Life

Imagine a giant canvas; the biggest in the world. It's ever evolving, the picture shifting and flowing as though the paint and image are alive, with their own thoughts and emotions. Meanwhile, the artist sits back and watches His creation move. Occasionally, He will intervene, moving His brush through His creation and influencing and helping His creation through their struggles.

The canvas is life. We are the art, moving and weaving through the world. As we attempt to live our lives, we are forever watched by a loving creator who wants nothing but the best for us.

How comforting is that?

But, no matter how comforting that fact may be, we are separated from our Creator, with only His brushstrokes in our life to remind us He is there. God has given us the instruction book for life in His Word. All we have to do is read it.

Faith. It's a powerful thing.

Separation though, it can hurt. Our lives are not what they were meant to be; instead, we live in a world filled with sadness, death and pain. Temptation, physical desires and sin run rampant through the world. Crap happens and, a lot of the time, life is hard.

It's what we get for eating the apple. And we deserve it.

However, our Creator is loving and just and hates to see us suffer. Oh, how He loves.

As a result, God painted in a Savior into our world, a Savior named Jesus. Jesus is God's Son, the perfect lamb and sacrifice, sent to save us.

God, the Creator of the world, the universe, the One who knows every star in the galaxy and how many hairs are on your head created a Son. He created a perfect being, simply to sacrifice himself to save our pathetic, sorry, ungrateful and evil, wicked selves.

That is how much He loves us, His creation.

It's tried and cliche; you've heard it all before. But, I want you to really think about it, as you sit there on your computer with Facebook, Myspace or Twitter open in another tab. You're probably just skimming this, hoping it will get funny.

As you read this, I want you to think about exactly what the Jesus' sacrifice meant for YOU. Not for the world, but for you.

God created a Son and sent Him to the earth to save YOU. He sent Him so that YOU would not have to rot for eternity in a pit of fire, wasting away in the torment of your own sin. He loves YOU enough to ignore your denial, your blatant disobedience and your selfish nature and sacrifice Himself to save you.

This was not an easy death.

The epitome of perfection was sent to our sinful, pain-filled world with a single purpose: to save YOU. He witnessed and He preached and He saved.

Then He died.

Slowly, gruesomely and painfully, our Savior left us. This was not an electric chair. There was no flash of light and then death.

Jesus' skull was impaled with three-inch thorns, tearing at his flesh and causing blood to drip down his face. And as He stood their bleeding, our Creator listened to His beloved creation booing and mocking and screaming for His death.

This crucifixion was so much worse than any of us can possibly imagine.

He was then lead into the back and stripped down. A bulky, well-muscled man that Jesus Himself created walked in and laid waste to his flesh. The whip he used to peel our Savior's flesh away in this sick game had glass, rocks and thorns woven into it.

Jesus was beaten by His own creation until he was literally an inch from death.

He was stood up, blood oozing down His back and His muscles exposed. His crown of thorns was returned and they gave him a cross to carry. It was not the cross you're used to. Two square beams, probably the size of tree trunks were strapped together, the wood splintering and rough.

This two-hundred pound hunk of wood rested on His exposed muscle, splinters stabbing Him as He walked. The whole time, His own creation, those He'd come to save, spat in His face and called Him names.

Finally, He reaches the mount where He is to die. His clothes are taken. All of them and He is completely exposed. As they raise Him up, they gamble his clothes away and their Savior looks down at them like a common criminal.

Ungrateful, sick, disgusting and cruel were His executioners. According to the Bible, YOU are no better.

Your sin and your pride are the reason He was tortured and beaten. WE are all to blame.

As Savior hung there, thirsty and weak. When asked for water, the guards spat in His face one more time and pressed vinegar to His chapped lips.

Our Savior hung there, nails in His flesh, digging at the muscle as gravity pulled Him down.

Something you probably don't know: when nailed to the cross, they did not just lay there, waiting to die. Instead, victims had to fight against gravity just to breathe, pulling themselves up buy their nailed arms alone, the nails rubbing against bone. Sometimes, a plank of wood would be placed at the base of their spine to make it harder to breathe. Eventually, the victims would become so weak, they could no longer breath and would suffocate to death.

This is what Jesus went through for YOU. But His death was even worse.

In the middle of it all, Jesus took on the sin of the whole world, past, present and future. He took on YOUR sin; every lie, every bad thought, every dirty little secret that you've ever had. Jesus took it all. The perfect man bathed in our sin and our misery. He suffered and cried and the God, His own Father, turned his back on Jesus.

God has promised that He will NEVER forsake us. But, He couldn't look at that much sin.

THAT is the story of the crucifixion. THAT is what Jesus went through for YOU. You should feel sick, ashamed and depressed. We are so unworthy of His grace, His mercy and His love.

