Consider the joy and the beauty of possessing a defining moment in life. Because Jesus Christ has bought me as His bond-servant and because I have repented of my sins and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, all that I do is now focused on Him. My life is defined by my relationship with Him.

My life has a defining moment, a point in time when life that is truly life began, and everything that occurs after that event takes place with reference to that defining moment. All my plans; all goals; all activities; all relationships; all joys and all sorrows; all of my future, both in this life and in the life to come – all revolve around and refer to Jesus Christ and receive their significance in reference to Him.

I am a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what defines me, but that was not always so. There were 31 years when I did not know Jesus and therefore I had 31 years when my life progressed without anchor or compass. There was no foundation on which to stand and there was no direction in which to head. There was no destination to which I was going. There was no compelling, eternal purpose that was grand enough to live for and was valuable enough to die for. My life lacked definition because I lacked a defining moment.

But then I met the Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious God-Man, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the One who rules heaven and earth. He called me to follow Him (Matthew 4:19) and I obeyed and thus was born again. At that defining moment, my old life was gone and my new life began. From that moment onward my life has been defined by that moment. Now I have a destination – heaven (Philippians 3:20-21). Now I have a purpose – to be an ambassador (2 Cor. 5:20) and a witness to the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 1:8). Now I have a lifetime task – to make disciples for Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:19-20). Now I have a mission – to proclaim Christ’s excellencies (1 Peter 2:9). At every point in my life, I can find meaning and solid ground because of the defining moment of placing my faith in Jesus.

The Apostle Paul knew this defining moment as well as anyone and he is the Bible’s outstanding example of this (Acts 9), but it is the privilege and the heritage of every believer to define our life with reference to our initial encounter with Jesus. There is a “before Christ” part of our life that may (or may not) be full of events and activity, but is lacking a central theme, and there is an “after meeting Christ” part of our life, which is dominated by the glorious theme of telling of Christ and of exalting Him in our lives.

Now to the day of our physical death we live our lives with purpose, “pressing toward the goal for the prize,” because of the Lord’s grace toward us in giving us a defining moment, that moment when we first encountered the Savior.

SDG       rmb       7/8/2017