I’ve hated myself for not being perfect. I’ve felt the need to be perfect because it has seemed the requirement for being accepted and approved of and loved. I tried to reject and rebel against this perfectionism, but it was always nagging at me. “You’re think you can get away from me, but I’m still here. You need to be perfect. Otherwise you won’t be accepted.” When Adam and Eve were created and living in the garden before sin, they…
In my last post, I mentioned a quote from Dan Mohler who says “Jesus did not die on the cross because you were sinners. He had to die because you sinned. He died to save what was lost.” It’s one of those lines that doesn’t seem to make sense at first, but makes complete sense. As I understand it, he’s basically saying that because man sinned, Christ’s death was the necessary thing to restore us. That is what was needed, but…
“It was my sin that held him there until it was accomplished.“ – Lyrics from “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us”: As I read this line of the song lyrics this morning, it didn’t quite sit right with me. I may have missed the author’s meaning, but as I thought about it, it became clear that the line would better read: “It was His love that held Him there”. Here’s why: Jesus is not a victim of our sin. It wasn’t our…
This was a diagram I drew during the time leading up to gaining a new perspective on the Gospel (Read about it here). You can think of it as nails in a wall with pieces of string that connect related nails. This diagram was an expression of what I was feeling inside. That something was off. There were simple truths that should easily connect, but I was missing them. I had some idea of them, but they felt all unnecessarily complicated and misused and just…
The Gospel Before It was like, “so there’s this guy I’ve never met, who 2000 years ago died for me. That somehow washes away my sins. And now I get to go to heaven.” Basically the good news was that there’s a way out of hell. To be honest, the good news for me was never eternity in heaven, but more about the avoidance of hell. Because for me, I think I’d have rather just died and been done. Being…
“Not until you’re humbled down into the dust because He had to die for you (no other way). And not until you’re affirmed and valued into the sky, because He loves you so much that He was glad to die for you….will you be humbled out of the pride that makes you look down on other people, and will you be affirmed out of the self-hatred that makes you look down on yourself…..at the same time.” – Timothy Keller I…
