“For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 5:20

“Therefore you are to be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew 5:48

Messiah. That was the sole hope of the first-century Jews. They had grown tired of the mocking and brutal Romans that ruled over them. They desired freedom through God’s promise of the Messiah, the deliverer of His people. In comes John the Baptist who calls the Israelites to repentance and points to the man known as Jesus of Nazareth as Israel’s Messiah. Just as the people during the exodus of Egypt gathered to hear God speak at Mount Sinai in the wilderness with Moses, so these Jews gathered as Jesus spoke on a mountainside. Like those Israelites before them they were surely eager yet terrified to hear the news of this new kingdom. Their worst fears were realized when Jesus spoke the words in the above verses throughout His sermon. The Jews knew that none were more righteous than the Pharisees, their religious leaders, and were surely devastated. They must have felt even more hopeless when Jesus began to speak on the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and exposed the hearts of all who were in the crowds. Questions surely would have buzzed around in their heads such as “What hope can anyone have? Is anyone worthy of entering the Messiah’s kingdom?”

“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.” Matthew 5:17

Unbeknownst to this people this Messiah did not come to conquer the Romans; He came to conquer them. The Sermon on the Mount wasn’t a call to self-righteousness but a call to self-helplessness. A lot of the time we may come to the Bible and seek to apply it to our lives. In this case and many others however, when the word of God was preached people were either wrecked with a sense of awareness of their own wickedness or deceived by their own self-righteousness and refused to repent or even listen.

“Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what should we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”” Acts 2:37-38

Jesus was not telling the crowds that day to be better people; He was telling them that they can’t be better people. Jesus was the One who was to live a blameless life and take on their sins on the Cross. Then after raising from the dead He gave them His life through the Holy Spirit, a new life. Jesus didn’t come to fix us; He came to completely wreck us so He could reshape us in His image. Trust Him, He knows what He is doing.

“Is not this the carpenter’s son?” Matthew 13:55

“And I wrote as I did, so that when I came I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice, for I felt sure of all of you, that my joy would be the joy of you all. For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.“

2 Corinthians 2:3-4

Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians was a letter that seemed harsh. Paul rebuked several practices and causes of division within the church such as the false superiority of those with “greater” spiritual gifts, the practice and approval of sexual immorality, differences of opinion over what foods were clean to eat, etc. A quick reading of the letter may result in the view that Paul was condemning and putting down his brethren in the church. But as the above passage from the second letter of Corinth shows, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Paul’s words in the first letter were written with tears and intense passion for his God and the unity of his family. Paul wanted to be able to enjoy the fellowship of knowing and seeking Christ together with the brethren of the church. He saw the divisions within the church over petty and insignificant matters as devastating to its unity and God’s purpose of love between His children.

Similarly, this is God’s heart throughout the entire Bible. We may read the Bible and come to the conclusion that God is an over-bearing taskmaster who loves to punish those who don’t follow every single command He gives them. We may read the books of the prophets and conclude that God is malevolent and loves to ruin those He loves. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Behind every command of God is the God who spoke it and the God who is the only one who can help us live it out. Behind every rebuke of God is a God full of compassion and longing for His children to be in relationship with Him and each other. Behind every word of judgment toward His people is God pleading through the prophets for them to turn back to Him so He can be the gracious and merciful God He is in forgiving their sins and letting them rest in His love. Is this how we view God and His Word? Or do we still think He only wants to put us down and condemn us?

“The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.”

Psalm 19:7-8

“Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“The fire and the wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.” -Genesis 22:6-8

God had promised many years earlier to Abraham that through his offspring he would have many descendants, as many as the stars. The day before this one however, God gave him an unusual command: To sacrifice his only son whom he loved. So in the morning he took his son and his servants to the mountain God had told him to sacrifice his son on. When they were almost there Abraham told his servants to wait where they were and that he wanted to worship alone with his son. So he and Isaac walked together up to the mountain.

