Being good isn't good enough

In high school, I didn’t sleep around, spend time partying all the time and doing other illegal things some high school kids did, but I was far from innocent. I cussed non stop, was very inappropriate with my language and often went for jokes that easily crossed the line. While I wasn’t horrible, I was far from being a saint.

I felt like I was a good person, wrong. I still did things daily that were sins. Even though I thought daily my good outweighed my bad, it wasn’t good enough in God’s eyes. It never is good in God’s eyes without Jesus.

Colossians 2:13-14…

“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.”

The cross was a game changer. No matter what, we are bad in God’s eyes. The only way that is corrected is with Jesus. All of our sins, mistakes, false steps and failures are all washed away when we give our life to Jesus. This is what it takes to get to heaven.

No matter how good we think we are, it’s not good enough. Jesus is an eternal life changer, but only when we give everything over to him.

Where are you with Jesus? What steps do you need to make to be closer to him?

Have a great day.

Car shows crush my soul

One of the most boring times in my life was going to car shows as kids. You will look at a whole bunch of beautiful cars but won’t touch. A marathon of Golden Girls sounded better then this. Yet there was one aspect I loved about it, the pictures of the car. When we would go up to the car and they showed the car when they got it all the way through the restoration. A vehicle from a complete beater to a work of art, an amazing transformation. This is what happens to us with Christ, a complete change.

A restoration of a car is beautiful, a restoration and reconciliation of the soul is even better. 2 Corinthians 5:17-19…

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here. All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”

When our life is given to Christ, we are new. The bitterness we had in the past is gone and a new start is here. Gone is sin and selfish desire. We have a new life dedicated to Christ and this changes our attitude and actions. We get a change to go from a life of wrath to a life of blessing. You are a blessing of God.  God doesn’t sit up in heaven counting the sins of your life because Christ took those sins on the cross with him. Christ has a new plan for you, a chance to reconcile.

With a new life of Christ we get a chance to make resolutions. We get to improve and make better the burned bridges in our lives. Those situations that drove us apart we can resolve and make better. Christ resolved our issues with sin by dying on the cross. All our sins and mistakes are gone and we are new. What are you going to do with this new life? Paul ends verse 19 with the message of reconciliation. What can you do to reconcile with people in your life?

Just like an antique car being made new, so are you. The rust and damage from the past has been clean up and is gone. You are a new person. Reconcile, bring together those who have differences. Spread love instead of hate. Make it happen.

Have a great day.

Good people can go to hell

There are plenty of good people that are headed for Hell. Maybe not today or tomorrow but later on down the road because of wrong ideas of what gets you to Heaven. I was going to be one of them.

I grew up Catholic and was made sure that we attended Church at least on Easter and Christmas (We did attend a lot more and I went to Catechism until fourth grade). After elementary school we attended church at everything from a Catholic church to a predominantly black pentecostal church. I knew who Jesus and God were but I gave up on Church mentally. I thought everyone was a hypocrite, lived one way on Sunday and different the rest of the week. I believed in Jesus, but didn't go much further then that.

I thought faith was so much more then believing in Jesus. I figured there was a scale that mattered. If I did more good deeds then bad deeds, not only would that show up the people that claimed faith, it would gain favor in the eyes of God. So in high school, I rarely drank, never smoked, never had sex and tried to be nice and a good person to everyone. I didn't think I had any enemies and never tried to make enemies. Certainly I was way ahead of some of my so called Christian friends that partied, tried to have sex with everyone, drank like a fish and smoked anything they could get their hands on. I was better then them. Man was I wrong.

God tells us this in Romans 10:1-4...
"Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.  For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes."

We can think we know what gets us to heaven, but it could be our own understanding. The Scripture above tells us the people of Israel at the time were zealous, "the God intoxicated people." They might have been for God but not for God. They thought they had their understanding of faith and it was not right. The majority of them did not believe in Christ. Therefore they thought the good things they were doing and the rules they were following (Obeying the 600+ rules God/Pharisees gave) were the way to live. They were wrong.

Faith in Jesus gets you to heaven and it's the only way. Israel did not submit to God and acknowledge who Jesus was. The result would be a tough pill to swallow at death, Hell. This is one of the biggest lies today and a lie I believed for a long time. Just because you are a good person doesn't mean you will go to heaven. If you think you are going to Heaven because you know of Jesus, shoot, the devil knew who Jesus was and what he did, yet he won't be in Heaven. A lot of peole in Israel missed this, but you don't have too.

