A blog's first post is a difficult one. It seems to me it should be sort of a raison de'etre. Why start such a thing as a blog about my life in Christ. My life in Christ is not so much about me but about the Savior who rescued me. I sit here tonight in a hotel room in Miami, Florida, so utterly overwhelmed by the grace of God in Christ that I decided to follow through with this thing I have long contemplated. For many months I have pondered this work and simply not acted upon it but of late God has been making his mercies new to me in marvelous ways. The substitutionary atonement of Christ is blazing before my eyes as I write this. His grace has completely eclipsed my sin and all I see is his marvelous magnificent grace. How can I not speak of these things I have seen?
The raison de'etre for this blog is the exaltation of Jesus Christ as the risen Messiah of God because he has wonderfully, mercifully rescued me from the dominion of darkness and brought me into the Kingdom of his Son. I bring nothing of value to the discussion of who God is or what he is about in this age. I am not a pastor or a seminarian. To be completely honest, for most of my life, I have been a fool. (Knowing this is a blessing, I promise. John Newton wrote "'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear". Knowing who you truly are is a blessing. It is interesting to note that "the old African blasphemer" next wrote that it "Twas grace that taught my heart to fear". )
I believe that God exists. I believe that he has chosen to reveal himself in Holy Scripture. I believe that God created all that is including you and me. I believe that he became incarnate and walked among us. I believe that he took upon himself the sin of his people and suffered that he might at once be just and justifier. I believe that He became incarnate in Jesus and because he died and rose again God's presence is now at work in the world through his church. I believe that because of Jesus' faithful obedience to God the Father, he has been exalted to the highest position imaginable. I believe he has been given the keys to heaven and earth. I believe that God indwells his people and empowers them for works of service. I believe God is meticulously sovereign in all affairs of his creation and I love him for this truth. He is God and there is no other. I believe that God is at work in the world through his Church. I believe that at the time of the feast of Pentecost in Acts 2, the church received His Holy Spirit that indwells his church empowering them for works of service. I believe that the same Spirit of Acts 2 is at work today in all creation and the gifts that God gave then are available to the Church today. All who profess that Jesus is the Messiah do so based upon God's prior activity in them convicting them of sin and their need of repentance. I believe salvation is rooted in the magnificent sovereign grace of a merciful God who loves me and gave his son for me. It is God who summons. It is God who calls. I believe we do not possess some spark of life within that allows us to reason our way to God. I believe that prior to God's intervention I was dead in my transgressions and sins in which I used to live. I believe I could no more will myself to live to God than the corpse can. I have another blog about being a bike racer. I invite you to check it out. I hope many who travel through that site will come here. I hope that they will see how kind and merciful my God is. Many will write me off as a fool and that is okay but I hope they don't. If they could but see what I see in the beauty of God.
None of this is intended to be dogmatic. In all honesty, it is to magnify the kindness of God. I believe Holy Scripture supports these views and I believe it with all my heart.
Soli Deo Gloria
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