When I read this passage this morning I was left wondering what Isaac’s relationship with his father was like. If you read in the Scriptures before this event you see that Abraham could be selfish, manipulative and fearful. I don’t know if Isaac knew that about his dad but I know that he saw that his dad walked with God. At some point Isaac asked the question in the passage above and probably soon realized that he would be the sacrifice. This shows me that Isaac trusted his father and the God he served. He laid on the altar and was going to be killed until God stopped Abraham.

This was the same for Jesus. He “carried the wood” just as Isaac did when he carried the cross that He was to be crucified on. All of his closest friends and family had abandoned Him. On the road up to the mountain it was just Him and God His Father. Jesus trusted His Father and willingly gave up His life as a sacrifice on the mountain.

So the question left for us is this: Do we trust our Father? He calls us to give our lives away, to “offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing” -Romans 12:1. Do we trust our Father enough that He will provide and take care of us if we surrender our lives to Him? Do we know our Father well enough to trust Him? In both of these examples the father loved his son and the son loved the father. On the road up to the mountain it was just father and son. We must know our Father before we can trust Him enough to give up our lives. Not head knowledge of who He is but actually knowing Him in our heart.

“I have given them Your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.” -John 17: 14-19

This was a part of Jesus’ prayer for His disciples before His arrest and crucifixion. Something that sticks out to me from this prayer is this idea that we as Christians are not “of this world”. How can you be in the world and yet not in the world at the same time?

When the Bible speaks of “the world” it refers to the kingdom that Man has established on earth in rebellion against God and His Heavenly Kingdom and rule. We see in the earthly kingdom that Man feels compelled to live by the Moral Law that God has set up for them but they are unable to and are compelled to resist. They find in themselves a desire to go against what is true and right and to go by their feelings and what is best for themselves. The world determines a man’s worth by what he owns and what he has accomplished. We also see that the world loves to focus on the negatives and very rarely on anything positive, as evidenced by any news station. Above all, we see that there is just something that isn’t right. We feel there ought not to be all the disaster on the news. We feel like we ought to be able to be honest and upright citizens. We feel like we should be able to find rest and peace in something. But for some reason we can’t. No matter what we try to do, there’s always something missing.

“Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest from the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.” ” –John 18:36

Then we have this man called Jesus. He started preaching of a different way to live and more importantly, a different kingdom. He teaches that what this world prides itself on is foolish. Where the world tells you to succeed no matter who you must step on to get there, Jesus taught humility. Where the world tells you that you deserve to treat someone wrong who has wronged you, Jesus taught forgiveness and restoration. Where the world tells you to do what’s best for yourself and work yourself to near the point of death to provide for yourself and your family, Jesus taught to seek God and all that you need will be given to you. His Kingdom is one of love and peace, where it doesn’t matter who you are or what you have done but rather whose you are and what He has done. His Kingdom leads to eternal life with God and freedom from every chain of sin that binds you. His Kingdom leads you to fulfillment in the One who created you that nothing in this world can even compare to. There then seems to be a stark contrast between man’s kingdom and God’s kingdom.

“The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.” -John 12:25-26

Jesus claimed to be the Son of God and the only way to salvation and eternal life. We see that Jesus also makes a clear statement: You are either with Him or against Him. He left no middle ground. Either you believe that He is the Son of God and you lay down your life and everything you hold dear to your heart in this world to follow Him or you reject Him and live for this world and follow it. I’ll be the first to admit that this is the hardest challenge I’ve had to face in my life and I fail every day. Every so often He must ask me the same simple question: “Do you love me or love the world?” You can’t have them both.

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” –John 15:18-19

The apostle Paul refers to Christians as the scum of the earth and the waste of the world. He makes it clear, and even Jesus Himself, that those who follow Him will be persecuted. We will be mocked, slandered, and abused. We will lose relationships. Jesus calls us to take our hold off of all that we hold most dear and give it to Him. He calls us to deny what we feel and follow Him wherever He leads us. He never promises an easy life filled with happiness and void of difficulties. So it begs the question: Why would you ever want to be a Christian? Why would you be willing to die, both to your desires and even possibly physical death? I cannot answer for all Christians, but I will tell you why by my own experience.

