovery of something you never knew, or never gave it a thought, if so, please do not give up, do not stop here, but continue reading, for the greatest discovery will be to feel and know that God loves you, and seeks to save your soul from the awful end, which is a  life lived without God, he can be found though faith in Jesus-Christ His Son!

Have you known that your soul is the real you, the person that you feel you are, and that the most important part of you, this soul, will one day leave this shell, your body, and after that, you will live forever, but where?’ This eternal aspect of every man alive is rarely spoken of. Because one cannot see one’s real self is the paramount reason why one rarely thinks about the real desires and longings of this invisible soul, but it is inside one’s body, the Bible teaches that the soul is in the blood, it is the blood that keeps one alive! That’s another fact of life, it moves in the body and it is controlled by the mind! Since it is a spirit its interests are much wider than the physical aspect of the outer self, that we have mentioned thus far, money is a part of it but in a secondary aspect. For an indefinite time, you will live in your body which is like a gateway to higher things, the soul has the possibility to attain to a far higher life than the one we live for mammon, which the Bible calls: ‘The God of this world’. (Matthew 6:24.) Therefore, the span of life that God gives men, is time, time compared to eternity is smaller than an atom, for even an atom has a limit, eternity has no limit. Don’t you think that it is time for you to think seriously about your way of life, where it leads you and then, do all you can to save your soul, from what? An eternal hell to which all men are already condemned, as the Bible says: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) and: “The wages of sin is death.”(Romans 6:23), death is an eternal separation from God. All that you have received from God has been given so that you may live your life in the plan that He has for you! “But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  (Romans 6:23 b)

Primarily, before anything else the soul is affected by the body which demands your full attention. We talk about keeping body and soul together, but at what cost? and what about a true fulfilment of the whole man? From within and from without, our earthly life is so organised that we have no time for anything else, but to look after the external needs of the flesh! most of our time and interests will be taken with work and activities to satisfy a one-sided existence! That is another fact of life! Because life is lived as it is, it leaves the soul unfulfilled, it has a need that if not satisfied, will create a feeling of emptiness, a void, from which comes a strong frustration, which will be stronger at times more than others. Because of it, man branches out into various activities and thinks that he can fill this void, by pampering to the pleasures of covetousness, which is the great ruler of our appetites. At times we would wish to do something else but we are overruled, the whole structure of our culture is a mould from which we all come out with the same outlook on life, that apart from divine intervention, will not change and without this change it will see you to a sorry end. I saw an advert on television; it showed a couple, in bed, tossing and turning unable to sleep because they did not know how they would pay the big bill they have to pay on the morrow. Television spends about fifteen minutes every hour of the day promoting how we should get things we do not even need. It appeals to our big enemy, covetousness, which I mentioned above; wanting something better, something bigger; it can be a house, a car, a holiday, it can be anything. The citizens of the United Kingdom are so much in debt that it has become a time bomb waiting to explode. The financial situation in the world will radically change one day, it is prophesied in the Bible that a big crisis will turn the world upside down, and our way of life will have disappeared, man’s greed will have destroyed this empty existence one lives without hope and without God!

I have mentioned, previously that the spirit in man is dead. It was that part in man that made him conscious of God, Adam, the first man, enjoyed daily fellowship with his Creator! If I say that the spirit is dead it obviously means that at one time that spiritual part of man was alive. Where did it die? Why did it die? How did it die? For the true answer to those questions we must turn to the Bible, because no where else can we find the real truth about ourselves, it is there, in the His Holy Word, but only a very few ever read it. It is by His word that God speaks to man, and if one does not read it, one concludes that there is no God. 

It is in the Bible that we discover that God actually spoke individually to people. Powerful experiences have completely changed their lives. Two thousand years ago, God sent Jesus Christ, into the world and during His life time, and even to this day, He and God His Father, by grace through faith, become so real to those that accept to believe it. People that centuries ago, believed in Christ found Him so real that when faced with martyrdom, they were prepared to die, rather than denounce their faith in the Lord Jesus. These are the worst facts of life.  On this planet, that Jesus-Christ created, (John 1:1-4) a world that still belongs to Him, people that have believed in Him, and loved Him and His Father, were killed. Before all these faithful disciples died, Jesus came to earth, and brought the Gospel, Him also evil men have crucified. The CROSS is not a myth, it is a historical fact! WHY? Because there is a devil that hates God and all those that belong to him, and his venom, sin, motivates men to be like him, they too hate God and true Christians everywhere. Even today Christians are dying because of their faith and the hatred of evil men with murder in mind!

I invite you to continue with these studies, I wish to present real facts of History! But Jesus-Christ is not just history, He is alive today, and He is still changing lives. That void, that emptiness I mentioned previously, He alone can fill it, and bring an answer to the need of the whole man, and save his soul forever!  I want to finish this article reverting to the big questions: THE WAY TO LIFE --- THE WAY TO A BETTER LIFE --- IS ABETTER LIFE POSSIBLE? Not only can I say a big: YES, but this life when found is altogether different to all others, the best of it is that it costs nothing, and goes on forever in heaven, it must be out of this world because to live the life that is lived by most people on this planet, costs the earth!

To close this part of my passion in life, I cannot do it without introducing you to the next step which is the door to this better life, a life that is fuller and more satisfying, because it is lived by the full man, a man who has a body, a soul, and a new spirit. The door to it is: “Jesus” who said: “I tell you the truth, I am the door; whoever enters through me will be saved. ~ I am come that men may have life and have it to the full.” A door has two sides, so through Jesus-Christ we have an invitation to go through it to the other side, to pass the door that he alone can open; trust in Him, He is the key, faith is the first step to another, better life! That life is ETERNAL, the alternative is eternal death, to which all men are doomed except those who have believed in Christ. You can look at the door and the possibilities it offers, and turn away! You alone can decide.  

Your prejudices may be your downfall, have the courage to explore. As soon as the Bible is mentioned most people turn away, and yet they have never had one, and have not a clue as to what it says and what it contains. As soon as Jesus-Christ is mentioned men, in general kick against Him. But He never gives up and He will save everyone the Father gave Him, unto the last! I thank my God for the day I have been given the privilege to believe in Jesus-Christ, the Saviour of men. He opened to me that door and by His grace, I stepped into another life. I also, foolishly, wanted what this world offers, I also was a lost sinner, but God intervened and changed me. So, to step into a life where all things are different, one must be changed inside through faith in Christ. In Him, by his Spirit, God recreates a new spirit in those that ACCEPT Him as their Saviour. Once that door is crossed man becomes a complete being; body, soul and spirit, living in God, through His Son, that eternal life, here and now and then in Eternity is what Jesus offers, and it is free!

Having mentioned the Bible, I invite you to continue and turn to our third article, 'What is the Bible?'