Why Jesus?

9-21-16

For the longest time, like most, I had wondered why should I believe in a guy who sent his own son to be murdered and lets all sort of other bad things happen. Why when he could so easily just make everything rainbows and unicorns. 'Oh, sweet baby Jesus...Kacie..what are you going on about today?' you ask? well, sit down and lemme tell ya a story!..or two lol.

I had gone and hung out with some new found friends. They explained the 'life cycle', so to speak about salvation. They did so in 3 bubbles that all connected to each other. The first bubble was God. In this bubble was God's perfect plan, with all his creation, rainbows, unicorns, puppies and kitten type things so to speak. Everyone was gunna be happy, have never ending lives, love, all the good things we all wish the world would be. What happened was when God created us, he made us extra special. He gave us the gift of free will. He wanted us to CHOOSE Him. The only real rule back then was not to eat from a specific tree. But do to free will, and the temptation from satan the slime ball, we failed what I considered to be 'the test'. That gave birth the broken, rocky bridge of sin, that leads to bubble number 2, darkness and the suffering of the world. In bubble number 2, we have all the worldly things we all try to do all by ourselves. Sometimes after an extremely hard struggle we succeed, sometimes we fail, sometimes it seems like a never ending battle. Relationships, finances, car issues, lying, drug abuse, etc. Try and try as you might, when it seems like everything is going great, you just get sucked back in again in the same cycle. To break that cycle, There's bubble number 3, Jesus. He came to earth as a man, went through all the trials and tribulations any person would ever go through. He kept his head up, kept his faith, fully relied on God setting the perfect example. Then, later on, He took on all of our sins and buried them with himself on the cross. Rose again, and ascended to heaven to be with God. Jesus became, for lack of better wording, our sympathizer on our behalf so we could still gain access to God and His kingdom, plugging the gap between God and the darkness we created ourselves.

"But why Jesus? Why couldn't he just plug the gap in himself? If we screwed up so bad, why would even care what do?". I asked myself the same thing, and it led me to Hebrews 2:5-18. Those almost exact same questions were asked here. It's our own free will that allows to choose God or not. Over time people kept slowly taking God out of the picture. He had already promised long ago to Noah, that he would never just 'reset' the earth again to make a point of people's sins. Instead, He sent his own Son. Not just as God's son, but as an everyday man, to walk the earth as we do. As a man to fully understand all the temptation, trials, and tribulations we go through, and to set an example and remind us how God wanted us to be originally. Even with all the temptations, knowing death was coming his way, Jesus held fast, kept believing in God the Father. Even with everything going on, he held his temper, unless you really messed up(he plays no games. Especially not with Gods temples), he didn't worry, he was always at peace even among the chaos. With doing that, when Jesus died, he took with him all our guilt and shame, so we still had the chance to change and become sons and daughters of God.

As I like to say, we're not Jesus, we aren't perfect, we will mess up. Sometimes more than we like to admit, and I'm no different than any other tom, dick, or harry. Before I let God in my life, I was always angry, stressed, had more than my fair share of depression issues, and at on point, I would worry myself so much I started having panic attacks about almost anything. After I let God take the reigns in my life, I've been anxiety attack free for almost 4 months, I rarely get depressed if only for maybe a week(and it's been improving more), any worry I had that list is extremely minuscule. I have had prayers answered time and time again, I can't even begin to describe the amount of peace and love I've encountered in such a short time. When I start to feel overwhelmed, now I just take a deep breath, pray for God's help and guidance, and I return back into peace as I watch everything fall perfectly into place reminding me He IS in control and will do anything for His children. Recently, there was a point where I wasn't sure if we were gunna be able to eat and pay all of our bills at the same time. I let it get the best of me. But the day before our bills were due, I took a deep breath and looked back on what God had done for us so far. So I prayed. I woke up the next day fully at peace and found out we got paid a day early. That same day with our grocery budget, I went to the store, and they were having a mega sale. I was able to get almost a whole months worth of groceries and stay slightly UNDER our budget. That extra bit I hadn't used, saved our hides the last 3-4 days before the next pay cycle was coming around. By the skin of our teeth, and I know almost completely loath sandwiches after 3 days straight of them almost, but God took care of us. There were car issues where the mechanics knocked some of the price off just because which made our repair bill affordable, there were a couple other issues where the car just seem to 'magically' fix itself. I've been able to help friends, even strangers. After more carefully reading, I realized the Bible isn't so cut and dry. There are so many layers to dissect and learn from that help with any type of issue you may have to help you stay strong and pull through. And all it took was "Lord, I believe your Son came and died for me, I accept it and I accept you. I need your help. Just show me or tell me what to do and I'll listen". I listened, kept praying, reading, and learning. All you have to do is believe and pray to accept him in your heart and stick to it.

