what is worthy of living unashamed?

I want to start off by saying that there are many things to be ashamed of. In this life we will have shamefull days, acts, friends, and woredrobes, but this is not applied to the Gospel of Christ. Many who know me know that my life text, if you'd wanna call it that, is romans 1:16, and throughout my christian walk this text has been lived out, unpacked, and revealed in many ways. So, allow me to try to put in finite words, what the Lord has allowed me to know. My B.C life, life Before Christ, was a shameful life, yet I boasted on all the shameful deeds i did. My life was ruled by status, sports,money, women, sex, drugs and music. Allow me to elaborat. In middle and high school i was addicted to alchohol, cocaine, and weed. Partying was my life at a young age, and that was what i boasted on. Monday mornings were filled with conversations about "how much i drank, how much drugs i did, and how many "chicks" i was with." Friday afternoons were spent talking about what drugs, girls, and parties i would be affiliated with. Shameful acts boasted on by a shameful boy. Yet, is this not the status of the world, is this not what the world boast on, and in the process the people of the world take upon the identity of the world and what it protrays. Sports, though in and of itself is not sinful, became my god, and that is sinful. I was a good student but not for education sake, but for sports, i pass i play, i fail i dont play, simple as that. So, i exhaulted basketball to the position of God, meaning it was the reason i lived and breathed. Music, i love to rap, and God has giving me a gift of using words to get accross an message in lyrical form, so i used that as a means to exhault myself, and the god i served, which were money,sex, status, and me. Shameful! My life was ruled by the worlds system, which is, do all and anything you need to do to make you happy, and may i say, i was good at it. Shameful! i used drugs, girls, and people for my own pleasure and boasted on it to all who have an ear. Praise God for not giving me up to my lust, for i could have gotten an S.T.D, thank God i didnt never had an overdose, even though many nights of using should have brought death. Now when i think of that life, i say "shame... shame... shame on me!" Now the life I live is something not to be ashamed of, but to boast on! "i am not ashamed of the Gospel" says paul, why? "for it is the power of God unto salvation" for whom? "to anyone who believes, first the Jew and also the Greek." I was anyone, in need of the life giving power of the Gospel of Christ. Before Jesus all i had was the wrath of the Father awaiting me, oh but what a gracious act for God to give up His only Begotten Son to save a great sinner as I. Now what i boast on is the same Gospel that Paul, John, Peter, James, and God Himself proclaimed. That God would send a Seed (Jesus) to crush the head of the serpent, and for all the world to repent and believe in this truth. The almighty, everlasting, infite, and holy God, became flesh. Wait, there is more. This fully God, fully Man named Jesus, lived a perfect life, sinless, and pure, but was treated as a criminal and was executed as a criminal. Wait, there is more. This perfect, holy, pure Man, was placed on a cross making Him a curse (galatians 3:13) and bearing our sins and drinking the full wrath of God's cup, that was meant for us, being seperated from the Father. That is nothing shameful, but all praise worthy. Wait, there is more. He rose from the tomb in the third day, accended in to heaven, being seen by hundreds, and now sits in the right hand of the Father, forever making intercession for His church, Wow! now that's awesome!!! From a life addicted to the world system, to becoming a christian and being a slave of Christ, and all was done by the Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, and none by me. That's worthy to boast on, the cross of salvation. I hope and pray that this is edifying to the Church, and that all christians everywhere live an unashamed life with the cross in the center. May the God of peace be exhaulted in your life. Grace and Peace from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!

Burger.