"For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it." Luke 9:24
Jesus gives a pretty radical statement here. He says that surrendering your life to Him is the only way to save your life. By holding on and clutching control of your life to fulfill desires of selfish ambition, money, notoriety, and satisfaction from others ultimately leads to losing your life.
This is the idea of God's grace. That God has bought us back even while we were still helpless sinners who couldn't love him. He saved us from our sin, and brought us new life. Now, there is nothing left to lose. Because our life is hidden in Christ (Gal. 2:20), we are free to live as agents of God's love and grace to others. Because Jesus has paid our penalty, and given us new life (2 Cor 5:14-21), we are now able to live in obedience to him.
Needtobreathe's lyric says "We've got nothing else to live for, nothing left to lose." Surely you can take this a number of ways. Here is my thought on this. This could pertain to our right standing, or righteousness before God. Because of Jesus' substitution for me on the cross, I have no need to strive and attain my own righteousness. Jesus' righteousness before has been imputed to me (sorry for the theological words). For those in Christ, we have no more need to seek perfection, to attain God's favor, for we already have it.
Ergo, in our lives, we have nothing left to lose. The first question that arises is, "So does that mean I can do whatever I want whenever I want?" The answer is No. (Rom. 6). But we are free to live in grace according to the Word of God. We are free from the law and the curse of sin, and are now under grace.
I want my life to be continually reminded of how God's grace has freed me from the curse of sin, and how I am now free.
"For we are a fragrance of Christ to God amont those who are being saved and among those who are perishing." 2 Corinthians 2:15.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
First blog- about hockey?
Allow myself to introduce myself to the blogging world. I thought it would be cool to write some thoughts down to let the world know my every thought. So I thought I'd write my first blog post about something really on my mind.
Hockey?
I couldn't get over how the Carolina Hurricanes won game 7 last night in dramatic fashion. I saw most of the series, but not all of it. Game 7 and game 4 were two of the best hockey finishes I've ever seen, much less conclusions to any sporting event.
Now I know, you might say..."Really Matt? Seriously Matt? Hockey? Nobody talks about hockey. My intramural water polo game has more excitement than hockey."
And you'd be absolutely right. But this is playoff hockey. And this is the Carolina Hurricanes.
There are two points to be made: One is that playoff hockey is highly entertaining because of the energy and desperation displayed. I mean come on, did you see how that defenseman kept the puck in the blue line by diving for it? It kept the play alive, and allowed the Canes to tie the game. So don't give me this hockey is boring baloney, (or bologna, you pick).
Secondly, North Carolina fans better start appreciating the Canes. When they make the playoffs, it is magical. I'm amazed at how many facebook statuses changed last night with love for the Canes. Yeah, I don't remember hearing from you since the 2006 Cup run.
They have a superstar that nobody will hear of because he plays in Raleigh, Eric Staal was fantastic throughout the series. The sad part is people in North Carolina are probably more familiar with Erik Cole for his horribly done "click it or ticket" public service announcment advertisement. Ugh, just give me Smoky the Bear, or McGruff the crime dog, and I'll listen to your PSA.
This series against New Jersey was one of the best overall series'. You had defense (Marty Brodeur's 1-0 shutout in game 5), game 4's game-winner with 0.2 seconds left, and then of course 2 goals in 11 seconds in game 7.
Depending on if the Celtics-Bulls goes 7 games, it's the best series over the last month in sports.
Eh? You dont think so eh? (Uh-oh, Canadian speech alert, means I should get my America on- Sweet Tea, NASCAR and BBQ)
Hockey?
I couldn't get over how the Carolina Hurricanes won game 7 last night in dramatic fashion. I saw most of the series, but not all of it. Game 7 and game 4 were two of the best hockey finishes I've ever seen, much less conclusions to any sporting event.
Now I know, you might say..."Really Matt? Seriously Matt? Hockey? Nobody talks about hockey. My intramural water polo game has more excitement than hockey."
And you'd be absolutely right. But this is playoff hockey. And this is the Carolina Hurricanes.
There are two points to be made: One is that playoff hockey is highly entertaining because of the energy and desperation displayed. I mean come on, did you see how that defenseman kept the puck in the blue line by diving for it? It kept the play alive, and allowed the Canes to tie the game. So don't give me this hockey is boring baloney, (or bologna, you pick).
Secondly, North Carolina fans better start appreciating the Canes. When they make the playoffs, it is magical. I'm amazed at how many facebook statuses changed last night with love for the Canes. Yeah, I don't remember hearing from you since the 2006 Cup run.
They have a superstar that nobody will hear of because he plays in Raleigh, Eric Staal was fantastic throughout the series. The sad part is people in North Carolina are probably more familiar with Erik Cole for his horribly done "click it or ticket" public service announcment advertisement. Ugh, just give me Smoky the Bear, or McGruff the crime dog, and I'll listen to your PSA.
This series against New Jersey was one of the best overall series'. You had defense (Marty Brodeur's 1-0 shutout in game 5), game 4's game-winner with 0.2 seconds left, and then of course 2 goals in 11 seconds in game 7.
Depending on if the Celtics-Bulls goes 7 games, it's the best series over the last month in sports.
Eh? You dont think so eh? (Uh-oh, Canadian speech alert, means I should get my America on- Sweet Tea, NASCAR and BBQ)
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