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.

We Are Not The Potter

By calling out people because they are different than you and even going so far as to shun other because they aren't like you, we are spreading a message of hate and selfishness.

If we ever want to see this world become a better place, we are going to have to learn that not everyone is exactly how you think they should be. We are all unique individuals with different talents and different interests. The world would be a boring place if we were all the same. So why are we shunning those who are different? Why do we treat people as if they deserve less than we do? A human is a human. We are causing people to have MENTAL DISORDERS because we are too STUBBORN to let go of our stereotypes and stigmas, and just see people as they are without trying to change them into how WE think they should be. It isn't OUR job to form someone into what WE think he or she should be. Someone else is taking care of that. Someone else is forming each individual exactly how He sees fit. So why don't we put down our hammers and our chisels and watch what He makes out of us? I promise you that in the end, nobody will be disappointed in His handiwork.

Stop Hating

This world is hurting. It is crying out for hope. Crying out for love. Only to be answered with hate and despair. We are supposed to be bringing good news to people. The GOSPEL. We are supposed to be freeing people from the chains of religion, hate, and rules. Instead we offer a message of "hope" by threatening people with a never ending torment should they refuse God's gift. There is a fake gospel out there. And it is being preached in the name of love. Turn or burn is the "gospel" I am referring to. It goes something like this: God loves you so much that He sent His son Jesus Christ to die for you. However you must choose to believe in this sacrifice otherwise Christ's payment doesn't apply to you, and you will burn forever in a place called hell. God's love is unconditional, however there is one condition. You must CHOOSE to accept His payment. Also, once you accept this "free gift" you must abide by certain rules or at least try your hardest, because if you don't then you either aren't TRULY saved because if you were you would follow the rules, or you are going to LOSE your salvation. It is free but only if you maintain it. Why can't we just learn to preach truly good news? The gospel that Paul, our apostle, taught? Paul never used the word hell in his writings (hades, sheol, gehenna, or tartarus). He even called God the Savior of all mankind. 1 Timothy 4:10. He uses parallel passages such as Romans 5:18 and 1 Corinthians 15:22 to compare Adam's act and effects with Christ's act and FULLY REVERSING effect. If you have faith in Christ's sacrifice you can thank God for that faith. It is not out of you. Ephesians 2:8-9. We as a race will never be able to LOVE like God calls us to love, until we realize that people are just the way God wants them to be and made them to be to fit perfectly in His perfect plan. Yes, that means that Hitler was part of God's plan. Ephesians 1:11 says that God is operating ALL in accord with His own will. That means you can love everybody JUST THE WAY THEY ARE. That heroin addict? That drunkard? That homosexual? That prostitute? (if it is a guy, That prositdude?) EVEN the hypocritical Christians that are mixing hatred with their so called "gospel". God is using them all for His own purpose. So let us stop judging and start loving. You will find that it is much easier to forgive people when you realize that God is in control of it all. Stop threatening homosexuals and drunkards and prostitutes, etc with "hell". Stop following your pastor blindly. Wake up to the TRUE GOSPEL. To TRULY GOOD NEWS. Read 1 Timothy 4:10, Romans 5:18, 1 Corinthians 15:22-28, Romans 11:32, Colossians 1:20, 1 Timothy 2:4-6. Etc. STOP HATING, STOP JUDGING, START LOVING!

Greater Faith

Simple question. Who has greater faith?

 1.The man who has heard of Christ's sacrifice and believes it, then tries the rest of his life to please God and make Him happy in order to maintain his right standing with God. This man goes to a church building every Sunday and Wednesday, gives 10% of his income to the offering plate, doesn't say a naughty word ever, never enjoys a beer, wouldn't dare look at a woman and admire the sight, and if he catches himself starts begging God for forgiveness for he is afraid of what God might do to him. He spends the rest of his life avoiding anything that could potentially be a sin because if he messes up God will not be happy with Him.

2. The man who hasn't even HEARD of God but believes in his heart that God loves everyone just the way they are. He ENJOYS his life not being afraid of what God may do to him if he doesn't live up to a certain expectation. This man LOVES others because he believes that whatever God we all come from loves everyone just the same. This man also happens to get drunk every once in awhile, he may even watch pornography. But he isn't afraid of what God will do to him because he knows that God loves him no matter what he does.

I believe that Man 2 has stronger faith. He BELIEVES that God loves him no matter what. Man 1 believes in a god with conditional love whereas Man 2 sees God's love as unconditional. I don't condone sinful activity but if it came down to two choices, one being to believe that Christ did literally EVERYTHING needed to save you, thereby FREEING you to ENJOY life without worry of condemnation (no matter what you do). The second being to believe that Christ paid for your sins but you must make an effort to stop sinning the rest of your life or His sacrifice was in vain. I would choose to rest in what Christ did and enjoy my life.

