Why Jesus Over Everything

He backed up everything he said.

Today, over 2000 yrs ago, Christ was crucified.

Today, over 2000 yrs ago, "God claimed to be God, and it was called blasphemy!"

Today, over 2000 yrs ago, Jesus saw what was on the other side of the cross that no one else could see at Calvary. What he saw was beautiful, Jesus saw us. He knew what had to be done. He was even offered a drink to numb his pain but Jesus knew he had to take the entire wrath of the Father.

Our God is a just God. Our God is a loving God. Because God is such a just God, He had to punish sin. Sin cannot be simply withdrawn. Because God is a loving God, He willing chose to bare His Fathers wrath.

Jesus told the Jews, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."
Christ backed it up.

Spoken Word

I am a lover of art, music, and just everything dealing with culture. Lately, i have been in love with the power of Spoken Word Poetry. It is amazing how God has instilled artistic passions in people for God's own glory. Here is one of my favorites:

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We Are Not Alone

In Luke 4, Jesus was tempted by Satan and Jesus kept Satan at bay. He kept Satan from successfully tempting him by reciting scripture back at him. He didn't use the power and wrath that he had as the Son of God to fend him off but instead he used scripture. Every time Satan tempted Jesus he quoted from Deuteronomy. What if the only thing between us and Satan's temptations was our knowledge of scripture from Deuteronomy?  I don't know if many of us would be successful.

Reading God's Word is essential to our growth, 1 Peter 2:2 "Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation"

Reading God's Word is also essential to our maturity, Hebrews 5:11-14 "About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil."

But even with all that said,.we still make up excuses: "I'm too tired" "I gotta get up early in the morning" "I don't have the mental focus after such a long day to read" etc. We even get discouraged when reading because we aren't getting or seeing the same things everyone else seems to be getting out of scripture. These could be frustrating. I know because I've said all of these at some point.

But here is some advice, whenever we start making these excuses in our minds we have to really think about how high reading God's word is on our priority list. The answer: it has to be top priority.

Now some encouragement, we are not alone when we read scripture. All though out man-kind God has become more and more intimate with us. First, there was the Tabernacle. Then God took on flesh and walked among us. Now God's very Spirit dwells in us. We are not alone when we read scripture because we have the Holy Spirit. Anyone can read scripture but if you have the Spirit you are able to understand it. All this takes time and learning though. But God has given us more than enough by giving us His word. We are to use this Bible we have in our hands to keep Satan at bay and to ultimately have a closer and richer relationship with God.

He Cannot Deny Himself

Yes, it's only Wednesday. Only halfway through the week. But now is the perfect time to remember the goodness of God!

Let's look at 2 Timothy 2:8-13
"Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is trustworthy, for:
If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he also will deny us;
if we are faithless, he remains faithful—
for he cannot deny himself."
I love the fact that no matter how much we struggle its for his glory that we persevere and no matter how little faith we have in him He cannot deny himself because he is a faithful God.

Also. all throughout scripture we can see how God becomes more and more intimate with us.  In Exodus 25:8 we see that God was in the temple so that he may dwell with his people, and even when we rebelled against him God wanted to get closer to us. That's when God took on flesh and became fully-man and fully-God and he walked among his own creation. And we still rebelled and we crucified Him. But even after all that God still wanted to be closer to us! So now he is inside of us. That's the Holy Spirit.

He is always in pursuit of us. He is wanting to be more and more intimate with you even if you rebel " . . . for he cannot deny himself."