By Death, I live.

I hesitate in saying I am qualified to say that Jesus is God. I have no title. I haven't been to college yet. I live in probably the most spiritually dead area in the US ( not talking about the No on 1/Yes on 1 thing, either). Sure, I grew up in a christian home with 2 pastors in my extended family. But I also go to public school. I am in theater. I am a rocker and somewhat of a rebel. Who do I think that I am?
I don't. Honestly, Everything I am hinges on Christ. Beyond Him, there shouldn't be much left. Everything I do, Everything I say SHOULD be out of the conviction that there was a gory execution with blood and horror that took place to make a better life for me. and for whoever wants it.
You know, the whole world has this screwed-up view of God that He wants nothing more than to "smite" us for making mistakes. But this is not the reality. The reality of God and his love is that he smote ( that is really a word?!?) his son, a part of himself, in order that we should be freed from our mistakes. God did not come to get ripped up, beaten and murdered just so that he could go back to his cloud and throw lightning bolts. He came to understand us, to live with us and show us the greatest love there is: someone willing to die to save us from ourselves.
The "end all, be all" of my life, the call to which I aspire is to live in a way that honors the one who died for me. To wake up screaming " By Death, I live."