The word "lord" refers to someone who has authority, power, or control of other people. By saying that Jesus is your lord, you are agreeing to place yourself under his authority and power, and protection. You agree to do what he says. When you become a Christian, you stop being the "lord" of your own life, and hand that over to Jesus. He is then your "lord" in the sense that look to him for control of your life, guidance, wisdom, and authority on how to live.

Making Jesus lord of your life, also implies that you start doing the things he said to do, which you can find in the Bible. In fact, in one place in the Bible Jesus gets frustrated with the people around him, who called him "lord" but didn't really show that they understood it at all! He says "Why do you call me, `Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?" (Luke 6:46). He then goes on to illustrate what that means, by telling a parable about two people who built houses. "As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like." This person built his house on solid ground, with the foundations laid on bedrock, and the house was very stable, able to withstand powerful storms. Jesus continues the story "But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation." This second house has nothing underneath to support it, so even a small storm was able to destroy it completely.

This story clearly illustrates the point that Jesus was making: If you want your life to be strong, and want to be able to withstand any problems that might come along, even the very serious ones, then you should base your life on what Jesus taught: learn about that, and do what he said to do. If you do that, you'll be able to get through even the toughest situations, because you truly made Jesus your "lord", by following his instructions. On the other hand, if you just call him "lord" but don't really mean it, and you don't bother to do what he said (or even to find out what he said!), then your life is built on a very weak foundation, and even small problems that come along will knock you down, and destroy you emotionally, spiritually, and perhaps even physically.

That's why there we recommend that you start reading the Bible to find out what Jesus said, and start doing that. It's not just a nice suggestion to make you feel good, but rather an essential first step in "building your life on a solid rock".

If you'd like to read the Bible but don't know where to start, then we suggest that you begin with the book of John (which comes right after the book of Luke, and just before the book of Acts). John (the person who wrote that book) knew Jesus personally, and was a very close friend. John followed Jesus around every day for over three years. He was one of the twelve "disciples" of Jesus. John was very careful to write down exactly what Jesus said and did, and he wrote in a way that is easy to read and easy to understand. It's a great place to start reading the bible, and building your life's foundation on the "rock", which is Jesus himself.

After that, we'd suggest that you read the books of Matthew, Mark and Luke as well, then start with a structured plan for reading the entire Bible, from cover to cover. In total, that takes about 56 hours or so for most people. If you spend just ten minutes each day reading the Bible, then you can easily finish it in less than a year.

We'd also suggest that you join a good Bible study group in your area, perhaps at your local church (how to chose a good church) or join our own on-line Bible study, called "What IS the Bible? (Click Here)" (currently only in Spanish).




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