Supporting Scriptures

⁴ "Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
    smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all." --Isaiah 53:4-6 (ESV)

A word spoken through the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament.  A prophecy foretelling the coming of Jesus, our Savior.  These verses tell us His purpose. These verses show us that Jesus took OUR sin upon His shoulders.  The punishment that we deserved, He took for us.  Jesus became something He wasn't (unrighteous) so that we could become something we could never be on our own...righteous.  Jesus became full of sin in the one moment that His Father God turned away from Him when He was on the cross.  Jesus died for EVERY sin EVERY human being has ever or will ever commit.  I once heard the author, David Platt say that when Jesus was sweating drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, it wasn't because He was afraid to go to the cross and die...Jesus wasn't afraid to die...He was afraid of the moment when God would turn His back on Him because God cannot be in the presence of sin.  Jesus had never been separated from His Father before...they had always been One...Jesus couldn't bear the thought of being separated from His Father...can you?


^"12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men^[e]because all sinned— ¹³ for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. ¹⁴ Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam,who was a type of the one who was to come. ¹⁵ But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. ¹⁶ And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. ¹⁷ For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ Therefore, as one trespass^[f] led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness^[g] leads to justification and life for all men. ¹⁹ For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. ²⁰ Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, ²¹ so that, as sin reigned in death,grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." --Romans 5:12-21 (ESV)

To me, there really is no better set of Scriptures that explains this so plainly than the book of Romans, otherwise known as "The Roman Road".  Nothing else supports what I'm trying to say any better.  Sin came into the world through Adam...therefore, EVERYONE who was born after Adam was born into sin. Some religions or denominations do not preach this, that even infants are born sinful beings, but this is the supporting Scripture I use that defends that...this is what God's Word says and I'm not about to modify it, compromise it, or disagree with it:  "5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." --Psalms 51:5 (ESV)  There is another Scripture that talks about how sin starts with a desire and how that desire conceives and gives birth to sin and how that sin leads to death:  "¹⁵ Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death."  --James 1:15 (ESV) So, basically, we're born into sin, we deserve death for our sin, but our death won't justify us because we are sinful. Only ONE Person's sacrifice was sufficient to cover our sin and that's Jesus. Jesus was sinless.  Jesus was perfect.  He was the ONLY human being born to die for our sin.  It was God's plan from the beginning of Creation.  As soon as the first sin was committed, there was a need for a Savior.  This was God's plan from the beginning of time and Scripture is quite clear about it.

"1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God."
They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity;
there is none who does good.
2 God looks down from heaven
on the children of man
to see if there are any who understand,^[b]
who seek after God.
3 They have all fallen away
together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one."  --Psalms 53:1-3 (ESV)

"For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 

¹⁰ as it is written:

'None is righteous, no, not one;

11 no one understands;

no one seeks for God.

12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;

no one does good,

not even one.'

13 'Their throat is an open grave;

they use their tongues to deceive.'

'The venom of asps is under their lips.'

14 Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.'

15 'Their feet are swift to shed blood;

16 in their paths are ruin and misery,

17 and the way of peace they have not known.'

18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.'"  --Romans 3:9b-18 (ESV)

I don't know about you, but the above verses sound a lot like Newtown, CT to me. An unrighteous man who did not know God, who was swift to shed blood, who never knew and will never know peace, and who did not fear God.  A man left to himself, and quite frankly probably a child left to himself.  After what happened, I don't know about you, but it makes me long for Jesus' return...after looking in Scripture looks like I'm not alone:

"Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,
    that the mountains might quake at your presence—
^2 [a] as when fire kindles brushwood
    and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
    and that the nations might tremble at your presence!
³ When you did awesome things that we did not look for,
    you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
⁴ From of old no one has heard
    or perceived by the ear,
no eye has seen a God besides you,
    who acts for those who wait for him.
⁵ You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,
    those who remember you in your ways.
Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;
    in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?^[b]
6 We have all become like one who is unclean,
    and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
    and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
⁷ There is no one who calls upon your name,
    who rouses himself to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
    and have made us melt in^[c] the hand of our iniquities."  --Isaiah 64:1-7 (ESV)

We are ALL unclean and all of the good things we can do are like filthy rags in comparison to the GOODNESS, RIGHTEOUSNESS, and HOLINESS of God. There is nothing we can do on our own to be good enough.  In this nation, we no longer revere God or fear Him, as in RESPECT Him for His position and give Him the honor that He's due.  I'm not talking about going to church, praying, or doing what seems to be all the right things, I'm talking about every day in our DAILY living.  In the next blog, I will share the HOPE that can be yours.

Immediate Afterthoughts

Read my previous blog post first...

Only an hour after posting one post, my mind is still running.  I can already hear it..........all the opinions, all the politics, all the arguments....maybe I'm preceding something that may not happen, but with all the Internet traffic in the world and all the eyes.......there are always sides, beliefs, and opinions.

