- JasonTheBaldGuy

jasonthebaldguy.com

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

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!

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!

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…

The Truth is

1. IT IS NOT SAFE
2. The will of God is bigger than you think
3. God is more concerned with souls than he is with your safety

It is not safe

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!

The will of God is bigger than you think.

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.

God is more concerned with souls than he is with your safety

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?

I’m giving you my heart, and all that is within
I lay it all down for the sake of you my King
I’m giving you my dreams, I’m laying down my rights
I’m giving up my pride for the promise of new life

And I surrender all to you, all to you
And I surrender all to you, all to you

I’m singing You this song, I’m waiting at the cross
And all the world holds dear, I count it all as loss
For the sake of knowing You for the glory of Your name
To know the lasting joy, even sharing in Your pain

And I surrender all to you, all to you
And I surrender all to you, all to you

I envision a pond, several feet deep, you and I walk up to it… and I tell you that there are rocks just below the surface that you can step on, even though you cannot see them. they are special rocks that always know exactly where you step and will support you perfectly and never allow you to slip.

If you trust me… you will step out to find one confirm your footing and take a step.

That is not faith…

Faith is simply taking the step from land to water with every expectation that it is as sure as dry ground.

Faith is taking a flying leap onto the surface and running across the pond to experience the exhilaration of walking on water

So take your step, lose your fear, and trust what you know. There IS something there to hold you up.

This evening as the sun was going down Aidan mentioned that it was getting dark. I asked him if he knew why and he just looked at me like it was a a dumb question. Kaydence however had the perfect explanation… “The sun is going into the grass!” I looked at her for a moment grinning at her simple observation about the sunset. Then I said … “That is exactly right! and so then it gets dark!”  Kaydence and Aidan went on about their business, but I couldn’t help but think about our conversation… From Kaydences perspective she was perfectly happy with the explanation.. and in a way she was right enough… for her. One of these days she will be able to understand what the sun actually does.. but for now she is satisfied.

As christians, how often do we simply miss the point of what God is doing in a similar way?  I think about some of the ways that we come up with our “doctrines” for what we observe as christians and how we are not happy until we make sure everyone around us beleives the same “truth”.  How hard is it for us to accept that all God is trying to teach us is how to love each other!?   For all the doctrine that you may be able to argue and prove, chances are…. all you are saying is something as silly as “The sun is going into the grass”

My personal observation is that “Jesus” is God… just as the “Holy” spirit is God… and “The Father” is God.. how all of that fits together is quite a difficult subject… HOWEVER… that is not my point.

I was thinking… after reading in Philippians 2:5

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

⁶Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

⁷But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

⁸And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

So I started realllllly thinking about this.. and came upon some astounding things..

• Jesus… had no problem being equal with God…
• Jesus… actually proved that he had no problems setting aside his “Status” as GOD by becoming a man
• Jesus… actually allowed men to kill him.

looking back at what I just wrote… I am convinced I am an idiot because I am just repeating the verses…and not explaining myself…

why in existence would an all powerful being completely relinquish their power and literally become “their own creation”? This is a paradox in itself!
(I have written and re-written the following sentences and for the life of me I cannot express how huge this is)

Do you understand the level of perfection needed to knowingly choose to submit yourself to your own creation?

I am completely astounded and flabbergasted…

how could anyone choose to reject a God of that caliber?

no other god
no other religion
no other belief
no other writing…. has ever suggested such a perfect paradox of a perfectly perfect GOD.

Jason the bald guy
jasonthebaldguy.com