Doubt

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’  Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’  Matthew 7:21-23


This passage haunts me.  I think these verse keep many Christians up at night.  According to a study by Newsweek magazine, 81% of Americans say that they are Christians.  Clearly, this isn't the case.  So "many" of these professing Christians will stand before Christ and He will tell them He never knew them.  


In light of these words of Jesus, I sometimes struggle with doubts.  Do I really know Him?  Am I saved?  God doesn't want me to doubt.  It is his intent that I would have certainty and an assurance of my salvation and relationship with Him.


The entire book of 1 John was written to new Christians who struggled with these same thoughts.  The whole point of the letter was to give these believers assurance and to get rid of their doubt.  


I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.  1 John 5:13


What it really comes down to is the question of: "Have I been adopted by God the Father?"  To give an illustration of a literal adoption, imagine a child who has been taken out of poverty and hopelessness and given hope, a future, and love from a caring and loving father.  What does the child do in return?  Love the father, and spend time with him.  The same is true for us with God.  If we have been adopted by God and have been saved, we will love Him, care about what he cares about, and spend time with him.


The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear (or doubt) again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”  The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.  Romans 8:15-16


But adopted children don't always behave.  We sometimes go through a season of struggles and pruning.  When we struggle with a certain sin or hit a rough patch with our relationship with the Father, the doubts come.  


How I behave doesn't affect whether or not I am adopted by the Father.  Once he adopts me, I'm His forever.  When I hit a rough patch, the last thing I should do is look inward at myself.  This will only produce doubts because I'm not "performing" or "doing well".


I have been adopted by God because of Christ's performance, not my own.  When the doubts come, run to the cross and remember Who is in charge of our salvation.


"True faith takes its character and quality from its object and not from itself.  Faith gets a man out of himself and into Christ.  Its strength therefore depends on the character of Christ."  -Sinclair Ferguson


“Our worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace.”  -Jerry Bridges




In light of this post, I have really struggled with sin today.  I have not denied myself, and have fed my selfish desires.  The Gospel always points me to the love of the Father and His saving grace.  This post is mostly for me, to remind me of the "Author and perfecter of my faith".  

Losers (and Tim Tebow)

I just finished reading the book "Surprised by Grace" by Tullian Tchividjian.  It was a great book about the story of Jonah.  But there was a page in the book that really stuck out to me. In it he says:


"For a long time, we Christians have spent time and energy and money trying our best to convince the world we're cool, and that we're winners.  And in our world, cool means being just as prominent and prosperous, just as smart and stylish, just as successful and savvy as anybody else.  Just look at how Christians swell with pride when a successful athlete or actor or politician professes his faith.  It's as if we shout to everyone, 'See!  This guy has everything, and he's a believer - so Christianity has to be cool.'  We want to parade these celebrities and their faith before the world.
In Too Good to Be True, Michael Horton asks, 'Have you ever seen a janitor interviewed for his testimony?'  The reason we haven't is that God-fearing janitors don't represent strength or intelligence or coolness in our culture.  They're viewed as less valuable than the famous entertainer or the sports star or the rising politician.  And we, as the church, have adopted the same categorization."


Of course, when I read this I immediately thought of Tim Tebow.  Over the past month, ESPN can't go five seconds without mentioning him.  And whenever he is brought up, his faith is too.  SNL just did a skit mocking his outspoken Christian beliefs.  To say the least, Tebow is a controversial and polarizing figure.  But I'm not going to talk about him, I'm tired of hearing about him.


Instead, let's talk about the losers.  The janitors, the average Joes, the run-of-the-mill Christians who rarely get noticed or talked about.  While God uses gifted stars like Tim Tebow, He changes the world through the nobodies.  


Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished.  Acts 4:13


It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples.  Deuteronomy 7:7


Moses said to the LORD, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.  Exodus 4:10


These are only three examples, but the Bible is full of stories of God using the most unlikely people.  The people society writes off, the people that have been abused and neglected, the people who aren't amazing, but are just average.


In light of this truth, remember that God can and will use anybody.  When the Spirit of God is in a believer, it doesn't matter who they are, what they've done, or what people think of them, because God can shake the very foundations of the world through a nobody.


