I have to admit, I am a little concerned with this new trend going around in the Christian book community. Some of the hot new books being sold are calling us to remember God as a righteous judge. They claim that the church has focused too much on God's love, but ignored his justice. And there is some superiority around these "real" Christians, that have read the books, and know God's full character.
While I agree that Health and Wealth sermons are not biblical. I agree that Jesus does not call us to a life of comfort. I agree that Jesus calls us to surrender everything to Him. I do not agree with diminishing the importance of love in God's character just to prove a point.
Believe me. I get it. It is easy to attack the mega churches out there. They are a mile wide and an inch deep. They are doing it all wrong. Where's the growth? These are all valid points.
But at least they are doing something. No church is perfect. I've been in both scenarios, the mega church, seeker friendly, looking for people who don't know about God. And I've been to small churches, with spiritual people, moved by the Holy Spirit, and focused on growing deeper in the Word. If you are waiting for me to jump on one, I'm not going to.
Both are great. But neither are perfect.
They both serve a unique purpose. Both types of church provide something to people in different stages of their walk with God.
It is also popular for well intentioned ministers and deep thinkers to attack those in the church who provide a "salvation prayer." A "magical prayer" that gets people in to heaven.
Yes! We all agree that trusting Christ is more than a prayer. It is surrendering your life. But isn't praying to God, and telling him that you are putting your faith in him, part of the whole believe in your heart, confess with your mouth passage in the Bible? At least a prayer is a start. It may not be the perfect tiny package of Christianity all in one small prayer, but it is leading people down a road to Christ.
I don't want to come across as favoring one side or the other. Nothing makes me angrier than watching a pastor of a huge church on TV preach and seemingly shrink away from mentioning the existence of sin or sacrifice. And I get mad when I see small churches that haven't grown for years, sitting in their pews, tithing, but not getting their hands dirty, doing the work of God in the world.
I'm sorry if this angered you. But in some ways, I hope it got you thinking. There is no one right way to do church. Quit thinking your way is superior. You do church your way because that is how you feel comfortable, or that is how God called you to do it. That is great! But that doesn't mean it is the way everyone is supposed to do church. Christ is for everyone. But there are different churches for different people.
Let's try and find the middle road between the Health and Wealth Gospel, and Hell Fire and Brimstone Preaching.
God is love. God is righteous. But let's not diminish one to exalt the other.
Showing posts with label sin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sin. Show all posts
Sinners Like Us
"1 You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things. 2 And we know that God, in his justice, will punish anyone who does such things. 3 Since you judge others for doing these things, why do you think you can avoid God’s judgment when you do the same things? 4 Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?" -Romans 2:1-4 (NLT)
If you read Romans 1 you see Paul discuss some sins that people had been doing. He lists their shameful acts. He says they were doing every sort of "wickedness." Going on about how it is wrong. When you're reading it, it is easy to start thinking that you are better than them, and condemn these wicked people in your mind for their transgressions. It is like Paul knows what you are thinking and at the beginning of Romans 2 says this. He basically flips it on you.
I focus so much time and effort into improving myself, trying to live up to God's standards, follow the Bible's example, etc. That when I see other people who genuinely don't care about what the Bible says I have a natural response to look down on them. I can easily think of myself as better than them, since at least I'm not committing those sins.
But I'm not better than them. And neither are you. We all sin. The wages of sin is death, we are all guilty of sin. The standard Jesus set was perfection and we all fall short of that. Whether we fall short of it by an inch or a mile doesn't matter, we are all in the same boat: sinners in need of a savior. Through accepting Christ's sacrifice, we are forgiven by God. We must ingrain it in our heads that we earned nothing. God owed us nothing. It is through God's grace that we are saved.
On paper, I know it is easy to agree with that, yet how quickly we forget that we have done nothing to earn God's love, when we see someone doing something we know is wrong. We immediately think of how we wouldn't do that, how we're better than that. We're NOT.
Think of yourself. How you used to be, when you were in their shoes. When you knew no better. What did you need at that moment, condemnation or love? We are all sinners, we have all been there. Be careful not to get too full of yourself just because you found Jesus. He has been there the whole time, He was waiting for you, just like He is waiting for them now.
Remember, God loves them just as much as He loves us. There is nothing we can do to make God love us more or less. He already loves us unconditionally and more than we can imagine. This scripture talks of God's kindness with us, He is patient with us when we sin.
We must remember that if God is patient with us, we must be patient with others. Do not judge them, do not look down on someone, do not condemn someone if you think they are doing wrong. See them as Christ would see them, with compassion.
