Welcome to my web site!
If you clicked on this page, it’s probably because you read Finding Gideon. Does your heart feel changed? Mine surely was. One of the comments I get a lot about the book is, “I love how you prayed over everything.”
It’s an awkward comment to respond to, to be honest. I’m not sure what to say, but here’s the thing that I wish everyone in the world would understand.
Being a Christian isn’t about going to a sanctuary, reciting prayers, making political stances, condemning others for their sins, or even being perfect. It’s about a relationship.
But how can you have a relationship with God?
What separates Christianity from other religions, is we believe there is one God – Abba, Father.
We believe every human on earth (except one) is a sinner. Our culture tells us we’re not doing anything wrong if we do what feels right. And I get that no one wants to feel like they’ve screwed up or done something bad. But the truth is, we have.
The Bible even says our thoughts can be sinful. We don’t have to kill someone, we can just think about killing someone, and our heart is sick from wrongdoing.
True confession, I don’t struggle with obvious sins. I’m not out there swiping items from store shelves, creating gold statues to worship, or killing people. But as I mentioned in the book, I’ve struggled with putting other things before God (horses & achievements just to name a couple). I’ve wanted things other people had so badly I could hardly think straight. I’ve talked about people when I should have kept my mouth shut.
I’m a sinner (and this really doesn’t feel good to talk about.). I can guarantee you’re a sinner, too (sorry to offend you).
But there’s GOOD NEWS! Remember how I said there is one human who stayed perfect?
His name is Jesus.
Before him, the only way to talk to God was to do a lot of religious things. God required a blood sacrifice to be forgiven of your sins, so a lot of goats and sheep lost their lives because of our impure hearts. Then, only a priest could talk to God, and he had to do all kinds of rituals and could only go before God in one place called the Holy of Holies.
They would literally tie a rope around the guy’s ankle in case he his heart wasn’t clean enough and he died before God while on the other side of the curtain.
It’s pretty hard to imagine.
For centuries, prophets predicted a savior would come, a person who would be the ultimate sacrifice and he would save the world from its sin. Everyone thought he would be a great warrior with bulging muscles and sit on a throne with purple robes and an ornate crown.
Instead, he was born in a stable, and the only crown he wore on earth was made of thorns. He learned a trade and lived a fairly normal life until he started his ministry at thirty years old. He was loved and worshipped and hated and persecuted. He laughed and cried and faced human challenges. The only difference was his dad is GOD, and he was perfect.
He managed to live 33 years without sinning a single time. As a parent, I’m most shocked he survived being a toddler without sinning. Ha!
Jesus spent three years ministering to the world. He trained disciples, healed people, spoke to huge crowds, fed 5000+ people with a few baskets of fish and bread, turned water to wine, raised his buddy Lazarus from the dead, and more.
And then he was betrayed.
One of his followers turned him over to the religious leaders who hated him. Jesus was beaten and killed on a cross between two thieves, and in the process became the final sacrifice for our sins. No more goats or sheep needed.
Even more insane, he came back to life three days later and spent 40 more days on Earth appearing to people, sharing his message, promising he’s going to Heaven before us to prepare the way, and then his followers watched him ascend to Heaven like a scene from the movies.
I’ll take a second to admit this all sounds a bit hard to imagine. Like, really? A guy came back to life and then floated up into the clouds? But what happened next is what overcomes the doubt in my mind. His followers who watched him levitate up to the Heavens spent the rest of their lives passionately and boldly sharing Jesus’s message.
All but one lost their lives in brutal ways because they refused to stop talking about what they saw. From beheading, to crucified upside down, to being stabbed through with spears, they sacrificed everything to declare Jesus’s message to the world – the message that when we trust Jesus, we can be friends with God & God’s son, and join them in eternity.
When Jesus died, the curtain separating the holy of holy’s (where only priests could talk to God) ripped, and everything changed. We no longer needed a priest to go before God.
Jesus became our priest.
We don’t need to be religious or perfect. We just need to trust Jesus who died for us. It’s a simple prayer. Something like this:
“Dear God, I admit that I’m a sinner. I have bad actions and bad thoughts. God, please forgive me. Thank you for sending Jesus to die for me, for my sins. Jesus, please come into my heart and make me new. I trust you. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.”
That simple prayer unlocks a new world for you, a new eternity! You have God’s ear, and His love. Jesus promised when we trust him we get to spend eternity with him. And back to where this all started, you can now talk to and have a relationship with God, the creator of the universe.
I’m not a Bible scholar and I don’t have all the answers. Sometimes I even still question things, as you read in my story. But my prayer is that all of us will learn to trust in Jesus, to walk daily with our Creator. If I can support you in any way, please reach out. I would love to hear from you!
Here are some Bible verses to go along with what I just shared:
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
John 14:6 Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
Romans 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.