I could never become a Christian because I've been sinning for way too long.
Have you ever felt that way? God could never forgive me. Look at all the stuff I’ve done. I’ve had lots of opportunity to turn my life to Jesus and I’ve put it off and put it off for decades.
That was my story. I deliberately turned away from Jesus for the first thirty years of my life. But Jesus loved me until I couldn’t run any more. In fact, Jesus says that he won’t turn away anyone who wants to come to Him even if it’s at the last possible second.
On the down-side, experience shows that for most people our ability to make a decision for Jesus ends abruptly. Heart attacks, strokes, overdose, violent storms and accidents etc. see to it that making a decision for Jesus should never be put off.
History records that Jesus died with two other criminals. Eyewitness accounts record that the final hours of Jesus’ life contained this drama -
One of the criminals hanging alongside cursed him: "Some Messiah you are! You can’t even save yourself!"
But the other one made him shut up: "Have you no fear of God? We deserve this, but not him——he did nothing to deserve this." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom."
Jesus said, "Don't worry, I will. Today you will join me in paradise."
Isn’t that amazing? This guy had done nothing to deserve acceptance into paradise. He had no time to make amends for the life that he’d led. By his own account he deserved to be crucified. Yet all he needed, and all anyone needs in order to receive the love and mercy and grace and freedom from guilt that Jesus has to offer is to humble himself and ask for forgiveness.
No body is so good that they don’t need forgiveness from God. No body is so bad that they cannot receive forgiveness from God upon repentance.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Monday, January 15, 2007
I'm Lost And Hopeless, Therefore I Could Never Become A Christian
I’m Lost And Hopeless, therefore I could never become a Christian.
Imagine this! You’ve been in the forest for five days. You’ve been there for five days because you’re lost. No food. No water. Covered in bug bites.
Voice: "You should come home to get something to eat and drink and to get those sores looked after."
You: "I can’t. I have no idea how to find my home. It’s hopeless!"
Voice: "There is Someone right over there who knows how to get you home. You should ask Him for help."
You: There’s no point in asking for help. I’m lost."
Stupid right? It’s like saying, "I could never become a Christian because I desperately need to become a Christian."
Luke 19:10 - Jesus said, "For the Son of man (Jesus) came to seek and to save those who are lost."
No one is so good that they don’t need forgiveness from God. No one is so bad that they cannot receive forgiveness from God upon repentance.
Imagine this! You’ve been in the forest for five days. You’ve been there for five days because you’re lost. No food. No water. Covered in bug bites.
Voice: "You should come home to get something to eat and drink and to get those sores looked after."
You: "I can’t. I have no idea how to find my home. It’s hopeless!"
Voice: "There is Someone right over there who knows how to get you home. You should ask Him for help."
You: There’s no point in asking for help. I’m lost."
Stupid right? It’s like saying, "I could never become a Christian because I desperately need to become a Christian."
Luke 19:10 - Jesus said, "For the Son of man (Jesus) came to seek and to save those who are lost."
No one is so good that they don’t need forgiveness from God. No one is so bad that they cannot receive forgiveness from God upon repentance.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
I'm Too Great A Sinner, therefore I could never become a Christian
I Could Never Become A Christian because I’m too great a sinner:
I remember believing, mistakenly as it turns out, that I couldn’t approach God until I had become a good person; or at least a better person. Fortunately for all of us, it doesn’t work that way. Jesus came to earth on a rescue mission precisely because we are not good. In fact, the worse we are the more compassion He seems to have on us because our degree of "badness" is simply a symptom of how badly we need rescuing. About the worst we can become is thinking that we're actually pretty good; that we're better than others.
1st Timothy 1:15,16 - "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on Him and receive eternal life."
This was said by a guy had people tortured to death because they were followers of Jesus. Yet Jesus forgave Him and transformed his life as He has transformed the lives of millions of others.
Romans 5:6 - "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly."
Even before we wanted anything to do with God and before we knew that we needed help, Jesus provided a way for us to begin a new life, free from guilt and free from slavery to our old nature.
Matthew 9:12 & 13 - Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
There are no people that are so good that they don’t need forgiveness from God. There are no people so bad that they cannot receive forgiveness from God upon repentance.
I remember believing, mistakenly as it turns out, that I couldn’t approach God until I had become a good person; or at least a better person. Fortunately for all of us, it doesn’t work that way. Jesus came to earth on a rescue mission precisely because we are not good. In fact, the worse we are the more compassion He seems to have on us because our degree of "badness" is simply a symptom of how badly we need rescuing. About the worst we can become is thinking that we're actually pretty good; that we're better than others.
1st Timothy 1:15,16 - "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on Him and receive eternal life."
This was said by a guy had people tortured to death because they were followers of Jesus. Yet Jesus forgave Him and transformed his life as He has transformed the lives of millions of others.
Romans 5:6 - "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly."
Even before we wanted anything to do with God and before we knew that we needed help, Jesus provided a way for us to begin a new life, free from guilt and free from slavery to our old nature.
Matthew 9:12 & 13 - Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
There are no people that are so good that they don’t need forgiveness from God. There are no people so bad that they cannot receive forgiveness from God upon repentance.
