Main Point

"Oh, everything's too damned expensive these days. This Bible cost 15 bucks! And talk about a preachy book! Everybody's a sinner! Except this guy."
-Homer Simpson

I'm listening to a Matt Chandler sermon as of now while putting up laundry and in it, Matt referenced a quote from the Simpsons and it was really ... profound. After Homer Simpson, ya Homer, reads the bible, he puts it down and concludes: "Everybody's a sinner! Except this guy." Sometimes I forget the main point. And sometimes those like Homer Simpson are the seemingly unlikely guys that get it. Homer nailed the main point. I want to also. "We're all a mess except this one guy." Praise Jesus.

Only Makes Sense.

When the madness of this world collides with the reality of who I know I am behind my my lofty words of religion, behind my resume of what I think is good enough to impress the world, the Bible is the only explanation of life that makes sense in the middle of this madness. When we've been exposed to facing who we've always been afraid to admit we are, Christianity proclaims the story of a rescue mission in the form of a man named Jesus who was good news in the midst of it all. Praise God that when man fell (Gen 3), Christ rose (Matt. 28 - the rest of the Bible) for us, for our justification.

Thank God that He doesn't let me go. Jesus be my treasure.
-Jon

"eh" topic.

Think we're afraid about the topic of death because if we were honest, deep down, we know that we all deserve it. truth is, most of us college kids think that we're indestructible b/c (by grace) we haven't been hit by the reality of death as some of our peers have. Sure we've seen its ugly head take some whom we love ... but the reality for most of us is that (by grace) those closest to us, our family, peers, etc., are still alive and well and we just don't know what it's like. But for those who have dealt with this reality, you know that they know that the penalty of sin is very much still going on ... they've seen it, they've been at the front pews after the funeral service; they've put the flower on the coffin before saying goodbye. They've been the car ride where nothing in that moment can seem to alleviate the pain. They've been in that room where everything reminds them of that someone whom they'll never seen again. And they've gone to the class that is towards their career path but they can't think about anything else but memories of that loved one.

The arrogance of our pre-adult age wants to avoid the reality that it's coming for us. I know for myself it's true and man ... i don't want to waste my life. i tell myself "eh, i've got time" but does my Christianese self really believe that every breath i breathe is a blood-bought gift? I do whole-heartedly believe that I've got a number of years left to go hard, but I have to confess that somehow my pride in this subject reveals that I think He owes me every breath I take. Every one. I start asking ridiculous questions like "God, why am I finding it so hard to breathe right now? How come my body wont let me keep going? I've got 3 more games of basketball to play."

Man, only got one life. I pray that I'd get what Paul's saying in Phil. 1:21. Christ be my treasure. Home is what I'm after but if you have more for me here, help me not waste it.

Sometimes I forget that for God to take my life right now (like f'real right now), He wouldn't be any less loving, any less good, any less worthy of praise. He'd just be just. But He does give me life. And I don't deserve it. Why would He do that?

The easiest route to run.

Religion really is the easiest escape mechanism. Subscribe to enough Christian hollywood blogs, sermons, and conferences, learn their vernacular, read their books, follow them on twitter and youtube and don't be honest with your sin, especially in the midst of your peers who follow them. In the end we'll exchange the truth for a lie. We'd rather choose an appearance of Godliness rather than the real thing. We'd rather have people make much of us in this life now, than stand before God righteous on the day of Christ. We know "enough" of the Bible to know that the life we live is inconsistent at best but we keep doing it for an intense fear of being exposed. We know what's good, right, and leads to life but we choose sin. We choose death. Jesus rescue the religious. There's many traces of all I'm preaching in me and I'm scared that I don't even care.

Etch Galatians 6:14 on this heart.

Finding My Idols

I'm always gonna be a work in progress ... Now is as good a time as any to start being strategic in how to fight my sin.

"So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?"
-Romans 7:21-24. I hope this coming semester will help me exclaim with Paul verse 25 and 8:1.

Some questions that help discern idols in the heart ... Taken from theresurgence.com ... which took this from "Counterfeit Gods" by Tim Keller (grateful to have this book):

"Where are you spending your money?"
"Where does your imagination take you? What do you daydream about?"
"Where are your emotions uncontrollable? What do you find yourself longing for, angry over, or fearful of? There is your idol."
"How do you respond to unanswered prayers or dashed hopes?"

Romans 8:1

Sometimes the gospel is almost too good to be true. I have a hard time believing it, as much as I thought I knew it so well.

In the end, it's just a simple truth that my pride doesn't want to hear: He loves me.