Here’s the Thing:

Okay, so here’s the thing, the biggest ‘confession post’ yet: I have the truth, and you need to know it.
The main reason I haven’t done any posts lately is honestly that I have had so many things to say, and I have not known how to begin. There are so many things that I want to tell you… not only things I want to tell you but things that you really need to know. It might take me a while to get them all out to you, but we have to start somewhere, and where better to start than with the basic truth?

We live in such a sad and ‘broken’ [corrupt, depraved, warped, ‘messed-up’] world, and there is no knowing if, when, or how it can get better. We can only hope that it will, and do our best to influence people around us, wherever we are able. Society is changing and has been for hundreds of years and in this time peoples’ ideology has changed drastically, and they are moving further away from traditional morals and values. After the industrial revolution, there was a major increase in population, living conditions deteriorated, and there was an increase in pollution. Society became larger and more complex, more problems arose, and there was the separation of church and state.

Before the separation of church and state, the churches, with their moral standards and values, ‘governed’ and had the central role. Because of the complexity of society and the rapid growth in population, more people were needed to take over the governing roles that the churches had. After this, there was a gradual ‘deChristianisation’ of the people, because religion teaches values and morals; people forget the importance of having these as a foundation.

Morals changed drastically, and people now consider Christianity/religion to be oppressive, and even detrimental to people’s mental health. Religion used to be considered ‘moral, useful and true’, then culture changed. This is so tragic because that’s not how it ought to be. Society went downhill when the mass deChristianisation occurred, and this was where things went wrong. With the disengagement of Christianity, immorality arose.

This is all echoing ‘brokenness, brokenness, brokenness’ in the world! Culture is messed up, there is so much hate, violence, and oppression, but there is a way out of it. As it is now, we are all doomed. We are born damned, and we are all bound for hell. Whether we like it or not, hell is a real place, and without accepting God’s saving grace, that’s where we will end up. We are sinners. It comes to us naturally as humans to do wrong; we don’t need to be taught the wrong thing as children, we need to be taught the right thing. Why? Because we have a sinful nature. Jesus says in Matthew 5:20 that unless our righteousnesses [goodness, virtues, uprightness] exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, we have no chance of getting into Heaven. Matthew 5:21 onwards proceeds to tell us of the commandments and sins that we all, as humans with a human sinful nature, have broken. In Isaiah 64:6 we are told that all of our righteousnesses are ‘like filthy rags’… all the good things we do are not only nothing, but they are dirty and disgusting in the sight of God. How, then, can we have a chance of getting out of going to hell?

Here’s the simple truth I want you to hear, out of all I have just said: There has to be a sacrifice, and that sacrifice has already been made for us. Romans 5:6-7 says that when we were stuck in our sin, powerless, God showed His tremendous love to us by sending the perfect sacrifice, Jesus, to die for our sins in our place. People would scarcely be willing to give up their life for a ‘good’ person, and yet God loves us so much that He was willing to come to earth in fully human form, to die for us, in our place. Because of this sacrifice, we need only put our faith and trust in God to save us. If we believe in Him, that He died for us, and we ask forgiveness for our sins, He will give us a clean slate… because He loves us. Ephesians 2:8-9 says that we are saved by God’s grace, through our faith in Him. Our salvation is the gift of God, not the result of our good works! Because of God’s goodness and grace, we have a chance to not be doomed for hell. We don’t deserve this chance, but He’s offering it to us because He is good, He is just, and He loves us. Don’t put it off, don’t just ignore it… life is finite. We don’t know when our last day is. Please, if you haven’t put your faith in Christ to save you, don’t leave it any longer. He loves you, and He longs for you to come to Him.

Maybe you struggle to trust God because of all the bad things in the world, you wonder why bad things happen to people who do good, or maybe you think God is a psychopath for allowing (and watching!) all these bad things happening in the world. These are things I’m going to talk about at later dates, but the fact of the matter is this: God is sovereign, God is just, and God has given you a choice. He’s offering you freedom, and the choice is yours. No, life as a Christian isn’t all fine and dandy, but it’s a life full of eternal hope. Even in the struggles, we have hope. Even throughout the darkest days, we have hope. No matter what happens, we have hope.
If you want to talk about this with me, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line through the contact form you can find in the blog menu, or through my social media, all of which have shortcuts on the blog home page.

But please, just remember the simple truth that I want you to hear over the clamour of a broken world: There has to be a sacrifice, and that sacrifice has already been made for us. Think about it. We’re all doomed without accepting what is being freely offered to us.
We live in a messed up world, but we can have hope. My prayer today is that you will be able to have the hope that I have, and that you may come to know and understand the truth… because the truth will set you free.

With love,
Julie xo