I met @Jason Strickland through his community "The Art of Poetry". He is truely one of the best poets I have ever come across I will let him share his story with you all but I am so pleased that he has joined us. Please welcome him to the community. Jason feel free to share here and introduce yourself.

I was raised in a Baptist setting, going to church with my mom, dad, three brothers, and two sisters. I accepted Jesus at about the age of 8 and was baptized at that time. As I grew up the world drew me away and I stopped following the Lord. While in the US Army, I surrendered my life to God once more and rededicated my life to following Jesus. That was over fourty years ago. Shortly, after the rededication of my life to God I met my wife who was raised in a penticostal church. It was through this relationship and finding out more about God and that side of Him, His wonderful Holy Spirit, which comes with the Gifts and aspects of speaking in tounges (something the Baptist Church I was raised in thought was of the Devil and not active in modern times), that I began to grow more in the Lord. Please know that my walk with Jesus has not been perfect and without struggles, as I am sure anyone could say of themselves, but it has gotten better over time and through Christ I am able to stand up and say, I trust in God as He presents Himself through the whole bible and now I walk in the new covenant brought to us through Jesus. I currently blong to a church called His Presence Church in Tucson Arizona and have been attending there since about 2013. I head up the security/usher team there.

Everyone, please say hello to our newest member @Mike Vid

It is Long but true.The other day, while studying and spending time in the word, it occurred to me that in Deuteronomy 31:8 and also in Hebrews 13:5, where it says that God will never leave us or forsake us it means he will not do so in the face of constant rejection. Google shows the meaning of these to words for forsake as: "The Hebrew word ’azab fundamentally means to loosen, relinquish, or leave behind, while the Greek word egkataleipo carries the literal meaning of leaving someone down in a situation, abandoning them, or leaving them in the lurch." So, why is there, then, an unforgivable sin mentioned in the bible. Why are there those that will be forsaken and not forgiven. This is the understanding and report from Google: "The "unforgivable sin" spoken of in the Bible is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which is the willful, persistent, and lifelong rejection of the Holy Spirit's testimony about Jesus Christ and His message of salvation. It is not a single accidental mistake, a bad word, or a momentary doubt. Instead, it is a final, hardened state of unrepentant rebellion against God." It is found in Matthew 12:31-32, Mark 3:28-29 and Luke 12:10 Notice it says "lifelong". This is the evidence that after we die it is too late. And the reason for this is that when we die we shall know the truth and accepting the truth in the literal sense of the word when it is irrefutable is not acceptance it is acknowledgement. We must accept God's love and forgiveness in the face of that doubt, that unsureity, in order to be able to encact and make God's ever present forgiveness and HIs faithfulness to never leave us or forsake us true. We must, while we still have breath in our lungs, accept and depend on God's grace and forgiveness. And that means we have to ask for him to never leave us or forsake us by our faith in the truth that He is our salvation and none else. There are those who trust in themselves, or someone else to find their way into heaven or whatever their religion calls it but they will be truly lost unless they have faith in God.

As I was studying yesturday and wondering why so much blind faith (as it is often referred to) is involved in one's beliefs in God, I came to one powerful conclusion. Scripture is often not straight forward and is left up to interpretation. Era social and political understanding has a play in all of the different prophecies and things that could really, if researched lend itself to one understanding of scripture verses another. Then you have other writings that have sparked other belief systems altogether, which causes the issue of faith to be even more challenging. So we are really challenged as to say why one faith is true over the others, especially between Christian and all other faiths. Here is the epiphany. The true faith is the one that leads to, holds on to, requires, and emulates love, peace, truth and all that is good and rightious. So, seek out these things, put your faith in these things and the religion that emulates only these things, and I know you will end up on the right path, following the, way, the truth, and the life. And you will no longer have blind faith; you will have real faith in the one true God. It is obvious that all these good things lead to life, and all others lead to death and destruction. HAVE FAITH IN THAT WICH IS GOOD AND YOU WILL HAVE LIFE.