I don't normally feel any pressure to respond to chain letters - no matter what said consequences will occur to me. In this situation, I was simply tagged to a posting about the topic "5 reasons why you love Jesus". No pressure, no threats, no anything. Justgged to a posting and that is all.
Given that:
- I had already been thinking about this topic because I read my friends post on the subject;
- it is about Jesus, and my love for Him;
- a good friend of mine tagged me;
I decided to overthrow my previous decision to not respond to a chain letter, and instead write this post. The one caveat is that I won't be tagging 5 people as had originally been requested.
TOP 5 REASONS WHY I LOVE JESUS
While this list may change over time, the current list would look like this:
1. Jesus cared enough about me to create an individual experience to allow me to believe in Him.
In my previous entry titled First things first..., I described how Jesus allowed for a very specific way for me to encounter Him. There are also other details left out of that story, all of which made for a very individual experience. Had this not been the case, I don't think my 21 year old heart and mind would have been willing to learn more about Jesus. Billboard messages, tracts, tv commercials, a guy wearing a sandwich board, etc, wouldn't have been enough to pierce my hardened heart and mind.
2. Jesus loves everyone.
This is the one thing that amazes me. He loves everyone equally, regardless of gender, age, nationality, race, religion, physical attributes, intelligence, health, political views, sexual orientation, lifestyle, history, finances, career, criminal records, etc. No matter what the person thinks about Jesus (believes he is God, isn't God, is a fictional character, whatever), Jesus will still love that person.
3. Jesus walked the talk.
Jesus came to earth in a lowly stable, with earthly parents who were both under the curse of sin, as a helpless babe. He experienced all the same emotions as me. He felt pain - emotional pain, when His Father had forsaken Him at the cross, and physical pain - from dehydration, flogging, being nailed to the bark of a tree, and wearing a crown made with thorns. He felt rejection, when Peter denied Him, and when his friends would not keep watch with him in the garden. He lived a life on this earth he helped to create.
4. Jesus is always available.
From January 1 to December 31, 24 hours a day, Jesus is willing to listen to me and be there for me. If I have never talked to him before, or that I talked to Him just a couple of minutes ago - Jesus is ready and willing to listen to me talk.
5. Jesus is all I need.
No one gets to the Father but through Jesus. Jesus overcame death so that I could spend eternity with Him. I do not require any special talents or own any material possessions. Jesus was the role model that can teach me how to live my life. I can look to Jesus on the cross in the similar manner that the Israelites looked to the bronze asp and be saved.
Thank you, Jesus, for being all these things.
Well done, brother.
ReplyDeleteI am curious about your statement under #3: "He lived a life on this earth he helped to create."
Of course, there's no pressure whatsoever, but I am interested in hearing more about that.
I guess what I was getting at was that God created the universe, and that Jesus didn't just observe life on earth, but lived it. It's one thing to say "I know what they're going through", and another to go through it. While Jesus could have said "I know what they're going through" and be absolutely correct without having to come to earth, the act of coming to earth allows us to see that He really does know what we're going through.
ReplyDeleteDoes that help clarify?