Originally posted November 22, 2009 @ 12:33 AM.

Whether you're a Christian or not, many of us have heard the often-quoted verse of Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard" (NLT).

To be honest, while Paul isn't trying to attack anyone or make anyone feel like a loser, that fact doesn't make me feel good at all. The truth is sobering.

I've mentioned in at least one of my past blog entries on this topic of sin, Jesus' perfection, and all that, but I thought I would just bring it up one more time and focus lightly on it (given that even my "short" blogs tend to be actually rather long...definitely longer than this one is).

But first, a little math lesson. I know...I know...if you hated math in school, you probably won't like this entry, either.  I'll keep it simple.
Basic fractions go like this...
You have the numerator and the denominator. The numerator is the number on the top; it lets you know how many pieces you have. The denominator lets you know how many pieces you need to have before you can have a whole thing of...whatever it is you have.
So let's say you have an apple and you cut it perfectly down the middle. Each of the two pieces of the whole apple are of equal amount in comparison to its...well, other half. Suppose you give one piece to a friend. Each of you now have 1 / 2 of an apple. In other words, the numerator (1) says you each have one piece, and the denominator (2) says you need two pieces to equal a whole apple.

Simple, right? (If not, I'm sorry...I tried.)

In God's design for all of Creation, we are the only ones who have the free will option to choose to follow God or reject him. While the rest of nature has laws - gravity will cause things to be drawn closer to something else, trees will grow tall and sprout leaves, and each species of animal will only give birth to its own kind - humans have the ability to go against the established law...namely, the law of morality.

We "all" know that God expects perfection. Any time we're faced with an opportunity to follow Him in love, respect and trust, we must do so. Doing so reaps huge rewards - both immediate and later on. Rejecting God does the exact same...except instead of rewards there are punishments that will reap and reap long, LONG after the deed was done.
So everyone knows they aren't perfect (and some are just really good at denying it). Curiously, though, are those people who say they are "good enough". How do you know how good you even have to be?

The reason why many people's claims that they are "good enough" for Heaven falls short every time is easily explained in one of two ways:
1) God expects perfection. 100% perfect moral choices each and every time. Sounds strict, doesn't it? Sounds like God's asking for too much? Not in the least. We had the opportunity in the Garden of Eden and every day since, but we blew it. But I'll get to it in just a bit as to why God's love still shines through even when "cold", insensitive justice seems to loom like dark storm cloud at every turn.
2) No matter how much good you do in the world, even if you sin just once, you'll never EVER reach perfection again. Not on your own, at least. Here's why.

Taking a look at your fractions from above, it's clear that when you give one half of the apple away to a friend, you no longer have a whole apple. If you were required to give 1 / 1 (or 100%) of the apple to your friend but only gave half, clearly, you're coming up short.

So how does this apply to our inability to meet "God's glorious standard"?
It's like this. Every time you have a choice to make that involves obeying God or disobeying Him, that number is tallied in the denominator (the bottom number of the fraction). So every moral choice you make will ALWAYS cause the denominator to increase by one. The clincher comes in the actual choice you make. If you make a choice that is in line with God's standard for right living, the numerator (the top number of the fraction) also increases by one. But if you do not.........you're in trouble.

So let's say you're faced with your very first moral choice EVER in your life. The fraction would look like this:
? / 1
You decide to obey God and make a choice that lines up with His standard.
1 / 1 = 100% GREAT! PERFECTION still at hand.

But, a day comes when you're faced with another moral choice.
? / 2
Now, we know that you have at least one successful choice made, but now we need to see what choice you'll make...sadly, you don't make a very good one at all. You're left with...
1 / 2 = 50%

Ouch. Grade-wise, you just totally bombed the test.

BUT! You learn your lesson and you go through life making choice after choice the way God would have you.
2 / 3 = 66.6%
3 / 4 = 75%
4 / 5 = 80%
5 / 6 = 83.3%
6 / 7 = 85.7% ...If you keep this up, you're bound to be "good enough", right?
7 / 8 = 87.5
8 / 9 = 88.8%
9 / 10 = 90% ...but, there's something I want you to notice.

