Spiritual disconnect

As of late I have been feeling that oh too familiar feeling of a disconnect from God. It is a frustrating thing to deal with, but not impossible to revert. Yesterday evening I noted that it had been a good three weeks since the last time I read the Bible, therefore starving myself spiritually. Worse than that my prayer life had become pitiful, praying only when something big was going down and late at night when I could not sleep. Perhaps the worst of all of it was the recurrence of some sin in my life, not cutting just to clear that up, but some not so pretty sins. However as sin often does, it blinds you from seeing what it is that you are doing wrong, how to fix it, and the salvation we can obtain from Christ. Tonight I decided to stop being lame and pick up my Bible. Normally I would not be in favor of a random search of the Bible, but it worked tonight. I turned to Psalm 38 (the book I have been intending to start). Read it now then come back. After reading it twice I decided to go online and find some commentaries, just for grins. This is what I found:

Isaiah 53:5 "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed."

Mark 14:50 "Then everyone deserted him and fled."

Mark 15:3-5 "The chief priests accused him of many things. So again Pilate asked him, 'Aren't you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.' But Jesus still made no reply and Pilate was amazed."

Christ suffered and died for you. Now maybe you know that in your head, but let it sink in a little bit, He died a horrible gruesome death so that he could spend eternity with you. Every single little secret sin, which nailed him to the cross, he sees and still loves and forgives you, that is a radical love. Even though many people will never love him, he still loves them. Think about the person who has hurt you the most, and I might add repeatedly with little to no regard to how it hurts you. Love them. A little tough, right? And yet Christ loves us despite the fact we regularly spit in his face.

- Salvation means making safe, more specifically after death
- soteriology - theological study of salvation that covers the how we get salvation and how the
process is began (weird terminology, hard to explain)
- freedom from bondage to sin
- salvation is not earned
- It brings a person back into the right relationship with God
- Salvation must be accepted or claimed
- Repentance is more than just saying sorry for past mistakes, it is being sincerely remorseful
for rejecting Christ.
- Salvation is rooted in the grace of God
- God is good, perfect, and fair so sin keeps us from being in a right relationship with God.

I would encourage you to also google the names of God with scripture, a website I found to be helpful was: http://christianity.about.com/od/biblestudyresources/qt/namesofgodjesus.htm.

I ask for prayer for the trip Katie and I are planning for Canada this summer and for my job which I should be starting next week sometime.