Nine years ago today, I broke a destructive drinking habit. There was a time I couldn't imagine going a day without drinking. Life just didn't seem worth living if I couldn't drown my thoughts and drink myself into oblivion every day.

When the shame of being a drunk became overwhelming, I decided to stop. It was scary. I was giving up my crutch, ready to face the cold, cruel reality of sobriety. No more excuses.

My sobriety is one of the main reasons I'm always harping on "personal responsibility." It seems that too many people get away with making excuses these days, and I have no patience for excuses. And this is where I have to be careful. We all have weaknesses and vices, and at one time or another, we all need compassion.

Too much moralizing can lead to too little compassion. As I listen to people make excuses for their weaknesses (alcoholism, drug addiction, bad decisions, dumb choices, whatever), I think, If I could overcome it, why can't you? Stop wallowing! But I didn't overcome alcoholism without help. Although I chose to attempt it without a support group, I didn't do it alone. I had a compassionate and merciful Creator on my side.

Continue reading 9 Lives

"[He] sent the human race what I call good dreams: I mean those queer stories scattered all through the heathen religions about a god who dies and comes to life again and, by his death, has somehow given new life to men. He also selected one particular people and spent several centuries hammering into their heads the sort of God He was — that there was only one of Him and that He cared about right conduct. Those people were the Jews, and the Old Testament gives an account of the hammering process.

Then comes the real shock. Among these Jews there suddenly turns up a man who goes about talking as if He was God. He claims to forgive sins. He says He has always existed. He says He is coming to judge the world at the end of time. Now let us get this clear. Among Pantheists, like the Indians, anyone might say that he was a part of God, or one with God: there would be nothing very odd about it. But this man, since He was a Jew, could not mean that kind of God. God, in their language, meant the Being outside the world Who had made it and was infinitely different from anything else. And when you have grasped that, you will see that what this man said was, quite simply, the most shocking thing that has ever been uttered by human lips.

Continue reading Liar, Lord, or Lunatic

Atonement and Redemption

"Is Williams' redemption complete and sincere, or is it just a hollow promise?" Without an apology and atonement for these senseless and brutal killings, there can be no redemption." - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger

Non-Christians are quick to reference Christ's forgiveness of the thief on the cross as a reason to spare the lives of condemned murderers.

There was a written notice above him, which read:|sc THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!"

But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong."

Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." (Luke 23: 38-43)

The thief on the cross was killed for his crimes in accordance with Roman law, but he was pardoned spiritually according to the law of God. While his physical body was condemned, his soul was released from eternal damnation.

As usual, people unfamiliar with the Bible tend to quote, out of context, verses they once read or heard about. The text surrounding the quote is ignored or glossed over. In order for our sins to be forgiven, God requires us to atone for those sins. Salvation is not a get-out-of-jail-free card. God requires a blood sacrifice as atonement for sins. Before Christ, this was achieved by slaughtering an animal, usually an "innocent" lamb.

When Christ came, he became the sacrificial Lamb to take on the sins of those he came to save. The Old Testament ceremonial law was a sign pointing to the work of Christ. He is the "Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world," the Bible teaches.

Continue reading Atonement, Redemption, Role of Government, etc.