Finals Week and Stoppage Time

LIFE: unscripted
Hey friends, it's Eric and this is the last weekend before Finals Week. I should study today but instead I'm finishing a project that was due yesterday. Why? Because I procrastinate and I have a more clear understanding of what is important in my life. That doesn't mean I follow it but it does mean I understand what is not important and this gives false justification to not get a project done on time. Well, what is done is now done and no sense stressing over it now as the events of yesterday are now recorded into the history of man.

The project, for GIS class, was one where we make up a question and try to use GIS to answer it. I didn't realize how much time this was going to take so I worked a little on the project throughout the week but really started yesterday, when I felt like coming in to work on it. Needing more data, I went downtown to the Tower of Justice to get more data and came back only to find out that the data wouldn't work and then later to find out that we already had the data on our server that no one really told us about. Anyway, I didn't eat lunch and languished away in a lab with noisy people and bad music - yes, bad music. Somehow I survived and left for a birthday party then a going away party and got home last night and went to bed. I know you love the detail of my life - j/k

LIVING LIFE IN STOPPAGE TIME
For those who care, life is okay. I'm breathing and I praise God for it. I'm not really being inspired by the Word, probably because I'm not reading it. Same for spending time with God... and this is because I am still distracted by several key things: 1) An addiction to using technology, 2) porn, and 3) my loneliness.

So where does this leave me? Certainly my life, in fact, isn't much better than it was when I wasn't a Christian. ...Thoughts like why do I try and why do I care run about, doing laps in my mind... and this is now a fundamental problem for the frame of which I try to understand my faith within.

Jesus will eventually change me and be patient and be persistent in seeking the change and seeking Jesus... but this is only part of the Gospel! Certainly it is a big thing that Jesus will reconcile creation (including me) but the biggest part of that is that he answers for the Law on our lives. Concerning the law, I am a sinful creature - destitute and rotten sinner who breaks commandments, who is an idolater, who is a bad steward, who does not take Jesus' death and resurrection seriously. There isn't now and there never has really been a sense of death on my life and so the question should be asked — how will I really value Christ for who he is, the one who saves me from an eternity away from the Father!

This is the question that must be reconciled. I came to the faith with a vague understanding of this and yet as I grow in the faith and fall into sin (or become more conscious of it when it happens), I have to reevaluate what is this faith really about? I was wooed to the father by the hope that he would reconcile me with creation but I had no idea of what that meant. Now, seemingly someone who acknowledges Christ but can't be completely faithful and is not remorseful enough about my transgression is left with this question, what is my faith in?

1) Is my faith in a get out of hell free card that doesn't really exist?
2) Is my faith in a God who will be patient with me abusing his Grace?
3) Is my faith in a Father who is a hard master who expects me to get it or else he will punish me for eternity?
No, I think my faith is in the second example... as the other two are not biblical.

Everyone (but Jesus and God) has made mistakes, has sinned as recorded in the Bible and so do I — so I know I am with good company! Just as many of them were asked, I am asked the same: do I still want to consciously try to screw up or do I want to now make even more of a conscious effort to try to abstain from breaking the law as much as I can with a heart condition that effectively says "sin is abhorrent to the Father and I want to be more like Jesus!"

Sin leads to death and I think I keep forgetting this. Is it any wonder that when I sin, especially deliberately, that it leads to death. Is it any wonder that I feel disconnected and with a heavy sense of malaise over my life. Maybe I'm more aware of it now but I think that just may be a taste of what it's like to be away from the Father and it is uncomfortable. Ultimately sin leads to death, spiritually and often physically in this world. To revel in sin is to revel in death and this causes me less of a pause than it should.

Jesus is the answer to reconciling you of sin that leads to death in the current life, though this won't be completed until you die, and he is the answer death sentence I have been given as a law breaker.



How does one respond (of which includes me)?

1) Take stock of your life and realize you are a law breaker, one who lies and hates and lusts and realize that these things are not pleasing to God. Realize these things, sins, will eventually lead to death.

2) If you're not a Christian, place you faith in Jesus who died on a cross so that those who that those who would die from their sins could find life in him, eternal life with the Father in Heaven. Jesus is the way, truth and light to a dark and dying world.

3) Pray that God would change your heart — help you fall more and more in love with Jesus and the Truth that He is God. Placing your faith in Jesus, your old self and its desires are to die and you are to find life in Jesus, and eagerly submit to His authority, instruction, and Word. From experience, this is difficult but it is worth it because Jesus' "yoke" (a harness animals use to pull things) is lighter than any other, especially considering the weight of sin and the challenge of trying to uphold God's law in our lives without the help of God.

4) Live every day as if you'll die that day - we are living in stoppage time*. With the sense of time fleeing, try to live a Jesus centered life as much as possible. This is easier (possible) when you try to do this as a part of a group of other Christians, i.e. church, as the Christian life has been lived for over 2000 years. Certainly, you'll make mistakes in your life but realize you are following a good God who knows you better than you know yourself (you sin more often than you realize) and yet He will still love you and extend his Grace to those who's destinies are hidden with Christ! Praise Jesus for his Goodness!

*Stoppage Time (soccer): The referee is the official timekeeper for the match, and may make an allowance for time lost through substitutions, injured players requiring attention, or other stoppages. This added time is commonly referred to as stoppage time or injury time, and is at the sole discretion of the referee.


Mighty To Save

Everyone needs compassion / A love that's never failing
Let mercy fall on me / Everyone needs forgiveness
A kindness of a Savior / The hope of nations

My Savior / He can move the mountains
My God is Mighty to save / He is Mighty to save
Forever / Author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave / Jesus conquered the grave

So take me as You find me / All my fears and failures
Fill my life again / I give my life to follow
Everything I believe in / Now I surrender

Shine your light and let the whole world see
We're singing for the glory of the risen King...Jesus