Steps to Christ                        A RIGHT KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
 
        Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.  2 Tim. 2:15.
 
    Once we respond to the God-given desire for something better, we must then gain a knowledge of what that "something" is.  Knowledge, a correct knowledge, of God and His love is our second step in coming to Him.
 
    If a person simply receives his information about salvation from other people, there's a good chance his information concerning Christianity is going to be based on behavior, because most people define it in terms of behavior.  If you rely upon other people for your information, you're likely to end up with a misunderstanding of God.
 
    "Study to show yourself approved unto God."  If you don't, you're going to be ashamed sometime.  Study for yourself.  Get the right knowledge for yourself.  Don't depend upon what others tell you concerning God.  Don't depend on the preacher.  We have churches full of people today who are depending on the preachers for their information.  God help them.  The preacher may be just as wrong as the next person.  You'd better go and find out for yourself what is right and what isn't.
 
    This involves more than searching the Scriptures for information.  The Jewish people did plenty of searching of the Scriptures, but they didn't find the One the Scriptures were intended to help them find.  Don't read the Bible just for the sake of reading the Bible.  Study for more than information.  Study for communication.  Don't pray just to get answers to your problems.  Pray for communication.
 
    "Seek, and ye shall find" (Matt. 7:7).  Paul says to seek God, and find Him, though he be not far from every one of us" (Acts 17:27).  It is planned that we find Him.
 
    But remember that we are not after an evasive God.  We are not trying to find a God that is lost or trying to elude us.  That is not the God of the Bible. We have a God who followed Adam when he hid in the Garden.  A God who followed Jonah when he was deliberately running from his duty.  A God who followed Saul of Tarsus as he fled from the stoning in Jerusalem that had brought conviction to his heart.  It was only as we see the love of God for us that we will be willing for Him to catch up with us.

Steps to Christ                        THE LONG SEARCH
 
        Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not?  Isa. 55:2.
 
    My brother and I went with Dr. Siegfried Horn on a tour of Europe and the Middle East in 1959.  By the end of the tour we had bought too many souvenirs, and we ran out of money in Frankfurt, Germany.  We had our tickets home, but only about 70 cents apiece.  So we decided we'd walk up and down the streets of Frankfurt and pick out the best meal we could for 70 cents before we starved!  We finally found a cafeteria that offered a pretty good meal for 70 cents--German black bread, potatoes, and gravy, and lots of other good food.
 
    We had thought that this would be our choice, but walked for a few more blocks, just to be sure.  Suddenly we came to a German pastry shop.  We went to the window and looked in.  There was the most beautiful pastry we had ever seen.  The frosting was as thick as the cake.  We went in, and spent the last of our money of German pastry.  Then we hurried to the nearest park, sat down by a little pond, and began to eat.  We got through about half a bag apiece, and then everything began to look sort of black.  We didn't want to throw any of it away, so we finally ate the whole thing!  And then we took turns, one keeping watch, while the other groaned in a horizontal position on the park bench.  Half the night we sat there.  Eating that pastry was really fun, while it lasted.  But it didn't last.  The fun the world offers never lasts.
 
    Satan has a counterfeit for everything real that God has to offer.  The counterfeit may seem to satisfy for a time, but it leaves only emptiness in the end.  The one who is out trying to get rich or become famous is searching for God and doesn't know it.  The poor man who is lying in the gutter in his own vomit is searching for God.  The amusement parks and resort cities are filled with people searching for God.  The young person who has made oatmeal out of his brain is searching for God but doesn't know it and wouldn't admit it.  Everybody, in the mad search for something to take the place of that vacuum within, is searching for God.  The only lasting answer to our desire for something better must center upon Jesus.  The desire is for Him.  Nothing can take His place. 

Steps to Christ                        DESIRE FOR SOMETHING BETTER
 
        That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.  John 1:9.
 
    "The first step toward salvation is to respond to the drawing of the love of Christ."--Selected Messages, book 1, p. 323.  Everyone, everywhere, is being drawn, except possibly those who have already been brought to a confrontation with God and have turned Him down.  Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would "convince the world of sin" (John 16:8, R.S.V.).  He didn't say only church members.  Not just a few, but the whole world.  He told us about His Father: "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him" (chap. 6:44).  And Jesus Himself is involved.  "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me" (chap. 12:32).  The three mighty persons of the Godhead are drawing every person to face the real issues of time and eternity and make their decision.
 
    Do you have a desire for something better than you presently know?  If you do, it is God who gives you that desire.  Whether you are ready to admit it or not, whether you'd identify it as that or not, it is God.  He is drawing you.  He is drawing your heart, your life, your mind, to Him.
 
    The desire will not be satisfied by just being religious.  There's a big difference between being religious and being spiritual.  There's a difference between knowing the rules and knowing the Lord.  There can be a big gap between going through the forms, playing the game called church, and really knowing God.
 
    My telephone rang at 2:00 a.m. one morning.  I stumbled down the hall to the phone and heard a woman's voice on the other end of the line.  She said, "Sir, can you help me?"
 
    I asked, "What kind of help do you need at this time of the day?"
 
    "I need to find God.  Do you know God?"
 
    Would you think for a moment of all the answers I could have given"  "I'm a preacher."  No, do you know God?  "I studied Greek."  No, do you know God?  "I keep the Sabbath and pay tithe."  Sir, do you know God?
 
    That's the question for each one today.  Do you know God?  Do you know Him personally?  That's your biggest need.