I’ve seen and experienced firsthand how this world, how sin takes. I’ve seen how it destroys relationships and shatters hope. I’ve shed many tears when I’ve seen my friends run towards things in this world that will only leave them more hurt and broken than before. This world only takes and leaves you more empty than you were the day before, until everything is stripped away and you’re left more broken than you could ever imagine. When that happened to me I cried out to a God who I didn’t even really believe in but was so desperate that I managed to summon a tiny ounce of humility and faith to ask for His help. And oh if I could share with you how it feels to have your heart so tenderly touched by Love itself. If I could allow you to look in on those dark and lonely nights I felt so worthless but heard a whisper of pure love and acceptance. So many times I’ve run back to the things of this world and every time I turn back to Him I see Him pursuing me with nothing in His eyes but forgiveness and the sweetest of grace.

So to get to my point: The things and pleasures of this world, though sometimes so very sweet, are only temporary and never bring about true fulfillment. It’ll all pass away. You’ll lose the job. You’ll lose the boyfriend or girlfriend. Someone will always disappoint you or make you mad. But God’s Kingdom is eternal and every decision you make today will have consequences on your eternity. His Kingdom is so worth dying for because in His Kingdom you experience Life Himself. There is freedom. Not to do as you please but rather to do as He pleases, which brings so many blessings and will always be exactly what you need. All that is required to enter into this glorious Kingdom is to accept Jesus as Lord and as the Savior of yourself from your sin. Know that He has already chosen and accepted you. Come to Him and lose your life so you may find it. Not plagued by sin but as it should have been from the start, in worship to Him who knows you so intimately and yet loves you with an everlasting love.

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us.” –Romans 8:18

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.” – Leviticus 17:11

One of my favorite things about the Bible is how it all connects and tells one cohesive story. Some might think the Old Testament to be boring and even irrelevant but I want to show its beauty in how it all points to Christ in just one of many aspects. In my last post I talked about the significance of the Blood of Christ (so go back and read that one if you haven’t) and in this one I’ll show how it’s foreshadowed in the Old Testament. (Shoutout to Jamie Elkins my mentor for the recommendation to write on this topic).

We get our first glimpse into the importance of blood in the garden with the first humans. We see that Adam and Eve have just been deceived by Satan into eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the fruit God commanded them not to eat. In this moment of rebellion against God, Adam and Eve become guilty and ashamed and proceed to hide from God, sewing fig leaves to try and cover themselves. The stage is set: Man has just sinned by rebelling against God, His Creator and Imparter of his life, the Holy and Righteous Judge and King. The serpent has achieved his mission by ruining the work of God, for surely God will have to kill His creation because of their sin and rebellion. But what happens next is not what is expected. We see God pursuing His creation and while He executes punishment on all guilty parties there is no death sentence given to Man but rather to the serpent. God promises that Eve’s offspring will one day crush the serpent’s head and the serpent will strike his heel. We see God’s mercy when He kills an animal in substitute for Man and His grace when He clothes them with a more permanent covering with the sacrifice, dealing with their guilt and shame.

We skip ahead in history to near the exodus of the sons and daughters of Israel from Egypt. God has declared freedom for His people and has promised to deliver them from their slavery to Egypt. He has brought many plagues on the land of Egypt and is about to bring the last and most devastating one, the plague of Egypt’s firstborn. God tells Moses that at midnight He will kill the firstborn of every family and the cattle of the land. Every single one of them, even Israel’s. But He commands each household of Israel to kill and eat an unblemished lamb and to put the blood of the lamb on their doorposts and the lintel. God says that when He sees the blood He will “pass over” that house and spare the firstborn. All the Israelites must do is do as God commanded, wait and trust in the blood.

The last place I wish to go in the OT is Solomon’s temple. This temple is the place where God chose His glory to dwell on earth, the place where heaven meets earth. Here people offered animal sacrifices for their sins, just as God demonstrated in the Garden. The important thing to note here is that when someone brought their sacrifice to the priest to be killed the priest never examined them, he knew they were a sinner. Rather the priest examined the sacrifice, for it had to be unblemished and without defect. Also located in the temple was the Most Holy Place, where God’s glory dwelt in the temple. No man could enter into this place except the high priest, who once a year offered a sin offering for all the people of Israel on what’s called the Day of Atonement.

