Undercover Project!

Hello everyone! It's me, Chris! Obviously seeing as how this IS my blog. 

I wanted to let everyone know about a project that I plan to do! I am very excited to be doing this project, but I am going to need some help. 

Financially, I could use the help in getting some of the necessary gear for the project. Mostly one item in particular. Here is the URL: http://www.deluxecctv.com/catalog/hidden-cameras/1080p-hidden-covert-sophisticated-glasses-dvr-hd-spy-camera-2503.html?gclid=CMKk__Snj78CFYQ-MgodmgEAuw.

I will also be trying to raise money to buy multiple copies of "How To Quit Church Without Quitting God" by Martin Zender, to leave behind at each church for those that God gives ears to hear and eyes to see!

My idea is simple. Wear these camera glasses into a different church every week for at least 6 months. I will interview people that are just attendees or "sheep", and also the pastor/priest/etc or "shepherd". I will be recording answers that I receive to simple questions about the doctrines of "hell", immortality of the soul, the trinity, salvation of all, etc. I will also ask them about verses such as 1 Timothy 4:10, 1 Corinthians 15:22, Romans 5:18,etc. I understand that due to privacy issues and things of that nature, I will need to ask the recorded individual for permission to use the footage or I will have to blur them out in the video. 

Now I know most of you will not be able to help financially and that is okay. Here is what else you can do:

1. Message me a list of some questions that you think I should ask. (If you aren't friends with me on Facebook, feel free to add me!)

2. If you know anything about video editing and software that would be useful for this project I could use your help there! 

3. Message me to encourage me! I know this project will test me, mostly it will test my patience with the silly answers I will be receiving.

If there is anything at all that you guys can think of to help me out in this, it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Stop Trying To Earn God's Favor

Are you trying to get on God's good side? Do you feel like you need to strive to maintain God's favor or even achieve His favor to begin with? If so, then you are missing the entire point of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. If you think for one second that you need to do ANYTHING at all to achieve favor in the eyes of God, than you are sadly mistaken. Want to know a secret? God ALREADY favors you! You and everyone else that has ever been born! God is at peace with you. God loves you. Your sin's don't separate you from His grace. You have been conciliated to God. Not by anything you have done, or by anything you will do. You need to stop trying to earn God's favor and realize that....are you ready for this? GOD is trying to earn YOUR favor! 

Let me show you a passage. One of my favorites. It is found in 2 Corinthians, verses 5:18-20. It reads, "Yet all is of God, Who conciliates us to Himself through Christ, and is giving us the dispensation of the conciliation, how that God was in Christ, conciliating the world to Himself, not reckoning their offences to them, and placing in us the word of the conciliation. For Christ then, we are ambassadors as of God entreating through us. We are beseeching for Christ's sake, "Be conciliated to God!" How amazing! God is not counting our offences against us! He is already conciliated to us! We just need to realize that. God has no enmity towards us! It is we who have enmity towards HIM! God says, "I have taken care of everything and now I find no fault in you." You don't trust Him when you feel estranged from Him due to your own shortcomings and sins! You cannot out-sin grace! It is impossible! Romans 5:20, "Yet law came in by the way that the offense should be increasing. Yet where sin increases, grace SUPEREXCEEDS!"

I have been accused of condoning and even encouraging sin. I even had one guy say to me, "Well, that settles it who wants to have an orgy?" My response was, "Not with another guy, thanks though!" 

Paul was even accused of condoning sin! Romans 6:1,"What then shall we declare? That we may be persisting in sin that grace may be increasing?" Paul's response? Romans 6:2,"May it not be coming to that!" 

No I am not encouraging sin, I am encouraging you to GIVE UP trying to please God, and know that He is already pleased with you. If you sin, so what! It was taken care of. That is the entire point Christ's sacrifice. Christ freed us, not so we could be religious zealots carrying the weight of our sins and shortcomings on our shoulders, always worrying if you pleased God enough or if He is mad at you for slipping up. No, Christ freed us so we could be free! 

Are You Limiting God?

Sorry it has been quite awhile since I have blogged! I don't like to blog just for the sake of blogging though. I only blog when something is really tugging at me and I feel the need to post about it. 

Today I want to ask, are you limiting God? The Being who created everything, who runs everything, who formed you from dust (which He formed from a spoken word.) Are you LIMITING either His power, or His love? 

If you believe that God is not going to end up with 100% of His creation reconciled back to Him, then I have some humbling news for you. You are LIMITING GOD.

 If you believe that God WILLS everyone to be saved, (1 Timothy 2:4-6) but that because of man's so called 'free will' he will be unable to do so, then you are saying that creation's will is more powerful than The Creator's. You are also ignoring Ephesians 1:11, which states that God is operating ALL in accord with HIS WILL.

On the flipside, if you believe scripture about the absolute Sovereignty of God, that He is operating ALL in accord with HIS will, then you are limiting His very being, which is Love. God IS LOVE. You believe that God chooses some to be saved and go to heaven for eternity, whilst the majority is destined to be damned for all eternity, simply because God didn't choose them. If this isn't a contradiction of God's very being (Love), than I don't know what is. 

Good news though! You can believe that God is Love and also believe that God is Sovereign. If you believe these two scriptural statements then you will escape religion and it's insane legalism and scare tactics! The only way to believe 1 Timothy 2:4-6 without throwing away Ephesians 1:11 (or vice versa) , is to discard religion and use simple logic. You don't have to discard logic to believe the Scriptures. That is what religion does. Escape religion and let the truth set you free.

Final Thought:
-God wills all to be saved.
-God is operating ALL in accord with the counsel of His will.

You do the math.