Galatians 5

Young's Literal Translation (YLT)

5 In the freedom, then, with which Christ did make you free -- stand ye, and be not held fast again by a yoke of servitude;

2 lo, I Paul do say to you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing;

3 and I testify again to every man circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law;

4 ye were freed from the Christ, ye who in law are declared righteous; from the grace ye fell away;

Christ freed us, not to enslave us under fear of condemnation, no. He freed us to be FREE! So if you must sin, sin boldy. In the words of Martin Luther, "Sin boldy! But let your trust in Christ be bolder."

Have Not Love

1 Corinthians 13

Young's Literal Translation (YLT)

13 If with the tongues of men and of messengers I speak, and have not love, I have become brass sounding, or a cymbal tinkling;

2 and if I have prophecy, and know all the secrets, and all the knowledge, and if I have all the faith, so as to remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing;

3 and if I give away to feed others all my goods, and if I give up my body that I may be burned, and have not love, I am profited nothing.

4 The love is long-suffering, it is kind, the love doth not envy, the love doth not vaunt itself, is not puffed up,

5 doth not act unseemly, doth not seek its own things, is not provoked, doth not impute evil,

6 rejoiceth not over the unrighteousness, and rejoiceth with the truth;

7 all things it beareth, all it believeth, all it hopeth, all it endureth.

8 The love doth never fail; and whether [there be] prophecies, they shall become useless; whether tongues, they shall cease; whether knowledge, it shall become useless;

9 for in part we know, and in part we prophecy;

10 and when that which is perfect may come, then that which [is] in part shall become useless.

11 When I was a babe, as a babe I was speaking, as a babe I was thinking, as a babe I was reasoning, and when I have become a man, I have made useless the things of the babe;

12 for we see now through a mirror obscurely, and then face to face; now I know in part, and then I shall fully know, as also I was known;

13 and now there doth remain faith, hope, love -- these three; and the greatest of these [is] love.

This passage of scripture is, in my opinion, a very neglected passage. The religious today put more emphasis on works and sometimes even faith (which they claim to have mustered up themselves) than they seem to ever put on love. In fact love towards other sinners is seen as heresy in some cases. If you are a "Christian", God forbid you love others as Christ loves them.. no, no, no. They are gay?! Well they can not come worship God in THIS church. That man is a drunk?! Well if he were closer to God than he wouldn't be that way. The church and the religious system as a whole is built around self-righteousness and hate. Christianity condemns sins such as drunkenness, homosexuality, adultery, etc. However, it promotes two of the greatest injustices in the history of the world. Hate and Self-Righteousness. They go hand in hand. If you believe that you are righteous due to any effort at all on your part, you will become judgmental, because in your mind YOU did something right, whereas Bob across the street didn't. The myth of "free will" promotes self-righteousness and hate. Both of which the Lord despises.

So many today put so much emphasis on faith, yet forget it is GOD who gives them that faith. Listen to what Paul says though, "and if I have all the faith, so as to remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing;" You can have all the faith in the world! But if you don't have love, you are nothing.

When you realize that you play no part at all in your salvation, and that God through Christ has done EVERY ounce of the work for you and for everyone else that has ever lived, is living now, or ever will live, then (and only then) can you be free from self-righteousness and hate. Then you will truly be filled with the love of Christ and you will be free to share that love with everyone around you, regardless of their sexual orientation, habits, beliefs, and whatever else people are judged for.

Remember, you can have all the faith in the world. But without love, you are nothing...

More Than You Can Handle

Have you ever heard the phrase, "God will never give you more than you can handle?" I am sure most of you have. This is supposed to be an encouraging phrase, in order to motivate you to follow through with something, or to help you during a rough time in life. However, I believe this phrase to be inaccurate and quite amusing. In fact I find it to be completely false. People who use this phrase are missing the point of trials. God WILL give you more than you can handle. If you could handle everything thrown your way, why would you ever want to know God? What motivation would you have to be close to God? God gives people more than they can handle in order for them to rely on God.  Without impossible circumstances we wouldn't need God. Do you think Moses could handle delivering the Hebrews out of Egypt if it weren't for God's help? Imagine if Moses tried to do it alone, with no help from God. Nothing would have happened. Pharaoh would have laughed and went back to drining his tea. With God all things are possible, without God, nothing is.