Reading The Mystery of Human Life with College Students

    Sharing about the Lord with a friend can sometimes make people feel like they don’t know where to start, and that is one reason why we have really enjoyed using this small version of The Mystery of Human life.  I don’t even know who consolidated it into this 3 ½ x 4 ½  folded tract, but it is short and clear in the truths it presents.  

    Anyway a few years ago some of us printed off a few thousand of them so we could hand them out to students with a Bibles for America free study Bible reply card when we went to our university’s Info Fair. A lot of us have felt like our handing these out reminds us of the parable of the Sower in Mark 4--we're just sowing seed. We have to be faithful to do our part and leave the results up to God.  Since then we have always kept some handy so we can bring them out and read them with a student that we’re burdened to share the Lord with. 

    On Friday night  my husband had the sense we should ask the students what they would say if a friend ever asked them about God. After hearing a few comments, Mike pulled out this tract, and we read it around the table like we usually do.  It meant a little more to me personally because when our Thai student came in that night he told us he had invited his roommate.  It still amazes me whenever I  read about God’s intention of making man in His image so that man could contain Him. That statement became a springboard to share how man just tries so many things to satisfy himself, but he will not be satisfied until he finds God.  He’ll think well this car didn’t satisfy, maybe I’ll try that car, or perhaps I’ll get a bigger house, etc.!     

    But in order to contain God, fallen man needs redemption!  I love this part of the tract. I am so thankful that God didn’t leave us in sin, but He paid the highest price to redeem us.  He knew that when He died His divine life would be able to enter into us and regenerate us!  What a marvel this is!  Don’t you think?  I am putting this tract here in case you would like to copy it off and use it when you share with someone else.  Sorry, it wouldn't copy the diagrams.  

THE MYSTERY OF HUMAN LIFE

Have you ever wondered why you are living in this world and what the purpose of your life is? There are six keys that unlock this mystery.

1. God's Plan
God desires to express Himself through man (Rom. 8:29). For this purpose, He created man in His own image (Gen. 1:26). Just as a glove is made in the image of a hand to contain a hand, so also man is made in the image of God to contain God. By receiving God as his content, man can express God (2 Cor. 4:7).

2. Man
To fulfill His plan, God made man as a vessel (Rom. 9:21-24). This vessel has three parts: body, soul, and spirit (I Thess. 5:23). The body contacts and receives the things of the physical realm. The soul. the mental faculty, contacts and receives the things of the psychological realm. And the human spirit, the innermost part of man, was made to contact and receive God Himself (John 4:24). Man was created not merely to contain food in his stomach, or to contain knowledge in his mind, but to contain God in his spirit (Eph. 5:18).

3. Man’s Fall

But before man could receive God as life into his spirit, sin entered into him (Rom. 5:12). Sin deadened his spirit (Eph. 2:1), made him an enemy of God in his mind (Col. 1:21), and transmuted his body into sinful flesh (Gen. 6:3; Rom. 6:12). Thus, sin damaged all three parts of man, alienating him from God. In this condition, man could not receive God.

4. Christ's Redemption for God's Dispensing
Nevertheless, man's fall did not deter God from fulfilling His original plan. In order to accomplish His plan, God first became a man called Jesus Christ (John 1:1, 14). Then Christ died on the cross to redeem man (Eph. 1:7), thus taking away his sin (John 1:29) and bringing him back to God (Eph. 2:13). Finally, in resurrection, He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b) so that He could dispense His unsearchably rich life into man's spirit (John 20:22; 3:6).

5. Man's Regeneration

Since Christ has become the life giving Spirit, man can now receive God's life into his spirit. The Bible calls this regeneration (1 Pet. 1:3; John 3:3). To receive this life, man needs to repent to God and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21; 16:31).

 To be regenerated, simply come to the Lord with an open and honest heart and say to Him:

Lord Jesus, I am a sinner

I need You.

Thank You for dying for me.

Lord Jesus, forgive me.

Cleanse me from all my sins.

I believe You rose from the dead.

I receive You right now as my Savior and life.

Come into me! Fill me with Your life!

Lord Jesus, I give myself to You for Your purpose.

Blog Update 5-4-13:  I found a sharing on  the tract The Mystery of Human Life put out by Bibles for America on Youtube today.  There are 3 parts to this series.  
 The Mystery of Human Life - Part 1 of 3
 The Mystery of Human Life - Part 2 of 3
 The Mystery of Human Life  - Part 3 of 3

Blog update  5-15-3:  The  Mystery of Human Life - Excellent video clip of Pictures and text from parts of The Mystery of Human Life published by Living Stream Ministry.

Other blogs on reading The Mystery of Human Life:

Sharing the Gospel With the Tract The Mystery of Human Life

How is Man Like a Glove?  - Talking with a student at a University,  February 2012

Reading the Mystery of Human Life with International Students - July 2012