Friday, January 12, 2007
I Could Never Love The God Of The Old Testament
There seem to be comments on blogs, a lot of them actually, that go something like, "Jesus was all about love. That’s cool. I could follow that. But I could never worship the Old Testament God." There are also many, many blogs that address this line of strained thinking. So why add another? Umm, well, I can’t resist.
What the other blogs point out and what I reiterate is this. Jesus IS the God of the older testaments. Jesus said that He was and is eternal God. He said, "If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father." He said, "If you do not believe that I Am God, you will die in your sins." He is ‘the Word that came in human form’. The Word that Jesus claimed to be, is the revealed Word of the Old Testament. Enough about that.
The real issue that I want to look at is this. The reason that people take exception to the "violence" directed toward other nations, as depicted in the set of older testaments is our present-day tolerance for evil. Not only do we have a high tolerance for evil, we revel in it. It excites us. It makes us feel powerful and free; at least at first. We enjoy evil even though we are dimly aware that when it manifests itself in others it makes our communities worse places in which to live.
Yet evil is something for which a perfectly Holy God has zero tolerance. Some people can’t recognise evil until it crashes into a couple towers full of office workers. God recognises it in calling someone a fool, or in not repaying a debt, or in not loving one’s enemy, or in not respecting one’s parents, or in separating sex from a loving monogamous, committed relationship. Jesus tried to show how little tolerance God has for evil when he equated anger with murder and lust with adultery. And for what it’s worth, because Jesus is about love (His love for us), He preached far more about hell than He did about Heaven. He spoke about hell to warn those He loves about their tolerance for evil. Regardless, Jesus / God said in the older testaments that society could not survive if there was even a hint of corruption that was tolerated. If God comes across as angry in parts of the older testaments it’s because He was. He was furious that the paradise that He created for the objects of His love had been deliberately destroyed by those very objects ie. us. It’s like the anger we might feel toward a cancer that is killing our child. We want what is killing our loved one to be destroyed. Same with our Creator.
Look at it this way. Have you ever noticed that there is something really, really wrong with our world? When children kill other children, teachers and parents, when there’s been murder and war since the dawn of civilization, when it’s ok for a powerful segment of society to kill off a powerless segment because that segment is considered inconvenient or embarassing, when homeless people are beaten to death for recreational purposes, don’t you think that maybe there is something wrong with us? When tens of thousands of children are allowed to starve to death EVERY DAY, when millions of children are allowed to be sold into sexual slavery, when individuals who are emotionally stunted, sexually disoriented, morally bankrupt, relationally retarded and spiritually deluded are adored and followed with interest simply because they are beautiful and rich, when religious people kill other religious people in the name of ?, when we turn on those whom we have promised to love, don’t you think that means that something is wrong with us? When those who speak out against the lack of love in our society are called intolerant bigots and those who protest wars are labelled unpatriotic, don’t you think there is something terribly wrong?
Well, God / Jesus says there is something terribly wrong. He said that what’s terribly wrong is passed on from generation to generation like a genetic code. And He said that behaviours that do not begin in love and end in a society where all are protected should not be tolerated. In the Old Testament, Jesus / God, said that societies that were evil as a whole should be wiped off the map. Now, I can see how some might think that wiping out every living thing is over doing it. But just step back for a second or two. Do you know what kind of societies He was talking about? These were societies where child sacrifice was the accepted norm, no, the promoted norm. These were societies where individuals were so "spiritual" that offering their children as burnt sacrifices to their gods was ok. Think about that! What kind of society must it be where child sacrifice is not condemned? Can you imagine how corrupt and evil the rest of societal behaviours must have been for child sacrifice to be accepted behaviour? The amount of violence toward our neighbours that we tolerate and / or perpetrate today is nothing compared to what would have been accepted back then. Or is it?
In our Global Village, genocide is watched on the news with a ‘ho hum that shouldn’t happen. So what’s for lunch?’ kind of attitude. We do that because, "hey, I’ve got my own problems to worry about." In rural India unwanted babies are left by the side of the road for wild animals to eat. And that’s ok because, well, that’s their business. Warning our children about AID’s while pummelling them with messages that do nothing but encourage them to take part in behaviours that practically guarantee an STD is just business as usual. Sacrificing our children to the god of our corrupted self-love as we drag them through one sick relationship after another is promoted because ‘freedom to do what I want, think and say’ is the highest good in the land.
The point is, no matter what you think about behaviours and attitudes that are destructive to self and others, God thinks they’re an abomination.
The word love is used almost four hundred times in the Bible with almost 375 times being used to describe God’s love for us. (Interestingly the word love isn’t used even once in the Koran to describe God). Nevertheless, those 375 references to love are talking about the Old Testament God’s love for us. If you’ve missed it when reading the Bible, 1st Corinthians 1:18 and 2nd Corinthians 4:3 and 4 will tell you why. Any how, when you consider God’s willingness to die for us even while we are still hating Him, rebelling against Him and denying His existence, one cannot successfully argue that God doesn’t love us. But His love goes beyond His enormous sacrifice. His love extends to providing guidelines for behaviours. These guidelines are intended to show the importance of putting away behaviours that don’t originate in respect and love and protection for others, particularly for the weakest members of society. The ‘rules’ of the Old Testament God were meant to show that for society to survive there must be zero tolerance for behaviours that are destructive to self and to others. It would take too much room to explain why most of those rules don’t apply to us and our society.
