roadsideflowers

the gospel wins.

Yesterday I was learning about conduct worthy of the gospel. Conduct, that we as Christians, should reflect and pursue in our daily lives--taking an extra moment, if needed, to respond in an appropriate, loving, truth-bearing manner.

I've been thinking about previous years as commencement has passed. Words can't even express the misleading thoughts I used to live my life by. Lies about what my family thought of me, lies about what I thought of...everything and everyone. It was a hard time. In one month, I remember, my life completely changed.

I remember the day I suddenly felt alive again. The day I went on a walk at my parents house, the summer after high school graduation, the summer everything I knew and built fell apart. What were those words...my empire of dirt. I built relationships selfishly, to make myself distracted from the hurt  I didn't want in my life. The pain and grief went back so many years. I only began to deal with that grief the day I began enjoying the sky. The day I realized I didn't need to build or control anything.

I've hurt a lot of people over the years through my sin. I dragged people into situations in which they would not have ordinarily been involved. I flirted with situations that I shouldn't have.

The reason for this current reflection...my brother in Christ is suffering from his sin today. He is suffering the consequences. This is the justice of God, true suffering within our souls that cannot be avoided--even in serving worldly sentences--we cannot earn redemption. The only way we even understand redemption is by standing in the truth. The truth of any and every situation.

Redemption only comes by having a relationship with Christ. It gives understanding, peace, comfort, strength, courage, boldness, endurance, love, compassion, conviction, diligence, forgiveness, discernment and wisdom. It also gives opportunity to serve, grow, have a mission, purpose, and goal for your life, and gives suggested and effective daily inspirational activities. People think I'm out of my mind. But in all truth, I am exactly where I am supposed to be and everything I believe is consistent with history. Things spoken of in the Bible are real. They exist or existed and there are other records and findings besides the Bible that support its historical view.

I can't convince you of anything. I never will. But for any person experiencing the consequence of your sin...look around you. You have led yourself here. You have shaped and fashioned your life to be what it is. So, when are you going to realize that you can't do it on your own?
I am not the shining example by any means. I am still dealing with the consequences and seeking forgiveness...that is part of real life. But that's just it, I'm dealing with it. I'm not running anymore. I'm not filling my life with distractions, trying to ignore all the hard stuff. I can face life head on and I am not alone.

Keep trying. You'll fail. And the truth is, you'll either die trying on your own, as a failure. Or you'll live in the promise of eternal life through Christ as your Redeemer.

I wish I lived in a world where everything was shiny and sparkly and happy. Everyone was joyful and understood each other. People were good on the inside and there was no sin or we could overcome it on our own. Everyone went to Heaven. And God was just this big, loving, passive God that didn't have any standard or values.
Right.

The problem there is that if everything is happy and shiny in this world, we humans would worship it and DO. Everything can't be joyful and understood between man because man makes their own standard and is selfish. People are not good on the inside, because inside is where they hold all the garbage and keep it a secret. If there was no sin, we would be happy, nice robots. If we could overcome sin on our own, then God would cancel Himself out. If God cancelled Himself out, then there would be no conviction, spiritual understanding, or need for worship (which there is in the human life). If everyone went to Heaven, then God isn't consistent in life and afterlife in having consequences to our actions. If God was big, loving, and passive and didn't have a standard for us, then there would once again be no conviction of wrong-doing in this life and no justice system or understanding of justice in this life and the next.

That doesn't sound like the world we live in. It's funny how we appreciate and depend on methods and structures designed with the understanding of creation and Biblical principal.