But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  2 Corinthians 12:9


"The gospel, however, is not just for the all-star and the illustrious and the legendary.  It's for the loser.  It's for the defeated, not the dominant." -Tullian Tchividjian

Temptation

When Satan tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, he did so by questioning the Word of God.  "Did God actually say, 'you can’t eat of the tree in the garden'?"  Then he said that what God said really isn't true.


But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."  Genesis 3:4-5


When Satan tempted Jesus, he questioned the Word of God.


And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread."  Matthew 4:3


"If you are the Son of God".  Four verses earlier, when Jesus was being baptized, the Father just told Him, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased".  (Matthew 3:17)  Satan is questioning what God just said to Jesus.  Jesus is able to withstand the temptation and questioning of the Word of God with the Word of God.


But he answered, "It is written,
"'Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"  Matthew 4:4


When Satan tempts us, he is questioning the Word of God.


He is asking us, "Did God REALLY say that (X,Y, or Z) won't bring true happiness?" 
"Did God REALLY say that He is the only source of true joy and the only way to be completely content and satisfied?  There are actually other ways…"


As we have seen from when Jesus was tempted, the only way to resist the enemy is the Word of God.  So when you are being tempted with something or someone, the underlying temptation is that the Word of God is not true and Christ is not sufficient.  This is not true.  Resist temptation by running to Scripture, which is the Word of God, and by running to Christ, who IS the Word of God.


No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.  1 Corinthians 10:13

Spirit-Filled

One thing that God has challenged me with over the past semester is to be Spirit-filled.  It is one thing to be a believer and have the Holy Spirit, and it is another thing entirely to be completely saturated and filled up with the power and love that is the Holy Spirit.  

"To be filled with the Spirit means simply that the Christian voluntarily surrenders life and will to the Spirit.  Though faith, the believer's personality is permeated, mastered, and controlled by the Holy Spirit… When we invite the Spirit to fill us, the Spirit's power grips our lives with this kind of strength and passion." -J. Oswald Sanders

But it's important to distinguish something.  Being Spirit-filled does not involve me going out and getting the Spirit.  When surrendered to Him, the Spirit fills me.  As I heard this past Sunday, "I don't get more of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit gets more of me."  He takes over our lives by changing our thoughts, actions, and motivations.  All we must do is humble ourselves and surrender to His will.

"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you."  John 14:26

We are able to understand Scripture and what God is teaching us through living a life that is lived IN the Spirit; a life that is filled with the Spirit.

"You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.  But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.  And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you." Romans 8:9-11

A life surrendered to and controlled by the Spirit is a life that pleases God and glorifies 

Christ.  Because the Spirit is in believers, we experience new life and a new beginning every day.  We are not people who have gone from bad to good, but people who were dead and are now alive!

There is so much to be experienced in this life.  The Christian life is not boring.  The Christian life is the farthest thing from boring.  When we have the Spirit of the Living God who raised both Christ from physical death and us from spiritual death... how can that be a boring life?!

"You are going to live an adventure.  The question is whether or not your life will be an 

adventure with God or with the sin of the world."

Faithful. Focused. Fighter.

Every year from Christmas day to New Year’s Day, my extended family goes down to vacation in Sanibel Island, Florida.  We have a family tradition that on New Year’s Eve, everyone shares their theme for this upcoming year, and recaps their theme of the past year while sitting on the beach.  So as December arrives and the end of the year and the semester are only a few weeks away, I’ve been spending some time reflecting on 2011 and my theme.

My theme for this past year was “Faithful. Focused. Fighter.”  I wanted to be a Faithful disciple, Focused on Christ, and a Fighter of sin and temptation.  Well, to be completely honest, I have not been any of these things with any sort of consistency.  As Ezekiel 16 tells me, I’m not faithful to God.  But He is faithful to me.  My focus fluctuates.  Christ’s focus every second of His life on earth was focused on being obedient to the Father.  I still sin, and fall into my sinful flesh and sinful desires.  Christ has fought, and finished the fight with sin.  It’s finished.  It’s over. 

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33

“For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.  The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.” Romans 6:9-10

I am not a Faithful Focused Fighter.  But Christ was, is, and will continue to be.  Abide in this Truth.

