Hi my dear friends!

It’s been a while since I’ve shared something like this (and it pains me to think that as it is the most important thing in my life). As I sit here trying to get through my homework load at my newly arranged yet already cluttered workspace (much like my newly transitioned but already disorderly life), I realize that all too often when times are good, I tend to stick these serious issues in the backseat while I enjoy the drive. It’s not a new thought! But sometimes it takes a change to help me remember and reflect once again on to Whom I owe my joy, and why life is worth the living. And that’s what I’m here to share.  I’d like to talk about the greatest love story in history, and that starts with creation.

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Gen. 1:1. God created us in His own image and breathed in us life. But we sinned against him because we were not satisfied with what He had given us, and our unity with God was broken. But from the very beginning, God created a way for sinners to be reconciled, and that Way was Jesus. “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” 1 Tim. 2:5.

Jesus was God’s only begotten Son, fully God yet fully Man, and the only One who had lived a perfect and undefiled life, therefore the only One who could lift the curse we had brought on ourselves. “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.” Isa. 53:5. Jesus suffered a painful and humiliating death on a cross to pay for the salvation of His people. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Rom. 10:9.

Salvation is a free gift. We didn’t earn it, we couldn’t, and all we have to do to receive it is to believe and confess. While everything in the world we see seems to be changing so drastically, this Truth never changes. Jesus is way to eternal life. Don’t take that lightly! “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” John 10:28. Jesus is the reason that we can rejoice in the midst of suffering because He is Enough. He will never leave us nor forsake us!

 “I hadn’t asked Him to forgive me of all the sin in my life, and I realized all along that I had just been depending on my good works, and maybe my parent’s faith, to get to heaven.

And boy is that a joke, ’cause when I was on the brink of death, I realized that nothing I ever did was enough to pay for what I had done.

It had taken me all of just a minute then to recognize that the only thing that stood between me and eternal damnation . . . was the cross. So while I was lying there in that coffin, I asked Jesus to save me and make me His forever, because I don’t think I took it seriously before, but a close brush with death can make you rethink your life all over, and I knew right then that I didn’t want to live anymore without living for Jesus.”

-Excerpt from “The Summer of Our Lives,” some book that will start in existence if this old self will ever get around to finishing it.