A drinker, smoker and someone who had a ton of pre-martial sex changed my thinking on faith. This friend was a Christian and went to church every week when I didn't. He told me Church is about worshipping God and Jesus. Everyone who goes to Church is messed up in one way or another because we all sin. He told me God expects us to be perfect. I couldn't grasp this. We aren't perfect people I told him. Exactly he responded. He went on to tell me this is was Jesus did, he died on the Cross for you and your sins/mistakes, when you have faith in Jesus you accept who Jesus is as your personal Lord and Savior he covers the area you fall short and as a result you get to go to heaven. I remember telling them, "I'm a good person." He told me, "Not good enough."

It took a little while before this sank in. Finally on November 5, 2000. I finally got the point and was baptized. I realized something a lot of Israelites didn't, Jesus paid the price for my sins on the cross and he was my savior. He died for me. Recognizing this and having faith in him allowed me to go to Heaven. No matter what good things you have done, it's not good enough, God wants to see perfection when you have your one on one meeting with him after your earthly life ends.

Faith isn't about doing more good deeds then bad deeds, it's about a relationship with Jesus.  What is your relationship with Jesus? Who is he to you? Christ wants to take you in, but you have to make the decision. The ball is in your court, what are you going to do with it? If you never made that decision, find someone you can talk to about this. If you have friends that have struggled with this, maybe God intended you to be the person they would talk to about this.

Have a great day.

I got this

Somebody has to step up. In sports you look for that one moment when everything is on the line and someone steps up. In a movie you wait for the hero to overcome and defeat the bad guy. A term might come up from that person, “I got this.” Something is on the line and a person/hero has the ability to step up and do what is necessary. Whether in real life or a movie, it’s nice to have a go to person.

There was one point I was pretty down in life. I just didn’t really feel like I had much purpose at the time. Hailee got a group of people to come and encourage me and lift me up. In that case they got this. A group of people lifted me up in a rather dark time. Do you have someone in your life who is an “I got this person”?

This is Jesus. Listen to what Paul shares in Romans 8:2-3…

“Because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.”

Jesus got this. All your mistakes, errors and fault, Jesus got this. He covered those blemishes you like to hide. Jesus is the ultimate I got this. The Secret Service would take a bullet for the president, Jesus will take a painful death for you. What he did on the cross, he did for you.

If you feel down, alone, like something is missing in life, there is Jesus. We all need this in life, someone to take our place when something bad is going to happen. Jesus is amazing and in power. Even as sinners, he still has our backs. Is that something you need or feel like sharing?

An ultimate I got this guy. This is Jesus. Someone loves you so much they will lay down their life for you. Does this change your view or what you want to do with your life? I hope so in a positive way. Knowing that Jesus is there for me just gives me a level of comfort I can’t always describe. I am in awe of what Jesus did for us. He’s got this.

Have a great day.

Final moment

A moment comes when life ends for us all.

I feel like talking about death has main my main focus lately.

With the students at Union Christian we have went through two series, Hell and Heaven.

Through this I have focused a lot of my study time focusing on scripture with these two focuses along with reading a couple of books…

Heaven is For Real

Erasing Hell
90 Minutes in Heaven

As I wrap up this series I have been reading through the end time of Christ.

It’s sad to read through and hear all of the pain he went through.

At the end there was a special Sabbath, so they tried to speed up the killings on the cross.

In order to do this, they broke the legs of the people.

They broke the first two legs of the people, when they came to Jesus, this was written in John 19:33-35…

“But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.  The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true.  He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe.”

Jesus died.

This is huge because certain people/religions claim it wasn’t Jesus or he wasn’t killed.

In order to make sure Jesus was dead, they pierced his side.

This went along with scripture written much earlier (Exodus 12:46, Num. 9:12 and Psalm 34:20) about a sacrifice in which Jesus was for each one of us.

Death is crazy and interesting.

I mourn a little every time I ready the crucifixion and death story of Jesus.

I believe it to be true and make be a little sad with the fact he died and was a sacrifice for my sins and struggles.

How many people would die for you?

Maybe some family and friends would step up.

In Jesus’ case, he died for each and every one of us, suffered a painful death for our sins.

Reading through scripture on death, Heaven and Hell, open me up to perspective.

Jesus died for me and he died for you.

First thought in my mind is why would Jesus die for someone unworthy as myself?

This is where grace steps in.

Even though we make a ton of mistakes, Jesus forgives and loves us.

He did this by dying on the cross.

When we recognizes this have faith and live our lives for Jesus we are given eternal life.

What a gift for some unworthy people.

As much as I mourn and feel guilt for Jesus dying for a sinner like me, I rejoice and praise God.

I know I am going to heaven because of Jesus, that is such a relief.

Do you know if are going?

Do you know that Jesus died for you?

Have a great day.