I feel compelled to reach the lost (again).
As time has gone by, I have developed a security; not only in myself but in my beliefs. But also, in that time I have seen just why people choose to reject Christ and everything He stands for.

It's because they don't actually know what He is about.


People are always confronting me with their opinion about Jesus, God, and Christianity and when they do, they totally miss it! I have come to the conclusion that people are only spectators, and ignorant ones at that.
That wasn't meant to offend, but I really wish people would actually know what they're talking about before they try dissing or questioning the belief of a Christian.

As I write, I want to relieve confusion. Basically, this is a low-down on the "religion" aspect of being a Christian. (I use religion because people are familiar with that word). If you don't feel the need to read the entire thing, just look for the bold points to reference to in case anything specifically you're wondering about.

Lastly, before I start, I am purposely not going to use Bible verses, for this reason:
People think that when Christians use the bible, they seem brainwashed so, I am going to talk about Christianity and mention the bible, but I am not going to quote it you'll understand why in the end because Christians don't read the bible and believe, they read the bible because they believe.

HERE WE GO:

Christians don't think for themselves, they are told what to believe.
The answer is NO. Christians are human just like everyone else walking this planet. They have the freedom to choose what actions they take. Either it is what God says to do or what God says not to do. A preacher presents the Bible and a Christian does what they want with it; they can do what God is telling them to do, or they can choose to ignore it. Just like you can choose to clean your room, or ignore your Mom when she tells you to clean it.

A "loving" God sends people to hell.
Another NO. God doesn't send anyone to hell. People choose hell. Think of it like this: You're convicted of a crime- facing a jail sentence. How do you get out? Bail. Well, we are all guilty of sin and without the blood of Jesus to -for lack of a better word- hide our sin, we choose hell therefore we need to say "Jesus, I give you permission to cover my sins". We earn hell but Jesus will bail us out as long as we let him. Does that make sense? God is just, he will not let a crime go unpunished (the real law doesn't do that) it's called JUSTICE. Jesus took the punishment for our crime so that we don't have to.

The truth
What pretty much everyone outside the Christian faith doesn't understand is the truth. God, made the heavens and the earth, he stitched together every part of every person. He calls us by name, He knows the number of hairs on our head.
Regardless of whether you believe it or not is IRRELEVANT, that is the truth.
I'm not talking about a religion that says if you do this, this, and this then you'll make it to heaven where there are shiny things all over.
I am talking about a relationship with my Creator. A God who is crazy about ME, Love that is defined daily by a God who accepts me no matter how many times I screw up!
Every other religion tells you that you have to earn something, you need to spend your life being a good person, or your destiny is dependent on how many good deeds you can do.

Love
The best thing about a relationship with Jesus is that He truly does love us! The reality of life is that wrong-doing doesn't generally go unpunished. When a God who gave up His Son, along with Jesus willingly going down to earth -to be even lower than angels- sacrifices Himself so that the people wouldn't have to go through the pain of their own mistakes that defines love to the tee. Especially considering that we (as humans) could NEVER pay the due penalty for the sins we commit on a daily basis. That is pretty cool!
Am I making sense? We deserve penalty- we broke LAWS- but Jesus said, I'll pay the price, I'll take the whips, I'll take the nails.
Another aspect of this whole love thing is that Jesus won't MAKE you love him. He wants you to choose Him because He wants it to be real. If you were forced to love someone- it wouldn't be so real would it?

Freedom
Another thing people don't understand is that believing in and living for Jesus is freedom, it isn't a bondage like most people think. "Jesus doesn't let you have any fun." Okay, the thing is- what the world defines as fun: drinking, smoking, partying, having sex, doing whatever you want. These things aren't FREEDOM. In fact, they are quite the opposite. When Jesus says avoid them He is really trying to protect you because He loves you. Drinking warps your perception of things around you as well as damages your body, smoking ruins your lungs and shortens your life, and premarital sex not only hurts you emotionally but it can cause things like unplanned pregnancy, abortions, and children going without responsible parents. EVERYTHING negative has consequences and instead of saying "oh well" why don't we try and avoid those consequences knowing that we'll be thankful later on. As I said in a previous blog, I believe "no regrets" should be a future tense. As in, leave the house promising yourself that you won't do anything you'll regret instead of looking back and not regretting what caused pain.

Purpose
Without God, people have NO purpose. And that is something no one can argue with. If there was no purpose instilled in us, then why on earth are we here? If the earth and everything in it was by chance or just banged together by partials that were created by nothing then what purpose do we serve? None. God gives us a reason to live, because without it, we might as well kill ourselves. Why go on if we're just here to be here?


In Closing:
Knowing and living for Jesus isn't a religion. It's beneficial in every way, and even if it were to not be true (which it is) but if you don't believe it or whatever, then if you spend your life living for Jesus, not only will you find the benefits and freedom but you don't lose anything by living this way. So even if you spend the 100 temporary years on earth living for Jesus, you won't have missed out on anything. Your life will be totally full while having the assurance that you'll make heaven one day.
I mean...
If Heaven does exist ;)