Now, how does this all relate to Christ? The animal sacrifices could not truly take away man’s sins, they were a mere shadow of what was to come. There had to be a true Substitute, One who could take on the full penalty of sin and death. Man himself couldn’t do it, so God in His mercy and love for Man had to accomplish this and bring His creation back to submission to Him and restore the relationship. So He sent His Son to be that perfect Sacrifice and Substitute. He was without blemish or defect because He was sinless. He was fully God and fully man. He became Eve’s offspring and while He was struck in the heel by Satan and died on a cross, He overcame sin and death and ultimately crushed Satan’s head. Jesus also became our high priest, for He was able to enter into the Most Holy Place and offer Himself as a permanent sacrifice for our sin, once for all. He not only offered the sacrifice but He split the curtain of the Most Holy Place from top to bottom, showing that what He did allows anyone to come into the very presence of God. His Blood deals with our guilt and shame permanently, as I described in my last post. Finally, those who accept His sacrifice and trust in His blood will be “passed over” by God when He finally executes judgement on Man.

“On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn- both men and animals- and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.” –Exodus 12:12-13

For this post I want to touch upon one of the most fundamental yet essential truths of the Christian life, the significance of the Blood of Christ. The book that really helped open my eyes to this important truth in God’s Word, and many others, is “The Normal Christian Life”, which I highly recommend reading with a mentor. First, some essential truths:

God is the Creator of the universe. He has made all things to display His glory and to give Him glory. He is Almighty God. He has all power, there is nothing too hard for Him. He can move mountains and calm the roughest storms. He is the Everlasting God. He has been in existence since before time began and always will be. He is Love. He is the Giver of good gifts and loves to bless His creation. He imparts His life and goodness to His creation. Then we have man. Man is God’s creation who has rebelled against his Holy and Loving King, making him an enemy of God and under His wrath. His efforts to be independent of God have cause a great divide between him and God. Thankfully there is a way back to God: Jesus Christ His Son. To extremely simplify the sacrifice of Christ, in order to get to the main point, Jesus who was sinless took our sins upon the Cross and places His righteousness (right standing with God) upon us when we accept His sacrifice by faith. So what significance do all these truths have to do with the Blood and what comfort and encouragement can we receive from it?

“For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him (Christ), and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” -Colossians 1:19

The Blood of Christ has given us peace with God. The God I described earlier; the Holy and Loving King, Almighty God, Everlasting God, Giver of good gifts, is now for you, not against you. He is on your side and is always pursues and fights for your heart. He will graciously give you all that you need. No matter what sins you have committed, the sins you are currently committing, or the sins you will commit in the future, He forgives you and declares you righteous. Recall the verse I wrote out in the beginning of this post. All of man is subject to the judgment and wrath of God because of its rebellion. But when God sees the Blood on man, His wrath passes over. God is satisfied by the Blood. It is enough for Him. There is no accusation, from Satan or from man, that can be thrown against you that has not already been forgiven by the Blood. There is no need for guilt or shame. God knows what you have done and who you are. Yet God sees the Blood, not your own actions. God sees Christ, not your wretchedness. There is but one condition to this truth: faith.

You must have faith that the Blood is enough for God. It cannot be in your own actions or in yourself. Though you may be “good” for a day you cannot come anywhere near the Holy God. If you look to yourself or your own actions that is where guilt and shame dwell and will completely consume you and make you dull to the presence of God and the knowledge of who He truly is and His love. Satan and man can make many just accusations against you in that dark place. But not against the Blood. The Blood is your only access to God, the only means of reconciliation with Him. Place your faith in the Blood and you will come to truly know who God is and His love that is made known in this passage:

“What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all-how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died- more than that, who was raised to life- is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ..No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present, nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” -Romans 8:31-39

“.. and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water..” -John 4:6-7a

For my first post I want to talk about one of my favorite passages in the Bible, one that is near and dear to my heart. There are many aspects to this passage but I want to focus on one in particular. For context the Jews hated the Samaritans. They would often avoid taking the short route from Judea to Galilee through Samaria and go the longer route around Samaria. Also the Samaritan women would usually come to the well at either dusk or dawn in groups not only to draw water but also to socialize. Jesus was traveling to Galilee and decided to go the short route through Samaria, telling his disciples to go into town to buy food.

