So my life is riding past me faster than I can track, almost faster than I can control. There'll be no more grade school ever... soon there'll be no more summer... soon there'll be no more college... soon there'll be a family, employment, retirement, and all that falls in between. In the blink of an eye it will all be here and past, like two athletes riding by on a double bicycle.
Thanks to an amazingly simple yet deeply true analogy from someone at my church, I got to thinking just how my life could be like and where I should be aiming to have it. The double bicycle is my life, and there are two athletes available to command it, one being myself and the other being Jesus. The front of the bike is the steering and direction while the back does most of the pedaling and movement. I could choose to ride that bike myself, however without Jesus I'll quickly end up winded and powerless and without the strength to keep myself from crashing or steering off some cliff. I could choose to put Jesus in the back to do all the pedaling while I steer. I'll take all the benefits Jesus gives me, and I'll let Him give me power, but I'll decide where to take my life and I'll be in control. The ideal situation, and what I'm aiming for, is to put Jesus in the front and me in the back. Jesus will steer me in the right direction and also give me the extra strength I need to do His will, and I will just give Him my all.
The question remains, how do you want to ride? I want Jesus in the front of my bike, steering my life in the right direction, and I've made a commitment to strive for that from now on. If my life is going to fly by, I want Jesus in control of it.
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9 comments:
This is so you. That's not derogatory, it's just a point I feel I ought to make. My style is to come up with a point, and then use allegory to illustrate it. You seem to find an allegory, and then come up with a point that's made by it. And the point made here...excellent.
You control your life. There are plenty of great people that do great things without Jesus. Steer and peddle. Trust yourself and live with diligence.
Do you see a man wise in his own eyes?
There is more hope for a fool than for him.
Proverbs 26:12
He who trusts in himself is a fool
Proverbs 28:26a
you see man as weak and pathetic
and i find that, well just that.
What has man accomplished? You show me riches and technology and I'll show you greed and war.
A creature that is superior to all others but does nothing with this power except abuse it and destroy its own kind: that is weak and pathetic.
true, but not every man reeks havoc on mankind, most, yes, but not all.
Reeks havoc in what form?
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:23
Everyone is at heart sinful and destructive, and thus by himself man destroys.
Everyone has turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.
Psalm 53:3
We lie, cheat, steal, lust, and our hearts are full of ourselves.Call it what you will, I call it havoc.
Imagine each person as a bottle of water. Sin/evil is a poison such as arsenic. Put a drop of arsenic in it for Mr. Rodgers and the "good" people who do mostly good, and put a whole gallon in for Hitler and Saddam Hussein. Would you drink any of those bottles? Probably not. It doesn't matter how polluted they are, the fact is they are polluted and can't be made clean by themselves or by other unclean people. The solution lies through someone else.
For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Romans 7:22-25
first off i don't believe that everyone is sinful and destructive at heart, that is a crock. secondly i find it asinine that you can wank off and then ask for forgiveness and call it clean. on the topic of sin, i find what religion classifies as sin and what is truly unethical are two different things. stop quoting a book that endorses punishment by stoning and death, a vengeful and violent person is as big an idiot as any god of that same nature.
We don't have to ask forgiveness for everything to be better, it was already made better because Jesus paid for our sins.
Our penalty for everything we have done and will do wrong is death, and Jesus (being above us) paid for them all by sacrificing himself out of choice in our place.
Unlike other religions who believe confession is the only way to redemption, I believe that I received redemption 2000 years ago before I was born.
I don't think it's hard to find God's law of justice fair. I hardly believe you can classify it as vengeful because He has nothing to get back at us for or take revenge for. And put yourself in God's situation, as a perfect being. First of all, He is above us and the fact that He made us at all when He didn't need to gives us no reason to question Him. But above that, He chooses to love us despite our sin. The problem is He can't be close to imperfection and sin without payment for it (nobody can get away free with the wrongs they've done, true justice). He allowed us to sacrifice animals in our place, again out of mercy. And again, He came in human form and gave himself for us so we no longer needed payment for our sins. This was all above and beyond the justice we deserved. Stoning was justified back in Old Testament for the really bad sins such as adultery and murder, an example to the people that such acts to never be committed. I consider that fair justice.
If you want to discuss this stuff then discuss it, but it's hard to believe you respect me and my beliefs as I do yours when you're throwing words and insults at me like that...
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