Bottom line is, The Old Testament God came to earth in the form of Jesus because we were then and are now powerless to resist the temptation toward acts of evil. In fact we are drawn to them like a moth to a light bulb. We know what Jesus wants from us regarding loving our neighbour, but we don’t do it. We don’t do it because we’re not ok. Because we’re not ok, our families are not ok. Our communities are not ok. Our countries are not ok and our world is not ok. Sadly, we accept that we’re not ok and we even celebrate and reward the very things about us that are not ok.
I believe that some day we’re going to be called to account for this tolerance of sin in our own lives. This day of reckoning is coming because Jesus, the God of both the older and the newer testaments takes His Creation very, very seriously. He takes it seriously because the God of the Old Testament loves you more than you ever imagined or could ever wish to be loved.
What the other blogs point out and what I reiterate is this. Jesus IS the God of the older testaments. Jesus said that He was and is eternal God. He said, "If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father." He said, "If you do not believe that I Am God, you will die in your sins." He is ‘the Word that came in human form’. The Word that Jesus claimed to be, is the revealed Word of the Old Testament. Enough about that.
The real issue that I want to look at is this. The reason that people take exception to the "violence" directed toward other nations, as depicted in the set of older testaments is our present-day tolerance for evil. Not only do we have a high tolerance for evil, we revel in it. It excites us. It makes us feel powerful and free; at least at first. We enjoy evil even though we are dimly aware that when it manifests itself in others it makes our communities worse places in which to live.
Yet evil is something for which a perfectly Holy God has zero tolerance. Some people can’t recognise evil until it crashes into a couple towers full of office workers. God recognises it in calling someone a fool, or in not repaying a debt, or in not loving one’s enemy, or in not respecting one’s parents, or in separating sex from a loving monogamous, committed relationship. Jesus tried to show how little tolerance God has for evil when he equated anger with murder and lust with adultery. And for what it’s worth, because Jesus is about love (His love for us), He preached far more about hell than He did about Heaven. He spoke about hell to warn those He loves about their tolerance for evil. Regardless, Jesus / God said in the older testaments that society could not survive if there was even a hint of corruption that was tolerated. If God comes across as angry in parts of the older testaments it’s because He was. He was furious that the paradise that He created for the objects of His love had been deliberately destroyed by those very objects ie. us. It’s like the anger we might feel toward a cancer that is killing our child. We want what is killing our loved one to be destroyed. Same with our Creator.
Look at it this way. Have you ever noticed that there is something really, really wrong with our world? When children kill other children, teachers and parents, when there’s been murder and war since the dawn of civilization, when it’s ok for a powerful segment of society to kill off a powerless segment because that segment is considered inconvenient or embarassing, when homeless people are beaten to death for recreational purposes, don’t you think that maybe there is something wrong with us? When tens of thousands of children are allowed to starve to death EVERY DAY, when millions of children are allowed to be sold into sexual slavery, when individuals who are emotionally stunted, sexually disoriented, morally bankrupt, relationally retarded and spiritually deluded are adored and followed with interest simply because they are beautiful and rich, when religious people kill other religious people in the name of ?, when we turn on those whom we have promised to love, don’t you think that means that something is wrong with us? When those who speak out against the lack of love in our society are called intolerant bigots and those who protest wars are labelled unpatriotic, don’t you think there is something terribly wrong?
Well, God / Jesus says there is something terribly wrong. He said that what’s terribly wrong is passed on from generation to generation like a genetic code. And He said that behaviours that do not begin in love and end in a society where all are protected should not be tolerated. In the Old Testament, Jesus / God, said that societies that were evil as a whole should be wiped off the map. Now, I can see how some might think that wiping out every living thing is over doing it. But just step back for a second or two. Do you know what kind of societies He was talking about? These were societies where child sacrifice was the accepted norm, no, the promoted norm. These were societies where individuals were so "spiritual" that offering their children as burnt sacrifices to their gods was ok. Think about that! What kind of society must it be where child sacrifice is not condemned? Can you imagine how corrupt and evil the rest of societal behaviours must have been for child sacrifice to be accepted behaviour? The amount of violence toward our neighbours that we tolerate and / or perpetrate today is nothing compared to what would have been accepted back then. Or is it?
In our Global Village, genocide is watched on the news with a ‘ho hum that shouldn’t happen. So what’s for lunch?’ kind of attitude. We do that because, "hey, I’ve got my own problems to worry about." In rural India unwanted babies are left by the side of the road for wild animals to eat. And that’s ok because, well, that’s their business. Warning our children about AID’s while pummelling them with messages that do nothing but encourage them to take part in behaviours that practically guarantee an STD is just business as usual. Sacrificing our children to the god of our corrupted self-love as we drag them through one sick relationship after another is promoted because ‘freedom to do what I want, think and say’ is the highest good in the land.
The point is, no matter what you think about behaviours and attitudes that are destructive to self and others, God thinks they’re an abomination.