“The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”  Exodus 14:14

Jesus + Nothing = Everything

I just finished the book "Jesus + Nothing = Everything" by Florida pastor Tullian Tchividjian.  It was an amazing book on the grace of God and our tendency to focus on ourselves and what we do, rather than on Christ and what he did.  It really changed my thoughts on what Christian growth and spiritual maturity really are.  Here is a list of all of my favorite quotes from the book...

“The great mistake made by people is hoping to discover in themselves that which is to be found in Christ alone.”

“To reach people in our day, the gospel will have to be distinguished from moralism, because moralism is what most people outside the church think Christianity is all about – rules and standards and behavior and cleaning yourself up.”

“The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart.”

“Outside cleanup never leads to inside cleanup.  Only inside cleanup leads to outside cleanup, and there’s only One who can do that.”

“The gospel announces that everyone ‘in Christ’ is already accepted by God because of Jesus’s work for them.  Therefore, no improvement, good behavior, or performance is necessary in order to experience the deep acceptance we long for and in fact strive for on a daily basis.”

“My identity, worth, and value have nothing to do with my strength or ability to win.  It has everything to do with the finished work of Jesus for me.”

“Because Jesus was someone, you’re free to be no one.”

“The banner under which the Christian lives reads, ‘It is finished.’”

“We were dead in our trespasses.  The next move had to be God’s.  And in love, He made it.”

“Because Jesus has already earned God’s full approval and affection and acceptance for us, we no longer require that from anyone else.”

“The hard work of Christian growth, therefore, is to think less of ourselves and our performance and more of Jesus and his performance for us.”

“Christian growth doesn’t happen by first behaving better, but by believing better.”

“My standing with God isn’t based on their obedience for Jesus but on Jesus’s obedience for me.”

“The only thing you contribute to your salvation and to your sanctification is the sin that makes them necessary.”

“Sanctification consists of the daily realization that in Christ we have died and in Christ we have been raised.  Life change happens as the heart daily grasps death and life.  Daily reformation is the fruit of daily resurrection.  To get it the other way around is to miss the power and point of the gospel.”

“To focus on how I’m doing, more than on what Christ has done, is Christian narcissism – the poison of self-absorption which undermines the power of the gospel in our lives.”

“If you uproot the idol, and fail to plant the love of Christ in its place, the idol will grow back.” 

“The gospel liberates us to be okay with not being okay.”

“True spirituality takes us away from ourselves and into the messy lives of other people.”

“Real spiritual growth happens as we look up to Christ and what he did, out to our neighbors and what they need, not in to ourselves and how we’re doing.”

“God created you for beauty – and redeemed you for beauty – so that you and your joy and peace and gratitude for what he’s done for you in Christ would be put on display in a dark, watching world.”

“If you’re a Christian, your identity is firmly anchored in Christ’s accomplishment, not yours; his strength, not yours; his performance, not yours; his victory, not yours.  Your identity is steadfastly established in his substitution, not in your sin.”

“The level of passion with which God loves you is not determined by the level of passion with which you love Him.”

“Christianity is the only faith system where God both makes the demands and meets them.”

“Our performance doesn’t lead to our rescue, our rescue leads to our performance.”

“We spend too much time asking ‘What would Jesus do?’ and not enough on ‘What did Jesus do?’”

“When the gospel reorients how you feel and live, all of life becomes about the work Jesus accomplished for us, not what we can accomplish for him.”

“Guilt doesn’t produce holiness; grace does.”

Chosen and Saved

I have seen this image a lot when people talk about sharing their faith with others.  It's a cute little diagram, and seemingly correct.  When I was reading Ephesians 2, I noticed that this diagram may not be entirely true.

"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience..."  Ephesians 2:1-2

According to this diagram, the human is not yet dead in sin.  They are still alive with a choice to either choose God or sin.  The reality is that we have all chosen sin rather than God.  We are already dead in sin.

"...among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind."  Ephesians 2:3

Another similar illustration: We are drowning in the ocean and God throws us a lift preserver, which is Christ.  It's true that Christ is what saves us, but again, we aren't drowning.  We are already dead at the bottom of the ocean.  People who are dead don't choose to raise themselves from the dead.

I heard a story of a seminary professor who took his students to a cemetery and asked each one of the students to proclaim to the graves to rise up from the grave.  Of course, nothing happened.  He said that it is the same with preachers preaching to lost souls.  The dead cannot raise themselves from the dead, and neither can anyone else.  The only one who can raise someone from death to life is the the One who defeated death.  

