Blood of Christ

I used to love this song called "One drop of Blood." It was a church song. The statement it made was that one drop of Christs blood was enough to pay for all of my sins. What a cool line for a song. But as I have really contemplated this, I think that this song is in error. If Jesus had only cut his finger it would not have been enough to pay for the sins of the world. The sacrifice had to be death. The blood of Christ is only a word picture of the death of Christ. It was his death on the cross that paid for my sins and the sins of the world, past, present, and future.

Ro 5:10 -
For since we were restored to friendship with God by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be delivered from eternal punishment by his life.

Thoughts on Mercy and Gods Love.

Growing up in a loving home but a home plagued with addiction, I had a screwy idea of what a relationship with God was. It tended to focus on behavior. Basically if I kept myself from sin I was close to God. But if I fell into sin I was far from God. This concept lead to what I'll call roller coaster Christianity. Tuesday was a triumph, Wednesday was a miserable failure. Over the years I began to segment my life into compartments, the successes and failures. I no longer viewed my life as one life from beginning to end, I was constantly starting over. My motto was; "Today I will become the Christian I am supposed to be." Enjoying life right up until the moment I did something that God wouldn't like. Eventually this kind of life wears you down and the constant concept of failure caused depression and dis-illusionment to fill my brain.

It is only in the last few years that my understanding of God and his mercy has changed. I no longer think that the favor I find with God is based on my ability to please God. I understand that I could not be good enough to please anybody. I fail daily. But Gods love for me is unconditional. Jesus willingly died to pay for all my failures even tomorrows failures. I can't be good enough to earn Gods love, but I also can't fail enough to lose his love, this is what Christianese refers to as Unmerited Favor.

In a constant effort to not fail, not sin, and then failing and sinning, I end up wasting precious time. Some days I get through the entire time and think, "Hey I didn't blow it today." And yet at end of the day I still feel somehow without significance. This made me think it is not the absence of sin in my life that makes me significant. It is the time I spend with God that makes me significant. When we spend intimate, quality time with a person we now call them our significant other. That is what God wants from us. In the end I have changed my goal, my new goal is not, not, to sin, it is now to seek to be close to God. When I stand before Him someday, my failures will be covered by Christs work on the cross, but if I am not close to Him I think I might wish that I had lived differently.

Shouldn't that be our prayer for everyone?
If someone is treating you badly, pray that they would know God.
If someone is stealing from you, pray that they would know God.
If someone is picketing funerals and being ugly, pray that they would know God.
I Pray that the Bigot will know God.
I Pray that the Atheist would know God.
I Pray that the judgmental would know God.
I Pray that the hypocrite would know God.
I Pray that I would know God.

Questions?

Here are the Questions I am thinking about today;

What is the difference between Praying the Lords prayer and reciting the Lords prayer?

Why don't you see what I see, when you look in the mirror?

Is death a natural thing, or an Un-natural thing?

What does God see when God sees me?

New Every Morning

Orange and purple silks slide in to dispel indigo clothed stars,
Rays reach to lift me, encourage me, re-make me.
Inventions of intentions right, and ripe for this day, scurry through grey matter,
planning for the hours coming, birthed from upright beats of soul and breast,
a road narrow, a path true.
Rich and cleansing breath invites new air from a pure heaven;
it is the newness of every morning.

Confident now to face the day, sure I have planned the only way.
Quite okay to ponder hours from tomorrow and it’s tomorrow.

Setting new guidelines and grids to walk, I see the artist rendering of the life perfectly parsed. But, as blue is covered by Orange and purple silks, as indigo chases, I am aware that this path now seems overwhelmingly un-scaleable.
Steeper and more crooked and each time I slip off Iwonder; where did I go wrong?

The words I fashioned seemed to be the right ones. Dark is the cover over me keeping me from finding the best tools that I was sure I brought. Lost again, looking for comfort I return to a familiar road. Aimlessly following until sleep takes me.

Orange and purple silks slide in to dispel indigo clothed stars,
Rays reach to lift me, encourage me, re-make me.
Inventions of intentions right and ripe for this day scurry through gray matter
planning for the day, birthed from upright beats of soul and breast,
a road narrow, a path true.
Rich and cleansing breath invites new air from pure heaven;
it is the newness of every morning.