The word love is used almost four hundred times in the Bible with almost 375 times being used to describe God’s love for us. (Interestingly the word love isn’t used even once in the Koran to describe God). Nevertheless, those 375 references to love are talking about the Old Testament God’s love for us. If you’ve missed it when reading the Bible, 1st Corinthians 1:18 and 2nd Corinthians 4:3 and 4 will tell you why. Any how, when you consider God’s willingness to die for us even while we are still hating Him, rebelling against Him and denying His existence, one cannot successfully argue that God doesn’t love us. But His love goes beyond His enormous sacrifice. His love extends to providing guidelines for behaviours. These guidelines are intended to show the importance of putting away behaviours that don’t originate in respect and love and protection for others, particularly for the weakest members of society. The ‘rules’ of the Old Testament God were meant to show that for society to survive there must be zero tolerance for behaviours that are destructive to self and to others. It would take too much room to explain why most of those rules don’t apply to us and our society.
Bottom line is, The Old Testament God came to earth in the form of Jesus because we were then and are now powerless to resist the temptation toward acts of evil. In fact we are drawn to them like a moth to a light bulb. We know what Jesus wants from us regarding loving our neighbour, but we don’t do it. We don’t do it because we’re not ok. Because we’re not ok, our families are not ok. Our communities are not ok. Our countries are not ok and our world is not ok. Sadly, we accept that we’re not ok and we even celebrate and reward the very things about us that are not ok.
I believe that some day we’re going to be called to account for this tolerance of sin in our own lives. This day of reckoning is coming because Jesus, the God of both the older and the newer testaments takes His Creation very, very seriously. He takes it seriously because the God of the Old Testament loves you more than you ever imagined or could ever wish to be loved.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Part One - Will The Real Bigot Please Stand Up!
Part One
Have you ever wondered why you choose to focus on the absolutely absurd statement, "Churches shouldn’t always be asking for money!"? Have you ever taken even thirty seconds to think about that statement? Do you think maybe the power company should donate the power? Do you think the gas company should donate the heat? Should the furniture manufacturers donate the pews? Should publishers donate the hymn books and teaching materials? Should the contractors and labourers donate the building? Do you think the Pastor should support his family by going on Welfare? Who do you think pays for and runs the Orphanages, Emergency shelters, Treatment centres, Schools, Home building projects, Emergency food programs, Treatment centres for leprosy, AID’s shelters, Relief programs, Hospitals and Seniors homes, Drop-in centres, Clothing depots, and all the Missions programs that Churches build, furnish and staff all over the world? Do you actually think there is some way to make all of this magically appear at no cost to anyone?
Have you ever wondered why it is that you continue to focus on the five or six televangelists who have publically stumbled, all the while ignoring the millions of Pastors and Churches around the world that are fiscally responsible? Have you ever wondered why, when making a decision about religion you refuse to consider the majority of Pastors who work for wages so low, hours so long and work with cases so desperate that you and I would never accept the job? Have you ever wondered why you are like that?
Have you ever wondered what it is about you that causes you to focus on those who struggle in their faith, those just like you who wear one face in public and another in private? Have you ever wondered why you focus on those people, while purposely overlooking the many, many more people in Church who are honest day in and day out, who don’t break the law, who love and respect their families, who have stable, long term marriages, who are women and men of integrity, who experience love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control on a level that you never have and perhaps never will experience? Have you ever wondered why you try to not think about these people when vilifying Christians? Have you ever wondered why your only response to these quality people is to ridicule them, and discount what they say without understanding what they say?
And so the question remains, Have you ever wondered why you choose to scorn Christianity based on the poorest human example that you can find? Have you ever wondered why you refuse to judge the merits of Christianity based on the character and teachings of Jesus the Christ?
Have you ever noticed how you dismiss twenty good points in a Christian and focus on the two flaws that they can find? It’s like the only thing you’ll allow in a Christian is perfection. Have you ever wondered what kind of a person you are that considers it acceptable and even sophisticated to think that way?
Have you ever wondered why you will think back to some Church couple who divorced, or someone in the Church who drinks too much, or a Christian employer who treated someone badly, and you store these incidents in their memory bank for decades? You’ll refer to those examples again and again down through the years, all the while ignoring and pushing out of your mind the great multitude of people in the Church who donate their time to run weekly groups for kids, perhaps even for your kids?
Isn’t it odd how you don’t have one single worry about holding that kind of a bigoted attitude? Do you ever wonder why you don’t allow yourself to consider the fact of how Christians are unbelievably, incredibly, fantastically under-represented in the country’s psychiatric wards, detox and treatment centres, prison system and local jails, impaired driving programs, divorce courts, social welfare system, family courts, barroom fights, etc.? Do you ever wonder why you mock and malign those who follow Christ Jesus?
And isn’t it weird how you will focus on a war, or famine or school shooting and demand an answer from God as to why He allowed these things to happen. And you’ll say something like, "How can He be a God of love when, blah, blah, blah!" You sound sooo enthralled with your logic.
