Blame it on the A-A-A-A-A-DAM.

As a follow up to my Slutty Slutty Slutty post, I promised to answer the question 'What did I ever do to make God decide that I will perish if I don't believe in Him ? The short answer is found in Romans 5:12:

"Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned ".

The long answer is found by explaining this verse, so let's look at one section at a time, mmm k?!

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man

The "one man" Paul is blaming for sin entering the world is Adam. I wish I could say there was alcohol involved and we could blame it on the Hennessy, but sadly that wasn't the case. If we look at the first book of the bible , Genesis, we find out exactly what happens:

God creates the universe/world. Everything is good. (Genesis 1:31). God creates Adam and Eve and they live in The Garden of Eden which sounds like paradise based on the fact that Adam had a woman and was surrounded by trees that were "pleasing to the eye and good for food" (Genesis 2:9). God commands Adam 'You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it, you will surely die'. (Genesis 2:16) . Adam eats the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:6) effectively disobeying God and sin enters the world ,FML.

Death through sin
Right after Adam choked down the apple, we would expect a la sleeping beauty, that the apple would be poisoned and Adam would drop dead, because after all that is the consequence God laid forth, right?! Actually, no. The type of death God was referring to was not physical death (separation of soul from body) but rather spiritual death (separation of soul from God). This notion of being separated from God is apparent when we look at Genesis 3:8 and see how Adam's fellowship with God had become broken, "Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. "

And in this way death came to all men, because all sinned

Like it or not, we are all related to Adam and as a result have inherited his sinful nature. All that means is that since the time we are born we have the inclination to do things that are displeasing to God (i.e. sin). King David summed it up best when he said “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” (Psalm 51:5).

Okay, so hopefully now you understand that all people are inherently bad, and we are all separated from God. The only way for us to NOT be separated from God would be to live a perfect life without sinning, which is clearly impossible. This is why we all need a savior. We can't possibly restore our relationship with God on our own because "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless;there is no one who does good, not even one." (Romans 3:10-12)

So yeah, Jesus came to earth, was perfect, and died to pay the penalty for our sins "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. " 2 Corinthians 5:21. Anyone has the opportunity to accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. This is a free unmerited gift God has offered to every single person in the world. If we accept this gift we will spend eternity with God. If we reject this gift, we will spend eternity without God. The choice is yours. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23).

Awkward Questions About Jesus

My fist love *sigh*

He sees. He likes. He pursues. You test it out. You enjoy. You commit. You love. [Something changes]. You break up. You’re upset. You’re sad. You’re regretful. You start over. You compare the new fish in the sea to the X. You think “I’m never going to meet anyone as good as X”. You worry “I’m never going to be able to find as good of a connection as the one I had with X”. Sound familiar? What I’m referring to is the inevitable stage post-break up during which the person you were formally dating becomes the measuring stick to which you compare every new potential mate. In some weird sense, this is EXACTLY how I feel right now, except it’s not with a guy it’s with my church. Over the past four years I have fallen madly in love with Frontline (young adult part of McLean Bible Church) and have recently parted ways due to moving to Chapel Hill NC. Although dating of an X is normally not something I would support or encourage, I would like to invite you as well as anyone else you know to get to know Frontline. If you have a pulse, I think you'll love it. (even if you don't live in DC , you can still enjoy it). The story is below.

How we met
It was a crisp Autumn day in the fall of 2005. A friend of a friend had taken me to 4th Presbyterian in Bethesda, and it was “very nice, but just not my type”. This same friend of a friend said “You might like the music better at McLean”. Two weeks later, by myself, I walked into the church that sat 3,000 people, not knowing a soul, and the rest is history.

Why I fell so hard so fast
#1 The Style/Looks
Church in the past, I found to be boring, a waste of time, and hard to understand. Lots of stand up sit down, look at watch, lose interest, feel confused. Frontline, however, was like a breath of fresh air. The service starts 5:30pm on Sundays with a live band playing contemporary Christian music for about 20 minutes. After that, a staff member talks for a few minutes about upcoming events at the church and how to get invovled. Finally, Todd Philips, the pastor, comes on stage and talks for about 30 minutes. That's it. [Note: communion takes place once every few months.]

What drew me in so quickly was the pastor. He is an excellent public speaker, he is charismatic, hilarious, and his style is much like a college lecture (but a really exciting class, not the boring ones). His sermons are structured in a way that keep your attention because he always relates the message at hand back to how to apply to your own life. He also is honest with us, and shares his personal struggles which makes it all the more personable and not detached like some preachers who come off as 'holier than thou'. What's even cooler and more awesome is that each talk given is part of a sermon series. Series can range from 2 weeks to 12 weeks and can be either based on a topic such as grace, life after death, dating, money, or can be based on a book or story in the bible.

#2 The Values -
So crucial! Mission of the church is plain and simple: Share the message of Jesus Christ with DC. The core and heart of Frontline is the doctrine that is taught. Frontline teaches from the bible. It is not the opinion of the man, or the church elders. Every point that is made during a sermon is backed up with scriptural references, making for a very sound, logical, presentation of great truth! For more detail about Frontline's statement of faith, go here.

#3 The Personality
I was previously under the impression that it was all about the looks (shallow I know). But as it turns out a church has NOTHING to do with a building (looks) and everything to do with it’s people (personality). Below are some ways I've been able to get involved and I've organized it by Frontline's 4 point vision Connect. Grow. Serve. Share.

Connect- Interacting with friendly people that have a genuine interest in you (Dinners at Jason Deli and the like after church), Going to a camp for the weekend in the mountains to zip line, relax, learn about God (Frontline Fall/Summer Retreats), Playing left midfield for Frontline Soccer (Athletics Ministry), Encouraging, comforting, and sharing life with others (Small Group),Welcoming people and handing out brochures at a newly opened church campus (FL Arlington)

Grow- Learning my spiritual gifts and that my personality is combination of lion/otter (Shape Workshop), Taking a class on how to share my faith (Christianity 301), Taking a class on how to study the bible (How to Study the Bible Workshop) Studying parts of the bible and praying each week with 8-10 women my own age (Small Group)

Serve- If there isn’t a ministry in existence, you can start one (ex. A woman had the idea to go to a nursing home and show old woman love by painting their nails, and then Pretty and Polished was born). Running in a 5K to help bring clean water to the entire nation of Liberia (www.thelastwell.org); cleaning/landscaping/beautifying/painting the public schools in DC, making care packages to send to deployed soldiers (Operation Kindness), preparing 10,000 boxes with thanksgiving goodies to give to less fortunate families in the DC area (Turkey Outreach), buying Where’s Waldo books and Girl Talk as Christmas gifts for less fortunate kids (Angel Tree)

Share- Feeding lunch to and sharing the gospel with the homeless (Homeless Ministry), passing out plastic eggs filled with candy and a frontline card (Egg the Metro), teaching 3rd graders about Jesus using awesome arts/crafts/videos/creative ways (Kid’s Quest), Watching Frontline LIVE on the internet even when you aren't in DC (Internet Campus)

That's a wrap. If you too have become gaga over the awesomness that is Frontline, feel free to comment and let people know what captured your heart, haha.