Posts Tagged ‘Religion’

Can you be authentic?

// May 6th, 2010 // No Comments » // My Life

Being authentic is a real catch-word lately… churches and christians, and even companies are really latching on to the idea of being “transparent” and “authentic”. So what is authenticity really? I know lots of people who claim to be authentic and yet no matter how long I spend time in a relationship with them I always feel like something is being left out. I think the real problem is that at some point they bought into the idea that by accepting that they were more worldly than they should be they automagically become authentic… not so. Accepting your current state of morality has nothing to do with authenticity and everything to do with your lack of spiritual discipline!

1John 1:7 says ” But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

Also Read Ephesians 5

I believe that these passages perfectly describes authenticity… “walking in the light”  If we walk in the light our failures and shortcomings are exposed and we walk “as children of light”  loving the fruits of the spirit… in other words we embrace the exposure of our sins and transgression on one hand accepting our humanity and on the other hand we reach towards the saving grace of God and reject our human nature to be self serving.

Simply living a morally lax lifestyle and doing it publicly is no different from what the rest of the world does… calling it authenticity is a slap in the face to everything that Jesus sacrificed his life for… he did not die so that we could live as we pleased comfortably and flaunt it in the face of the world as “freedom in Christ” … but so that we could see that his sacrifice was in its purest form an example for us to live… or more accurately… die… by.

So in your quest to be… “transparent”… “authentic”…”relevant”… remember to honor the sacrifice that paid for your freedom… and be sure to read Ephesians 5!

so… what do you think?  lets talk about real authenticity!   are you brave enough to expose your life to the light and be set free… can you walk in the light?  lets hear what you got!

Tags: authenticity, Christianity, freedom in christ, modern religion, Religion, religion vs. relationship, transparent

Related posts

For The Record

// January 15th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // My Life

Regarding Denominations, Churches, etc. etc.

My position is that regardless of names.. all divisions of the church are unordained and the “true church” is the “catholic” (not the Catholic church proper) or the global combination of believers in Christ that worship him in spirit and in truth. I hold that among the great many of denominations that claim the name of Jesus Christ that the church survives as a subculture and is an “cross denominational” support system that continues to grow as people become desperate for an authentic relationship with Jesus Christ and seek that relationship outside of the customs and traditions of their denomination. This church is the bride of Christ and is ready… and expectant of his return.

Tags: modern religion, relationship, Religion, religion vs. relationship

Related posts

The President Without a Country

// September 14th, 2009 // 8 Comments » // My Thoughts

Pat Boone recently wrote an article on worldnetdaily called “The President Without a Country”  he cites Obama  saying

“We’re no longer a Christian nation.” – President Barack Obama, June 2007

“America has been arrogant.” – President Barack Obama

“After 9/11, America didn’t always live up to her ideals.”

– President Barack Obama

“You might say that America is a Muslim nation.”

– President Barack Obama, Egypt 2009

He goes on to state, “America is emphatically a Christian nation, and has been from its inception! Seventy percent of her citizens identify themselves as Christian. The Declaration of Independence and our Constitution were framed, written and ratified by Christians. It’s because this was, and is, a nation built on and guided by Judeo-Christian biblical principles that you, sir, have had the inestimable privilege of being elected her president.”

Ok  there are a lot of other things in his article that are pretty far reaching,  Basically he is jumping on the president bashing wagon like any red blooded conservative christian should do!  The funny thing  is that every single one of Obama’s quotes are actually true!

  • “America is no longer a christian nation” I will not beat this dead horse any longer… go back and read some of my other articles..
  • “America has been arrogant”  Of course we have! all you have to do is look at our materialistic gimme gimme attitudes, we take what we want and think we never have to pay for it… the whole country is fighting a recession because we are were so busy passing money around hoping we didn’t end up with the hot potato.
  • “After 9/11, America didn’t always live up to her ideals.”  Wow did he hit the nail on the head,  we decided the ends justified the means… and whether it was right or wrong we ignored the principals that the country was founded upon… I call that “not living up to your ideals”
  • “You might say that America is a Muslim nation.” more accurately Obama stated “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.” I have to admit this one is a technicality, And based on the context of what the president was trying to say he is actually right. America is one of the largest countries in the world period. If there is any notable percentage of Muslims in America then we actually are “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world”  I think the point here was finding common ground to begin some dialog with other (primarily muslim) countries.