It’s even more weird how you never demand an answer from God as to why He gave you hands that work perfectly, picking up, turning things off and on, fixing, adjusting, caressing, creating and exploring with exquisite dexterity. It’s mind-boggling to watch how you don’t demand an answer from God as to why He gave you a mouth with the ability to sound out words, taste foods, sense temperature and texture with extraordinary sensitivity; a mouth that can moan, cry and sing. You never seem to consider the contradiction in how you don’t demand an answer from God as to why He gave you eyes that can communicate emotion and explore the majestic beauty of creation. You use the word creation without ever considering the Creator. Don’t you wonder why you don’t demand an answer from God as to why He has allowed you to be born in an unimaginably huge and hostile universe on this little jewel of a planet? Do you ever wonder why you don’t demand an answer from God as to why He continues to allow you to take for granted the fact that you have more food than you can eat; as much money as you need, and a health care system that the majority of humanity cannot even conceive of? Do you ever wonder what kind of a person would take all of these gifts and still curse the God who gave it all to you? Do you ever wonder why you don’t demand an answer from God as to why He is so good to you even when you hate Him, ignore Him, reject Him and hate those who love Him? Of course if a conversation goes in this direction, you will immediately yell "Evolution" or "There is no God," since it doesn’t work so well to let God exist only when you want to blame Him for something.
Have you ever wondered why you choose to focus on the absolutely absurd statement, "Churches shouldn’t always be asking for money!"? Have you ever taken even thirty seconds to think about that statement? Do you think maybe the power company should donate the power? Do you think the gas company should donate the heat? Should the furniture manufacturers donate the pews? Should publishers donate the hymn books and teaching materials? Should the contractors and labourers donate the building? Do you think the Pastor should support his family by going on Welfare? Who do you think pays for and runs the Orphanages, Emergency shelters, Treatment centres, Schools, Home building projects, Emergency food programs, Treatment centres for leprosy, AID’s shelters, Relief programs, Hospitals and Seniors homes, Drop-in centres, Clothing depots, and all the Missions programs that Churches build, furnish and staff all over the world? Do you actually think there is some way to make all of this magically appear at no cost to anyone?
Have you ever wondered why it is that you continue to focus on the five or six televangelists who have publically stumbled, all the while ignoring the millions of Pastors and Churches around the world that are fiscally responsible? Have you ever wondered why, when making a decision about religion you refuse to consider the majority of Pastors who work for wages so low, hours so long and work with cases so desperate that you and I would never accept the job? Have you ever wondered why you are like that?
Have you ever wondered what it is about you that causes you to focus on those who struggle in their faith, those just like you who wear one face in public and another in private? Have you ever wondered why you focus on those people, while purposely overlooking the many, many more people in Church who are honest day in and day out, who don’t break the law, who love and respect their families, who have stable, long term marriages, who are women and men of integrity, who experience love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control on a level that you never have and perhaps never will experience? Have you ever wondered why you try to not think about these people when vilifying Christians? Have you ever wondered why your only response to these quality people is to ridicule them, and discount what they say without understanding what they say?
And so the question remains, Have you ever wondered why you choose to scorn Christianity based on the poorest human example that you can find? Have you ever wondered why you refuse to judge the merits of Christianity based on the character and teachings of Jesus the Christ?
Have you ever noticed how you dismiss twenty good points in a Christian and focus on the two flaws that they can find? It’s like the only thing you’ll allow in a Christian is perfection. Have you ever wondered what kind of a person you are that considers it acceptable and even sophisticated to think that way?
Have you ever wondered why you will think back to some Church couple who divorced, or someone in the Church who drinks too much, or a Christian employer who treated someone badly, and you store these incidents in their memory bank for decades? You’ll refer to those examples again and again down through the years, all the while ignoring and pushing out of your mind the great multitude of people in the Church who donate their time to run weekly groups for kids, perhaps even for your kids?
Isn’t it odd how you don’t have one single worry about holding that kind of a bigoted attitude? Do you ever wonder why you don’t allow yourself to consider the fact of how Christians are unbelievably, incredibly, fantastically under-represented in the country’s psychiatric wards, detox and treatment centres, prison system and local jails, impaired driving programs, divorce courts, social welfare system, family courts, barroom fights, etc.? Do you ever wonder why you mock and malign those who follow Christ Jesus?
And isn’t it weird how you will focus on a war, or famine or school shooting and demand an answer from God as to why He allowed these things to happen. And you’ll say something like, "How can He be a God of love when, blah, blah, blah!" You sound sooo enthralled with your logic.
It’s even more weird how you never demand an answer from God as to why He gave you hands that work perfectly, picking up, turning things off and on, fixing, adjusting, caressing, creating and exploring with exquisite dexterity. It’s mind-boggling to watch how you don’t demand an answer from God as to why He gave you a mouth with the ability to sound out words, taste foods, sense temperature and texture with extraordinary sensitivity; a mouth that can moan, cry and sing. You never seem to consider the contradiction in how you don’t demand an answer from God as to why He gave you eyes that can communicate emotion and explore the majestic beauty of creation. You use the word creation without ever considering the Creator. Don’t you wonder why you don’t demand an answer from God as to why He has allowed you to be born in an unimaginably huge and hostile universe on this little jewel of a planet? Do you ever wonder why you don’t demand an answer from God as to why He continues to allow you to take for granted the fact that you have more food than you can eat; as much money as you need, and a health care system that the majority of humanity cannot even conceive of? Do you ever wonder what kind of a person would take all of these gifts and still curse the God who gave it all to you? Do you ever wonder why you don’t demand an answer from God as to why He is so good to you even when you hate Him, ignore Him, reject Him and hate those who love Him? Of course if a conversation goes in this direction, you will immediately yell "Evolution" or "There is no God," since it doesn’t work so well to let God exist only when you want to blame Him for something.