We love Him because He first loved us.
So we have to love on others, no matter how close or far away they are from God. You're not better than anyone just because you're a Christian. God loves them just as much as He loves us. So love them, too.
If you read Romans 1 you see Paul discuss some sins that people had been doing. He lists their shameful acts. He says they were doing every sort of "wickedness." Going on about how it is wrong. When you're reading it, it is easy to start thinking that you are better than them, and condemn these wicked people in your mind for their transgressions. It is like Paul knows what you are thinking and at the beginning of Romans 2 says this. He basically flips it on you.
I focus so much time and effort into improving myself, trying to live up to God's standards, follow the Bible's example, etc. That when I see other people who genuinely don't care about what the Bible says I have a natural response to look down on them. I can easily think of myself as better than them, since at least I'm not committing those sins.
But I'm not better than them. And neither are you. We all sin. The wages of sin is death, we are all guilty of sin. The standard Jesus set was perfection and we all fall short of that. Whether we fall short of it by an inch or a mile doesn't matter, we are all in the same boat: sinners in need of a savior. Through accepting Christ's sacrifice, we are forgiven by God. We must ingrain it in our heads that we earned nothing. God owed us nothing. It is through God's grace that we are saved.
On paper, I know it is easy to agree with that, yet how quickly we forget that we have done nothing to earn God's love, when we see someone doing something we know is wrong. We immediately think of how we wouldn't do that, how we're better than that. We're NOT.
Think of yourself. How you used to be, when you were in their shoes. When you knew no better. What did you need at that moment, condemnation or love? We are all sinners, we have all been there. Be careful not to get too full of yourself just because you found Jesus. He has been there the whole time, He was waiting for you, just like He is waiting for them now.
Remember, God loves them just as much as He loves us. There is nothing we can do to make God love us more or less. He already loves us unconditionally and more than we can imagine. This scripture talks of God's kindness with us, He is patient with us when we sin.
We must remember that if God is patient with us, we must be patient with others. Do not judge them, do not look down on someone, do not condemn someone if you think they are doing wrong. See them as Christ would see them, with compassion.
We love Him because He first loved us.
So we have to love on others, no matter how close or far away they are from God. You're not better than anyone just because you're a Christian. God loves them just as much as He loves us. So love them, too.
Separation
Today is one of those days where I feel like my prayers are hitting the ceiling. Like I can't get through to God. My mind won't focus, I have to fight distractions and discouragement. There is no major crisis or disaster I am dealing with, something just isn't right.
I think days like this are caused by disobedience. When I finally realize that something is wrong, something is different, hopefully it gets through to me that something needs to be fixed.
Times like this, I'm forced to think back through the last day or two. I have to check my actions, my pride, and my motives. I'm not sure if this is how it works in your life, but this is how it goes in mine.
My disobedience is sin. The ironic thing is God is just giving me what I thought I wanted. When we sin, we are declaring our independence from God. Most times "independence" is seen as a good thing, in this case it is not. We are saying we don't need to depend on God. I got it, I'm good, thanks for the help, I'll take it from here God. It is a dumb move, but when we sin that is what we do. God loves us and wants us to have our best life, we disagree, we think we know what's best, we declare it with sin, and are basically saying we know better than God.
So I think these nights when I feel distant from God are a result of previous sin. God is saying you wanted to be out on your own, here is a little taste. I know He would never let me go, the Bible says He never loses one of His flock.
Sin gets into our hearts, it hardens our hearts from God. In Philippians, Paul says we should have tender hearts like Christ. Sin does the opposite. It hardens our hearts, pulls us from God, makes us more defensive to His message and His call. That is why it is so hard for people far from God to come to Him.
So what do we do? We have to give it all up to Him. Repent, confess, apologize, whatever you want to call it. We have to go back to Christ. Make things right, ask for His boundless grace, and as Paul says, REJOICE when He forgives us!
I think days like this are caused by disobedience. When I finally realize that something is wrong, something is different, hopefully it gets through to me that something needs to be fixed.
Times like this, I'm forced to think back through the last day or two. I have to check my actions, my pride, and my motives. I'm not sure if this is how it works in your life, but this is how it goes in mine.
My disobedience is sin. The ironic thing is God is just giving me what I thought I wanted. When we sin, we are declaring our independence from God. Most times "independence" is seen as a good thing, in this case it is not. We are saying we don't need to depend on God. I got it, I'm good, thanks for the help, I'll take it from here God. It is a dumb move, but when we sin that is what we do. God loves us and wants us to have our best life, we disagree, we think we know what's best, we declare it with sin, and are basically saying we know better than God.
