Come to Jesus

I’ve written more posts about my Savior than I have on any other topic. You can find them all here.

This page is dedicated to everyone God brings our way. We’re so grateful for the opportunity to speak into your lives from our little mountain home. If, when you look at us, you see Jesus (in spite of us)…we’ve accomplished what we set out to do. Kingdom Twindom, the blog, is our living sacrifice. We have nothing to brag or boast about apart from our redemption and salvation. If you do not know Jesus as your personal Savior, King, Teacher and Friend, we hope you’ll take the time to read the excerpts we’ve complied for you below. We’d love nothing [no-thing] more than introducing you to Him.

In my high school religions class, on the first day of a new semester, our brilliant teacher looked around the room of preacher’s kids and former homeschoolers and said, “What if there really isn’t a God?”

And then we wrote like mad for about twenty minutes.

My point in telling you this is that, by the end of my paper, I had concluded that there was absolutely no sound reasoning behind proper behavior if there indeed wasn’t a God (or if one didn’t believe in God).

I no longer feel this way, or at least not as strongly.

When I give a Big Mac to a homeless man, I do so in Jesus’ name. But the smile that crosses his face would still be valuable to me if his soul was never to extend beyond this world, and if there was no eternal reward for my good deed. It just wouldn’t be as valuable.

When I, as a Christian, see someone in pain, I automatically weigh that pain according to whether it is temporary or eternal. I hurt for people where they are, in their temporary pain. But the thought of someone dying without ever knowing my Savior…the thought of a fellow human being, eternally separated from the love of Jesus…that is often more than I can physically bear. Which, I suppose, is why I cherish the opportunity to write this post.

The plain truth of the matter is that I don’t know what my life would look like if it was not being lived for Jesus.

I don’t want to know what life would be like without a tight grip on my Savior’s lifeline. Because I need Him, all day long. I am utterly, helplessly and wonderfully dependent on Him. And I never, not for one second, have to be strong apart from Him. He makes me feel child-like, accountable, forgiven, seen, safe, loved and lovely. He allows me to walk steadfastly on surfaces as unpredictable as water, as long as my eyes remain fixed on Him.

On my very worst day, I still know without a doubt that when my life here is over and done, I will live eternally with Him. And so, on my very worst day, I have a reason to laugh and dance.

If this life were the end for me, I imagine that everything would be very different. I certainly wouldn’t be happy living on little and never seeing or grasping the riches of the world. But, because this world is only the beginning, and such a very brief stopover before my real life begins, I want nothing more (or I endeavor to want nothing more) than what will be of eternal benefit to myself and to others.

If it weren’t for Jesus, I would have to acknowledge the utter wretch I am without any hope of a cleansing. I can never be fully good, no matter how much I would like to me. Without Jesus, I’d be one of the bad guys.

I can still remember the first time it fully hit me that the good guys in the Bible did really bad things that aren’t at all hidden from our sight (preventing us from revering and honoring them the way we might otherwise be tempted to do). I had been a Christian for fifteen years and had probably read through the Bible once or twice, but I was out of work, sick, and determined to do nothing else but read and eat and sleep until I made it all the way through. It took me twelve days to get from Genesis through Revelation, which was entirely too short a time for digesting all that He has for us in His word. Still, reading each story on the heels of the one before it allowed me to see things that might have escaped my attention had I been reading at more regular a pace.

“Is Noah, the only righteous man alive in his day, really so drunk that he’s passed out naked?! Surely not, but well, that’s exactly what it says.”

“Abram is pawning off Sarai as his sister, but Abram is one of the good guys so he must know something I don’t. Hmmm…no, he’s just being a stinkin’ coward! And, no, oh my gosh! He’s doing it again?!?”

“Sarah is giving her husband’s seed to another woman because she doesn’t have the faith that God will work through her. But doesn’t she remember that God afflicted an entire palace because she was so precious to Him? However, God didn’t really say that Sarah was going to be the mother of Abraham’s descendants. No, yeah, oops, I guess she really should have waited. Two nations will be warring until the end of the world just because Sarah didn’t trust God to use her.”

“David is a man after God’s own heart, one of God’s absolute favorite people, but wait…he’s also one of the worst dads of all time (as well as being an adulterer and a murderer). Am I reading that right? Uh, yes, yes I am.”

The Bible is still relevant today, and so are the “characters” in it.

It was such a freeing revelation, not as a license to sin but as permission to forgive myself and others. There are sheep, and there are also wolves in sheep’s clothing. There are good guys, and there are bad guys. But sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference. And, as far as I can tell, the only thing that has ever separated the two is true and turning repentance.

And when we repent, we’re forgiven.

My children each have their our own little reminder of God’s forgiveness (and promised forgetfulness); they keep it under their pillows for those times alone with their Savior. They need to know God truly forgets…that they can drop it all under the blood….and into the sea. They need to understand the power of a do-over.

Psalm 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Hebrews 10:17-23 Then He adds, “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more”. And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

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.

I believe that everything outlined as sin in the Bible is, in fact, sin. I do not make the rules or believe that I have  a right to interpret Scripture according to what I would do if I were God. I do not believe that God changes with the times. I believe that a loving God has told us the things that are contrary to His heart because they are the things that separate us from Him, and He desires closeness with us. Sin is a when issue, not an if issue. But to sin and grow increasingly aware of our need for a propitiator (someone who is sin free and can appease God’s wrath on our behalf) is one thing. To accept sin as a God-given part of ourselves, and something that does not need to be forgiven and turned from, is another. Because it is stated repeatedly throughout scripture, I believe that all of the following are deemed abominable by the God whom I serve (because He has revealed Himself to me and I now have no other choice).

1 Corinthians 6: 9 – 10 Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes norhomosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the Kingdom of God.

This is what you’ve been missing.