// June 1st, 2010 // No Comments » // My God, My Life, My Thoughts
It is amazing to me how God’s will is constantly moving us. Moving us in or out of places or positions of service. Using our own actions and the course of our lives to bring a magnificent symphony of his design and purpose into existence. We have only to be at peace that his will is done and we are gracefully included in it!
- JasonTheBaldGuy
jasonthebaldguy.com
Tags: God's sovereignty, God's will, My God// June 19th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // My God, My Thoughts
The Pharisees were harsh and judgmental of anything that did not fit their ideology of righteousness. Yet Jesus Continually rebuked them and warned them that they would be judged accordingly. Isn’t is strange that so many Christians still insist on acting more like Pharisees and less like the Jesus that we claim to follow?
Someone very wise once said that cynicism, skepticism, and criticism are the opposites of faith, hope and love.
Harsh, Angry, Judgmental behavior is often more of an indicator of fear and lack of truth than anything else…If you are familiar with discerning truth you probably already know, Truth can stand up to challenging… without anger, without resentment, without fear.
It seems that I do not go very long these days without hearing fresh news of Christians who forget the Jesus that they follow and begin acting like the very brood of vipers that Jesus rebuked. Some would seem to believe that a position of leadership entitles them to such behavior, I would beg to differ and I beleive that I can safely say that regardless of your status as a leader, if you deal with your own brothers and sisters in Christ harshly, critizising, accusing, causing them pain, then you are a fool and you do not understand the message of the Gospel at all!
I say this very seriously and with great love in my heart for every person that reads this.
If you deal with others in a harsh, critical, judgmental manner, do you think that you will escape the judgment of God? Do not deceive yourself, such things bring shame on the church and the people of God.
My life is filled with people who have been hurt by religion and Christians in particular, and it fully angers me that these hurting people were never the ones that sat in their pews doing nothing, they were once passionate, and christlike, and hungry to serve. But some egotist made it their business to shut down the work of God. Again I tell you …. do you expect to escape his wrath?
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. 1 Corinthians 10:12
PEOPLE! Give grace! love each other, be gentle with each other… LEADERS! Be kind, be compassionate, be merciful and nurturing!
If you insist on acting like a brood of vipers get out of the Church business!!! Wall Street needs you!!!
photo credit: nsaplayer
// June 18th, 2009 // No Comments » // My God, My Thoughts
photo credit: Paleontour
I don’t know how to say this more plainly, If you accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross… you get to go to heaven! The thief on the cross accepted that Jesus was the Christ, and asked Jesus to remember him, and Jesus agreed.. and said ‘before the sun has set you will be with me in paradise’. Luke 23:42-43 With this one solitary act Jesus provides on one hand a nice sound smack in the face for all the “legalistic Pharisaical goody goodies” from that day to this one; and on the other hand a glimmer of hope for those of us who are, for lack of better definition, not quite capable of actually being decent enough humans to muster up an honest dose of self-righeousness. Yep… it seems the playing field is actually in our favor, and I have to say I am pleased as punch about it!
I am what most people would call a “good” man, but most people don’t really know me! while I generally am an amiable and friendly guy, and I generally do not go around trying to start trouble, and while I don’t generally act nasty, or cuss, or kill little animals for pleasure, I still can’t honestly look you in the eye and say… “Yes I am a good person” The main reason is that I am truly NOT a good person… I just barely skate by at being decent most times! If you catch me on the right day I am a real lowlife… I actually started thinking back about some of the really horrible things I have done and thought and I can guarantee you that there is no reasonable shred of a possibility that I can “earn my way “ out of this hole! My only hope is depending on the sacrifice of Jesus.
When it comes down to it there is not one single person that has a right to claim being “Good”. We are all pretty much rotten, Some of us have fooled ourselves into thinking that we have earned the right to enter heaven. The rest of us must choose to serve God out of grateful service and love for the heavy price that was payed to redeem us. Ultimately while our lives will be soiled and spotted with misdeeds and poor choices and even blatant wrong doing, our hearts desire otherwise, and thankfully, because we chose to set aside our pride and accept the gift of Jesus’ sacrifice, Bad People Get to Go to Heaven!
Tags: Art, choice, choices, God, goody, greed, heaven, hell, jesus, jesus christ, Love, Mac, pleasure, punch, sacrifice, shred, sin, solitary act, sun, thief on the cross// June 7th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // My God, My Thoughts
Good people to hell and bad people get to go to heaven! Yes most people will look at you like you are crazy
While recently hanging out with a buddy we were talking about some of the misconceptions that is proliferated even regurgitated in Christian circles these days.. The bulk of our conversation surrounded “works” based salvation and how it is so ingrained that even those of us that truly beleive in grace, judge others based on our “works” based theology… it seems that we cannot get our heads out of our veritible Baalams A## so to speak. As we were discussing this my friend quipped ” Nobody seems to realize … Good people go to hell and bad people get to go to heaven!” I just looked at him for a minute trying to rectify in my mind what he was saying, and I had to swallow once…
The truth is… he is right! The words came straight out of Jesus mouth… Many will say ‘Lord Lord didn’t I do ‘this n that’ in your name’ and Jesus will say “depart from me I never knew you” Jesus taught over and over again… YES righteousness is a good thing … but it is not THE thing… JESUS is THE thing! The reason that Jesus was so hard on the pharasees was because they could never get it through their thick heads… that none of their righteousness was even valuble at all!! So many Good GOOD people go to their graves not ever realizing that they are destined for judgment because they were to proud to admit that even in all of their Goodness… they were still really just a bad person that was trying to make up for their screwups!
