Not a Tithe, But an Offering

I feel I don't say it nearly enough, though I do my best to live it. God is truly amazing and wonderful. I owe so much to Him: my lot in life, my eternal security, and my very life. The last of which I may not remember myself, but I am humbled and awestruck when the thought comes to me, when the images given by my parent's memory, when I consider all that God has used me for in His glory... I am overcome. Not just in word, but literally- if I am alone I sometimes have trouble keeping my composure when I think about it. I suppose this would be a good chance to share that story, but that's quite a post in and of itself.

In my life, there have been times when I've dedicated myself to work, school, self-enrichment, or other betterment. In painful honesty, there have been many more times I've have given equal effort to pleasure, entertainment, selfishness. I'm a student of history, and I know I haven't lived long, but in my life I have found that there is not enough time in all the world to fully satisfy either of these ends. Neither is fully achievable. It would seem that as I look back, my greatest success in both was when I concentrated on neither, but on God instead. When He is my number one, everything else just seems to fall into place.

These ideas have been coming to me in my times of thought lately, but particularly heavy today. It is somewhat ironic, though wholly appropriate that this very day is the start of a new year, when people look back, look forward, and steel themselves for whatever the year may bring. I hope to grow closer to God, to stretch myself, and above all that I might be prepared for what exciting and amazing things He uses me for this year.



It has also been haunting the recesses of my mind for quite some time now how little I ever show my spiritual life online. So, here I proclaim for all to see what I believe, as complete and accurate as I have endeavored to create, my statement of faith:

I have a deep and sincere love for my God, a being one and separate, though it is beyond my mind to comprehend. I believe the Bible is completely true, and if it were to have but a single error like many claim, my entire belief would be worthless. (There's actually a verse that says the same directly, though I will need to search and remember the exact reference.) I believe that faith in Jesus is the only way to heaven, nothing else, and that all that reject God will go to a place of torment called hell, and that this fact is deeply saddening to God (if He didn't have mercy, or enjoyed punishment, I sure wouldn't be here). I believe that nothing happens on accident, but bad thing are allowed to happen so that we may be drawn to God or shown our own personal inadequacies, and great tragedies occur because we live in a world corrupted by sin, not because God is up there causing it all. I believe that God has two plans for our lives: the original best He has for us, and then the one that He has for us even after we screw up, for He still wants the best for you and I. I believe in a literal, physical, "rapture", and that a new heaven and earth will be created to house believers for all eternity. I won't state here where I stand on all the pre-mid-post tribulation nonsense, for I figure that even if my understanding is wrong, it'll happen however God plans it to. Guaranteed.

-Kenneth R. Kurtz


Ah, it looks like this won't be finished before the first day of the year officially ends. Oh well, wasn't really why I was posting it anyway. =)