"And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.  This he set aside, nailing it to the cross."  Colossians 2:13-14

It is through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that God is able to pull us from our helpless and hopeless state of being dead in sin.

One last illustration comes from John Piper.  Imagine that God and Christ are walking through a graveyard and see your body rotting in the bottom of a grave.  It looks horrible beyond description and absolutely stinks.  God looks at your body and says, "I want him."  He looks at Jesus and says, "Will you die so that he can be with us forever.  Will you die so that you and I can love him and bless him forever?"  Jesus says, "I will do whatever it takes."  

It's nothing we've done or can do, because we are at the bottom of a grave, rotting and stinking.  We are disgustingly dead creatures who have chosen sin over God.  But God chose to raise us up anyway.  There is nothing more humbling and beautiful than this. 

"He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure."  Psalm 40:2

Christ's Work and Our Holiness

We are not saved by our own works, accomplishments, or greatness.  We are saved by the finished work of Jesus Christ. 

The great exchange that took place on the cross was Jesus taking our sin and the punishment that came with it, and He gave us His righteousness and the beautiful access to the Father and His love that comes with it.  

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.  2 Corinthians 8:9

So when we become followers of Christ, our saving work is what has already been accomplished by Him.  Our salvation does not come from something we do.  But often times, we feel like we are the ones who are in charge of our salvation.  

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.  Ephesians 2:8-9

We are to rest in the finished work of Christ on the cross, fully reliant on His righteousness and sacrifice to purchase our salvation.  However, this does not mean that I can just completely forget about living for God.  I am not to continue to live in sin, and just flippantly rely on God's grace for me without living in continual pursuit.

"Faith alone saves, but not faith that stays alone."  -Martin Luther

“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” -Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Sanctification is what should take place for the rest of our lives.  Sanctification is the pursuit of holiness.  God is holy, and He desires for His children to be holy like He is.

But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”  1 Peter 1:15-16

Even in our pursuit of holiness, we cannot attain it by ourselves.  Just like when we were initially saved, we must be continually reliant upon God's grace and work in our hearts.  

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.  Ezekiel 36:25-27

This is God talking to us.  It is His work in us that moves us to follow His commands and pursue a holiness that allows us to come before Him.  We cannot come before Him with pride in our hearts.  He must first cleanse us of the idols in our hearts and lives.  We cannot do this in our own power.  It is the Holy Spirit dwelling within us that completes our sanctification. 

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.  Hebrews 12:14

Key word here is effort.  Even though we are reliant on God to do the work in us, God requires our effort, focus, and perseverance in our sanctification and pursuit of holiness.  Our strivings will not be easy, and we will lose often.  But when we stand before the Lamb seated on the throne, it will all be worth it.

We are Whores, He is Faithful

I was thinking the other day about God's faithfulness.  I'm amazed at how faithful He is to us.  I mean, really.  Why in the world would the Creator of the universe be so loving and faithful in the lives of such sinful people.  The church is constantly being called the Bride of Christ in the New Testament.  But I think on a more personal level, a fitting metaphor is that of a marriage.  We are married to Christ.  He is the bridegroom and we are His bride.  The moment we commit to follow Him, we have entered a covenant with Him to be faithful for the rest of our lives.

"I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became mine."  Ezekiel 16:8

But I'm going to be honest, I can't go an hour without cheating on Him.  Whenever we sin, we are cheating on Christ, our bridegroom.
This makes me look at sin in a completely new light.  In Ezekiel 16, God goes on a rant to the Israelites about how unfaithful they are.  He is talking about us in that chapter.  He calls his bride, Israel (today, the church) a whore.

"But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passerby."  Ezekiel 16:15

As harsh as it sounds, it's so true.  We are whores in our marital relationship with Christ.  But what's amazing is the faithfulness of Christ.  He will never leave us or forsake us.  He is committed, unlike us.  He is the perfect loving bridegroom.  When we learn to look at sin in this light, we should be broken over our unfaithfulness and cling to our relationship with the Beloved!
In light of his faithfulness, we need to recognize our unfaithfulness and pursue a faithful relationship as the Bride of Christ.  Think about how Christ feels when he looks at his Bride whoring herself around.

