Today after spending a good hour perusing the Christian Living section of BAM! (a book store with a crazy name haha) I finally settled on a book... JESUS IS_. by Judah Smith. Now Judah came and spoke at my college last spring and from what I can remember was awesome! I thoroughly enjoyed him and his thought process, so naturally I thought I bet I will really enjoy this book. When I get "Christian Living" books I am very picky, I don't want to waste my money on a book that will bring me no inspiration that I put down and never return to. I mean business when it comes down to it. Now I sat by the pool of my uncles house and completely devoured the first chapter. It was convicting, informative, and also reminded me of those dear to me who are not Christians that ask me questions or we have talks about sin nature and the scale of sinning. Which happened to be his first topic.
I highlighted and underlined some of the stand out phrases and thought provoking seeds I found in the first chapter as I did devotions that I thought I would share with you!
- "Christianity is not about not swearing. It's not about not having impure thoguhts. Really, it's not about not at all. Christianity is about Jesus."
- At the very beginning he is explaining the common misconception on how sin comes on a scale and how we tend to be judgmental on others sins labeling them on alright enough sin to extremely horrible. In response to this made up scale he wrote, "God doesn't share our rating system. To him, all sin is equally evil, and all sinners are equally lovable." I love that last part, all sinners are equally lovable. How gracious and merciful is our God that he loves all sinners equally, how many can say we don't hold grudges or love that one person just a little bit more that others because of something they have done to us. Unconditional love, as stated in my previous post, is such a power thing that we do not deserve... nor have the power to comprehend. There is always hope.
- In today's society we have forgotten really who Jesus was, yes we know that he died on the cross for our sins. But we forget that he didn't come to earth to hangout with those classified as good and holy. "But Jesus said over and over that he came for the broken, the bad, the addicted, the bound, the deceived, the lost, the hurting." We are to further his kingdom, not keep others from feeling his love because of their sin... we are all sinners. And I know I can speak personally when sin is a daily struggle for me. You don't wake up and magically do what's right, and that is the misconception for so many. It is a daily commitment to living like Christ. Some days you may fail and others you may succeed, but it's a daily walk that you get to walk with your creator. How amazing is it that we can speak directly to him!?
I am quickly falling in love with this book and I can't wait for chapter two. (I may have taken a little sneak peek!) I highly recommend it if you need new reading material.
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