The Good News

Jesus. What a man. What an incredible Man. What incredibly good fortune for me and you that this amazing, holy Man lived, suffered, and died in roughly 33AD. SUFFERED and died. Suffered horribly. Suffered torture and unimaginable pain both physical AND emotional, and on top of it suffered terrible humiliation. Think about that. Stop and let it sink in for a minute.

I want it to sink in, because, for me, finally getting that through my thick skull has made all the difference in the world to my faith and my love for Jesus Christ. For 40 years I believed Jesus died, but it was just a story of something that happened long ago. A story, without much detail. A story I believed happened, but that I never thought too much about. I have never seen The Passion of the Christ partly because I didn't want anything to tamper with my rosy view of Christ's sacrifice. I didn't want any real images to disrupt my ability to continue to deny that Christ's death on the cross was really anything more than a story told to Christians to explain that Heaven is a place we can go to when we die.

Then, lightening struck. God finally and forever took hold of my being, my soul, my heart, my mind, and my life, and I have never been and never will be the same. The story of Christ's sacrifice now became the ultimate testament of God's love for us. Jesus Christ became a REAL man to me, and as a REAL human His sacrifice became almost too much for this wreck of a human to bear. When I first started to truly believe, I really was a wreck. I cried during every church service I attended for the first two months. I started listening to Christian music, and often was reduced to tears during certain songs.

To this day- when we sing Forever in church, I cry. Every single time. Christ's sacrifice is that powerful, and deserves that much emotion, in my opinion.

Why do I share all this? What is my point? Here it is- God sent his son Jesus to live on earth as a man. To experience what we experience as humans, and then to suffer and die so that we could have a place in Heaven. So that we, as sinners, who would never ever have been able to earn a place in Heaven on our own, wouldn't have to. If you do not believe or cannot see the magnitude of what Jesus did for us, then you will struggle with everything else that has to do with fully believing in God and believing His word.

God is love. True story. God loves us so much, so much. God sent His only Son for us. God wants a relationship with us, and to prove it, as long as we are alive God will never abandon us. God forgives us when we ask Him over and over and over. We never run out of chances with God- as long as we are alive. The Bible tells us this many times:

1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness

Acts 3:19
Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord

Daniel 9:9
The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against Him

Colossians 1: 13-14
For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Micah 7:18-19
Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

God, though, is also a judge. God created us to be in relationship with Him. He made us; we are His. BUT- He wants us to CHOOSE Him. He gave us free will because the ones He wants in Heaven with Him for all eternity are the ones that CHOOSE to be with Him. Now I understand, you may not like this part of God. You may not want to accept that God put us here on this earth in order that we may prove our love for Him. The wrathful, vengeful, jealous side of God may not fit your vision of a God that you want to follow. A God that is only about love and goodness. The blessing and the curse here is- you may feel however you choose about it. You do get to choose.

We are all equals here. You, me, Paul the Apostle.... it doesn't matter who we are. We are all humans in God's eyes, all sinners, all have the potential to go one of two places- Heaven or Hell. God has done everything short of taking away our free will to help us get to Heaven. He gave us his Word in the Bible. He gave us His Son to die on the cross for our sins so that we wouldn't have to pay the price for them ourselves. He pursues us every single day. You can choose to ignore all of this, or you can choose to open your mind to the possibility that through my words, God is reaching out to you right now.

Look- I am no better than anyone. I am no better than you. I have sinned; man have I sinned. I have even stopped believing for a time. I deserve Heaven no more than anyone else. I truly mean that. I deserve punishment for my sins; for my weak, cowardly behavior. But God will not let me suffer because I have taken the one step that I needed to take to be saved. I believe. I believe with all my heart. I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe that Jesus died for my sins. I believe that I am a sinner and that I need to repent. I have asked God for forgiveness, and I do so again and again, whenever I fall short. I do not fill my life with good works. As a matter of fact, I wish I could say that I give lots of time, talent and treasure, but the truth of the matter is, I don't. God loves me anyway. And God loves you no matter where you happen to be in your journey today. You can scream and rail against God all you want to. He still loves you and will still love you even if you go against Him.

Friend, if you are reading these words right now, you still have time. You still have a chance at salvation all you have to do is put your trust and belief in God. Don't be too proud or too smart to see that God is reaching out to you. You are sitting right here right now for a reason. Open your heart and your mind to the possibility that God is speaking to you on this page. Not Denise. I could never write these words without God. Never. Heck, I couldn't even say the name Jesus out loud 3 years ago. I was so far away from a relationship with God that it is truly a miracle I am here right now typing these things. Anyone who knows me knows it is true. Look at my Facebook page pre-2013, you will not find writing like this anywhere on my page. Now look at how I've changed. GOD HAS DONE THIS. GOD. Not me.

I can still say I haven't seen The Passion of the Christ, but now the reason is that, as a new Believer, I don't think I could take it yet. I will see it, though, because I believe that Jesus deserves to have his entire story told and the tremendous sacrifice he made understood. He has earned our commitment to face what he did for us head on, no matter how uncomfortable it is. I promise I'm working my way up to it.

What inspired me to write all this today? Well, today a friend of mine posted a video that just tore through me and made me stop in my tracks. For those of you who are inspired by the spoken word of others I encourage you to take less than 9 minutes to watch this video. If you are a believer, this will reinforce what you already know to be true. If you are a non-believer watch it anyway. What do you have to lose? Don't let your pride over being a non-believer prevent you from at least considering that there is another way to look at things.

Heaven. Hell. You