Imagine if Christ were among us again, in the Flesh, would He be invited into your home despite that he might smell like a homeless person from wandering the hot streets for days? Would you provide Him a good meal despite that He might not have any means to pay for it? Or would you tempt Him into performing a miracle for his meal? Did you feed the homeless vet you drove passed yesterday because that was Christ.
If He went to prison, would you write Him letters and send him money for the commissary? Would you vote to give prisoners better facilities and programs to help them to a better life? Would He be a friend despite that He is different from you and thinks differently and behaves differently? Would you tell Him not to say anything embarrassing because your boss is there? Would you tear down the burning cross in his yard that the KKK put there because He is a non-white Jew? Even if that entails ripping off your own hood to do?
Would you truly ACCEPT Him into your life? Would you ACCEPT His messages of Love and Charity and Forgiveness? Even if that means helping out a gay person? Or adopting the baby someone wanted to abort? Would you ACCEPT His tasking you to be greater than who you are now? Even if that means you have to sacrifice what you want for what the world needs? Would you ACCEPT the teachings He has given you? Even if that means admitting you were wrong? Or would you attack him with Bible verses that say otherwise?
Would you ACCEPT the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior?
For those who have answered yes at some point in their life, this message is more for us. For those who haven't, you should read anyway because I want you to know what Christians were meant to be, and maybe it's possible you already are a Christian and didn't realize it yet. I bet you didn't see that one coming. You thought this was for the heathens. Didn't you?
Accepting Christ doesn't mean going to church and be like, "Yeah, Gsus is my Homy," and a quick dip you are now a member of the Jesus Christ Association, meetings held every Sunday, bring money. It sure seems that way when you talk to some people, not by what they say, but the example they live. I'm not that person in this case ONLY because I miss most of the meetings and I don't usually bring money.
Christ is your VIP pass to heaven. That's not exactly the most noble reason to be someone's friend. My father always said, "Choose your friends wisely," and I'd say for networking purposes alone, Jesus would be the guy I'd bring home to papa and be like, "Ha, you can't get better than this." I mean, here's a first class ticket to happily ever after is He not? Isn't that what we seek to achieve in our relationship with Christ? Happiness? Peace? Everything we seek from heaven?
There's more to Christ than His connections. Christ is kind of awesome. Kind of? My bad. Christ is fantastically awesome on epic scales. He is the best role model the earth has ever provided us, wait, the best role model God ever provided us, who has ever conquered the earth. His Words are like Lucky Charms, they are magically delicious, and his Message should not be ignored. And the fact that He not only died for us, but also resurrected for us (which I'm sure is more work than dying) should be the most honest indicator to the kind of friend He is. He's not pretending to love you, that's for sure. He actually, legitimately, sincerely loves you. In the words of the John Legend...
'Cause all of me loves all of you.
The rest of this post gets a little preachy. I'm preaching to myself here, but you too. Nobody is perfect. So don't expect this to be one of those, "I don't have to worry about this" moments because I do at least.
By Accepting Christ, would you follow Him?
Christians don't always follow Christ, and for the most part, most don't. We don't seem to notice CHRISTians, that Christ is in that name, that that is the guy we are supposed to be following. Nope, sometimes, a lot of times, we are caught up on Levite Jews from ancient days, Deuteronomic historians, prophets, and Paul. I'm not saying these other sources should be discarded completely, but if I had the power to recompile the Bible, I would eliminate all but the life of Christ to avoid confusion because people cannot be trusted with the extra information. We follow it when it's really there to be a guide, something to help us get the bigger picture. Jesus is the one we were supposed to be following. I know Paul was trying to help, but Jesus Christ, he is not.
Christ came to earth. He preached. He healed. He performed miracles. He turned water into wine (that's a little more epic than your average miracle). The thing is, He was Here. He carved it with big letters on the earth with His blood. While He was here, he left an imprint on the hearts of many. It's His stories, His words, and His message we should, as CHRISTians, be following. Every thing else is everything else. The moment everything else contradicts Christ's message, that's when Christ's message trumps everything else.
The Bible as a whole is God's message, and it's something that should be taken as a WHOLE.
To sum up the Bible... The world was dark and nasty scary. God fixed that. He created the world. Then it became a terrible place to live, so he destroyed it and started over. Then that started to become a terrible place to live on account of the world, so then he sent his Son to fix things. Then that started to be terrible again, but at least there's hope in the after life now. In fact, the Bible is full of stories, as well as the whole big picture story, where things stunk and then God makes it better. There are storms, and then there are rainbows following the storm. This too shall pass. The Lord He giveth and then he taketh away. Most of the cliches come from this theme.
Do not confuse the Biblical accounts of when time stunk to be God's Law. God isn't ordering us to be the world. He's ordering us to read how it stunk, and then read how He made things better. He wants us to know that oppressing women like property and raping them and stuff like that led to times that wasn't so good, so please stop raping women and oppressing them. That the decisions we make influence the world around us, so be conscious of how your choices affect others.
I don't understand how so many see that message to be "homosexuals made the world an awful place to live, so stop being homosexual" when homosexuality wasn't really mentioned unless you interpret sexual immorality to include homosexuality. But really, there's like the rest of the book that tells you all the things that made the world stink for that moment, and it's the lack of love for humanity that destroyed the earth. That lust, superficial wants and desires cloaked as love, is what destroyed the innocence we had going.
And the overall message also states, that even though we stink, we still get to bask in happily ever after via grace. God's message is about making the earth better. Making us better. But also that we are forgiven when we don't.
