In Hopelessness, I Shall Seek Out The Word

I'm not going to pretend to think of myself as deep.  In fact, I'm a shallow fool who desperately needs God's grace to cover a multitude of sin, that otherwise earns me eternal damnation, separation from God, and torturous everlasting death.  Eeek.  But I tweeted tonight about hopelessness, and how it abounds exponentially with the leadership of this country (I may have said it differently due to the 140 character limitation).  This tweet, which I felt I needed to share, led me to this blog post, which, again, I felt I needed to use to explain the hope that is in Jesus Christ who is the Son of God and who is God.

I titled this post "In Hopelessness, I Shall Seek Out The Word" to be creative with it.  I decided to share the following verses tonight because I've had this on my heart since reading them with my kids.  We started a family devotion time after our July family vacation to Newport Beach, CA with my mom's side of the family.  It was awesome!  My mom's brother, a pastor in Georgia, sat everyone down the first night and explained he thought we should all do a "family devotion" each night of the trip, just after dinner, for 15-20 minutes.  At first, I was a little bothered by what felt more like a demand than a suggestion, but I quickly realized this was going to be one of the major highlights of the trip.  And, it turned into something I felt was important to my family's spiritual health.  Anyway, I've written about this vacation before, so I'm just going to move on and explain my title.

"I Shall Seek Out The Word".  Really, "The Word" is a name John uses for Jesus.  John, the book of the Bible I decided to read with my family, starts with:

1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  v2 He was in the beginning with God. v3 All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. v4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men."


1:14 "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."

When I'm feeling hopeless, I need to seek out Jesus.  Why?  Because He is God, Creator, Life, Light, Grace, and Truth.  He created us and gave us life and light.  Then he came to earth and provided a way for us to not be hopeless in a sinful world, giving us grace and THE truth of Himself.  Jesus existence is not disputed in history.  He really lived as flesh and dwelt among us.  Only His sovereignty is disputed.  The unbelieving deny the life and light that His glory gives.

3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.  v17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.  v18 Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.  v19 And this is the judgement: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.  v20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.  v21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God."


I can't really say it more clearly than this.  I tried, but I deleted what I wrote because it was not as precise.  Be encouraged by God's words. All of 3:16-21 is Jesus speaking to Nicodemus about salvation.  It's God's own words.  The words of The Word.

Word.


via jimmythegun.com

Would You Risk Hell to Save Others?

Love. This is my nemesis. I don't love. I can't love. It is impossible for me to love. People drive me crazy. I see through people's lies. I see through there problems to the root of what is really going on. I'm so annoyed and frustrated with the decisions they make. I can not be loving.

BUT WHO THE HECK DO I THINK I AM??????????? The Creator of the universe, God, simply wants us to live lives that glorify Him. And we don't. We sin and sin and sin and lie and create problems and make horrible decisions. And God, does he hate us? NO! He loves us to the point of sacrificing His Son for us, to save us from ourselves. That is grace. That's love. "For God so loved the world, that He have His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16.

Romans 9 starts with Paul telling us he is speaking the truth when he says he has "great sorrow and unceasing anguish in (his) heart." Paul says he would be cut off from Christ for the sake of his brothers and kinsmen. He's referring to the unbelieving Jews. Paul had love enough for his fellow Jews that he was willing to be cut off from Christ (being sent to Hell) on their behalf so they would believe know Jesus was the Messiah. He loved to the point of complete sacrifice of his own eternal life.

I am a reach. I am a worthless being, not fit for the kingdom of God, not fit to be called a child of God. I deserve Hell and damnation for eternity. The desires of my flesh control and rule me. The desire of my heart is overruled by the lust of the flesh. Lord take control of my life. Make the desires of my heart the controlling force in my life, as long as my heart is in line with your will.

Praise God for His Love.

All Men Sin, God's Son Saves and it's Free

Romans 5:12-21 talks about sin coming from one man, Adam, bringing death, and the gift coming from one man, Jesus, bringing eternal life. It's a long section to say something pretty simple for me to understand. Because of the sin of Adam, death due to sin began. And all men after Adam, which is to say every human who ever lived, is living, and will live, had/has/will have sin. That sin brings death. Jesus was the only man to live sinless, and only because He is God. Jesus died despite His sinless-ness to pay the price for our sins. This gift was given as justification for us to have life instead of death. Of course, we all still die here on earth but with faith in God we live eternally with Him in Heaven, instead of eternally dying in Hell separated from Him.

Since I'm being serious today I'll say this: DON'T BLAME ADAM FOR YOUR SIN. Every man on earth sins. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) But that isn't the point. "The wages of sin is death, BUT the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23) That's the point. Jesus gave us a free gift. And the final verse of the day Jesus said these words, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God." (John 3:16-18)

Praise God for the Free Gift of Him only Son.