What is my point is all of this… well really I just think conservatives are going a long way out of their way to discredit Obama…and it looks stupid if you ask me.

Whats probably the worst of all of this… is that the majority of so called “Christian Conservatives” have allowed the election of Barak Obama to expose the truth about “Conservative Christianity”   that it is just another political machine… “Conservative Christians” no longer follow and serve Jesus Christ, They throw stones, and speak evil of dignitaries, count the sins of others, and you can bet they will have their materialistic 60 inch flatscreen tuned to FOX NEWS while widows and orphans are neglected just outside their door,  and they pay the pastor of their church to handle “Prison Ministry”

Look I am no “lover of Obama” by any stretch of the imagination.  But there is no doubt in my mind that all of this political garbage that is being thrown around by “Conservative Christians” is complete and utter propaganda, and it is absolutely wrong.  I have no problem discussing facts, but distorting the facts so that they fit your already warped perspectives so that you can promote an agenda that JESUS CHRIST never condoned is wrong! I am so tired of people running around regurgitating un-researched propaganda by political pundits  like Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh.  These guys make their living off of making a mountain out of a molehill!… you are just pouring the money into their pockets… of course they will tell you what you want to hear!  They will never fail to introduce you to a new person you can obsess over and get all worked up about and make you so angry you could bust a blood vessel but all you will ever really do is get together with all your “like  minded” buddies and talk about how “this country is going to hell in a handbasket”

I am done with this…

Tags: barack obama, Religion

Related posts

God is a Republican?

// September 3rd, 2009 // 4 Comments » // My Thoughts

Over the past 2000 some odd years Christians have always been an eccentric group but I have to admit, I think we got dumber once we got to America.  It seems the longer we stay in America the dumber we get!  God is not a Republican People!    This may offend you or make you think differently about me but I have some news for you.  God is Pro Choice.  He is the original Pro Choice supporter.  He decided to allow you to make ANY choice!  you can choose to kill, or heal, or love, or hate, or steal or deal, or make or break, you can fly or flunk or vote or hope but the choice is yours and yours alone! (sounds a little Dr Seuss eh?) My point is … that the freedom to do good or bad is unquestionably given to us by God, our countries leaders knew that. But somewhere somebody decided that it was our jobs as Christians to be the moral police for the USA… NOT OUR JOB!   Do you honestly think that God intended to create the world, give everyone the freedom to choose right or wrong and then let YOU decide what they could and couldn’t do so that your religious panties would not get bunched up?  Why do  you think that Jesus ALWAYS rebuked the pharasees?  They were religious zealots that sought to control the population with laws that were never intended by God.  Look I love all these great christian leaders that keep telling you that we need to prevent same sex marriage, abortion, etc.. etc… but the fact is that they are incredibly short sighted.  It has been  proven over and over you cannot legislate morality!  The world will do what they want, and we as Christians should be there to pick up the pieces for them.  Look at prohibition,  abortion, homosexuality, same sex marriage,   every time those issues are subjected to intense scrutiny and outrage by well meaning “christian” activists, it only serves to alienate that group of people from Christians even further.   I would bet $1000 dollars that you take a few fishermen and start protesting their fishing as evil and ungodly and those previously harmless fishermen will become pitchfork bearing villagers bent on eradicating every christian in sight.

So before you get up on your conservative high horse and begin railing on me for being a liberal, or a democrat, or a heretic or whatever, hear me out.