Adam and Eve is just a story and the Bible is just a book.......maybe a fairy tale.  It may be something that to you, may have happened so long ago you don't even believe it is real.  Maybe Jesus is just as fictitious as Santa Clause to you....just a story that someone made up for some kids.

Some days the only way I feel I can explain my faith is like the wind...you can't see it, but you can feel it and hear it to know it is there.

Some days I get really tired of reading everyone's opinions on Facebook and seeing all the politics fly back and forth like the food fight I remember having at the dinner table as a kid.  If I close my eyes, I can still see those mashed potatoes hitting the window and that chicken leg hitting the wall, and if you ask my sisters, they can also remember what we had for dinner that night.  If you really think about it, sometimes the arguments we have are just as ridiculous and childish and I just want to yell, "Two words people: GROW UP!"

What I really want more than anything most times, is for God to just set foot right in the middle of a conversation or an argument and just show up and say, "This is how it is!"  I mean sincerely...I wish God would literally show up, put His hand over our mouths and say, "Silence! Who made man's mouth?" and set us all straight the same way He did Job and say, "Excuse me, did YOU make the sun? Did you name all the stars? Did you create the world and everything in it? Did you put the moon where it is now? Who created your eyes? Who gave you that breath you just took? Who started your heart to beating and Who ALONE knows when it will stop?"  Sincerely....

No, sincerely....let's all take a step back for a second and think about it.  You gotta sit still and internalize and visualize with me for a second.  I don't know why I always do this, but I always think of celebrities for some reason.  I mean, someone I don't know who is far away. When you take a person...geez, anyone...Justin Beiber, Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, Tom Cruise, sheesh, I don't know...anybody and you strip that person of their material possessions and you take all they own away, who are they?  Who are they without all their stuff?  So many people define themselves by their STUFF.  If you don't have all that stuff, the house, the money, the cars, the clothes, the jewelry, everything the WORLD has to offer, who are you?  Now get closer to home and apply that to yourself. When you take away your stuff, who are you?  Your house, your clothes, your job, your money, your friends, even your family...who are you?  Now, when I say, "who are you", I am basically asking....what stuff are you made up of?  When you're stripped bare of everything we know you as, what is left?

Here's the thing, when you die, when I die, when Justin Beiber dies, when Tom Cruise the Scientologist dies...what is left?  Who are we?  What are we made of then?  Listen, when it's all over, there's nothing left but our souls.  A person is really no more than their soul.  In the end, all that's gonna matter is "What is inside of your soul?"  Sincerely...think about it...after it's all gone...what else is there?  They put your body in the ground and your soul lives on.  Your body is just a mask, just a facade, it's what we know you as, but it's not who you really are. Think about it if you've ever been to a funeral....you're just looking at a vessel, but the person is gone, gone.  So....WHO ARE YOU?  In the end you are nothing but a soul standing face to face with your Maker.  You are stripped bare of the life and possessions you had to have in exchange for forsaking all that really matters.......which is what you do with your soul.

My prayer is that when I look at people...instead of seeing people, I will see their souls.  Everyone on the face of a planet has a soul.  EVERYONE.  Everyone from you to me to Osama bin Laden. Think about it...the only part of a person that's meant to live forever is a person's soul.  I can hear you already, I can hear you..."But what if I don't believe that?" Really think about it.  Just get quiet somewhere and think about it.  If what you believe were not true, would you still want to know it?  The answer for me is "No".  If what I believed were not true, would I still want to know it, and the answer is "No", I would want to know the truth. The purpose of this life is not to focus on the outside, the external, the temporal, the fading, the aging...the purpose is to focus on the inside, the internal, the eternal, the everlasting, and the part that will live forever.  EVERYONE on the planet will live forever in one of two places.  My pastor said it best.  If you are born twice, you only have to die once.  If you were born once, then you will die twice. Think about it...if you don't know what that means, just ask me.

First Thoughts on Newtown, CT School Shooting

It's hard to put feelings into words...................................numb is a good word. Shocked is a good word, amazed, surprised, sickened, horrified.  I'm not claiming to have all the answers, I'm just an American reacting to this tragedy just like you. As I was sitting in my living room, reading the news on Facebook, my children were playing on the floor behind my chair. They are 2 and 3 years old and had some toy cars and they were crashing them into each other. I heard one of them say, "I'm gonna shoot your car and kill your car!"  I immediately started balling. These are my children...only 2 and 3. They are too little to understand.  As a mother though, who has my 2 beautiful children at home when some mothers lost theirs today...I couldn't let this incident slide.