So I think these nights when I feel distant from God are a result of previous sin. God is saying you wanted to be out on your own, here is a little taste. I know He would never let me go, the Bible says He never loses one of His flock.
Sin gets into our hearts, it hardens our hearts from God. In Philippians, Paul says we should have tender hearts like Christ. Sin does the opposite. It hardens our hearts, pulls us from God, makes us more defensive to His message and His call. That is why it is so hard for people far from God to come to Him.
So what do we do? We have to give it all up to Him. Repent, confess, apologize, whatever you want to call it. We have to go back to Christ. Make things right, ask for His boundless grace, and as Paul says, REJOICE when He forgives us!
understanding sin
Today I was reading about Paul's take on sin. The concept is so huge, that it's hard to wrap my head around. Praise the Lord, that we are free from sin, and that sin's power is broken once we are joined with Christ.
The hard part to get is that although we are free from sin, and it doesn't control us, as humans we still have a sinful nature. Due to this sinful nature, we do what is wrong. This is really depressing, because even when I want to do right, my flesh is pulling me to do what is wrong. The way I have broken it down is that my skin always wants to do wrong, even though I am no longer forced to do wrong. Because of Jesus, I have another option which wasn't there before, the option to do right. The power of God is able to break the chains of sin, but the reason I keep sinning and giving into my flesh is because I don't call on God enough. The reason I don't call on God enough is because of my sinful desires.
It is comforting to read what Paul says about this in Romans, he says that sin uses the law to put evil desires in us. Once we know what is right, sin then uses that to tempt us to do what we now know is wrong. I know its confusing, but try and bear with me. Paul says that since he knows what he is doing is wrong, it shows that he agrees that the law is good, and that he is not the one doing what is wrong, it is the sin within him.
This doesn't mean we can just accept the fact that we're going to sin and do it without thought. We must fight it, go to God more, and break these chains. That is the only way to get closer to God. God uses people that are close to Him to do amazing things.
I know this is a confusing subject, and I know this blog is probably more for me than anyone else, and probably very hard to understand due to me writing in circles. But I felt like God shed a little light on the subject for me, and that I should share. Who knows, maybe this will help somebody.
The hard part to get is that although we are free from sin, and it doesn't control us, as humans we still have a sinful nature. Due to this sinful nature, we do what is wrong. This is really depressing, because even when I want to do right, my flesh is pulling me to do what is wrong. The way I have broken it down is that my skin always wants to do wrong, even though I am no longer forced to do wrong. Because of Jesus, I have another option which wasn't there before, the option to do right. The power of God is able to break the chains of sin, but the reason I keep sinning and giving into my flesh is because I don't call on God enough. The reason I don't call on God enough is because of my sinful desires.
It is comforting to read what Paul says about this in Romans, he says that sin uses the law to put evil desires in us. Once we know what is right, sin then uses that to tempt us to do what we now know is wrong. I know its confusing, but try and bear with me. Paul says that since he knows what he is doing is wrong, it shows that he agrees that the law is good, and that he is not the one doing what is wrong, it is the sin within him.
This doesn't mean we can just accept the fact that we're going to sin and do it without thought. We must fight it, go to God more, and break these chains. That is the only way to get closer to God. God uses people that are close to Him to do amazing things.
I know this is a confusing subject, and I know this blog is probably more for me than anyone else, and probably very hard to understand due to me writing in circles. But I felt like God shed a little light on the subject for me, and that I should share. Who knows, maybe this will help somebody.
soapbox reminder
hey guys, just one quick thing to help you through your week:
it is in our weakness, that God is strong. Paul begged God to take away this sin that had a grip on his life, that he struggled with daily, and failed constantly at conquering, and God wouldn't take it away. why? so that Paul would depend on God. it forced Paul to come to grips with his own weakness and rely on the Lord. in Romans, Paul says we are a slave to the sin that corrupts us, and the only way to break that bondage is to rely on Jesus.
don't know why, but i felt like i should share that.
it is in our weakness, that God is strong. Paul begged God to take away this sin that had a grip on his life, that he struggled with daily, and failed constantly at conquering, and God wouldn't take it away. why? so that Paul would depend on God. it forced Paul to come to grips with his own weakness and rely on the Lord. in Romans, Paul says we are a slave to the sin that corrupts us, and the only way to break that bondage is to rely on Jesus.
don't know why, but i felt like i should share that.
