Re-engaging the past, re-evaluating our memories, and awakening the emotions, images, and experiences of situations that were left unresolved for us, is a requirement for finding peace not just in the case of soldiers returning from war, but in all of our lives when we face things that are beyond our ability to process in the moment we experience them. Things that are beyond our emotional depth and outside of our rational comprehension. Its what some people call baggage.  Everything that we have pushed off or stuffed down for some other day.  All that we have left to be dealt with eventually, but we just don’t want to face yet.  For all this unresolved, incomplete, unprocessed junk – God promises us resolution.

When we really engage reality it is both challenging and encouraging. It means that we will have conflict, discomfort, and personal change.  But it also means that we can achieve real results. We can make lasting improvements to our relationships, we can turn past failures into future successes, and we can receive blessings and restoration in areas of our lives where we have learned to expect curses and damage.

Like soldiers facing life and death on the battle field, we face our successes and failures every day and deal with them in the moment as best we can.  But we need to know that nothing has to be left for the someday, somewhere bucket when it comes to towing around our baggage.  God’s promises are clear.  God gives us the opportunity to put down our baggage. And that opportunity starts with prayer.

Prayer is our opportunity to debrief with God. Tell Him what you know about the situation that left you holding the bag, what you did, what others did, what results you achieved, and why you feel like something was left undone or done wrong.  Be specific.  Be honest.  Be completely open.  Don’t try to be politically correct.  Don’t try to sound holy or right.  Don’t take sides or try to sound like the hero.  Don’t beat around the bush.  And most of all, don’t you be the judge.  Put it squarely on His shoulders to show you the right and the wrong.  Let God provide you with the solution.

God answers all prayers. Often even as we are speaking we know deep down in our soul what He is telling us.  Sometimes, like Samuel in the Bible, we don’t really hear God the first time and so He has to repeat Himself several times until we realize who it is that’s talking.  And like any relationship, as we get to know God better, we get to understand how He talks and what He says better as well.  At first we may project a lot of our own thinking on God, or our expectations might color our understanding of what He says.  But as we become friends and we start to see more and more of who God is, our expectations change, and our willingness to accept Him for who He is takes our conversations to a whole new level.  Because it is when we talk to God, and hear His Word for our lives, that we are able to find the resolution that He promises for every moment of our lives from now to eternity.

God has promised us resolution and restoration.  God knows every moment of your life and the lives of all the people around you.  And although I cannot tell you the specific solutions to each bag on your luggage cart, I know the one who can.  Talk to God, to Jesus Christ Himself, and He will take your baggage piece by piece and show you what you can do with it.

“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” – Matthew 11:28-30

Jesus warned, “You know that the rulers of the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. Whoever desires to be first among you shall be your bondservant, even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

There is only one teacher — Jesus Himself.

He is the holder of the keys, and He freely gives them to all who are willing to accept them.  It is His will that whenever we discover one, we share it.  And so, here are just a few of His keys to His kingdom that I have discovered in my walk with Him.

Jesus Christ is God

• Jehovah God Created Heaven and Earth (Gen 1:1)
• Jehovah God Himself is and Always Has Been the Savior of the World (Isa 43:11; Hos 13:4; Isa 47:4; Isa 63:16)
• Jesus Christ is Jehovah God (Isa 9:6-7; Isa 7:14; Mt 1:23; Isa 25:9; Isa 40:3-5; Jn 1:1-14; Ps 33:6; 1 John 5:20)
• Jesus was Born of the Virgin Mary – the Divine Soul in a Mortal Body and Mind (Lk 1:35)
• By His Own Power Jesus Made Himself Fully Divine, Completely One with His Soul, so that After Resurrection and Ascension He Was and Always Will be Jehovah God All the Way Down Even to His Body, whose name we now know “Jesus Christ” (Jn 14:6; Lk 24:39; Jn 14:9; Jn 3:25; Mt 11:27; Mt 28:18; Rev 1:8-11)
• Jesus Christ is the Archetypal Human, in whose image and likeness we were made — and so to be human is to be Christlike(Gen 1:26-27)
• Saving Faith is Believing and Following the Life of Jesus Christ (Jn 3:36; Jn 15:4-5)
• Every Believer is a Priest (Exod 19:6; Jer 31)
• Every Person has an Individual, Direct, Unmediated Relationship with Jesus (Jn 15:15)
• Jesus Christ Made His Second Advent (1745 - 1770) when He appeared in Person to Emanuel Swedenborg and Commissioned Him as a Revelator (Jn 16:12-15; Mt 24; Rev 1-22) as the prophets had foretold

