I am not ashamed, I am in love

"...God raised Jesus from the dead. Had he not done so, nobody would have followed Jesus from that day onwards. A crucified Messiah, as we saw earlier on, is a failed Messiah." (111)

This acts as a pretty good rule of thumb, if it is subject to death, and is therefore susceptible to the wages of sin, how can it possibly do any saving work. Luckily for us, the Holy God, Yahwah, incarnate in the person of Jesus of Nazareth was by no means under the power of death. But rather allowed himself (the lion of Judah) to appear as a slain lamb to satiate God's perfect justice.

In all seriousness, I have continued to fall in love with Jesus of Nazareth in these weeks since summer. When I hear someone speak of Jesus in a way that goes against how I know him to be, my heart doesn't start spewing out some intellectual response, but rather I feel indignant as though someone had spoken wrongly of my lover, my wife, my child, my friend, my brother. Jesus is way more fun to hang out with when he's not just some historical character that lived thousands of years ago, and whom I've read a lot about. He is patient, He is kind, He does not envy, He does not boast, He is not proud, He is not rude, He is not self-seeking, He is not easily angered, He keeps no record of wrongs, He does not delight in evil, but rejoices in truth. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. HE NEVER FAILS!
(See 1 Corinthians 13)

When I was a child, I desired cream puff ideas. But when I taste Jesus, I'll accept nothing less than an intense love affair with my risen Lord.