Hello!

sorry for the lack of posts. The past 3 weeks some sort of super virus had swept through my house. We're all feeling insanely better :). I should have a new post up later today or tomorrow morning. As you can imagine i have more decontamination to do and errands that desperately need ran. 

Death of Christ

9-1-16

Yep! It's happening! Not only cuz I was lead to it, but because it wasn't the same story I ever recall hearing. I was lead to read both Matthew and Mark. While similar, there are some slight variations. Different tales, some almost exact, leading up to the death of Christ. But even the story of his death was slightly different. Obviously, people need to go other places. After all, Jesus would send out his followers to other places to help spread the good word and work. I also wanna make mention depending on feelings, IDK bout y'all, but I can get upset to a point where I can miss up to a whole paragraph of words spoken to me, it might have also had a part in the variants. I suppose that this would probably be more along the lines of personal thoughts/wants some q&a time, but honestly, I'm not sure. All I know for a fact is I read  it, wrote it, now I'm sharing with you all.
If you look in the book of Mark, It's the story we've all been told, he was betrayed, was picked for death over Barabbas, beaten to please the crowd, put on the cross and rose again. The only thing I don't recall being mentioned was his trial among the Jewish leaders, they had people lining up to lie about Jesus to find something to kill him for, and how they began the beatings right then and there before sending him to pilate after they found 'evidence' for reason to kill him. They slapped him, punched him, and spit on him after they blindfolded him. saying 'If you're the real Son of God, who hit you' but he just sat there silently.

Matthew, on the other hand, is tells it a little differently. Starting at Matthew 26:57-68, like in Mark, Jesus was brought before the leaders, people told lies. The 'evidence' mentioned earlier were two people (I assume the ones from the temple in John 2:19) told the council ' This man said HE would destroy the temple and rebuild it in 3 days'. Now, in John 2:19, that's not what he said. He said, "destroy the temple and I will rebuild it in 3 days". He didn't say *I* will destroy the temple, also, it goes on there stating he wasn't actually talking about the temple itself, but HIMself, not that they knew that part or cared to understand. But those twisting of words, are part of what 'did him in'. The icing on the cake, so to speak, was when they asked him if he was truly the Son of God. In which, his reply, 'Yes, i tell you, in the future, you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of God. And the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven'. Here they took it as an insult to God himself and then proceeded to blindfold and beat him.

In Matthew 27:3-5, unlike mark, this chapter states Judas actually felt like a horrible person(which he should feel that way) and tried to give the money back stating 'I sinned. I handed over to you an innocent man'. The priests of the temple refused it, saying, pretty much, they don't accept 'blood money' and that it was his problem to deal with. Judas threw the  money at them, then left, and hung himself.

Little ways down, we get into the part where the people choose a prisoner to free by order of pilate. Matthew 27: 15-25, Pilate, as we all know, pinned Jesus up against Barabbas. A well know, extremely horrible person. Here's the difference here between this book and Mark. In Matthew it says, Pilate's own wife had a dream and warned pilate not to 'mess with that man' for he did nothing wrong(v.19). But the *priests* were telling everyone in the crowd to pick Barabbas to go free. As we know they did, Pilate asked 'why?' only to be answered with 'kill him on the cross'. Pilate then WASHED his hands, and said 'I will not be guilty of this man's death!' and the crowd replied 'we will take responsibility. You can blame us AND our children".

We know the painful yet joyful events thereafter, but here's something in Matthew that wasn't said in Mark. Matthew 27:62-64, that the priests and the Pharisees ordered guards to stand watch over his tomb for 3 full days. They thought the followers would steal Jesus' body and lay claim that Jesus had risen. My thoughts essentially on this is them pretty much saying, 'ok, well after 3 days, if he's still in there then we were in fact right and would no longer have anything to worry about if they made a mistake or not', despite what had happened and was seen as Jesus gave his last breath. We know of course that he had risen after 3 days and went to see his followers and then ascend to heaven. But, over in Matthew 28:11-15, After Jesus had risen, those guards who were guarding the tomb went told the Pharisees that Jesus had in fact risen as he said he would. The Pharisees PAID these guards to keep their mouth shut and to tell everyone that Jesus' body was just stolen, which it seems even now is still believed.

That's all for today, I'm now being called to 'investigate' baptisms. So expect to hear something soon! Thanks for reading and if you have anything to add, any questions, or if there was something else I may have missed please feel free to drop a comment. I would love to talk with you guys :) have blessed day.