Let me explain.
At church on Sunday, 4 people got baptised. Something I learnt - I LOVE BAPTISMS. I love hearing how God works in people's lives and love watching them declare it publicly - so great! After this happened, there was inevitably a talk which was all about the idea that Jesus' death was pointless if we aren't justified by it.
If you're a bit new to all this God stuff, Christians believe that we, as people, can't do anything ourselves to be right with God since we've all sinned (messed up/done stuff that we know is not good etc.) and because God is just and holy, this separates us from Him. However, because He loves us SO much and desires to know us closely, He sent Jesus to die for us so that we can be restored and can walk in relationship with God. That's the main difference, I guess, between Christianity and other religions which so often demand that their followers conform to a certain set of rules in order to be accepted. Pretty cool huh?
Anyway, this talk and some of the stuff that was said has really stuck in my head the last few days and I've been thinking it through a bit. Also, the daily devotion emails that come to my phone everyday at some ridiculous time in the early hours of the morning (don't ask me why it comes so early!?) have been talking about similar things. Strange right? Or not.
The thing that's been getting me this week though isn't whether I believe that Jesus has justified me and made me right with God (because I definitely do!) but whether this is actually reflected in how I live?
On Wednesday night, at Hungry (our church's student small group), we looked at Philippians 3:1 -11. In that bit of the Bible it says that we shouldn't place our confidence in anything else but Jesus and should consider everything else in our lives as rubbish compared to knowing Him. The word that really fascinated me in all this was the word 'safeguard'. To give this context, in Phillipians, Paul starts this bit my explaining how the idea of prizing nothing but Jesus is actually a safeguard for us. I started to think about that word and realised (as Ruth pointed out) that the only time that I ever use it is when talking about protecting young people and children/CRBs! Maybe then, God knows that when we place our confidence in other stuff that isn't Him, it can harm us, hence why He says this stuff to protect us?
The problem for me though is that I don't always place my confidence in Jesus. You see, I love many things -- Sprinkles ice cream, good music and onesies to name a few -- but one thing I really love is relationships. Nah, I'm not talking mushy smushy rom - com boy girl shizz (though I'm not totally opposed!) but friendships with people in general. I know that sometimes I base my confidence in them - when I percieve them to be going really well, I feel confident. When I don't...well I feel pants. Also, sometimes I beat myself up for not being where I percieve I should be with God or for failing Him.
So now I've convinced you that I'm an over - thinking, over - analysing 20 year old Sociology student, what did I learn from this?!
I learnt that this kind of thinking is religion (Jesus wasn't a massive fan of 'religious' people in the Bible) and arrogantly presumes that we could ever do anything to make ourselves right with God. I learnt that when I put my confidence in stuff that isn't Jesus, life gets a little bit shaky. That's why I'm so glad to be able to say that
'My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness'
and to, once again, learn what it looks like to live like that.
Much love,
Rhi x
Picture of the post...
So, the momentum to take pictures everyday has waned a bit this last month and some of my 'quick, I need to take a picture' snaps have made my life look ever so dull (it's not, I assure you). :P Anyway, here's the cute campus gardens that I finally got to the other day...
Hope that this month is wonderful for you! xx
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