Truth

The following is the opening paragraph to my final essay in my advanced comp class. As you probally know you either win or lose your audience in the first paragraph and I really want to nail this. My paper is on the resurrection of Christ. Just by reading the opening would you want to continue reading the paper or would you change it? Please give feedback!!!

Many people in today's world claim to be Christian. In fact, thirty-three percent of the world's population choose to believe in Christ. What does that mean? Well it means roughly thirty-three percent of the world's population believes that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and came from heaven to die on the cross for the sins of humanity. Today I would like to make a much larger claim than that. To believe in something is to consider or to accept something, that could be true but you honestly do not know. You believe the Steelers won the game last Sunday, you believe that the person next to you is Mark and you believe that you have to work tomorrow. I do not believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and came from heaven to die on the cross for the sins of humanity, I know he did. By proving eight facts I will disprove popular theories of what happened to Jesus thus leaving one possible solution, his resurrection.

Love

Love. Love is the upmost aspect of God that amazes me. His love is greater than any other love in the world. Love is to God as water is to ocean. No one can fully explain his love but it is stated best by Jesus when he said, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13) People often wonder why Christ would die for us, why he would subject himself to such a humiliating and painful death. I struggled with this question myself for a long time. In fact after seeing the Passion I said, "I should have been on the cross, I am the sinner." As I matured through Christ I slowly began to realize why he died for us. He died for the ugly, the broken, the sick, the corrupt, the sinners; he died for you and me because he could not bear spending eternity in Heaven without you (remember the prodigal son).

Christ love is incomparable. Who would you die for? My list includes my family and my friends and it does not come close to the list Christ made before he died. Christ's list included my family and my friends and the rest of the world. He died for Joe Shmo down the street, the person who just cut you off in traffic, the drug dealer in your apartment, the homeless man in that alley. Jesus loves the unlovable in the eyes of the world. I cannot think of one person I would not want to spend glory with but I can think of people who I did not love when I had the opportunity to love them. That is where I differ from Christ the most (in my eyes), other than him being sinless.

So how do we love the unlovable? First we need to stop viewing people as outcasts or wastes or any other label we might associate those who do not know Christ. We need to see these people the way that God saw them as he created them, with the eyes of our hearts. God does not create outcasts or wastes; we are all created in God's image with a purpose and that is how we should see all people (remember the man born blind). Maybe the reason a man is an outcasts or wastes or any other label you might give someone , is so that the glory of God may be revealed through him. If you know me you know my adolescent years were spent in alcohol and marijuana but now because of God's glory I am sober.

Once you see people through the eyes of your heart you will find it easier to love.