And if all else fails in the deciphering of what is Christ and what is Man... God is Love. Christ preached about Love. So if it's about true love, real love, the man lay down his life for a friend kind of love, patience, kindness, never boasting... then it's of God. If it's about the opposite, the hatred, the envy, the ego boasting... then that's the Man or the darker side of the Force.
Do you accept Love in your life? Because that's what it means to accept Jesus.
Again, God is Love. Christ taught about Love as His number 1 message. To fully accept Christ, one must accept love. This comes in two forms... Give and Take.
You must accept Love in your life.
You must Love.
It really helps to know what Love is. Love is walking together. Love is...
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. (ESV) 1 Corinthians 13:4-8A
Another definition of love...
Let me not to the marriage of true mindsAdmit impediments. Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds,Or bends with the remover to remove:O no; it is an ever-fixed mark, That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;It is the star to every wandering bark,Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved. Sonnet 116 William Shakespeare
And finally Noah Webster's original definition...
LOVE, v.t. luv. [L. libeo, lubeo. See Lief. The sense is probably to be prompt, free, willing, from leaning, advancing, or drawing forward.]
1. In a general sense to be pleased with; to regard with affection, on account of some qualities which excite pleasing sensations or desire of gratification. We love a friend, on account of some qualities which give us pleasure in his society. We love a man who has done us a favor; in which case, gratitude enters into the composition of our affection. We love our parents and our children, on account of their connection with us, and on account of many qualities which please us. We love to retire to a cool shade in summer. We love a warm room in winter. we love to hear an eloquent advocate. The christian loves his Bible. In short, we love whatever gives us pleasure and delight, whether animal or intellectual; and if our hearts are right, we love God above all things, as the sum of all excellence and all the attributes which can communicate happiness to intelligent beings. In other words, the christian loves God with the love of complacency in his attributes, the love of benevolence towards the interest of his kingdom, and the love of gratitude for favors received.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind -
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Matt. 22.
2. To have benevolence or good will for. John 3.
LOVE, n.
1. An affection of the mind excited by beauty and worth of any kind, or by the qualities of an object which communicate pleasure, sensual or intellectual. It is opposed to hatred. Love between the sexes, is a compound affection, consisting of esteem, benevolence, and animal desire. Love is excited by pleasing qualities of any kind, as by kindness, benevolence, charity, and by the qualities which render social intercourse agreeable. In the latter case, love is ardent friendship, or a strong attachment springing from good will and esteem, and the pleasure derived from the company, civilities and kindness of others.
Between certain natural relatives, love seems to be in some cases instinctive. Such is the love of a mother for her child, which manifests itself toward an infant, before any particular qualities in the child are unfolded. This affection is apparently as strong in irrational animals as in human beings.
We speak of the love of amusements, the love of books, the love of money, and the love of whatever contributes to our pleasure or supposed profit.
The love of God is the first duty of man, and this springs from just views of his attributes or excellencies of character, which afford the highest delight to the sanctified heart. Esteem and reverence constitute ingredients in this affection, and a fear of offending him is its inseparable effect.
2. Courtship; chiefly in the phrase, to make love, that is, to court; to woo; to solicit union in marriage.
3. Patriotism; the attachment one has to his native land; as the love of country.
4. Benevolence; good will.
God is love. 1John 4.
5. The object beloved.
The lover and the love of human kind.
6. A word of endearment.
Trust me, love.
7. Picturesque representation of love.
Such was his form as painters, when they show their utmost art, on naked loves bestow.
8. Lewdness.
He is not lolling on a lewd love-bed.
9. A thin silk stuff. Obs.
Love in idleness, a kind of violet.
Free of love, a plant of the genus Cercis.
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Do you accept Grace in your life? Because that's what it means to accept Jesus as your savior.
Christ died to give us Grace. He was tortured, humiliated, spat on, skin ripped inside out, nailed to a cross and left to bake in the heat so that WE can have grace. And we mess that up with, "You can't be gay it's a sin." Yes you can. Jesus died on that cross so that you can be gay.
By accepting Grace, we first have to accept that our sins are forgiven. We have to forgive ourselves at some point for our flaws and past mistakes. The number one reason people pass judgment and criticism on others is their own insecurity. The moment you look yourself dead in the eye in that mirror and face your ghosts that haunt you, the moment you will become a better person. That moment, you will discover Grace.
By accepting Grace, we also have to accept that other people's sins are forgiven. It doesn't matter if homosexuality is a sin. It doesn't matter if HATING homosexuality is a sin. Both are forgiven. Why? Because you know not what you do. None of us know what we do. We really have no idea what we are doing... we are just doing it like Nike. Just like you, everyone else is entitled to be wrong.
By accepting Christ, we are accepting more than His English Name. We are accepting more than believing He is the Son of God. We are accepting his light, and letting it shine on us, flaws exposed. We stop hiding in the darkness, and we stop cloaking our imperfections with denial. We accept His Message because we believe in Him, not that we believe He was, but that we believe in Him to save the world, and we know living by His Words will make the world a better place. Even an atheist can do this, embrace the light for what it is, the truth, the justice, the love, the warmth... The essence of Christ is who our spirits must accept.
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
I now pronounce you man and wife; now kiss the bride... Haha I'm kidding. You did not just cyber marry Jesus. Or did you?
Buttercup: Oh, Wesley, will you ever forgive me?
Westley: What hideous sin have you committed lately?
Buttercup: I got married. I didn't want to - it all happened so fast.
Westley: Never happened.
Buttercup: What?
Westley: Never happened.
Buttercup: But it did I was there; this old man said 'man and wife.'
Westley: Did you say 'I do?'
Buttercup: Um, no... we sort of skipped that part.
Westley: Then you're not married. You didn't say it; you didn't do it.
There's actually more truth to this jest if you look deep enough.
