Once I was invited to spend a few days meeting with a group of medical students at Loma Linda University—an awesome experience! Their brains bulging out the sides of their heads, those medical students came in from carving up cadavers, fully prepared to begin dissecting the speaker!

After I had tried for several meetings to share an understanding of spiritual things, one of the students handed me a written question. It read, “Dear Preacher: Please tell us how to live the Christian life. Give us something practical, down-to-earth, nitty-gritty—not this Bible study and prayer and witnessing bit.”

Well, some of us don’t think fast, but we think long. After staring at the ceiling that night, the best answer I could find went something like this, “Dear Doctor: Please tell us how to live a healthful physical life. Give us something practical, down-to-earth, nitty-gritty—not this eating and breathing and exercising bit.”

Perhaps you have heard this little poem: The best six doctors anywhere— And no one can deny it— Are sunshine, water, rest and air, Exercise and diet. These six will gladly be your friends, If only you are willing. Your ills they’ll mend, your cares they’ll tend, And charge you not a shilling.

It’s true in the physical life, and it’s true in the spiritual life. No one will be healthy physically or spiritually who overlooks the basics. No pill or treatment or surgery can substitute for “sunshine, water, rest and air, exercise and diet.” And no penance or ceremony or duty can take the place of the spiritual counterparts.

We have already mentioned air, diet, and exercise. What about sunshine? Jesus is called the

“Sun of righteousness” (Malachi 4:2).

Water? Jesus said,

“If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink” (John 7:37).

Rest? In Matthew 11:28, Jesus gives the invitation,

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

How do we take advantage of the Sun of Righteousness, the Water of Life, and the rest that is offered? The answer is given in the context, isn’t it? We receive these things by coming to Jesus.

How then do we come to Jesus? We are invited to come, but we can’t see Him with our eyes or hear Him with our ears. We don’t have the advantage His first disciples had in being able to spend time with Him in person. Sometimes young people in particular find it hard to get acquainted with a God they cannot see or hear or touch. But the methods for coming to Christ today and for having fellowship and communion with Him are the same methods by which we communicate with anybody.

If you would like to get to know someone, what do you do? First, you must talk to them. Secondly, you must listen to them when they talk to you. And finally, you must go places and do things together. As you work together, travel together, and develop common interests, you become better acquainted.

If you would like to know God, you must make use of the same methods. In the study of His Word, which is called the “Bread of Life,” you can hear Him speaking to you. Prayer, which has been called “the breath of the soul,” is the way you speak to Him. And the “exercise” of Christian service and witness and outreach is the way to go places and do things with Him. It’s just that simple.

Through knowing Him, through coming to Him day by day, we receive the gift of eternal life.

“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3).