"All to Jesus, I surrender...."

"All to Jesus I surrender;
Humbly at His feet I bow,
Worldly pleasures all forsaken;
Take me, Jesus, take me now."

Deep words from a classic hymn. Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas remembering the birth of our precious Savior Jesus Christ.

Something I love doing is beatboxing. It's just a lot of fun to be able to try and make the same sounds that you hear out of a turntable or a mixer in your mouth. One of the things I do from time to time to help inspire me in that area is I watch some amazingly talented beatboxers performing on YouTube. Some good ones I know of are Beardyman, Eklips, Rakim, Schlomo, and the beatboxing duo Humanism from Japan. These guys all have a wonderful talent. Look them up if you want.

But let me ask you this....does their talent matter? Does it seriously matter that these guys are some of the hottest beatboxers out there? Does it matter that day in and day out these guys practice their craft, molding it and shaping it; perfecting it? Does any of that stuff matter?

Our life on this planet is short. Like it or not, you're going to die soon. We're all going to die soon. It could be tomorrow or it could be in 60 years, but eventually we all are going to be dead, buried and gone. Our legacies won't last very long either. Probably at the very most a few hundred years if we leave that big of an impact.

Here's an excerpt from a man who was probably the richest person materialistically speaking on the planet. He had everything he wanted and more: big houses, hot women, lots of gold, popularity, and this guy was smart too. He had wisdom that could make any wise man's jaw drop. Probably the wisest guy who ever lived. This is what this guy wrote. You ready?
"Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
nothing was gained under the sun." -Ecclesiastes 2:11

Meaningless? Really? This man was King Solomon. This man by the world's standards had everything and more and it meant absolutely nothing to him. It left him empty, cold and alone.

Michael Jackson recently passed away this past year. There were millions of people all over the world mourning and weeping over his death. There was a movie put out about him and everyone was saying how revolutionary this guy was to pop music and performance. Yes, I agree he was. He was one talented performer and had an energy to his performance that changed how people viewed pop culture.

But that brings me back to this question....Does it matter?

No, not really. Michael Jackson's legacy will vanish in a few decades at least.

This isn't a "how will people remember you" message at all, because honestly people won't remember you, or me, or anyone. People won't be "ooo-ing" and "aah-ing" over these blog posts in the next few hundred years, I guarantee it.

Do you want to do something that matters? Surrender your life to Jesus Christ. Lay down your life before Him. Give Him everything and call Him Lord.

Why? What has Jesus Christ ever done for me? Tomorrow we celebrate Christmas. What is Christmas?

"This is mind blowing, the God of the universe,
Knows every star in the sky to my human hurts.
Made the trees, made the breeze, made the seas,
Emcees like Jay and me.
But let me tell you what amazes me:
That He came as a man who was made to need."
-Lecrae in "Who Is He" by Json

Christmas is the celebration of Jesus Christ, a man who went on a rescue mission to save mankind. Man rejects God in every way, shape and form. You're a man? You reject God. You don't love Him. Your nature is to hate Him. It's in your blood. It's called sin. It will ultimately kill you if you hold onto it.

God could have rejected man. You know what He did instead? He sent His Son, Jesus Christ humbly as a servant into this world. He lived as a righteous man and blessed a lot of people during His life. He wasn't some big rich man like Solomon. He was actually poor by the world's standards. His first bed was a feeding trough that horses ate out of. His first house was a barn in a small town called Bethlehem. He lived His life humbly and simply as a carpenter by trade. At times, He was homeless and lived constantly on the move. And then one day, He died.

He wasn't a victim at all in His death because He willingly gave up His life going through the most brutal execution method ever invented: crucifixion. What was even worse though was that God the Father turned His back on His Son, the righteous man. Why? Because on that cross Jesus Christ became sin. He became every bad thing we have ever done.

Why did He do this? He did this for us! The God of the universe who is A LOT bigger than us and sees us as worthless specks, especially after we decided to reject Him, was and still is filled with love and compassion for us. This can only be explained by the fact that He chose to be that way. He chose to be with us and to rescue us, not because we're so great and valuable, but because we're not.

He rescued us. We're set free. That's what matters. We are set free when we make Jesus Christ Lord. Beatboxing doesn't matter, fame doesn't matter, sex doesn't matter, drugs don't matter, Christmas presents don't matter, NONE OF THAT MATTERS!

Jesus Christ matters.

Give your life to Him. Please....Don't live your life thinking that "you're fine with the big guy" because you're a "good person" who does "good things". Maybe you do good things. But they don't matter if they're not for Jesus. Please, give your life to Him. He gave His life for you. That is your Christmas present. Now give Jesus Christ His.....you.

Merry Christmas,

Steve

"Pale Scars"

Pale Scars
to a girl I saw, but never met.

i saw you waiting in line.
you tuck your long hair behind your ear
and your forearm catches my eye,
pale scars etched across from long ago.

what caused you to do this?
was it your boyfriend?
did he make another broken promise?
did you just feel alone?

did daddy yell at you?
saying you’ll never amount to anything?
maybe you locked yourself in your bedroom
and as he roared like a caged lion you escaped,
blocking out the pain with the high of a razor blade.

maybe you didn’t even know what to think.
couldn’t think of the right words to say
so you picked up that blade
you cut deep hoping to strike gold

and you did.

it bled out of the wound you created
but was it worth it?
did you really feel that release?
that freedom?

as tears trickled down your cheeks
they trickled down God’s
The Silent Witness
silent because you silenced Him

His arms won’t be deceptive
He won’t hit you like daddy
He won’t leave you like that boyfriend
He will just love you

He scarred Himself for you
i would say that to you
but i don’t even know you

so i just pray for you.