Part Two - Will The Real Bigot Please Stand Up!
Part Two
Are you are person who accuses those who go to Church of belonging to a cult? A cult leader demands allegiance to him/her. A Christian Pastor is a servant of God and directs his parishioners to Jesus. A cult excludes the person from his/her family. A Christian Church welcomes anyone to come and go as they please. A cult demands that a person give up his/her wealth and give it to the cult. A Christian Church promotes Biblical tithing. A cult deprives a person of proper rest and proper nutrition. A Christian Church encourages a person to take as good care of one’s body as possible. A cult uses mind control techniques to deprive the person of the ability to think for her/himself. A Christian Church encourages the congregation to read, study, and know their Bibles so that they cannot be deceived by the Pastor or anyone else. The glaring differences go on and on but that doesn’t seem to make any difference to people who are looking for a reason to be their own god.
Have you noticed how some people will focus on the small group who do something their Church denomination frowns on, right away these people yell "Hypocrite!" You seem completely ignorant of the following points:
1) The Bible clearly teaches that sin is doing what God explicitly states is wrong, or what is against the character of God. It's not what a particular denomination frowns on. When you and other bigots see someone from Church going to the bar for a steak, or going to a dance, do you think that what the people from Church are doing is wrong? NO? Well, if what the people from Church are doing isn’t wrong in God’s eyes, and if it isn’t wrong in their eyes, and if it isn’t wrong in your eyes, why do you stand in judgment of the Christians? It’s simple! It’s because you’re at your most contented and most at peace with yourself when you’re criticising others.
2) When you focus on those people who struggle in their walk of faith, you conveniently forget to consider the majority of Christians who are able to stand against popular opinion and who are able to stand firm in their faith. It just makes a person wonder why you refuse to look at those people of integrity when judging the merits of Church, Religion or Christianity? Why? What is the matter with you?
3) When you see a Christian doing something he/she knows isn’t right, what you’re seeing is the incredible power of sin. One of the greatest men of faith in the Bible once wrote in Romans 7:15, 18, 19 - "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate to do, I do anyway. I know that nothing good lives in my sinful nature for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. What I do, is not the good that I want to do; and the evil I do not want to do - this I do anyway."
As C.S. Lewis wrote, "No one knows how bad he is until he tries really hard to be good." Let the bigots try to go a month without gossip, or go a week without lying. Let them see if they can stop swearing, or go a couple days without judging someone about anything. Try it!
4) Finally, not everyone who goes to Church is a Christian. And some of those who are Christians are very new in their faith, so a lot of the old life still clings to them. Also, those who go to Church, who aren’t Christians, go for many different reasons. Some go because they like to be seen in Church. Some go for the kids. Some go because it makes them feel good. But the reason Christians go to Church is:
(a) To worship their Creator for providing a salvation which they recognise they can not provide for themselves, and
(b) They know that they are not good and that they need help to change who they are.
A step toward Christianity is one’s recognition that I am not better than others. When people accuse Christians of thinking they are better than others, that’s simply the bigot’s projection. It’s not the Christian’s thought.
It seems as though some people have never wondered whether they are making any sense when they accuse Christians of being self-righteous? Have you taken any time at all to think that one through? The word "Righteous" means to be free from guilt or sin, acting in accordance with a divine or moral law. The word "Self-righteous" means to be convinced of one’s own righteousness. It’s you the bigot who believes that you are good enough. I’ve already said that we who claim the name of Christ know and believe that we have no righteousness apart from faith in Jesus. We are counted as righteous in God’s eyes, but that has nothing to do with who we are, or what we have done. It is based completely on what Jesus has done for us and our faith in that work. The Bible teaches: "Unless you are born again you can never get into the kingdom of heaven. There is no eternal doom awaiting those who trust Jesus to save them. But those who don’t trust Him have already been tried and condemned for not believing in the only Son of God" (John 3:3, 18). Jesus said, "I say emphatically that anyone who listens to my message and believes in God who sent Me has eternal life and will never be damned for his sins. For unless you believe that I am the Son of God, the Messiah, you will die in your sins" (John 5:24; John 8:24). "This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and can be made right with God freely by His grace because of Jesus’ death on the cross which paid the penalty we’ve got coming" (Romans 3:22-24).
It is we Christians who know and believe that there is nothing in us that can make ourselves good enough to warrant eternal life in Heaven. It’s people like Jesus’ critics who think that they, in their own power and might and effort can make their selves good enough. It’s they who perfectly fit the description of being self-righteous.
The sinful nature that is in every single one of us roams through our lives searching for a place to take root. When you see something seriously and chronically wrong in a person who goes to Church, even if it’s a Pastor or Priest, that does not mean that Jesus or even religion is wrong. What you’ve found is a corrupt person who is using religion to serve him or herself. Let me explain.
Your hatred, bigotry and hypocrisy has found free-rein in you, and that allows you to denigrate and malign all religious people, the vast majority of whom do not deserve these vicious attacks. You’ve become a predator, harming innocent people. You feel free in making the comments you do because you say them in safe places with like-minded bigots.
