John 10:37

"Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does."

Christianity isn't about morality. There are tons of moral people in this world, and not all of them are christians. When people say they know me, they normally say something like, "She's so sweet and she's got a good head on her shoulders." It goes along those lines depending on who's saying it, as in a friend or in one of my brothers friends making fun of him because of it. But that's what I'm known for. This one guy from school asked me once, "How come whenever something good comes up, people mention you?" And the, "I'm sorry I just cussed, I know you don't like it." I have gotten the question of, "How come whenever jesus or church comes up you get mentioned?" Now, the last one dosn't sound all that bad does it? jesus and church, good, right? Way to go Amanda! You're making lasting impacts!

Hardly.

Notice how I didn't capatalize jesus. You know why? Because it's not anything more than the homeboy. And church is nothing more than a hang out place to the people that are saying it. I feel like I am not making a lasting impact on people. Please don't look up to me because I have good morals or because I've never kissed a boy and I'm honorable and I don't cuss or anything else. Because that's all fine and dandy, but so many other people have good morals who are going to hell. How does, by just doing that, even saying it's because of Christ, set me apart from anyone else? It doesn't.

I've started to put God in a box again, along with church, along with my jesus family. I remember right after Bible class. Yall remember my blogs - I was touching on issues that rocked the way I viewed what I've always thought to believe. Because what I found in the Old Testament and what I found with the New, with Jesus' life, changed what I thought I knew. And I've been forgetting that. Why is it that, for the most part, the Gospel of Christ isn't preached about on Sunday mornings? Why is it that who God REALLY is, especailly in the Old Testament not preached about? Why is it that the actual core-ness of what we BELIEVE or SAY we BELIEVE not talked about? About how this can be? About how a God who say's in Proverbs 17:15 says that "Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent - the LORD detests them both." can go and do that with His Son Jesus Christ. How he can acquit us who are guilty and condemn Christ who is innocent. How can he do that? Just to explore that concept would lead to many weeks of sermons. About the whole being born from Adam into Christ - how that whole thing leads into it. Exploring that. Getting to the point of what we believe or say we believe, because that's what we're saying. That's what we are signing up for when we say that "little prayer".

In Bible class we barely touched on that type of stuff, because it was just that, a Bible Class, not a Christian class. But it made me start to think about those kinds of things because what I was learning was a bit different then what I thought. I will admit, before the class I barely looked or dived into the Old Testament besides the Bible Stories that were told to me before. I didn't study who God was or the Coventants that He made, and how Christ was the New Covenant. I had heard that before, but never knew what that meant fully. As I was learning who Christ was in the New Testament, I started thinking about his characteristics. And one day this guy was talking about how he dosn't believe that we as Christians should be confronting and rude about what we believe. And I sat there for a moment, looking at my teacher, because I had a feeling he was thinking the same thing because he was careful with his words. We just learned about this Jesus who confronted EVERYONE. He didn't butter it up - He said things that SHOOK people. It just made me think about what I was supposed to do as a Christian. How abrudt should I be with people? How far is too far? Am I ONLY supposed to be a soft light like a candle or are there times when I'm supposed to be upfront with people; especially the ones that are carrying the sign of 'christianity'? People are always telling me that they hate Christians who seem to shove it in their face, and I agree with that to an extent. But I gotta ask myself what we're really supposed to be like as Christians. We are not friends with this world. We're not supposed to be. So what then?

How am I so great, and such a great Christian, when there are hundreds around me, while I go through school or in genearl life not radically changed, if, they even said that little prayer?

mm.

I started thinking this all, after this morning. For Bible Study, we watched this youtube video. A guy, named Paul Washer, was preaching about the Gospel and some of the things I mentioned earlier. I would put it on here, but I can't find it right now. So I will. There are 9 videos, and I had to leave early, so I only got to hear about half of them. But what I heard started to bring me back to the place I was in at Bible Class. It's a lot of stuff to think about - but most and foremost it made me think about the lasting impact I'm having on people, or the lack thereof.

Edit// - (I felt like just leaving it like that up there was like a book without an end. So here's what I learned/was reminded in a nutshell. God amazes me, and it amazes me when I take the time to be amazed.)
To sum it up. I guess what I'm really trying to say in all of that is - it just blows me away with the stuff that I don't know. And the realization of the fact that I DIDN'T know it! I just feel like...aahh, like I want more people to know this stuff. How this Jesus thing needed to be. How God couldn't go back on His word and just save us for no reason - Satan would have been furious because God condemned him out of Heaven for disobeying Him. And here we are, humans, worshiping idols and pretty much spitting in His face. We came from Adam, so the Savior of this World had to come from Adam as well. He had to be born into sin, but then, live a sinless life. He had to be put to the cross for no reason, except the fact that the Pharisee's felt like he was blaspheming God. All to save our butts. He was the New Covenant. The Covenant that brought new life. The Covenant that made it ok for us to go to Heaven and to not go to Hell. God showed that He was a just God. He's the one that had to put His son on the Cross. God is. I mean, I've known that statement before, but jeesh, when you put it that way it's bound to wack you upside the head. And the verse, we have all fallen short of the Glory of God takes on a WHOLE different meaning.

Romans 3:21-26
But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

All of this is just way too awesome. To think about all of this. aaah. ok, I'm done. For now.