Memoir of a centurion

<Post removed. Mark 15 shows the centurion believed>

What happened on the cross?

Many people have said different things regarding what happened on the cross. A popular saying is that we killed Jesus with our sin, others say that Jesus took on God's wrath, while others would disagree, saying that's divine child abuse.

I haven't really thought about this until I read this blog post yesterday. It is strangely joyful and humbling to know what happened to Jesus on the cross and understand our salvation biblicaly. To me, it really is the greatest love when someone lays down their life for their friends, especially when that friend is a worthless mess.

Righteousness

I promised a while back to write more about righteousness. As little and shallow as these thoughts are, I hope they are edifying and can help you to think and benefit from understanding God's word.

• Faith makes a person righteous. Abraham was righteous in the eyes of God and also lived righteously in real life.
• Righteousness is not a state of sinlessness, neither are the wicked incapable of good deeds. But what distinguishes these two are the object of their trust.
• There are countless ways to be wicked, you just have to trust in something other than Christ. There is only one way to be righteous, that is through faith in Christ alone.
• If a righteous person trusts in his or her righteousness, it will become wickedness. If a wicked person turns from wickedness and trusts in God, it will become righteousness. (Ezekiel 33:12-16)
• There is a lie that we can become righteous in the eyes of God through self reformation without faith, there is another lie that we can have faith without righteous deeds. Both stem from not fixing one's gaze upon Christ. (Luke 11:37-41, Ezekiel 18:5-9, Matthew 3:8, 1 John 3:7)
• We are insane in our view of ourselves. By nature we view ourselves too highly, it is true since childhood.  This pride is manifested when children refuse to share, use words to abuse, when adults fight over promotion and fame, when men say God does not exist and do not tremble/marvel/give thanks/rejoice at the name of God. It is a great obstacle towards righteousness.
• True wisdom from knowing God leads to righteousness. (Proverbs 1:7, 3:7, 8:1-8)

I'm done with theories

But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. - Paul

Watching atheists argue against God online is saddening, frustrating, and encouraging at the same time. Frustrating because I cannot make them believe in the gospel, saddening because their hearts are hardened so they use intellects to deny God, encouraging because their existence makes the Bible's truthfulness more evident.

When I was a nonbeliever I did the same. Philosophizing and theorizing, the atheists are better than me in that they were honest about their unbelief, I wasn't. I pretended to believe. But now I am done with theories.

Thank God I found Christ, or that Christ found me.
In whom simplicity dwells with wisdom.
Simple because whatever he says is true, because of faith there is rest from producing theories and demanding proofs.
Wisdom because truths from the one who is unchanging teaches us to discern and adapt to all situations with righteousness.
Life because from him are all things, he is the author of life.

Knowing God's will vs quick and lazy spirituality

Here are some thoughts on God's will.
There is a phenomenon which knowing God's will becomes a cliche.
What does it actually encompass?

• Easy to know God's will, hard to obey
• Knowing God's will becomes a cliche when people lose the patience and the humility to seek God and instead seek instant results without the Holy Spirit
• Having the heart and character and desire to obey God's will is impossible by the flesh
• Quick spirituality mentality is wrong and deadly, thinking God's will only applies to what he wants us to do and trying to do it by our own plans and agendas is wrong. need to seek God and draw close to him by reading the Bible and seeking understanding, by prayer, humility and submission before God. This is what we have to do, God gives us the grace by empowering us with the Holy Spirit, this is what he does, we have to ask, we have to believe he will give us, we have to wait.
• God's will also talks about our character and being. example: John 15:1-17, Galatians 5:16-26, Ephesians 4:31-32, 1 Thess 5:16-18 without these transformations God's will regarding our actions cannot be done.
• Quick and easy spirituality mentality can lead people to search for so called God's direct speech outside of scripture, this is dangerous without first understanding what the scripture says about God's will, the irony is scripture is the most direct means of finding out God's will.
• The difficulty is scripture is not systematized, but each thought is broken up and sprinkled throughout all the books, one part of one book gives insight into another. So it is necessary to labour in order to understand God's will and grow in wisdom. Be like the man in psalm 1 who meditates on it day and night!
• Believe God loves you as much as he says in the Bible, it is the remedy to shame from failure and bondage to performance.
• Press on to know Christ, do not seek directly to do God's will, or doing God's will will become your god. Bearing fruit is a natural result of abiding in Christ.

The normal Christian life

Faith before intellects, scripture before human philosophy and wisdom in evangelism

Recently I've been spending a lot of time studying with a friend. I prayed for opportunities to share the gospel, and it's been a really humbling experience.

It started off badly when somehow we started talking about philosophical concepts on how human interpret truth, our conversation became more and more heated and we talked until 1 or 2 am when the next day he has to work and I have school. Basically it was brutal when I tried to play the intellectual game. I felt really sad and stupid that night, and I realized I did not trust in God during the conversation with my friend.

Thankfully, God listened to my prayers and more opportunities came up the following few days. I was able to tell him Christianity is not about being a good person, how we are all accountable and sinful before God, how there will be judgment after death, and how Jesus is our only hope. I've learned that it is joyful when I faithfully speak truth from the Bible instead of trying to be sneaky and all intellectual, the fight is not with the intellects of the unsaved, but heart and spirit, and Satan's lies and control over this world.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

This fight is not ours to win, but God's, he is the author of faith, and he is able to save to the uttermost.