Replacing my Old Rude Post

I must apologize for an older post that, contrary to my professed Christian values, maligned a girl I once knew. I have only just recently visited this blog after about five years and seen what wrong I had written. I no longer feel contemptuous toward that girl; therefore, to amend for that error, I have replaced it with the following letter, which has been written nearly a year ago, when my realizations lead me to let go of my bitterness and revisit my old feelings for her.

Dear Elisha,

If you can remember far back enough, you will recall that there was once a time when I was blessed with the little bit of friendship you showed me, before either one of us had any reason to dislike the other. We were not best friends, nor did we know each other in depth, but I recall that being around you always delighted me. Indeed, the sight of you dazzled me, and the expectation of seeing you made me look forward to it excitedly and nervously. Those sentiments were pure from their origin; those sentiments were strong and were wholly oppositional to any anger or bitterness. I had no reason to hate you; and I do not recall that you hated me either. When I was fearful of the kids in school, who I was sure were looking to hurt me, I had few a things which comforted me, that is, my trust in God, and my looking forward to see you. You became a great part of my focus, a great reason to press on in the midst of terror, when I saw how violent those kids at my school were, and was intensely afraid.

Looking back to these times, and considering the more joyful part, in the place where I felt the most blissful, I heavily despair that I am so far from it, although now God has blessed me with other things. Though I’ve made it into college, after being hospitalized and placed in a residential home for so long, because of fear so great that I could not leave my house, even though I’ve made it so far, being rejected and separated from you has saddened my heart. I always remember the sweet atmosphere of Bible Church International, and the pleasant nervousness you gave me. And when I remember how pleasant it was then in contrast with the emptiness I feel now, especially how pleasant it was to be around you, I suddenly swell with a heavy and painful desire to rebuild our peace, even though you may not think of what we had as a real friendship.

I was not angry at you then; I felt soft and gentle toward you. Nevertheless, though I can not recall the precise error that took place, you began to dislike me, and by throwing me aside from within your group of friends, you intensely shocked me with what felt to me was the greatest insult among all past insults that I could remember. But please understand, I know that you did not purpose from beforehand to hurt me, although back then I believed the contrary. Although I admired you as someone greater than myself, you were not yet great enough to understand my own feelings, nor could you prevent the devastation that occurred it my heart. You simply didn’t know. But thinking of you with such honor, I believed that you understood fully, and that you had intended to hurt me. So through my bewilderment, I embittered myself, and looked to regain the dignity I thought I had lost by resisting your popularity.

But Elisha, I was only playing with you. You didn’t want to play with me as a friend anymore, so I decided to play with you as an enemy. When I thought us being enemies, I thought of it only in a playful sense. It is the same concept as of two teams playing dodge ball. They are against each other; they want to defeat the other team; but they are not trying to hurt each other. In the end, they are friends. The same is true with us. When I was playing war, I was only playing. I never wanted to hurt you.

But I’m so sorry Elisha, because after you were hurting me for so long by treating me in a way that I felt was cruel, I finally became angry at you. I finally believed that you hated me completely; and the only answer I could find to that situation was to declare that I hated you too. I was so hurt and confused I thought I really did hate you. When that happened, the situation started to get so ugly. I even got angry at your own father, even though I always liked him and enjoyed his preaching. I don’t need to tell you what happened after that. You know fully, and you are right to be angry at me. I was acting a fool.

I feel that this all happened because we didn’t really understand each other. For so long I’ve blamed you for everything. But I’ve grown enough now to understand that perhaps it wasn’t really your fault. I couldn’t expect you to understand it all then. I’m writing this to you now because I still love you and I know that about this time you must understand. I feel confident that if I show you my heart, you will forgive me. Elisha, you don’t have to love me the way I felt I loved you. I will understand if you don’t. You love Ralph; I know that. All I want from you is your friendship. So please, Elisha, will you forgive me?

The Gospel.

This was my half-hearted attempt at a gospel track. The sole purpose of it is to share the basic message of Jesus Christ.

