.: crazy :.

"If believing in life after death makes one crazy, than I am crazy... I believe there is a God... I believe there is a God and this God is very big, and very powerful, and very wise, and very good, and wonderfully creative. I believe this God is a living God, a personal God who wants to know us and wants us to know Him. I believe this God made the universe, and that He takes special delight in the planet called Earth. I believe this God made us humans to enjoy Him, to be in His image, to enjoy creation, and to partner with Him in caring for the Earth... I believe this God made us for relationships, with the Earth, with others, with the self, and with God. The first humans, Adam and Eve, decided they did not want to live in this relational harmony. They did not want to live in dependence upon God (that is what the Bible calls sin...). And so they struck out on their own to be their own god. This decision resulted in the breakdown of the relationships for which we were created, a breakdown in the relationship with the Earth, a breakdown in the relationship with others (need I illustrate...?), a breakdown in the relationship with the self, and a breakdown in the relationship with God. But this God did not give up on us. This God really means for us to experience relational wholeness, so this God comes after us. This God comes all the way down after us. I mean all the way down. He became one of us. This God became a human. God became a man... And this God took the name Jesus, which means 'God saves' or 'God to the rescue'. Jesus lived human life the way it was supposed to be lived. He lived dependant on the Father. He taught. He healed. He forgave sins. He welcomed all kinds of different people into His company. That is, Jesus loves us. He loves us rebels, so much that He then gave Himself over to death to pay the price for our sin so that we could live again in relationship with God. He was crucified, a horrible death. But death could not keep Him down. On the third day, He rose from the grave. Crazy, huh? He was resurrected, never to die again. And now He is the head and progenitor of a whole new human race. Jesus is alive and He sits on the throne of the universe. There is a headquarters. There is a control room. And Jesus is there as Lord. And one day, He is going to come back to earth, and He is going to bring with Him a whole new creation, a new heaven and a new earth, where there will no longer be any sin, any war, any death." -Darrell Johnson