Jay / 21 / North Carolina.
Tears of joy offered to the King.
I used to think I had it all figured out, and now I just don't know.
extremely ENFP
I will read the printed word.
- Links
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I haven’t changed my religious or political views on facebook in like two months now and I think that’s the longest since I made a facebook.
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Anonymous asked: I know you have a girlfriend so I promise this isn't meant to be creepy and awkward, but you're really attractive. And I hope you're having a nice day.
Well thank you for being much more civilized. Thank you though! Just earlier today I was thinking about how I really have given up with the whole...
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omg did i seriously just lose a follower on my poetry blog for saying if i reached a thousand followers i might make a poetry book
omg wat lol
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some days im like “oh man writer’s block sucks”
and then some days im like “here have 5 billion poems”
there is no inbetween with how i write
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Much better.
- People I follow
But didn’t God make everything including sin and death?
People choose to sin because they think it will liberate them. And, indeed, man’s choice to sin actually did bring him a new kind of freedom. I’ve heard it compared to a severely dislocated elbow. If you can stand the pain, your arm can bend freely in ways it was never intended to bend. Broken arms we do not consider to be an asset to our flexibility, but rather a medical condition to be fixed immediately, and so it is with free will and sin in our world. We have a choice to bend and break our arms as much as we please, inflict as much evil upon the world and ourselves until the consequences catch up with us.
Truly, unresolved sin is a much worse problem than a broken arm. One arm as compared to a man entirely sick in body and soul… no wonder our Great Physician took great steps to make us right.
And there’s God’s grace - the one who created it all and saw us hijack it into something horribly wrong took great lengths of personal sacrifice to make it right. He creates, we destroy, He restores.
Effort Is Not Legalism (Because Legalism Is Legalism)
It’s easy to poke fun at dudes who read their Bibles on a calendar, wake up at dawn to pray for three hours, and serve on the worship-rap-dance-drama-origami team. That dude attends church nine times per week, drops off food to the homeless from his jetpack, never gets near alcohol or even the rubbing kind, reads the Bible from the original Dead Sea scrolls, and lives in the last known Qumran community that serves lepers and fasts half the year. Someone yells “legalism.”
When we hear about guys doing whatever it takes to quit their sin addiction, like Twelve Step Plans and cognitive behavioral therapy and throwing away their laptops, we think that’s External Conformity. We call it “Religion.”
We throw around the word “Legalist” because just maybe, it relieves our anxiety about being lukewarm. Because maybe that really soothes our conscience about being passive on our own struggles.
The truth is: compare two guys who are both doing all these things, and one of them could be a legalist while the other is not. What’s the difference?
Simply: one loves Jesus Christ. The other loves himself. One relies on Christ. The other is self-reliant.
Legalism is a state of the heart and not your hands. It’s about self-righteousness versus Christ-righteousness. One has it going on with the Lord; the other is basically in love with his own reflection.
Striving is okay. Putting effort into opening your Bible does not automatically equate to dismissing Jesus at the door. If you’re the kind of person who needs a scheduled prayer time in the morning, that doesn’t mean you’re defying the grace of God. He is not offended that you’re using some of your willpower. He’s also cool with you reading your Bible while you eat, on the way to work, or even in your — gasp! — least awake part of the day.
God is not put off by any of that. Because ultimately the power to chase after God comes from God Himself.
The Names of God
| El: | God, mighty or prominent one, creator - Genesis 7:1. |
| El Elyon: | God Most High - Deuteronomy 26:19. |
| El Gibhor: | God is Mighty - Isaiah 9:6, Revelation 19:15. |
| El Olam: | God Everlasting - Psalm 90:1-3. |
| El Shaddai: | God Almighty - Genesis 49:24. |
| - | |
| Yahweh: | The proper name for God. "I am that I am" - Deuteronomy 6:4. |
| Yahweh Yireh: | Yahweh who Provides - Genesis 22:14. |
| Yahweh Rapha: | Yahweh who Heals - Exodus 15:26. |
| Yahweh Shalom: | Yahweh of Peace - Judges 6:24. |
| Yahweh Tsidkenu: | Yahweh our Righteousness - Jeremiah 33:16. |
| Yahweh Nissi: | Yahweh our Banner - Exodus 17:15. |
| Yahweh Shammah: | Yahweh is Present - Ezekiel 48:35. |
| Yahweh Sabaoth: | Yahweh of Hosts (or Armies) - Isaiah 44:6. |
| Yahweh Rohi: | Yahweh our Shepherd - Psalms 23:1. |
| Yahweh Mekeddeshem: | Yahweh Who Makes Holy - Leviticus 20:7-8. |
| Yahweh Adonai: | Yahweh is Lord (or Master) - Genesis 15:2. |
| Yahweh Elohim: | Yahweh the Creator, Yahweh the Powerful one - Genesis 1:1. |
If I were to die tonight, this is what I would want people to know.
Hi, I’m Jay. This is my 1000th post on tumblr.
I don’t matter.
What matters is that there is a God who has proclaimed His love for you since the moment of creation. From even before your birth, He made a place for you in His eternal Kingdom.
This God reveals Himself constantly in nature, but is most clearly testified to in the First and Second Testaments of the Christian Scriptures.
Would you like to be with Him forever?
You must acknowledge that you have sinned. You must understand that all your life you have lived for yourself and not for the God of Love who loves you so dearly. You must turn from this sin, that is, desire eagerly to stop and to follow Him. Now that you have believed and repented, you must be immersed in water to symbolize the death and resurrection of Jesus. If you have taken the three steps - Faith, Repentance, and Baptism, know that God is faithful to take two steps of His own. When you are baptized, you give up your rights to your own life. You commit yourself and the rest of your days unto God and unto His service. In baptism, you receive the forgiveness of your sins. You are continually forgiven for the sins you have committed against God, so long as you continually turn toward Him. In baptism, you also receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is a great and wonderful mystery in itself. God Himself will come upon you, nay, live inside your very body and bolster you onward to become more like Him, to serve Him, and to give glory to your Lord Jesus Christ. He will comfort and sustain you. He will be your tutor, to lead you ever deeper into relationship with God.
If you want to take these steps, contact me.
My name is Jay LaNunziata.
My phone number is 910 795 - 3593.
My email address is jaylanunziata@gmail.com
and my facebook is http://www.facebook.com/jaylanun
I don’t matter, but He does.
Philippians 4:19
And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