Only God Explains Truth With Authority

• The Written Revelations Given By God contain Divine Truth Itself (Jn 6:63; Mk 13:31; Lk 16:17)
• The Written Text of these Revelations Describes the Truth, but it is a Believer’s Living and Present Relationship with God that Prescribes Answers for Life (Jn 16:12; Mt 5:17)
• Every Believer Can and Should Search the Scriptures for God’s Eternal Message (Mt 7:7-8; Mt 21:21-22; Mt 23:25-26)
• The Ten Commandments (Exod 20:1-17) Summarize Civil, Moral, and Spiritual Law(Mt 22:35-40; Lev 22:31; Jn 14:15; Jn 15:10)

Every Person’s Life is Their Faith, and Salvation is God’s Ability to Bless, Correct, Improve, Restore, and Resurrect

• There is Only One True Faith that can save no matter what (Mt 16:16-18; Ephesians 4:4-13)
• Saving Faith is Complete Confidence in Jesus Christ and Trust that Everyone who Lives a Good Life and Holds a Proper Belief is Saved by Him (Jn 11:25; Jn 3:16)
• Doing God’s Will and Obeying God’s Commands are Required to Facilitate the Gifts of Faith and Salvation Even Though These Actions Do Not Cause a Believer to Deserve or Merit Heaven (Jn 3:27; Jn 15:4-8; Jn 13:17; Mt 13:23; Mt 7:24-26; Lk 10:27)

Salvation is God’s Purpose for Every Life, Because He Wants You to Succeed and Be Blessed like Everyone Else

• Heaven Isn’t Just a Destination After Death, it is a Quality of Life, Right Here, Right Now (Lk 17:21)
• In terms of Physics (position, velocity, and acceleration) – Heaven is a Velocity, not a position.
• Everyone Lives Forever One Way or The Other (Jn 14:19; Jn 11:25)
• Heaven is Full of People Who Love God and Love People Like God Loves Them (Mic 6:8; Lk 10:27)
• Hell is Full of People Who Love Themselves and the stuff they can own, control, and manipulate (Ps 9:17; Lk 12:5)
• Heaven and Hell are Both Eternal (Lk 16:26)
• Every Human Being is Created for Heaven but is Free to Reject it (Lk 17:21)
• People in Heaven are Married, One Man with One Woman, to Eternity (Mt 19:4-6)

Every Moment of Every Day, Jesus Christ is Using Everything that He has to Bless You

• All Humans Have Free Will in Spiritual Matters and so Determine The Network and Context of their Own Eternal Life by Their Lifestyle Decision For or Against Jesus Christ (Ps 54:6; Isa 1:16-17; Jn 8:31-36; Jn 15:14-16)
• Confessing Sins to Jesus Christ alone without another mediator, changing the decision for sin, giving back for the Damage Caused, and being Born Again to New Life in His Name is how we accept restoration, blessing, peace, and success (Jn 3:3; Jn 3:5; Lk 3:3-8; Mk 1:4; Mk 1:15; Lk 13:5; Lk 15:7; Mt 10:39; Ps 51:10)

Two Processes that Can Change You: Baptism and Holy Supper

• Christian Baptism Replaces Circumcision (Deut 10:16; Galatians 5:6; 6:15)
• Baptism is an Introduction to a Network and Context of Believers on Earth and in Heaven (Mt 3:13)
• Baptism is Full Immersion in Water in the Name of Jesus Christ (Mt 28:18-19)
• Baptism of Water is only a stepping stone so that a Person will be Born Again by the Spirit of Jesus Christ the living and only God (Jn 3:5; Mk 16:16)
• Jesus Christ is Present With, Redeems, and Opens Heaven to Those who want to walk with Him when they Take the Bread and Fruit of the Vine in His Name (Jn 6:51-56)
• Eating and Drinking with Jesus Connects the Believer’s Life with Jesus Christ and so renews their Freedom in Him (Deut 8:3; Jn 6:27)
• Grace is the immediate willingness of God to work with us no matter what
• Mercy is the empowered love of God that restores what was broken as we walk with Him in new life.

There are so many keys, these are just a few that have turned my life around.  Take them, try them, and when God reaches into your life, like He has so many time in mine and takes these thoughts or others and makes them keys for you, keep a copy for yourself, but pass the original along to someone else in your life.  Because it is only when we bring someone with us that any of God’s keys will open the door to eternal life.