"I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord God."  Ezekiel 16:62-63

This is unbelievable.  The faithfulness and love of Christ should never cease to amaze us.  He has atoned for our unfaithfulness with his death!  He has laid down his life for his unfaithful Bride!  Our response should be that of love and a longing to run into the loving arms of our faithful bridegroom.

"As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you."  Isaiah 62:5

Ransom

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.  Mark 10:45


Today, ransom has a different meaning than it did during the time of Jesus.  Today, when we think of ransom, we tend to think of movie plots like the movie "Ransomed". In the movie, Mel Gibson is a rich guy whose son is kidnapped and he is forced to pay millions to get him back.  In these modern examples, the person who is kidnapped and must be sought out is usually a celebrity or somebody great and important.  It was not like this when Jesus was talking in Mark 10.  When Jesus said this, his disciples and listeners would have immediately thought of slavery.  Even the dictionary defines ransom as "the redemption of a prisoner, slave, or kidnapped person, etc., for a price."  The fact is that Jesus ransomed you and me from slavery.  We were (or still are) slaves to sin and held as prisoners in it's grasp.  We are worthless prisoners, not important celebrities God really wants back.  This makes the price paid for our ransom even more stunning and beautiful.  There was a price for our salvation, just like there was a price to pay for the possession of a slave.  Jesus paid our price with his death.  It sounds so redundant and cliche to say that Jesus died for us, but it is a truth that should increase affection for Christ in us everyday.  The more I dwell on this and the more I see my sin, the more crazy this is!  GOD DIED FOR US.  It should never be a statement that we just lightly read over.  Think about Jesus paying our ransom, freeing us from slavery.  But the best part about all this is that we are still slaves in a way-- but now, we are slaves in the possession of God the Father, who is love.  We belong to our Creator, our Beloved, our Father, and there is nothing greater than belonging to Him.


For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord's freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ's slave.  1 Corinthians 7:21


And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.  1 Peter 1:17-19

Hope

Hope is underrated.  We live in a world where people are desperate for it.  They try to find it everywhere and it seems to be rather difficult to obtain.  Living on a college campus, I see so many students try to find hope and acceptance in all the wrong places.  In their reputation, their fraternity/sorority, girlfriend/boyfriend, their grades, their abilities, their plans, etc.  In short, they look for hope in all the wrong places.  Sorry to be that guy, but I'm gonna reference Jeremiah 29:11.  If you are a believer, you are guaranteed a hope through God's plans.  Keep in mind that these are not our plans, but God's plans.  If we leave it to ourselves to construct our own plans and our own hope by ourselves, it will ultimately fail to bring us what we are looking for.  


Romans 5:5  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.


Hope comes from the Trinity.  Hope is poured out by God, through the Holy Spirit, and is placed in the saving work of Jesus Christ.  Without one part of the Trinity, hope is not complete.  


1 Thessalonians 1:3  We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.


As Christians, hope is what gives us endurance to fight the good fight, kill sin, continually rely on God for strength, and ultimately finish the race that is the Christian life and the pursuit of Him.  


Isaiah 40:31  but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.


1 Corinthians 15:19  If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.


Fortunately, hope is not for this life only.  As Paul says, if we only have hope for this life on earth then we are the most pathetic people of all.  We have hope for this life that comes after.  Hope to stand before our Savior and worship and fellowship with Him forever.


If you are not a Christian, then you do not have this hope that Christians have.  What you place your value and hope in may satisfy you for a time, but that satisfaction will end.  It's just like candy, you feel horrible and empty inside after indulging in it.  However, this does not mean that you are completely hopeless.  You still have time, you still have a chance to grab hold of Christ and completely live in the hope that only He can give.  If you are a Christian, live in the freedom that comes from our hope!  Continually walk in it.  The life we live as believers is not easy, but it is certainly not without hope.

Blog Introduction

Well, I've been inspired by others to record my thoughts and experiences in blog form.  I'm a Freshman student at the University of Kentucky and am from Louisville.  Just to clarify, I am a follower of Christ and most of my blog posts will be about Scripture, the Christian life, pursuit of holiness, and just "Christian" stuff.  Maybe I'll throw in some sports stuff.  We'll see… But this exists to encourage believers, build up the Church, and above all, bring glory to our Savior.  Hope you enjoy.