Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Jesus take the wheel?

Do we trust God to be God?
How man any times in the walk of believer do we come to a point where we want to make people believe. Some times we don't share the gospel, sometimes we shove it.
This is something that God has been working on with me.  When presenting a scripture, or Biblical truth I tend to become zealous for God in a way. I have a desire for people to see God, and I have a hatred for falsehood and sometimes that clouds my vision. It clouds my vision because instead of looking at GOD to do HIS work in the life of whom ever I have presented HIS word to, I look at a sense of logic, I look at a sense of a lie that needs correction. I see the avenues of the falsehoods propagation and it bothers me. The zeal is almost right, but it isn't tempered with the grace and patience of God.


I had lunch with some friends a while back and I shared with them leviticus 11, and how God saying that something is not food will not become suddenly food without God changing His mind, something scripture states that He does not do. Bacon is a big issue for a lot of people.  We had this conversation and as it always does every time this conversation takes place, passions flared on both sides. My passion was for these people to see something that the Bible calls a sin, as such.  When I presented the logic, I sought prayer from friends. I prayed that I not get in the way of whatever God would do. That I not lay awake at night upset about the doctrine. I prayed for peace. What my friedns and family kept emphasizing to me, and what I felt impressed by God was the the same. " Don't push"  That was not exactly what I wanted to hear in my desire to make people believe, but I've been working on compliance.

Fast forward to Sunday, I'm having lunch with a friend. I'm paying and they ask me to "Please don't be mad if I order bacon"  It gave me pause. On the one hand, I know it's a sin. I know that it shouldn't be consumed and it's something that God equates to being an abomination. On the other hand, it is something that they are to work out with God. It's up to the Holy Spirit to impress upon them what they already have been presented.  They knew the word because I had shared it with them. I didn't need to hammer them with it. I reminded them that its something between them and God.
Same thing happened today at lunch with a different friend.  He asked if I'd get angry if he ordered a superslam sandwich with bacon on it.
It occurred to me by the  fact that both of these friends were asking this, that the point was made. the seed is there. My part in sharing the truth is done. The part where I give them the truth is fulfilled, but it isn't my job to make them believe. It isnt my job to make them walk as I would walk. People are at different points in their journey with God. Somethings that others have so easily, I struggle with. Some things that I have have down, others struggle with. We're each reaching toward God and working out our salvation with fear and trembling, I hope. I take myself out of the equation and let God be God. I would be a terrible Holy Spirit.

So let God be God. Share scriptures,  share the truth, but don't shove it.

Friday, July 1, 2016

Feelings, and the Feeling Feelers that Feel them.

At a Thursday night bible study we've been making our way through 1 john and at the time of my writing this, we just went through chapter 4. It starts off with this:
"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world."

After we spent some time ripping into a popular greasy mulleted Caucasian television pastor who often dawns a plastered smile beneath his beady alligator eyes I began thinking about the greater body. God gave us feelings and those feelings reflect attributes of His nature and personality, but they are not the bedrock upon which decision making is to be built upon. There is this mentality that permeates the church in, well America for sure, I don't know about everywhere else. The idea that Faith in God/ Christianity is all about the individual and that isn't what the scriptures show in full context.


Yes, Christ died to redeem you personally from your sins. Yes, you must have a personal relationship with the Father through Him by the Holy Spirit. However there is this idea that as we are the recipient of so much love and adoration by God that we are some how exalted into a place where our ideas; concepts, and own standards of what we think is right is lifted up above God's ways and word.

Creepy greasy tv pastors wife was even on tv once telling people:
""I just want to encourage every one of us to realize when we obey God, we're not doing it for God—I mean, that's one way to look at it—we're doing it for ourselves, because God takes pleasure when we're happy. That's the thing that gives Him the greatest joy. So, I want you to know this morning: Just do good for your own self. Do good because God wants you to be happy. When you come to church, when you worship Him, you're not doing it for God really. You're doing it for yourself, because that's what makes God happy.

For those who do not know the Word of God, this has the appearance of being right. It's shiny. God is love after all and we being the recipient of his love only wants us to be happy right?

Actually wrong. What God wants for you and I and everyone in the history of ever, is that we would be Holy. That we would be like Him instead of our own selfish selves. That instead of listening to our own flesh, we'd seek out what His will is, and His word. Here is the scripture that directly refutes what greasy pastors wife said


2 tim 2
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such peopleThis is the heart of what "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world" means.

Where did sin start?
"The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!  For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate"- Gen 3

It started with feelings that were swaying people into actions that are contrary to the ACTUAL Word of God

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