Saturday, May 31, 2008

It Is What It Is

I have been going to different web sites that I used to visit and I see what they call the Gospel is still being preached and taught, stronger than ever I guess because the Internet has opened up the whole world to spread most any message people want to put out there.

The old Gospel message I believed for over a quarter of a century is still the same which is you have “to do this to get that” and continuing doing what ever “that” is in order to escape the flames of hell. It is still a work oriented redemption that is preached and I don’t expect that will change anytime soon.

Now that I see the Gospel for what it actually is I can also see that all the preaching and teaching that is done contrary to the true Gospel can not change the fact of what happened at the cross. It is what it is and it is a done deal and a true fact that God sent His Son to redeem the entire human race and that is exactly what He did.

Many do not believe Jesus did this for the entire human race and they are putting fear in people’s hearts by telling them they have to be careful or they will burn forever when they die. Of course in the same breath they preach that God is love which is something I find hard to figure out. However, whatever is being preached out there cannot change the fact of the cross. It is something that cannot be changed.

Some say well you have to believe it for it to be yours. Since when does believing something make it true? Is it not true whether you believe it or not? Believing something does not make it fact. It is already fact which is why you believe it!!! You cannot change the fact that the cross was the redemption of the whole world and that remains a fact whether you believe it or not.

It is time to realize that the event of the cross cannot be changed. You can fight it, preach it with your own understanding, teach it with a passion and try and make people believe it is not true and you have to do something to obtain it and whatever else you can come up with, but you cannot change it.

You can come up with your own interpretation of what the Bible says and you can do your best to pass that along to others but you still cannot change what actually happened at the cross. Trying to fight this is only in the mind and leads many to frustration because it soon becomes apparent when you try to keep the rules and regulation put out there by the church; it is something that is impossible to keep. If what most churches preach that you have to do to get into heaven was true, then we are all in deep trouble, including the ones that preach it. It is impossible to make it to heaven by what you do or don’t do.

You cannot change the fact that your redemption was done totally and fully apart from any of your involvement in it and that it is yours whether you believe it or not. You cannot change the fact that Jesus paid the penalty for the whole world. You cannot change the fact that all sin was looked after by His sacrifice. You can not change the fact that God had a plan for the redemption of the entire world and that that plan was fully carried out by His Son at the cross. You cannot change the fact that He placed all under unbelief so He could have mercy upon all. You cannot change the fact that all means all and not just a few like is preached out there. You cannot change what is already fact!!!

I am no longer bothered by what anyone believes or says about what I put here on this site when it comes to the redemption of the world. I have come to a full realization that the work of the cross is complete and it is what it is. It cannot be changed by me or anyone else regardless of what I do or don’t do. Trying to make it look like it isn’t so by the preaching and teaching out there has no effect on what actually transpired at the cross. It is what it is and you CANNOT change it!!!

Posted by Roy at 12:41:56 | Permalink | Comments (8)

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Choices

In the many years since first beginning to learn about Jesus and what He did at the cross, I always heard that the battle we were fighting, and it was a battle for many years, was us having to choose between Jesus and the devil. It was always a matter of making a choice as to whom we would serve on any particular day and on the days the devil was stronger than Jesus, we would fall back into some of the things we were told were not pleasing to the Lord and of course then we fell into condemnation because of whatever it was we were told was sin that we had fallen into.

But today as I was reading 1 John 3:8 we see that Jesus was “manifested to destroy the works of the devil.” Now if we believe Jesus accomplished what he came to do, which I do whole heartedly, then how can it be that the battle is still between Jesus and the devil? How could the church leaders that were supposed to be teaching us tell us that we had to choose between Jesus and the devil? This of course placed a tremendous burden on all of us because each time we would do something the “church” said we should not be doing we immediately assumed we had chosen to follow the devil on that particular day. On other days when we thought we were doing good, we assumed we had chosen to follow Jesus instead of the devil.

When I look back at some of these teachings it almost makes me angry to think I even for one minute thought these teachers knew what they were talking about. How can I for one minute think that I still have to choose between Jesus and the devil in my everyday living? I suppose I still can in my mind if I believe that Jesus did not accomplish what He came on earth to do. There is no doubt my mind can still feel alienated from God but that is exactly what it says, it is only in our minds that we feel alienated and think we may be following the devil instead of Jesus. It is impossible to be alienated from Jesus regardless of what we may do or think.

So what is this battle we are supposed to be fighting? Is it because we have chosen to follow the devil instead of following Jesus? Or is this our minds telling us another lie because of the indoctrination we have received over the years by listening to the preachers that are preaching a false system that they call the Gospel? I believe it is the latter. It is not an easy thing to try and move away from years of indoctrination because our minds are easily influenced by what we have heard “pounded” into our heads for years and years. However, easy or not, it is something we must move away from because it is not the Truth of the Gospel. To move away from a stand we have taken and stayed with it for years and years is not easy but I believe it is extremely important to do so when Truth begins to be revealed to our hearts.

To remain in or return to a system that we now know to be false can only bring more bondage. The Truth is geared to make us free so anything that brings bondage cannot be Truth. The Gospel of grace and peace is something that frees us to see ourselves as God sees us and to quit trying to figure out God. I no longer try and figure out how God operates but now see myself as God sees me, which is in Christ. I am also learning to look at others in the same light because God sees the entire human race in His Son.

I am not sure if I understand what or who or where this “devil” is or how he/it operates in this present world. I somehow lean towards believing that it is mainly our minds that control our daily choices, whether they are good ones or bad ones. I am not sure I can blame an external force that tells me if I am to choose to follow Jesus or follow the devil on any given day. I believe our choices are made totally by ourselves and it is not a matter of whom we will follow or fall prey to, but a matter of what choices we will make in this life.

The choices we make while we live here on earth are very important because when we make bad ones, there are consequences to these choices. Can I blame the devil for these choices I make? I somehow feel that is trying to place the blame on something or someone else when in fact it is our own choices we make with our own minds. It is very easy for us to try and lay blame on someone else for the misfortunes we may be experiencing but when it comes right down to it, we are responsible for our own actions here on earth.

When the question arises as to whether we can make a “choice” of going to heaven or hell I think if you have read some of the posts on this site, you will know that I believe that this has nothing to do with our choices. The fact remains that Jesus redeemed the entire human race and our (all of humanity) destiny is already secured through the obedience and faith of Jesus Christ.

The question of whether the devil is real in this present world I suppose remains unanswered for me. A few of us have been discussing this over the past few days and weeks but can we come up with an answer that we know to be accurate? I think not. I suppose this is something that each one of us has to settle in our own minds as I doubt very much anyone has a true and reliable answer to the question.

One thing I am convinced of is that it is NOT the way the evangelical church has presented it to be and that is we chose whom we will follow and suffer the consequences, whether they be good or bad. I know that I do not choose to either follow the devil or Jesus and that the battle is between the two of them. Jesus destroyed “the works of the devil” which is a subject for another post at some point. The works of the devil are definitely not whether I go to bars, dance commit adultery or whatever else we may think it is. But whatever that work was, it was destroyed by Jesus at the cross. He redeemed mankind from that “work” and we are now free from the clutches of whatever that was.

Posted by Roy at 21:07:12 | Permalink | Comments (8)