I'm Back (and now living), but are you?

Hey all you avid fans out there! I am back! Turn off your coffee makers because I'm bringing the caffeine through your computer screen. Breaking news! Rebecca Black's famous song, "Friday," has been taken off of youtube. Is this all part of her ploy to take over the weekend??? We'll have to wait for Saturday to find out more. Luckily I still remember the words to the song and know what follows; Saturday comes after Friday, and Sunday comes after Saturday. Otherwise we would all be sitting around TGIW (I bet you think the "W" stands for Wednesday, don't you? Well, it doesn't. It stands for "windy") And it does not even matter if wherever you are there is no wind at all. Which, as a fact, is impossible. It is always windy everywhere, all the time. Unless you are in a vacuum. Does anyone actually believe that a feather would fall at the same rate as a brick if they were in a vacuum? Do they think we are stupid? It's like the whole "anything to the square root of zero equals one" thing. I have spent way too much time trying to figure out how that can possibly be true. And do not even try to talk to me about that proof garbage. You can't have something, then involve nothing and expect to end up with anything. Zero means nothing, nada, zilch. One is so random; why not two? Or 142,345,235,203,485,203? The only One who can take nothing and make something is God. So if He wanted to take 384 to the zero power and make it equal one then so be it! But not us, and certainly not me. What is proof anyway? Well, it's certainly not science. Remember when the earth was flat? Yeah, they were pretty sure that was fact. Except someone knew that it wasn't. I'll give you a hint, He just came up a few sentences ago. Turns out that Pythagoras or whoever did not come up with the idea of a spherical earth. Hundreds of years before him the book of Isaiah was written. In chapter 40 (verse 22) you can read that God sits enthroned above the circle of the earth. Medicine has changed, our knowledge of health and safety has changed, and heck, Pluto is not even a planet anymore (travesty)! And the funny thing is, until the Lord comes back, scientists and scholars will continue to discover that many "proven facts" were actually wrong. "Oh no, not another Christian who does not know anything, trying to dull his mind with this idea that some god made everything so he does not have to use his brain and can live in fairy tale land." That's supposed to be what someone in the audience is thinking, like what Jim Gaffigan does in his comedy routines. While they may be right (that I am a Christian), I stand firm in my belief that "by him all things were created"(Colossians 1:16). He knows what we do not know because He made it all. What's the difference between me now and the last time I posted on this blog? I'm now a Christian at heart rather than a Christian by title. You see, Christianity is not like anything else. It is the only thing out there that is solely based on the objective of a divine transaction rather than the subjective attempts of humans to obtain something. While many times it seems like Christianity is just like any religion, (me also being someone who used to see it as something I had to DO), the fact is that it is a matter of the heart. The problem is, though, that our hearts are deceitful and we cannot even understand it. God alone knows our heart, which causes a problem because we are messed up. Let's face it, we are living in a world full of noobs. You are a noob. I am a noob. There is no distinction in that. So how can anyone become a Christian then? Remember that divine transaction I talked about earlier? Yeah, that is the key. God, having seen and known what we would get and have gotten ourselves into, made a way that we could be given something great enough to overcome the problem with our heart. Left up to us, our attempts at purchasing something good for ourselves is not so great. Not just that, but based on our life as a whole, what we have earned is death. Hell. Yes I said it. Sin is godlessness, it's treating God as piss (from a song). Sin is what we do, and "the wages of sin is death." Sin cannot get canceled out by doing something good either. Whether or not you can name all of the ten commandments we all know we can't keep them. And we can't think God will just forget about the bad things we do. We are held accountable for all even if we only break some. So what do we need most then? If we are sinful and we sin, and the justice of sin is Hell, then we are in dyer need of something to help us. And not just help us but to actually do everything for us! But who can do that if "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God?" We would need a miracle; some way to have our account cleared, to have the list of wrongdoings wiped out completely, out of some kind of undeserving method. It would have to be a gift. I mentioned a verse earlier that I did not link or cite. Something about the wages of our sin being death. It has more to it! "But." Now there is a change of pace for once. "But the free gift of God is eternal life." So God just gives a gift? Eternal life? If we backtrack, we remember that our sin is against God and leads to death as a result. Now there is a positive side that says God will freely give us life, unearned, "not a result of works." Ok, that's great, but how can He do that? Just forget our lawlessness? He can't do that because He is a just judge. Hell is around because sin must be paid for. A crime against a random person will get you time in prison. A crime against a well known person will get you longer time in prison. A crime against the President of the United States will most likely get you shot. So a crime against an eternal, perfect God will have eternal consequences. Eternity in the 'prison' of Hell. If God does not make a just decision, then, well, he is not God, because that would make him a liar and not faultless; which would mean He would have to face Hell; yet there would not be a Hell if God were not perfect (I may or may not have just confused you and myself). Ah, but wait! Maybe we are on to something... Not with God being a liar, but with Him experiencing punishment. It turns out He knew we were going to sin, and the only way we'd fully see His power is if we were sinners. So, forever before anything existed, He had a plan of redemption for us. It involved coming to be one of us. Yes, now I am talking about Jesus. That same verse from earlier still has an ending to it. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Jesus Christ, not the phrase that stands in the place of cursing oftentimes - but God in the flesh. This God condescended Himself so low as to be born in a manure-smelling livestock manger. He lived His entire life sinless, and continued in humility by serving humans! The very people whose sins are against Him. His closest friends and family left Him, betrayed Him, and yet it did not change anything. Jesus, known as the Son of God, did everything as planned, leading up even to death on a cross. The time leading up to His crucifixion contained the most possible humiliation someone could receive. Walking down the streets of Jerusalem, falling, collapsing, being mocked for claiming to be God. As He hung on that cross, having no sin, something happened. He died. Why did Jesus have to die? There had to be some kind of transaction; an exchange. On the cross, Jesus became our sin, taking our place and enduring all the wrath that was coming directly for us. A waterfall was dropping on us but He stepped in and inhaled it all. An infinite ocean of suffering was heading for us but He took it instead. "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). So in that courtroom, we stand condemned before a judge, God, who is just. He cannot send us to heaven, to life, due to our sin. But He came and fulfilled the perfect life free from sin for us, yet took the blame from us and purchased us out of that death. The even greater part is that He did indeed rise up from the grave! He is the only one who could overcome death, and it is proof that we now have hope. There is only one way to hear the words "not guilty." Through Jesus Christ. It is a matter of faith. Grace is unmerited, we can't do anything to earn that verdict. So what do you think about this man? Fact or crap? Because there is a lot riding on it. You are either for Him or against Him. You can't just say he was a good man but not someone to call Lord and Savior. Because He Himself said He was God, that He was sinless, that He was the only way. One who claims these things is either true or a complete fiend. So where do you stand? Because at the end of the day, everything will pass away. All the stuff, the money, the pleasures of this world. It is too important a topic to ignore or to not think about.

I am back to the blog; for good? Maybe, maybe not. But I'm different than before, not because I have done anything or am better than anyone, but only by grace through faith. That is the gospel. And faith comes by hearing the gospel. There must be a response.

Love you all,
j05h13
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