Are you are person who accuses those who go to Church of belonging to a cult? A cult leader demands allegiance to him/her. A Christian Pastor is a servant of God and directs his parishioners to Jesus. A cult excludes the person from his/her family. A Christian Church welcomes anyone to come and go as they please. A cult demands that a person give up his/her wealth and give it to the cult. A Christian Church promotes Biblical tithing. A cult deprives a person of proper rest and proper nutrition. A Christian Church encourages a person to take as good care of one’s body as possible. A cult uses mind control techniques to deprive the person of the ability to think for her/himself. A Christian Church encourages the congregation to read, study, and know their Bibles so that they cannot be deceived by the Pastor or anyone else. The glaring differences go on and on but that doesn’t seem to make any difference to people who are looking for a reason to be their own god.
Have you noticed how some people will focus on the small group who do something their Church denomination frowns on, right away these people yell "Hypocrite!" You seem completely ignorant of the following points:
1) The Bible clearly teaches that sin is doing what God explicitly states is wrong, or what is against the character of God. It's not what a particular denomination frowns on. When you and other bigots see someone from Church going to the bar for a steak, or going to a dance, do you think that what the people from Church are doing is wrong? NO? Well, if what the people from Church are doing isn’t wrong in God’s eyes, and if it isn’t wrong in their eyes, and if it isn’t wrong in your eyes, why do you stand in judgment of the Christians? It’s simple! It’s because you’re at your most contented and most at peace with yourself when you’re criticising others.
2) When you focus on those people who struggle in their walk of faith, you conveniently forget to consider the majority of Christians who are able to stand against popular opinion and who are able to stand firm in their faith. It just makes a person wonder why you refuse to look at those people of integrity when judging the merits of Church, Religion or Christianity? Why? What is the matter with you?
3) When you see a Christian doing something he/she knows isn’t right, what you’re seeing is the incredible power of sin. One of the greatest men of faith in the Bible once wrote in Romans 7:15, 18, 19 - "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate to do, I do anyway. I know that nothing good lives in my sinful nature for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. What I do, is not the good that I want to do; and the evil I do not want to do - this I do anyway."
As C.S. Lewis wrote, "No one knows how bad he is until he tries really hard to be good." Let the bigots try to go a month without gossip, or go a week without lying. Let them see if they can stop swearing, or go a couple days without judging someone about anything. Try it!
4) Finally, not everyone who goes to Church is a Christian. And some of those who are Christians are very new in their faith, so a lot of the old life still clings to them. Also, those who go to Church, who aren’t Christians, go for many different reasons. Some go because they like to be seen in Church. Some go for the kids. Some go because it makes them feel good. But the reason Christians go to Church is:
(a) To worship their Creator for providing a salvation which they recognise they can not provide for themselves, and
(b) They know that they are not good and that they need help to change who they are.
A step toward Christianity is one’s recognition that I am not better than others. When people accuse Christians of thinking they are better than others, that’s simply the bigot’s projection. It’s not the Christian’s thought.
It seems as though some people have never wondered whether they are making any sense when they accuse Christians of being self-righteous? Have you taken any time at all to think that one through? The word "Righteous" means to be free from guilt or sin, acting in accordance with a divine or moral law. The word "Self-righteous" means to be convinced of one’s own righteousness. It’s you the bigot who believes that you are good enough. I’ve already said that we who claim the name of Christ know and believe that we have no righteousness apart from faith in Jesus. We are counted as righteous in God’s eyes, but that has nothing to do with who we are, or what we have done. It is based completely on what Jesus has done for us and our faith in that work. The Bible teaches: "Unless you are born again you can never get into the kingdom of heaven. There is no eternal doom awaiting those who trust Jesus to save them. But those who don’t trust Him have already been tried and condemned for not believing in the only Son of God" (John 3:3, 18). Jesus said, "I say emphatically that anyone who listens to my message and believes in God who sent Me has eternal life and will never be damned for his sins. For unless you believe that I am the Son of God, the Messiah, you will die in your sins" (John 5:24; John 8:24). "This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and can be made right with God freely by His grace because of Jesus’ death on the cross which paid the penalty we’ve got coming" (Romans 3:22-24).
It is we Christians who know and believe that there is nothing in us that can make ourselves good enough to warrant eternal life in Heaven. It’s people like Jesus’ critics who think that they, in their own power and might and effort can make their selves good enough. It’s they who perfectly fit the description of being self-righteous.
The sinful nature that is in every single one of us roams through our lives searching for a place to take root. When you see something seriously and chronically wrong in a person who goes to Church, even if it’s a Pastor or Priest, that does not mean that Jesus or even religion is wrong. What you’ve found is a corrupt person who is using religion to serve him or herself. Let me explain.
Your hatred, bigotry and hypocrisy has found free-rein in you, and that allows you to denigrate and malign all religious people, the vast majority of whom do not deserve these vicious attacks. You’ve become a predator, harming innocent people. You feel free in making the comments you do because you say them in safe places with like-minded bigots.
Conclusion - Will The Real Bigot Please Stand Up!
To conclude, do you ever wonder how some people get to be such bitter, miserable, angry, vengeful, unforgiving individuals who live their lives around a distorted list of facts? I can tell you why. There is a very accurate saying that goes, "A person doesn’t become a bigot because she/he misinterprets the facts. A person misinterprets the facts because he/she is already a bigot."
