Bottom Line:

BOTTOM LINE: I'm so grateful for Jesus Christ...that's the understatement of my life! My personal relationship with Jesus Christ is a powerful and real thing... truly beyond me. Knowing Jesus personally is better then having fresh air to breathe, or a cold glass of ice water, or a hot plate of food before me when I'm hungry. It's actually better then life itself. No matter what happens in my life I know Jesus is the same and He will always be faithful to what is written in the Bible. I would be lost if I didn't read the bible for myself. I wouldn't know the rich promises it contains that really apply to me personally, and as a result, and in the context of working out my own personal salvation with fear and trembling, all I care about is if I remain faithful to him and love people as he loves.

Loving as Jesus Loves Whew! That is a tall order ...but a very Sweet order. The reality is that loving like Jesus loves consistently is the greatest and most challenging goal he has placed on my life. The problem is that I don't always love people right. I still have this flesh nature to wrestle with. This flesh in me causes me to get bothered by things more then I used to, to give into those things that are not good for me and when I choose what's not good my relationship with him and others suffer. In many ways, I have become more like myself rather then Jesus and in other ways I have learned to be like Jesus. But the truth in all my changing is that Jesus has never changed. In His constant faithfulness he reminds me that I have a fresh and clean slate to begin with every moment of my life since I believe on him. This means even in my failures he gives me the assurance of hope that I can change and become more loving as I yield to and choose his ways because my life is wrapped solid in his forgiveness and mercy. I fear no condemnation for my sins because that's what he promises me because I trust in him. I know God has tranformed my life because I hate to sin against him.

BOTTOM LINE, all that I experience in my walk with Christ is because he already won the eternal battle of death in me during those days of his perfect living, perfect dying and powerful resurrecting. Because he hasn't changed from the beginning nor will he for eternity I am relieved and free! So he's the secure ROCK that I aim to stand on even in the daily grind of working hard to become more like him. My grind is the ever present battle inside of me to take captive the things in me that are contrary to his Word, and yield my life to his will by the power of His Holy Spirit and not my own efforts.

Another reason I'm so grateful for Jesus is because he knows me completely for who I really am at the BOTTOM LINE. And Who I really am is a Good, Bad, and Ugly Sinner with a capital S. I take no pride in this because it is not good. By nature I am not good. I've lied, stolen things, lusted after other people in my heart, which is adultrey in the heart, I've used God's name in vain which is blasphemy. So when I am completely honest with myself I know that I am guilty of being a liar, a thief, a blasphemer, an adulterer at heart. I am guilty of breaking Gods law. realizing this about myself was good and accepting what the bible says about me was good. I realized that being a Sinner ends in eternal death in hell for me unless Jesus' blood is applied to my life. I learned that Jesus' blood is the only ransom worth eternity in the eyes of God the Father, and when I accept Jesus in faith as the payment for my Sin Nature, God the Father graciously justifies me and makes me right in His Holy eyes. He saves me and changes me. Imagine having clothes of excrement and then being given clothes that are as white as snow. That basically what jesus has done for me. Thank you jesus! I admit the truth of my nature as a man before God and others because it is the only way of becoming really free. Free from myself and the consequences of living for myself and free to live in a new way that is really alive.

BOTTOM LINE, I would know nothing about Jesus Christ if I just listened, watched or read the media, or only read Christian books, or only listened to Pastors as they speak of who Jesus is. I would actually only get a skewed perspective of who he is. As I have witnessed the world turn in my 32 yrs and honestly assessed who I am as a person in nature, and as I learn from people and history about who people are by nature, the evidence is totally obvious that what the bible says is absolutely true. It is the only faithful book that has put into me the assurance of who Jesus Christ really is.