The View From Here

Friends,

I am writing this letter because I believe, as I am sure you do, that it is extremely important to stand up for what you believe in. I know that some of my beliefs may be strange or even weird to you, but I would ask that you at least respect me for standing up for my beliefs. As some of you already know, the language and topics discussed at our poker and other gatherings do offend me but I am not asking you to stop for me. I believe that, more importantly, it offends God. This is the only reason it even offends me. If I knew that it did not bother God then it would not bother me. But the fact is that I know it does bother Him. To keep this letter short and to the point, I won’t go into why it bothers Him, but if you are interested I will tell you.

I do not write this to condemn you. That is not my job. I do write this letter because it is God’s job to condemn those who do not follow His way and because I consider all of you my friends. The last thing I would want you to have to endure is God’s wrath. I think the record will show that I am at least a decently smart person and, yes, I do believe that God will sit in judgment over all humanity on whether or not we held to His standard. You might ask which standard that is. I believe it is the standard put forth in God’s written word, the Bible. Unfortunately, in the same book we find this standard, we also find that there is none of us who can keep it. In other words, no matter what you do, you will never be able to live up to God’s standard on your own. You will stand in front of God someday and He will judge you according to your ability to live up to His standard. Since we cannot live up to this high standard He has set, we will all be condemned.

That isn’t the end of the story though. God knows that we will never be able to live up to the standard He set, so in His mercy to us, He provided us a way out of this condemnation. He sent His son, Jesus, to be the object of His wrath and judgment for us. Jesus took our place because there was nothing we could ever do to satisfy His justice. I guess I should say that Jesus can take our place. We have a choice. If we accept Christ’s sacrifice for us, when we stand before God, Jesus will stand before God along side us and say, “I have already paid the price for this one. You have already punished me for his inability to live up to your standard.” All we have to do is accept Jesus’ sacrifice for us. Truly accepting this free gift will cause a change in us. We will no longer want the things that are contrary to God’s standard; instead we will hunger for the things that our Creator requires of us. We will be free of our sin. It will no longer hold us in . Instead, we will be free to act in a way that is pleasing to God, our Creator and Savior. Not only that, we will have a relationship with the God who created us. From my personal experience, and many others out there, this is a truly amazing thing.

All of that to get to my point. I have accepted Christ’s sacrifice, therefore I live for Him. Choosing to be around the kind of content that is present at our poker and other gatherings is getting harder for me to do. I really feel that if the atmosphere stays the same I might not be able to come. I do not want you to change for me. Living a moral life is well and good, but cannot save you. I would pray that, instead of just conforming to a level of morality to keep me around, you would come to know Christ. Maybe you already feel that you do. If that is the case, I would call you to commit yourself to following God’s standard set forth in His Word. If you have any question about what I am talking about, ask me. I would be more than happy to explain to the best of my ability.

My goal here is not to offend you. My goal, in this letter and the way I live my life, is to draw you to Christ. I pray that you would see that a relationship with God is so much better than the pleasures that this world offers. Thank you for your time and attention. Please let me know if you want to know more about what I have written about.

In Christ,
Brian Casey