Have you ever wondered what it is about your soul that makes you laugh at and ridicule the verses in the Bible that you don’t understand? You say "Look at that! You can’t expect me to take that literally." And based on your feeble reasoning you go on to choose to disregard those most important verses about salvation that are so crystal clear and so easy to understand that a child can get the message.
There’s a reason for your kind of reaction. Bible scholar D. L. Moody once said, ‘Reading the Bible without the Holy Spirit is like reading a sun dial by moonlight." What he meant was described in the Bible this way. 1st Corinthians 2:14 says, "The people not of the Spirt do not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to them and they cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned." 2nd Corinthians 4:3 says, "Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. satan, the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."
These are sobering words that should make our legs buckle beneath us. They are saying that secular bigots have got a very short time to radically change their beliefs. You can either do it now and be saved, or you’ll be forced to change later yet still be lost forever. "In the end, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord"(Romans 14:11). In you present condition you are on the verge of being eternally and completely separated from God. But it doesn’t have to be this way. God has so much love, even for those who hate His followers, that He came in bodily form to die, in order to pay the penalty for your sins and for my sins, and to lead us home? Don’t you ever wonder about the kind of love that would make Him do all this for everyone, even for those who hate Him and His followers?
Some people have accused Christians of having a blind faith. That couldn’t be further from the truth. An example of blind faith is when people go to a funeral of someone, perhaps a good person, but not a Christian and they say, "I just have to believe that she/he’s in a better place." You just have to believe that!!! Or you might be one of those who says, "This is it. There’s nothing after death." Based upon what facts do you make that comment? None! It’s those comments, that are the perfect example of blind faith.
The Christian’s faith is built upon a real person who lived in real time in real space, who died and rose again from the dead in real time and in real space, and He did all this in such a way that no one could prove that it didn’t happen. He did this in such a way that those followers of His who were gutless cowards before His death, were unstoppable spokesmen and women after His resurrection.
Jesus said, "Come to ME all of you who are weary and carrying a heavy burden, and I will give you rest for your soul. . ." Some people don’t want to take every verse in the Bible literally, but Jesus literally died to give us the opportunity for salvation. If secular bigots think that He isn’t going to take seriously their continued rejection of why He was tortured to death for them, you need to think again. He may be a loving God but He is also just and fair. We can either let Him pay the penalty for our sin, or we will pay the penalty later. We need to seek out and focus on Jesus who is the giver and sustainer of life. He’s waiting for us with open arms to help us be rid of our hatred and anger and the bigoted attitude, so that we do not need to pass it on to our children
Have you ever wondered what it is about your soul that makes you laugh at and ridicule the verses in the Bible that you don’t understand? You say "Look at that! You can’t expect me to take that literally." And based on your feeble reasoning you go on to choose to disregard those most important verses about salvation that are so crystal clear and so easy to understand that a child can get the message.
There’s a reason for your kind of reaction. Bible scholar D. L. Moody once said, ‘Reading the Bible without the Holy Spirit is like reading a sun dial by moonlight." What he meant was described in the Bible this way. 1st Corinthians 2:14 says, "The people not of the Spirt do not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to them and they cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned." 2nd Corinthians 4:3 says, "Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. satan, the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."
These are sobering words that should make our legs buckle beneath us. They are saying that secular bigots have got a very short time to radically change their beliefs. You can either do it now and be saved, or you’ll be forced to change later yet still be lost forever. "In the end, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord"(Romans 14:11). In you present condition you are on the verge of being eternally and completely separated from God. But it doesn’t have to be this way. God has so much love, even for those who hate His followers, that He came in bodily form to die, in order to pay the penalty for your sins and for my sins, and to lead us home? Don’t you ever wonder about the kind of love that would make Him do all this for everyone, even for those who hate Him and His followers?
Some people have accused Christians of having a blind faith. That couldn’t be further from the truth. An example of blind faith is when people go to a funeral of someone, perhaps a good person, but not a Christian and they say, "I just have to believe that she/he’s in a better place." You just have to believe that!!! Or you might be one of those who says, "This is it. There’s nothing after death." Based upon what facts do you make that comment? None! It’s those comments, that are the perfect example of blind faith.
The Christian’s faith is built upon a real person who lived in real time in real space, who died and rose again from the dead in real time and in real space, and He did all this in such a way that no one could prove that it didn’t happen. He did this in such a way that those followers of His who were gutless cowards before His death, were unstoppable spokesmen and women after His resurrection.
Jesus said, "Come to ME all of you who are weary and carrying a heavy burden, and I will give you rest for your soul. . ." Some people don’t want to take every verse in the Bible literally, but Jesus literally died to give us the opportunity for salvation. If secular bigots think that He isn’t going to take seriously their continued rejection of why He was tortured to death for them, you need to think again. He may be a loving God but He is also just and fair. We can either let Him pay the penalty for our sin, or we will pay the penalty later. We need to seek out and focus on Jesus who is the giver and sustainer of life. He’s waiting for us with open arms to help us be rid of our hatred and anger and the bigoted attitude, so that we do not need to pass it on to our children
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