Yet, He is jealous for us.

He hates the fact that we turn away from Him to pursue the trivial. We turn away from Him the second our life gets bad or get bored with physical limitations of a relationship. In a MOMENT, we turn away from the One who gave His life for us to live....and we don't even care.

Sure, we come back eventually. As soon as we need something, we're best friends with God again.

It's disgusting. WE deserve the cross. WE deserve to die horrible and painful deaths. The Bible says that blood and water poured from Jesus' body after He was stabbed. According to science, that ONLY happens when every single one of your bodies major organs shut down.

Jesus' body shut down, slowly, one piece at a time before He finally did. Imagine the pain and the suffering that comes from that? That's what we deserve. That's what He did.

There's a happy ending to this story and that's what everyone thinks about. "Everything turned out okay in the end, so it really wasn't that bad."

(WARNING: Graphic) This says otherwise.

I recently felt convicted to write this blog. I have no idea how to end it besides saying remember the beauty of life and the pain that was required to ensure our security. Stay close to God; He will never forsake us, so why should we forsake Him?

I've recently been struggling with a lot of demons and I know I'm not the only one. So take heart, fellow believers and stay true to your Savior. He loves you and wants to hold your hand through it all. Remember the gravity and graphic imagery of His crucifixion if you ever doubt His love.

In Christ,
Spencer

The Office

What's Next For The Office?

The Office. Definitely an American classic. Because what is America with out our shameless amounts of remakes and rip-offs?

Despite being a remake of a popular British sitcom of the same name, The Office of the U.S. has more than held it's own. It's seventh season is currently airing on NBC, every Thursday night.

*Shameless plug*

The Office is one of my favorite shows on TV right now and is my third favorite show of all time. Recent news has been flying about as the seventh season draws to a close. It was announced during the break between seasons six and seven that Steve Carell (who plays the quirky but lovable manager, Michael Scott) will be leaving the show.

This comes as quite a shock and is incredibly depressing. In my opinion, Michael is the glue that holds the show together; remove him and the whole thing will fall apart.

I honestly don't believe the show can function without Steve, which makes the networks decision to continue with it feel like a stab in the heart. Of course, the show has plenty of characters, all of whom are funny in their own right and the current plan is to run the show and focus on them.

This idea is cool in a way, since it allows for a deeper character exploration of other characters besides Jim and Pam and their beautiful relationship.

Six years leading up to the greatest TV wedding of all time.

Personally, I think that focusing on the smaller characters will be fun. Can't go wrong with a little more Creed in your life; not to mention the more recent addition of new secretary and orphan Erin. So, yes. Life without Michael can potentially be fun...for a little while.

The problem with this "No-Steve" situation is that the entire show revolves around him. Every episode has Michael providing the key plot line while the smaller characters are sub-plots. Thus, some serious rewriting and restructuring is needed for every episode and I'm afraid that the simple humor that is The Office will be lost as each episode bounces between three or four plots.

The writing of the show is about to become a science and will have to be treated as such. What is even more worrisome is the overall weakness of the last two seasons. Granted, all these plot changes could be a set up for something bigger (like the printer problems discovered in the end of season six). However, they will actually have to do something with the plot points (UNLIKE the printer problems discovered in the end of season six).

To make matters worse, the writers are supposedly planning to keep the manager position relatively empty, bringing in guest stars for brief stints and having the Office workers fight over the position. Once again, this seems like it will draw away from the plot points of the lesser characters we're supposed to be exploring.

My thoughts exactly, Kevin.

So, The Office is probably going to be a little touch-and-go next season as the writers try to flesh out the new system. However, they're going to have to find a groove quickly; the lesser characters are going to get boring after about a season.

For now, though, I'm going to enjoy Michael Scott's presence until the summer. For those of you that don't know, they're planning on sending Michael out with a huge bang.

There will be a story arc that spans four episodes leading up to Micheal's exit. This story arc will end with Micheal "getting what he deserves," though we may not necessarily like it. As spooky as that sounds, we can definitely expect some upcoming fun as Will Ferrell will join the show for Michael's final episodes (not to worry, fans. He will not be replacing Michael permanently). Even better, it looks like we get tosee Michael's movie next week!

Yes, Michael's last few days will definitely be fun before Steve leaves us crying in a corner. There is a bit more hope for the upcoming seasons however. Michael's departure will not be the season finale. Instead, we will have a bit of a taste for what life will be like without Michael. And, based on that, we can decide if we're going to keep watching next season.

Keep it up guys. You're our only hope.

Yes, next season of The Office will probably separate the die-hard from the casual fans but stay faithful, Office lovers. We will rebuild. We will survive. But, good grief. We'll miss you, Steve.

I SAID STAY FAITHFUL!