Why I follow Jesus

This past Easter Sunday morning I found myself awake and restless several hours before I needed to get out of bed. I began to think about Jesus and his resurrection and the influence he has had on me. What was is so special about a man who walked this earth nearly 2000 years ago and died at the early age of thirty-three? Why do I put all of my trust and hope in him?

I decided that morning that I needed to put these things into a list. Some of the reasons I came up with were experiential while others were more logical. While any one of these reasons in itself is not that impressive, the total weight of the list gives me confidence to passionately pursue Christ, train my children to follow him, and devote my life to making him known others.

Prior to reading my list, see if you can come up with 10 reasons why you follow Jesus and his teachings and trust in him as the only path to eternal life. If you are not following Jesus, list some reasons why you can't or don't put all your confidence and trust in him.

1. I grew up in the faith.
2. My faith gives hope, purpose and meaning to life.
3. It seems natural and logical to believe that there is a God. I just can't accept the idea that we are here by chance. The universe is to vast and amazing to believe it evolved independently of a Intelligent Designer.
4. The teachings of Jesus are remarkable. They are so profound and yet so simple.
5. Jesus altered history and is unique in history by claiming to be God and validating those claims through supernatural demonstrations of power witnessed my many.
6. Jesus commissioned his message (of his coming Kingdom) to the disciples (Matthew 16:19), who in turn carried it out by building the church and writing the Scriptures. Writers of Scripture have Jesus' authority because he personally authorized its writers.
7. I have experienced joy and satisfaction through a relationship with Jesus, especially during difficult times in life.
8. The narrative of Scripture does better to explain the biggest questions of life and existence. There are other philosophies, theories and religions which attempt to answer these questions, but to me they fall well short of Scripture.
9. Believing in a God allows me to arrive at the conclusion that He would want to make a way for us to understand and know him. That is why Jesus is so important!
10. The resurrection! To me, the empty tomb cannot be explained away. Many people saw and touched Jesus after he arose from the grave!