Ballerina or Tap Dancer - my minds made up!

I was bold and courageous when I was six years old.  The world hadn’t worn on me yet, and my natural personality traits – stubborn and confident and brash - were at their peak.

I was preparing to take to the stage at my very first dance recital with Miss Connie’s School of Dance and I had my tap shoes firmly in place on my feet.

This was in spite of my Mom arguing emphatically with me in the dressing room when I insisted on putting them on, since she saw that the ENTIRE rest of the cast was putting on soft shoe.   

I tapped my way noisily as we all trooped onto the stage that evening.  I was immovable in my conviction. I'd heard what Miss Connie had instructed us and I could not be persuaded otherwise.

So it was very satisfying when Miss Connie herself came on stage to apologize, profusely, that the show would be slightly delayed while the girls – EVERY ONE OF THEM – except little miss me – would need to change their shoes.

I was six and stubborn and opinionated and confident I knew what I was doing and willing to stand, ALONE if need be, for what I believed was right.

I wonder how it would have affected my life if I’d been wrong that evening?

But I had listened very carefully to the instructions given that day at our last rehearsal before the recital.  For that reason I was confident in my decision.

When we took to the stage my confidence in trusting what I knew to be true was rewarded, and as a bonus I got to do a little solo tap dance while I waited for the other girls to change their shoes.  

I must admit that I've gone on to become a stubborn, opinionated and confident Ambassador for the Lord Jesus Christ.  Not because I was raised that way, for I wasn't raised in the church and my family didn't even attend church with me when I went.  

I was given a Bible the summer after the recital, and I read it.  Since then, I have never wavered in the trust and belief that God created all the heavens and the earth, He created me and He loves me!

I could recite incident after incident here of the many ways He has made Himself known to me.  If you read this page with any regularity, you've been exposed to much of it.  

For the sake of time let's just say that as sure as I knew Miss Connie told us to put our tap shoes on first at that recital so many years ago, I am that certain that in the beginning God created and He’s never withdrawn or changed the plan.

The plan is simple and as straightforward as the strong personality He blessed me with.

He is love and desired to shower that love outward.  So He created Man in His own image and lavished Man with love. 

And when Man and Woman sinned, (separated themselves from walking in perfect obedience to their Creator), He continued to shower them with Love in the form of forgiveness through sacrifice.  

The wages of sin are death.  

Right from the beginning that was always the price that had to be paid.  

Why?  The Bible never clearly says why, but there are plenty of verses that added together point to a conclusion.

God is LIFE, He is the source of all LIFE, so as long as we are in relationship with Him, there is LIFE.  

Separation from LIFE is death, so sin, which separates us from LIFE, is also DEATH.  

(I'm guessing on this point, but I think Lucifer didn't "die" but was cast out of Heaven when he sinned because he was a spirit being and not flesh.)

Then God, not wanting His creation, which He loves, to be separated from Him for all eternity, decided to provide a solution that would also be eternal.  

He  became flesh, came in the form of a man to the earth, then willingly DIED as a substitute sacrifice for each of us, once and for all time, to pay the price of SIN.  

And only He could do it, because the only death that could pay for all eternity, for every human ever, was His.  A perfect, sinless LIFE. 

He had to create a way to do it without breaking any of His laws that He'd already put into being throughout His Creation.  

1. His laws cannot be broken without consequence.

2. No one, particularly the devil, could ever accuse Him of being unfair and circumventing the laws he'd put in motion.

The PERFECT solution.  

And He is perfect. 

Perfectly Holy, perfectly Just, perfectly Righteous in ALL His ways!

I've discovered something else, which I believe to be a truth that affects a great many people also, which I'm going to take this opportunity to share.  

After many years in the religious world, both in the pews and behind the pulpit, I believe that most of the objections people have about God actually have nothing to do with God Himself.  

The objections are usually more about the religious rules and regulations and actions of MAN.  

People don't like the way a church does something.  Or they don't like something a church teaches.  Or they don't like the behavior of a person who claims they represent the church, and God.

The objections then, are really about mans inability to properly represent God.

Because God is infinitely LOVABLE!  Following His commands lead to JOY, PEACE, RIGHTEOUSNESS, HOLINESS and best of all, ETERNAL LIFE!

  

God is LOVE.  It is not that God loves, it is that God IS LOVE.  

Just because we don’t understand everything He does, well, that’s because His ways are far above our ways and His thoughts above our thoughts.  

The created thing can’t out think it’s Creator – that makes perfect sense.

I do not have to understand why air breathed into my lungs makes my whole body respond by being ALIVE.

It does.  I do it.  I live.  It does, you do it, you live.

We do not have to understand why God set things up the way He did.

He did.  I believe it.  You believe it.  Then we live, eternally, thank you Jesus!

This Resurrection Season, I hope that you'll discover how GREAT is our God.  How DEEP is His Love.  And how POWERFUL is the forgiveness He offers through Salvation!