You don't need to be a math wiz to figure this out, either. Look at the difference between each percentage and the percentage after it. Each successive difference is less than the one before it.
The difference between 2 / 3 and 3 / 4 is 8.4%.
The difference between 3 / 4 and 4 / 5 is 5%.
...between 4 / 5 and 5 / 6 is 3.3%.
...5 / 6 and 6 / 7 is 2.4%.
Each increase is less than the increase before it. Pretty soon, that increase will be the size of a multi-zero decimal number. So small it will be like adding fractions of a penny to your savings account in order to build towards a million dollars. It's not happening in this lifetime.
It's true, you do get closer to 100%, but...

99 / 100 = 99% ...so close, isn't it? So close...and yet, still not perfect.

563 / 564 = 99.8%

3712 / 3713 = 99.9731%

The sobering truth is that "good enough" will never be enough to meet with God's standard for perfection. He isn't trying to be mean. There is a reason for this standard, but even if you know what that reason is (and I can get into it in another blog entry), you'll never make it on your own.

THIS is why God's love shines through so bright. God, while STILL being the God of justice - equal punishment for a crime - revealed His everlasting love by sending Jesus to die in our place...Jesus also went to Hell, if you recall. And it was God's infinite power and love that made it so the death of Christ was not a lasting death. Three days later Christ appeared alive and well...the wounds on the cross as fresh as they were the day it happened.

My friends, my visitors; fellow Xangans and random web-surfers.
If you're worried at all about whether or not you'll find yourself in Heaven, free from pain and suffering and living a never-ending life of joy and peace and rest, then why risk going to Hell when all it takes is accepting Jesus Christ's gift when He gave up HIS life to save yours? Why would you let a mere fraction of a percentage keep you from CERTAINTY? Jesus promised that even the thief on the cross, hours away from his own death, would find himself in Paradise that very day because he believed in the Lord. And that thief was certainly NOT even close to perfection.

442198 / 442199 = 99.9998%

Jesus = 100% ...make the trade. Accept the gift. Live.

(Class dismissed.)

Imagine this scenario:

You've just written an excellent blog and gotten much feedback. Many people praise your work and subscribe to you - most of whom you never knew existed (Xanga is a huge virtual place, after all).

But some of them decide to send a Xanga Friend Request (XFR), as well. Now, this isn't such a bad thing, generally speaking. It's a great way to connect with people and get their latest posts in your Inbox.

But if you're like me - or better yet, like any one of the far more popular Xangalebrities - you've got a lot of Xanga Friends already. Many of whom you actually go out of your way to read. But it can be hard to keep up with them all.

So, again, if you're like me, you've become rather selective about entries you'll read, if you manage to make the time. This is why I always subscribe to a new Xanga's page first and never send a XFR automatically.

Why? Because XFRs automatically update both parties whenever either one posts something. It's actually very presumptuous of me to ask another Xangan to accept notices from me when I post new material when they have not likely previously read anything on my site before. And even if they have, that doesn't mean they want to keep on doing so. Likewise, I'm mildly peeved when people who have read maybe one of my entries send an XFR when I haven't even had a chance to read any of their stuff...

Subscriptions are great. They're one-way updates. If I subscribe to someone, I'm free to check up on new posts without leaving my own updates on the other person's site if they don't want anyway. If they do, they can subscribe to me, too.

Now if we both have subscribed to each other, then there's a mutual interest shown as fellow bloggers. After that, I wouldn't mind sending or getting an XFR. We're already getting mutual updates through the subscriptions.

People who send XFRs initially are probably not trying to be rude. I totally give 100% benefit of the doubt on that one. But allow me to know about you first...leave a comment or just browse my site. (I check my Footprints regularly.) If I like what I read, I'll subscribe.

Just like real friends, you gotta build the relationship. Not jump from strangers to BFFs in a mere couple of mouse clicks.

This has been a moment of Michael's Xanga Etiquette.