Time Warner sabotaged me. OK, maybe it's not that dramatic, but I downgraded my Internet service to save a few bucks (every penny counts I'm told). For the next two days, my Internet wouldn't work. I called tech support and three times I got disconnected. Finally, I called at midnight tonight and got through after 25 minutes. Nothing like tech support. Well, that's the reason I didn't blog the last couple of days. I don't really have much to say today, it was an awfully boring day, but I would like to relay a couple things I heard in church on Sunday.

The speaker was talking about the messianic prophesies in Isaiah 53:6-12. First, let me say how amazing it is that Isaiah wrote these things hundreds of years before Jesus and he hit the nail on the head. For anyone wondering about the validity of the Bible, just look at that. Anyway, remember how Jesus kept quiet while the authorities questioned him? "Like a sheep before its shearers." While the authorities were challenging Him, He kept quiet. He let them smash His reputation. Yet Jesus wasn't always quiet. Remember when He cleaned house in the temple? When His reputation was on the line, it didn't matter, but when it was the Father's reputation, he spoke up and acted in a big way. We should definitely take a cue from that. I remember John Wooden writing in a book that "Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are." Jesus stood up for his character and made sure the reputation of His Father's was upheld, as well.

One other thing that stood out to me was something that speaker says separates Christianity from all other man-made religions. It's very simple. In 53:6, it says that all we like sheep have gone astray (that's also a line in a great Phil Keaggy song) and the Bible also tells us that we all try to suppress the truth and that "no, not one" is righteous. We have all turned aside. In other words, people stink. It's the truth. We know because of this that we need a perfect atonement for our sin, which was Jesus. But what a difference that is from man-made religions that tell us that you and I are all OK and that we are empowered individuals. If you were trying to develop your own religion, how could you attract people if you got together and said, "OK, folks. We are getting together here because we are all sinners, totally depraved and there is nothing we can do for ourselves." When I look at it like that, it's quite depressing. But when I know the truth, that Jesus has rescued me, it's not depressing, but overwhelmingly joyous.