Thursday, August 21, 2014

Love vs. Law

This is a topic that God is having me meditate on quite a bit lately. A dictator lays out the law and then uses force to create fear, producing adherence to their will. This is how the world sees relationship. You see it everywhere. The powerful lord it over the less fortunate in oppression until there is finally a revolt.

This is not just seen in corporate context, but also in individual context. We have terms like "alpha male" and "alpha female" for the overbearing in each sex, and "the one who wears the pants" in a relationship. These things are praised in our culture, for we are all equally deceived as to how a relationship should function. It is in this deception that our view of God is also distorted.

Because we have a tainted view of relationships, and do not know or understand true love, we assume that God functions in this same dysfunctional manner. We view the Law of God as something laid down by a cruel dictator, and listen for the cracking of lightening being sent from Heaven to strike those who fail to bend to His will. If God were anything like us, then surely He would squash us like bugs for not bending to His will.

When Jesus came, he brought a whole new idea with Him. Those of us that belong to Him hear His Word, and we obey. We do not obey out of fear, but rather out of relationship. This is the Gospel of the Kingdom. Through KNOWING the love that God has for us, of which He FIRST loved us, we then have a desire to love Him.

When we begin to know God, understanding what He has done for us, and what He desires, we are transformed, and so is every relationship we have a part in. This is why we are a "new creation", we begin to function and be different from how the rest of the world sees things and believes. It is not because we are better rule followers, or because we are better people, but rather because we know love and relationship.

This understanding then transcends everything we do, think, say, and believe. As a parent I am no longer interested in "laying down the law", and making sure my children do what I think they should. Instead, I live out my faith and relationship with God, and I love my children. I focus on the relationship, building something that will last through whatever we may endure in life together, knowing that from that relationship they will have trust in my direction and love for them.

With our spouse, the need for our "right" dissipates, and I am not concerned about who is "wearing the pants". I can serve my wife faithfully, striving to know her and build a relationship with her, because I know that it is that relationship that will hold us together when the challenges of life are difficult.

Love Over Everything. This life is ALL about relationships, and this understanding comes from forming a working relationship with the living God. This should be our focus, and then the fruit of this relationship will pour out into our lives. This is the Gospel. This is what Jesus has done for us. He has opened the gates to Heaven, and no man can close what He has opened. Repent and turn to God that you may be healed.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Suicide and Hell

Anonymous Question: I only have one question for you sir. What are your beliefs when it come to someone committing suicide? Do they go straight to hell?


My Answer: I don't believe that they do sir. The Bible describes an all powerful, merciful, just, and loving God who has chosen to love us and save us only because it pleases Him to do so. We are ALL sinners, in which nothing good dwells, and the selfishness in us is the evidence of the sin. God saves whom He wishes, and those He saves EVERY sin is forgiven and forgotten. It is God who saves us, not us who saves us, so no matter what we do God will perform His purpose and pleasure. A saved person who has not come to fully know the love God has for them could very easily kill them self, but God's love for that person is unconditional and will not change no matter what they do. God's love is AMAZING!


Romans 9:11, 13-18 NKJV
(for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.” What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.


Daniel 4:35 NKJV
All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven And among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand Or say to Him, “What have You done?”


Psalms 33:8-12 NKJV
Let all the earth fear the Lord ; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, The plans of His heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord , The people He has chosen as His own inheritance.

If you can hear the voice of Lord calling to your heart my friend, it is because He loves you. Not everyone responds to His voice, but those of us who belong to Him do.

John 10:25-27 NKJV
Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me. But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me."

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

What is a Christian?

I asked Hayden how he could tell who was a Christian the other day, but then I told him not to answer that. I said we should take it one step farther, and asked him what a Christian was. He gave the typical worldly textbook answer, no offense to him because he obviously just didn't know the truth yet, of a Christian being someone who follows Jesus example and strives to live like Him. Though innocent on my son's behalf, this is a sick and corrupt lie. Because I love my son, I told him the truth.

A Christian is a person that the living God has filled with His Holy Spirit. Period. No exceptions. Anything else is just a sugar coated facade.

Ezekiel 36:26-27 NKJV
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

John 1:12-13 NKJV
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.