I think that everyone should have the right to do what they like… just like God Created us. This works fine… the world takes care of these things naturally… they don’t want to bother with religion. i.e.  you kill someone you will probably end up dead or in jail-pretty much happens all over the world. The thing is you get religion involved with making laws… and you end up with “King James” you know… the guy that created a Church State and killed people for not attending the State Churches?  This is the same Guy we ran away from to America and decided that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”  It wasn’t the state that was the problem in the first place… it was religion all along.

Religious zealots killed Jesus
Religious zealots started the bloody crusades
Religious zealots persecuted protestants
Religious zealots have alienated homosexuals
Religious zealots are unreasonable
Religious zealots are unmerciful
Religious zealots are intolerant of anything except what they believe
Religious zealots bomb abortion clinics

So when you get all excited and worked up and angry about how all of these groups are attacking your morals and fundamental beleifs remember… we fired the first shots in this war… and God never authorized the war.

Tags: activists, Art, choice, christian, christians, conservative, Dr Seuss, exercise, Fun, God, jesus, Love, pharasees, Religion, the past

Related posts

Everyone’s Entitled… Or Are They?

// August 8th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // My Thoughts

I have to say that I just about fell out of my chair laughing when I read the “Onion” article that stated “Study: 38 Percent Of People Not Actually Entitled To Their Opinion“   But It really got me thinking… I am a pretty opinionated person, so how many of my opinions are actually not mine?  Well truthfully I rarely just pick up an opinion and begin using it for my own… most often the reason for this is that I am a bit egotistical i guess…I like figuring things out on my own. I seek out truth at all costs… the result, I may actually be entitled to my opinions… not that they are great or even very accurate but in most circumstances my opinions are mine and mine alone.  However this is not so true for the average person I rub shoulders with… Call me an egotist if you like, but I rarely meet individuals that actually think for themselves these days… in general they seem to just jump on somebody’s band wagon and hang on for the ride.   Most commonly I find people regurgitating the opinions of  talk radio hosts, activists, TV personalities,  and they often are intensely confrontational and outspoken and feel very strongly about “their” opinions.   Like the staunch conservatives that are protesting the health care reform, they talk about “socialized medicine” and “single payer plans”.  And yet have no problems  avoiding a co-pay  for immunizations by going to a county health clinic to get them for free… something wrong there… right?   So where are you in this?   do you just quote Rush Limbaugh or some other outspoken personality that has whipped you into a furor about a certain subject?   You have to know that politics these days depend on the gullible public to believe in the hype surrounding an ideology and rarely provide accurate facts. This forces people to make decisions based on “feelings” rather than on “facts”  so if everyone “feels good” about a war… then we can be at war for 20 years and no one will complain… but alas if some soldiers die, well then people start feeling bad about things… so they no longer want to be at war.

I am not trying to be insensitive here… I just think that a lot of people need to begin pulling their head out of the sand and realize that the majority of the US population is manipulated spiritually, religiously, psychologically, and physically through fear, and misinformation. It is an old trick that if you want to advance an agenda then you need to get people upset about something else.  Once they are focused on your distraction then they rarely recognize that something else more sinister is going on… It is called “diversion”   So the next time that someone gets you all worked up about something… you need to think about what might actually be going on in the background.

Just take a moment and be honest with yourself… are you really entitled to your opinion?  or are you just borrowing someone else’s

Tags: activists, Art, choices, conservative, decisions, egotist, fear, hype, My Thoughts, Obama, politics, President, reform, Religion, rush limbaugh, sin, single payer, sleepwalking, spirit, talk radio hosts, truth

Related posts

Do you think you will escape?

// 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!!!DSC_9863_127
photo credit: nsaplayer

Tags: anger, Art, beleive, brother, christian, christians, cynicism, egotist, Faith, faith hope, fear, God, jesus, judgment, Love, pain, pews, pharisees, Religion, resentment, righteousness, shame, sin, skepticism, truth, wrath

Related posts

« Older Entries
Data Recovery Software