This is my second attempt at a blog today. I am impatient to get something out and feel it as an urgent need in fact, but the words are plain and boring today.
Part of the problem is that I have read a new blog (at least to me) and the author is very talented writer so when I read the words I put on paper they look quite plain, but here I go anyway!
As I was growing up I never questioned anything people told me, I believe the word to describe me was "gullible", "Naive", "Simpleton", "Short Sighted", OK! OK! You get the picture! I guess I figured others knew what they were talking about and there was no reason to question what they told me. I learned that that was not always the case.
A cousin once told me that if you pour some catsup on a plate and pour some salt on it you could feel heat rising from it. When the experiment was ready, I eagerly placed my hand over the concoction expecting to feel warmth radiating from the mess. It was at this time I realized my mistake, a hand swooped down and smashed my hand into the mixture. The only heat was from my embarrassment!
As I grew older, the things that I accepted became more sophisticated but just as embarrassing when I was caught in the lies.
This soon took me to cynicism and that is a hard place to turn from once you are enmeshed within its steely grasp. You tend to look askance at the things you are taught and this includes Christianity. Though I have been a believer for most of my life, there are still things that can cause me to be cynical but I am working through that daily with God's help.
One positive thing that has come of all of this is that I am not afraid to ask questions, to seek answers and not be afraid to ponder things that fear once held back from me.
If you hang out with my senior pastor, Steve, you will know he is a man who loves questions. He will ask things like "If you had a choice between McDonalds and Burger King, which would you choose?" He asks many questions like those and that intrigues me.
Jesus also asked questions. Often He would answer a question with a question but always, I believe, His design was for people to think. To think about their lives and the direction their lives were taking. He asked questions designed for them, and for us, to evaluate our lives in light of His life and in light of the gifts He offers us.
"If you had a choice between the desolation and destruction of hell or to be with the Everlasting God in Heaven forever, which would you choose?"
Make no mistake it is YOUR choice. God presents the evidence and the options but you must choose. Oh, by the way, not choosing is choosing.
It is not a matter of who gets to be in the White House but where YOU will spend eternity. The choices are both costly to someone. If you choose hell, you will pay for an eternity and this is in fact, what we all deserve.
The other way is also expensive but God Himself has already paid the costs. You see, perfection is the only payment for this way and no one on this earth can stand up to pay that price. Jesus could because He was perfect and thus qualified to pay the price required.
In His love He did pay that price so, if we should so choose, we could live in Paradise with Him forever. It is that simple. He changes us and makes us into the person He wants us to be, we don't have to change to accept His gift to us. It is amazing if you take time to analyze all of this.
Ok. Whew. I just let the words flow today so I hope I didn't go to far afield for anyone. I did not start out with a direction or a goal other than to write and get a post out to my blog. Here it is…
Go in God's grace and may His truth set you free.
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