Jesus isn't an excuse. He's hope.

We can't use Jesus to justify our sin. You may say "I'm not Jesus. I'm going to sin, I can't help it."

That's entirely true. We aren't Jesus and can't help sinning. Still though, that doesn't give us an excuse to sin. We were once slaves to sin, with no hope of getting better. (John 8:34)

But Jesus set us free from this, and through him we can find the power to fight off our sin and live for God. (Romans 6:6-7, Romans 6:12, Romans 6:14)

But wait. If we're all set free, how come we fail so often?

".. The spirit is willing but the body is weak." (Matthew 26:41)

We all know how to stop our sin, but we choose no to.

We know this sin is empty, but we continue to chase it anyway.

We're so attached to our sin that we don't wanna let it go. We don't want to give it to God, because we know he'll get rid of it. We still cling to it, even after repenting and trying to start fresh. We are addicts of our sin.

Through that is how Satan chains and binds us. While we're too busy trying to please ourselves, he comes in, and feeds us more and more. But it will never be enough. It will never satisfy.

But we keep chasing it to the grave, wasting our entire lives, thwarting the plans God has for us, and giving nothing to the God who gave everything for us.

Is that how we should live? That's exactly what Christ came to set us FREE from. But we still allow ourselves to fall back into it.

2 Peter 2:20-21 says "If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. [21] It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them." (NIV)

Harsh words..but they're true words. And we should be thankful to have a God that loves us enough to be completely honest, and not hold anything back.

But yes, we need change. We can't let Satan work us like puppets, with his twisted fingers all up inside us. Jesus isn't an excuse for our sin, he is the way out.

This is where your soul comes in (along with your mind, heart, and strength, but I'm focusing on the soul). We need to get our souls lined up with God.

We need to follow his lead instead of making our own path. God knows what's best. If he says something is bad, it's for a good reason.

We can't see ahead like he can, and we don't have the wisdom to always know what's going to help or hurt us. So sometimes we just need to trust God, and do what he says.

So no, Jesus doesn't give us an excuse to sin. He gives us hope to overcome it.

All authority has been given to Jesus,(Matthew 28:18) and there's nothing that he cannot do.(Matthew 19:26) 

We just have to acknowledge that we are in the wrong, and trust in him to bring us into the light.  :)

Have a great day and God bless!!

Lemons > Lemonade

Imagine you are walking into my house and you find a lemon and a glass of lemonade on my table. Which one would you choose? We all know that lemons are sour but lemonade is sweet. In this post, I will be writing about how lemons are better than lemonade. I know that sounds crazy, but let me explain.

The use of the word lemons here is a metaphor for trials, tribulations, hardships, difficulties, hurt and all that good-bad stuff. Now we know that lemons are really sour and taste awful, so why would that be better than lemonade? Lemons are healthier than lemonade so that's one advantage. Lemons are good for you, but lemonade is not.

To our foolish eyes, lemons are not good things, but let me tell you about my experience with them. About one year ago, I dated this girl whom I literally idolized. I remember March 5th, 2011, when she broke up with me. I cannot describe the kind of pain I felt. I cried for two hours and I wanted to die. But when struggling with that trial, I realized how broken I was. It was that experience that pulled me closer to God. I dedicated all that I am to the Lord and He took away that feeling of depression. If I had never went through that pain, I wouldn't feel the immense joy that I'm living in today.

Another lemon happened to me when I was on one of those ripstick things (google them if you don't know what they are) and I was going around the neighborhood with my friend Kenny. I got a call from my dad and he told me to come back to my two million dollar house. When I got there, I proceeded in sitting at our table with my other family members. There, my dad announced that he lost his job. At first I wasn't that shocked, but then it got really bad. We had to give up our high life where we could buy anything we wanted. I also had to move away from my awesome neighborhood that contained my really good friends. My family went from being rich to us barely being able to pay rent, and we might have to move into an apartment soon. But to tell the truth, I'm glad my dad lost his job and that I went through this lemon. Now I am more humble than I was, and that's the good that God could bring about through this situation.

I'm going to discuss one last lemon. I'm not really popular at my school. I have about five to ten people who will actually talk to me in a long conversation and show kindness to me. And even those people aren't always very good friends. I know many people are attracted to the idea of being popular, but I'm not. Why? Because I'm able to realized who my true friends are (the people who write this blog with me would be some of them). I know this really isn't a big deal, but sometimes I can hurt. But when it does, I can realize that God is using the pain to bring about His greater glory.

Now let's talk about lemonade. What is lemonade, in this metaphoric sense? Lemonade is any earthly pleasures, such as sex, drugs, partying, and money. But the problem with lemonade is that it's unhealthy for you. It's made with all this sugar that is really bad for us. However, we're attracted to lemonade because of its taste. At first we don't realize that the outcome of it will make us wish we had never given into it.

I remember that I used to bully people by things such as prank texting or prank calling. This is when you lie about who you are when calling or texting someone just for a laugh. I did this because I thought it was funny, but it did hurt people. I remember several instances when it got others really upset. It seemed fun at first, but then it made you feel awful. That's what lemonade does.

Another form of lemonade is lust. Like many guys, I struggle with this too. It seems really appealing at first, but then it fades away. Lust looks to you as if it's going to satisfy you, but it actually isn't worth it. At the moment you realize that you've treated a girl like an object and not the person who was made in God's image, you feel guilt because as a Christian, we know we shouldn't be doing that. The only thing lemonade does is destroy.

For those struggling with lemons, there is hope. Read Romans 5:1-5 and James 1:2-4 to see how good things can come from bad things. A verse that really helped me out was John 16:33 because it assured me that I could overcome the hardship in my life, because Jesus had overcome the world. Remember that Jesus promised that He would be with us always, even in times of trail.

Lemons are better than lemonade because they bring about a greater joy. All lemonade does is destroy you because it is unhealthy. I hope I have demonstrated this well. The outcome of lemons, which is something good, is far, far better than the guilt caused by lemonade. I'd rather stick with a love that lasts forever than a pleasure that lasts for five minutes.