Whenever I try to share the basic message of the gospel with someone, I am often confronted by certain arguments that pertain to the validity of the bible. Many people have the initial doubt that it is the divinely inspired and eternal word of God, and this causes them not to open up to it as others would. It seems that they take pleasure in being highly educated and wittingly skeptical of the unseen truths that are clearly revealed in scripture. One of their most overused arguments deals with the idea that many Christians are not taught how to use the secular reasoning of the world or the alleged facts about it they need in order to properly evaluate their faith. However, the facts are quite contradictory to this claim. Many of the most faithful Christians are highly educated in the area of biology, geology, and logic, as well as philosophy and history, and this allows them to provide startling evidence for themselves that the God of the bible is in fact the existing ruler over all things, who created the world in six days, who rested on the seventh day, and who provided a way for us to enter the kingdom of heaven when we die if we accept his grace.

Considering that we have established that the most educated Christians are the most faithful and doubt less, we can accept that Christianity is an intellectually defensible and logically sound faith. Not only can you support its various claims with ontological reasoning alone, but there are many substantial evidences that support biblical creationism. Nevertheless, the main goal of this article is not to provide those evidences, but rather to share the basic and simple message of the gospel. However, as you read on, you will find that I may defend certain aspects of Christianity as I tell you about them.

Since the perfect creation of our world, which I can assure you the triune God did create, God foresaw the inevitable disobedience and transgressions of mankind against his omnipotent sovereignty. Being that he is a perfectly just God, considering that justice is one of his fundamental characteristics which he cannot act against, he was faced with the decision to punish mankind. Now hell had already been created beforehand for the sole purpose of being the inhabitance of some of God's disobedient angels who thought that they could overpower him, hence the origin of Satan and his demons, who does not even deserve the privilege of having the first letter of his name capitalized. Therefore, God being perfectly just, decided that he was going to send man to hell upon the passing on of their spirit into the afterlife.

However, you must understand that God possesses quite a contradictory characteristic, and that is his loving nature. You see, before the creation of the world, God who is one being always existed as three distinct persons, which we call God The Father, God The Son, and God The Holy Spirit. Each of them serves a purpose, yet we are put here for God's good pleasure. These three persons always have, do now, and always will exist as one being, in perfect unity and love for one another. The bible says that God also loves mankind. So being that God is perfectly just, he must punish sin, but being that he is perfectly loving, it is not his will that we should suffer. Therefore, God, in his awesome wisdom, developed a plan by which man could be saved from the eternal torments of hell. The bible says in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life."

According to this scripture, anyone who puts their faith in the Son of God will be forgiven of their sins and sent to heaven when they die. You see, God sent his son into the world to become like one of us, to become a man named Jesus, to live, to suffer, and to die for as a substitute punishment for our sins, so that if we simply accept him into our hearts as our personal lord and savior, we are forgiven. Jesus Christ was crucified when he was 33 years old for this cause, but on the third day of his death, he rose again, and for forty days he taught his disciples on the earth, after which he ascended into heaven. One day Jesus Christ is coming back to earth to set everything straight, but until then, we must spread his word.

It was necessary for God to suffer on the cross for us because the bible says that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. Before Christ's birth, God commanded the Israelites, his chosen people, to sacrifice a lamb every time they sinned as a picture of what the messiah would do when he came. Jesus Christ was that messiah. Therefore, it is not by works that you are saved and enter into heaven. It is not by good behavior, but by faith. The bible says in Ephesians 2:8, "For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast."

Once you accept Jesus Christ into your heart as your savior, The Holy Spirit comes to live inside of you, in order to convict you of your sin. As you grow and develop in your faith, it guides you along the path of righteousness. If you would like to accept Jesus into your heart as your personal lord and savior then pray this simple prayer and mean every word from the bottom of your heart.

"Dear Heavenly Father,
I realize that I am a sinner, and do not deserve your grace. I realize that before I prayed this prayer I was on my way to hell because of the bad things I had done in my life. Have mercy on me lord, and forgive me of all my sins, so that I can come to heaven with you when I die. I believe that Jesus, your son, died on the cross from my sins, and on the third day rose again. I put my faith and trust in him for my salvation, and not in my works. Lord, I ask that Jesus come into my heart as my personal lord and savior, and I ask now to receive your holy spirit. In Jesus precious name, I pray amen."

If you prayed this prayer then I believe you just got born again. I believe you should pick up a good King James Version bible to study, so that you can begin your Christian life.