I asked my children to sit down on the couch and my oldest asked me why I was crying.  "Lord, how do I explain this?" I prayed. "Help me explain this in a way they can understand..." I prayed.  "Why are you sad, Mommy?" my baby boy said.  I said, "Honey, you can't say that anymore." and I explained to him that he can't say "shoot" or "kill" even if he's just playing or pretending (and I know he was) and when he asked me "why", I thought, "He's too young to understand...he's only 3...he can't possibly handle this...how do I explain this to him?"  So this is what I said:

"Honey, there are bad people in this world who do bad things." and he asked me, "Mommy, do they shoot people and kill them?" and I said, "Yes." and he asked, "Why, Mommy? Why they do that?" and I said, "Because of sin."  We have a Bible Stories DVD and Bible for Toddlers that we bought them a year ago and it has the story of Adam and Eve in it.  This is the most basic way the Lord gave me to explain this situation to my children.  I said, "Isaac, do you remember the Bible story we watched on TV about Adam and Eve?" and he said, "Yes." and I asked him, "What do you remember about watching that story?" and he said, "Adam and Eve ate the fruit because the sneaky snake told them to." and I said, "Uh huh, and then what happened?" and Isaac walked over behind the recliner and he said, "Adam and Eve hid from God like this..." and he crouched down behind the recliner and said, "Mommy, can you see me?" and I said, "Nope!" and then his little sister Jenna did the same thing.  She crouched down behind the couch and hid and said, "Mommy, can you see me?" and I asked them, "Why did Adam and Eve hide from God?" and Isaac said, "Because they didn't listen to God, they disobeyed..."  We've talked about this story A LOT.  I said, "Isaac, this man who shot those people did it because he had sin living in his heart...just like Isaac has sin living in his heart, and Jenna has sin living in her heart, and Mommy has sin living in her heart, and Daddy has sin living in his heart...we ALL have sin in our hearts that makes us bad..."  and then Isaac named a few of his friends from church and I said, "Yes, they all have sin in their hearts too, but you know what Isaac?" and he said, "What?" and I said, "Jesus is GOOD and Jesus came as a baby on Christmas Day to SAVE us from our sin...that's the whole reason why He came and why we have this tree up and why we are even celebrating His birthday at all...because He came to save us..." and I started crying again.

I don't know why we have to make it so hard.  Why do we have to complicate it so much?  The concept is really so basic that even a 2-year old can understand it. The very first sin ever committed originated with the very first people God created, Adam and Eve.  After that first sin, EVERYONE after them INCLUDING you and me sinned.  We've ALL done bad things, each one of us has gone astray, each of us to his own way, and there is no one righteous, not even ONE.  There is NOTHING we can do to make ourselves good enough, righteous enough, or right with God.  We can't do enough good deeds or works, we can't be good enough people, and there's nothing we can do ON OUR OWN to make it into heaven. We also have "the Christmas box" in our house.  It's nothing more than a Christmas tree shaped green box with a decorative, shiny lid.  I found it one year while we were pulling out the Christmas decorations and I thought, "What can we put inside of this little box?" and the Lord gave this idea to me.  He said, "Put Me inside that box." and He gave me this story to tell Isaac.  I took the Christmas box and gave it to Isaac and said, "Here Isaac, I got you a Christmas present!" and he opened it up and said, "But Mommy, there's nothing in here..." and I said, "Sure there is, Jesus is inside!" and I told him that Jesus is the best Christmas present anyone could ever receive and when someone hands Him to you, you pick Him up, put Him inside your heart, and then give the gift to someone else.  It's simple when you really think about it.  The only way that we can be made right with God because of our sin is to admit we are sinners, accept the free gift of salvation that the Lord Jesus gave us when He died on that cross, and ask Him to be the Lord of our lives.  Think about it...God made you so Who knows you better than anyone? Who better to trust with your whole life, your decisions, and your future? Who better to have control of your life than your Maker?  Before He formed the world, He knew you.  He's writing a story with your life.  He knows the beginning and the end...have you ever bothered to ask Him what it's about?  Have you ever bothered to ask Him which way to go next?

Ah...*sigh*.....it's cold and gray here today.  The weather I mean...it's dreary and sad.  I really believe that God makes days like this because He understands how we feel.  The Lord knew before any of us woke up today what was going to happen in Newtown, CT.  God knew when those children went to school today that they wouldn't be coming home again.  God knew those teachers and adults were going to die.  God knew that man would kill them all.  I'm not saying God made it happen and I'm not saying He caused it...but I am saying He allowed it...and the only answer I have to the question, "Why?" is "Because of sin."  The man who did this didn't know Jesus personally.......................but here's the thing..............Jesus died for him anyway.............Jesus forgave him too....................just like Jesus forgave me for my sin.................and just like He forgives you.  Do you want to know Him personally today?  After this shocking reminder that life is precious, I am reminded that time is running out............don't wait..................you may not have tomorrow. "As it is said, 'Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts...'"  ~Hebrews 3:15