Now we come to the story. This Samaritan woman comes to draw water from the well alone and at noon, the hottest part of the day. Whether she’s there alone because she wanted to be alone or she didn’t have anyone to go with her is unknown at this point. When she comes to the well Jesus asks her for a drink. Now Jesus was tired, hungry, and thirsty from His journey but when He sees this woman He forgets all about His physical needs so He could serve and satisfy the Samaritan’s more deeper needs. The woman was surprised that Jesus, being a Jew, was talking to a Samaritan woman such as herself. Jesus then offers her “living water” and claims that whoever drinks of this water that He offers will never thirst again. The woman, focused only on what her flesh needed and desired, wanted this water so she would never be thirsty again. But Jesus was offering her something way deeper. “Go, call your husband and come here.” She replies that she has no husband, in which Jesus reveals that she has had 5 husbands and the man she is living with currently is not her husband. This Samaritan woman had been living and is still living in a life of sin. Surely the reason she traveled alone to the well was because she was an outcast, people didn’t want to be around her and she didn’t want to be around people either as evidenced by her coming to the well at noon when no sane woman would come.

I can relate so much to this Samaritan woman. Growing up I didn’t have any friends. No one wanted to be my friend and I surely made no effort to befriend anyone. I liked being alone and away from people. I was so focused on what I wanted that I never stopped to think about the needs of those around me. While you may not be able to relate to this woman in this way you can definitely relate to drawing water from wells that don’t satisfy this unquenchable thirst that you have in you. You can’t describe the thirst and a lot of times you may do anything to run away from and ignore it. Whether those wells are relationships, substance abuse, social media, materialism, etc. No matter how many times we may come to those wells, though for a moment they may bring comfort, they never truly fill the emptiness within us and just leave us feeling broken and wanting more.

“For my people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” -Jeremiah 2:13

“..If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.” -John 7:37

Jesus is the Living Water. He knows all about the wells we run to and why we run to them. He knows every little detail about us, even those we hide from others and even ourselves sometimes. He knows it all yet does not condemn but offers Himself, freely and without measure. God is the One our hearts were created for and the One who can quench our thirst. In Him there is endless love and grace, peace that surpasses all understanding and joy that endures through all circumstances. The wounds that we suffer when we trip and fall as we run to those wells that don’t satisfy, He offers healing and freedom from chasing after those worthless things. Those of you, like me, who may be currently running to those empty wells and resisting His love; He understands and will allow us to run to those empty things until we see their worthlessness and ultimately see His worthiness. Perhaps you have been hurt so much that you can’t believe Someone would love you despite all of your bruises and scars. I’ve been there and sometimes still come back to it. It’s okay. One of the many truths I’ve come to know about God is that He never stops pursuing. He wants your heart and is jealous for it. He wants you to come and enjoy Him, the Living Water.

“Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” Revelation 22:1-2

Hello and welcome to my blog. Thank you so much for taking the time to check it out! I’m not gonna lie and say that I have a well thought out plan on how I will go about posting to this blog. It will probably be a combination of Bible study, sharing my struggles in hopes of comforting and encouraging those who read this blog, things going on in my life, and anything else that God may lay on my heart. I’ll try and post at least weekly but that is nowhere near definite. The one thing I do know is the goal of this blog: To let you know that you are not alone. What you are going through, though very, very painful, is not the end and it has a purpose. I hope that by letting you know about my life and my struggles you may be encouraged in knowing that if God could love and forgive a poor and miserable soul like me, there is hope for you. I pray that you might come to know the endless, abundant, and steadfast love and grace of my God through this blog.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” – Matthew 11: 28-30