Christ in a person is..

miraculous.
wonderful.
fulfilling.
satisfying.
hungering.
something that makes sense.
a source of eternal joy.
a source of eternal debt to..

Christ, others, and in a sense, oneself, because a person without Christ is lost. Nothing makes sense, especially if they hold distorted views of Christianity. Without Christ, nothing in the world will satisfy. And with Christ, nothing in the world will satisfy.


Makes you think for a second, doesn't it? But when you really think about it, a person's purpose is only found in God. So without God, you won't find it in the world. So the world does not satisfy. And if you have God, you find your purpose and source of fulfillment for your soul in Him- and only Him. Because he made you, he shaped you, with a purpose in mind. And once you find that purpose, that design, that plan- in Him- the things of the world: TV, pornography, email, internet chatting; become meaningless. When a person accepts Christ, they are adopted into God's family. They become citizens of heaven. And they get a truly miraculous gift: the Holy Spirit, that will never depart from them, and guarantees that they will get into heaven. So then, since they are citizens of heaven, worldly things make them uncomfortable. Because those that God uses are called ambassadors. And what is an ambassador? Someone sent to another country, another culture, to communicate and interact with the people. And that is what we are. We are ambassadors from heaven. That is why we feel uncomfortable in the world- because we don't live here anymore, we live in heaven. And Christ in us is like our passport to our own country- and what happens to those to don't have a passport? They go through the gate, get checked- and then they can't go. If I get all set to go on a mission trip to say, Belize, and I get everything set and my group says 'yeah, he's with us' but I don't have the passport guess what; I'm not going. And it doesn't matter if we think or say 'so and so's a Christian, yeah, they're going to heaven.', because God is the only one who truly knows if they picked up a passport somewhere along the way. It is not for us to decide who goes or stays. It is for each individual- and only God truly knows what each decided- but part of sharing in the ownership of a heavenly passport (I say ownership because we receive an inheritance in the kingdom of God as Christ' brothers and sisters) is enjoying the company of others who believe, who share the same thing you share. And one way I sometimes think about is like: "Well, I'm going to heaven. And heaven's going to last eternity. And I'm going to hanging out with and fellowshipping with believes for a very, very, long time. So I'll get used to it now." And I have. And now, I look forward to it. Just talking to my close friends, hanging out, laughing at meaningless things, and I can't share that with just anybody: Because I'm not bonded through Christ to everybody in the world. And this is the cool part: The guy who made all this possible, set all this stuff up, and is still working up above; wants it for everybody. He doesn't just select a few. With what criteria would you pick and choose those worthy to go to heaven? Those who just sinned a little bit? Maybe those who just kissed somebody, versus those who had premarital sex? That would imply partiality, and partiality implies imperfection, and imperfection implies an imperfect God, and an imperfect God implies not really being God. Because if he wasn't God, then what would he be? A sort-of-powerful being? Only somewhat divine? It doesn't work, because the all the words you use to describe God's characteristics don't work if He's only part of them. You can't be partially holy, you can't be sort of omniscient, you can't be almost all knowing. It's either a hit or a miss, and God hits them on the mark. He is all those things, and more. He's all powerful, all knowing, all surpassing. And he created the entire universe in all it's vastness. Yet, with all those places he could go, Saturn's rings, the cold of Pluto, the heat from a star, he chooses none of them. He decides to come into a lowly human heart, black as it is. And he chooses to be the light of a dark heart and shine clear through it. Think of a sunrise: It's dark, it's cold. Maybe you can see a little bit, from stars or streetlights. You then start to see a little bit of red coming up over the horizon, that's God knocking on your door. It gets brighter and brighter, and the haziness begins to lift. The top of the sun finally peeks over, and frost melts and vanishes. And the sun keeps coming, it keeps driving away the shadows, it keeps warming. And it gets more and more beautiful and more and more miraculous as it begins to reflect everywhere. And everything is made new, and all receive their life from it. That is how it is with God. And no matter how dark your heart may be, no matter how many depressing thoughts frosted and froze it over, he will warm and light your heart; you just have to let him. And he will start over with the same process everyday, because God is love, and since being patient is part of loving, God is patient. He will never grow tired of you. He will never stop loving you, no matter what you do. Before there was time, God existed. And what did he need? Nothing. God was God, and there was nothing more he needed. Yet, he chose to create. He chose to go work to make this earth and make us people to dwell in it. Why would he go to all that trouble, if he was just going to leave us hanging somewhere down the road? Because he doesn't, and because even though the bible says God rested, it's past tense, and he stopped resting. He continues to mold and shape the good work he begun ever since before the day you were born. But what if clay had a will? What if clay decided that it didn't want to be a cup, it wanted to be a pretty pot with two handles? What does a potter or carver mean when he or she says: "You know, I tried to make it into this, but it just wanted to be something else." Well, did the creation turn into what the creator wanted? No. Did the creation turn into what it wanted to be? Well, no; it didn't. The truly miraculous things start to happen when we as people stop having a will for ourselves, stop fighting God, and let Him do the work. I mean, don't get me wrong, but wasn't he the creator? Or did mankind make the earth before we as a species began to populate it? So wouldn't it make sense that God would know what's best for us? Well yeah, it would. The only trouble for me, and really the hardest part, is easy as it is to think about this stuff and write it down, it's so much harder to put it into daily practice. But that's what we were meant for, and the dude who planned this promises to always be with us. He doesn't say, "alright, I'll be with you for most of eternity, but I may go somewhere else a couple times while you're sleeping;" and he didn't say: "Ok, I'll be with you all day, but I gotta power nap a couple times during the night, so they'll be brief intervals, because I'm God, so I only need to powernap for a few seconds." No. That's not what he said. He said "Never will I leave, Never will I forsake you." Which when translated, means: 'I love you so much that I will spend every moment from the day I meet you until forever, and I will never choose something else over you, I will never let anything you do come in between us, and I will give you everything you will ever need.' That doesn't mean fabulous wealth, or does it? Maybe not money fabulous wealth, but he promises to bless us, and let me tell you, he does. But really the most important thing is heaven: He's there working out a place for you, and when he's ready, he'll come back to take us there. But the gate catches those who don't have a passport. It's not God picking and choosing who goes, he gave the gift of Jesus and the gift of freewill. So we choose if we go or not. And I mean really, where else can you find a free passport, I mean come on, especially to a place where you don 't ever have to worry about coming back? No where else does an offer like this exist. And it is never to late to accept and take Him up on it, but he's coming back, and nobody knows when. And while it is never to late to accept Christ, become a member of God's family, we don't have all eternity to decide. At the absolute most, we have our lifetime. Which could be almost 100 years, or it could be tomorrow. So, I urge you to really think about where you're headed. The bible doesn't mention purgatory. If we could go to purgatory and get cleaned, why would Christ have to die to pay the sin debt? And if Christ died and there is no more death and mankind's debt to sin is paid, why would there be a purgatory? The road to heaven is Christ. When you ponder things logically, you can't reach another conclusion. So get on it today, and begin an eternal walk with God. It will never get boring. It will never get dull. And it won't be easy, but nothing else will do. You can spend the rest of your life getting to know God better, and be closer to him than you were the day before. And when you're walking uphill, you will always see something new and exciting and beautiful.

Why would anyone choose anything else?