Hello hello!
Congrats! You’ve stumbled across my first ever blogpost! Honestly, I’ve been kind of dreading this part. If you have read the ‘About Me‘ section of my blog, you’ll know how much I love writing so it might seem odd that I would be fearful of it. But as a perfectionist, I was wanting this post to be super polished and intellectual, assuming that no-one will want to read it otherwise. As we all know though, to assume is to make an ass out of you and me so it’s probably best to let go of my inhibitions and just start writing! And who better to write about than Jesus?
I’m a christian and my faith is super duper important to me. God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) is in every aspect of my life, He brings me new joy and promises every single day. Although I have believed in God for the majority of my life, it’s probably only in the past 5 or so years that I have really accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, owning my faith for myself and not for anybody else.
As a student, when I tell people that I’m a christian and part of a church, I often get one of two responses; confusion or surprise. Surely, now I have ‘freedom’ at Uni, I wouldn’t choose to go to church of my own accord. Isn’t it restrictive, boring and old fashioned? My parents aren’t watching me anymore, I can do what I like. And it makes me realise how distorted the image of christianity has become in the media and in society.
Going to church is not what makes you a christian. Obeying certain rules is not what makes you a christian. Your parents beliefs (or anyone else’s for that matter) are not what make you a christian.
I go to church and live in a certain way not to be a christian but in response to God’s love for me. It’s a love that is all encompassing, all forgiving and ever present.
In fact, the bible says that God is Love (1 John 4:8); He doesn’t just dish it out, He’s where love stems from. And He loves us so relentlessly that He sent his own son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for our sins. Jesus was put on that cross for my sin, your sin, and the sin of everyone who has lived and will ever live on this earth. He did it so that we can be blameless in God’s sight, so that we imperfect human beings can be looked on as perfect by God. Now that just blows my mind.
And that’s what being a christian means. It means accepting Jesus as your saviour and doing life with Him by your side. It’s like receiving and unwrapping a gift from someone. The difference being that the gift is not like that hand blender you got at Christmas and never use or those out of date chocolates in the back of the cupboard, it is a gift of eternal life; living in God’s presence for EVER. Wowza!
This is the foundation of my life. And then everything else stems from that. I go to church because I love spending time learning more about God and worshipping with other passionate Christ-followers. I live in a certain way because Jesus is my ultimate satisfaction and so I find that other ‘worldly’ satisfactions don’t really cut it.
Obviously, I am NOT perfect. I get it wrong all. the. time. It’s my nature as a human. If Jesus, the Son of God is perfection, then anything short of His standard is naturally going to be imperfect. But the thing is, I couldn’t do anything that would stop God from loving me. Jesus has covered me with His wings of grace which means that it’s not what I do that matters to God but what Jesus has already done. When I get things wrong, God is patient with me. He forgives me and pulls me back into His open arms.
People often think that God is this bearded man in the sky who is watching over us with a magnifying glass waiting for us to slip up just so that he can punish us. But that really couldn’t be any further from the truth. Instead, there’s an almighty Father who takes great delight in us and lives within us through the Holy Spirit. All we have to do is say, ‘YES! Come in to my life!’ and then everything else falls into place.
And that’s what I believe. That’s why I love Jesus!
So, there we are…the ball is rolling! Let’s pop the bubbly!
I hope you’re having a fab day and i’ll speak to you soon in my next blog post.
Rosie x
Rose Elisabeth 