For the record… I am a bad person…while I genuinely would love to be a good person… I pretty much blow it daily… and guess what?! I get to go to heaven!
Tags: Art, beleive, christian, christian circles, heaven, hell, jesus, judgment, Love, misconceptions, pharasees, righteousness, sin, theology, thick heads, truth// May 9th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // My God, My Thoughts
In the post “Finding Faith” I really wanted to introduce the concept of how faith is more of a perception of reality rather than a choice to make. The enormity of what faith really is goes far beyond perception. We rarely think of who God really is, what he does on a daily basis, and why he does what he does.
God is the crafter of reality as we know it… every moment in time and all of the possibilities in that moment are available to him to use as he sees fit. From God’s perspective the impossible is non-existent, It takes God no more effort to perform the impossible than it does to perform the possible. both are his creation – something… from nothing.
I daydreamed the other day that God was a painter, and he was also my father… and I was a little 5 year old. I imagined that my father had a cozy room that he painted in. I went into his painting room one day to watch him paint as I often did… I sat and talked to him as he painted an amazing picture that I could only dream of painting. But today was different… today my father asked me to come close… he put his arm around me and placed his paintbrush in my hand… and said, “Let’s paint together today” at first I was afraid, I didn’t want to mess up his beautiful picture; but he held my hand as we painted together, he allowed me to make the stroke but he guided my hand in the right direction. He also asked what I wanted in the picture… so I told him of my dreams and we painted them together. Finally the picture was done and it was amazing and beautiful.
Having faith is just that, holding the paintbrush of the Creator, he steadies our hand, directs the stroke, but nonetheless we are still holding and painting with the very brush that painted us…
Tags: choice, Faith, God, pain, Painting, perception, perspective// May 5th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // My God, My Life, My Thoughts
Don’t let somone tell you it is! It is NOT SAFE!!! So many Christians wander around this world thinking that for some reason if they serve God that everything will be ok! They blindly walk with a fake smile on their face screaming through their teeth “WHY IS THIS NOT WORKING?!!” Of all the dissillusioned people I meet the christians that are still holding on to these philosophies are the hardest to reach. It’s as if they beleive that they only need to try harder, to be more serious, to act more holy and then they will find peace. And so many of them say… in the midst of their pain … “The safest place for me to be is in the center of the will of God” as if there is some secret bubble of safety that we are all trying to maintain balance within. What a load of garbage! This is the kinds of garbage that gets prolipherated when people decide to develop religions and systems of doctrine instead of just following Jesus! Jesus was never safe! and if there was anyone that could “hold the bubble” it would be him!
The Truth is
Within the will of God, Jesus Suffered, and every one of his disciples suffered, Martyrs were killed for being in the will of God… just in case you haven’t heard your life is in danger! Serving God is not just some silly fad that you can claim ownership by wearing a bracelet! It requires risk and pain and heartache, Jesus said “I come not to bring peace but a sword” Matthew 10:34-39 He is not saying that we should bear arms against each other but that we must defy anything that would ask us to reject him. So get the idea that your life is going to be all tulips and daisies out of your head… your destiny awaits you!
This is where you need to stretch your mind a little.
imagine the first choice you ever made… draw a point there. imagine the last choice you make… and draw a point there.. if you were to list every possible choice in between those two points then the sum would equal your life. and somewhere in all of those branching lines would be the path that you took… To a God that can see every possibility and every choice, don’t you think he would have a plan in place for even your worst possible choices? so at what point could you actually make a choice that was outside of God’s will for you? Sure you could make a bad choice but “all things work together for the good of those that love and serve him” Romans 8:28 So even a “Bad” choice can fall within the will of God.
Ask his son! Jesus! If God was concerned with comfort would he have allowed Jesus to suffer one bit? But this is a war over souls! and truly if hundreds of innocents must die so that one soul could be redeemed then so be it! We balk at such a stark offensive idea but that is because we are so attached to this flesh. We see innocents suffer and die and we wonder how God could allow it. But suffering and even death on this earth is not even comparable to getting a sunburn from a spiritual perspective. Even a lifetime of suffering when compared to an infinity of time spent with God is not even worth mentioning.
These things that I write, I write them from experience, I have walked with God and regardless of my choices I have not found safety for my flesh.
I have made choices that I thought were good and regretted them and made choices I thought were bad and thanked God for them… His will is perfect regardless.
I have suffered through times that I thought I would not survive, yet in the very middle of that pain my soul has been replenished.
Can you see that these things can give you freedom, and peace, and strength?
Tags: anger, Art, beleive, choice, choices, christian, Christianity, christians, destiny, God, God's will, jesus, Love, My God, pain, peace, perspective, Religion, spirit, sun, truth
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