Let Go and Let GOD

         Such a common slogan. We hear it regularly. Yet, we never do it.

         There is something in the nature of man that makes him want to be in control. Every form of doctrine that comes along and tells people they have control is far more readily accepted than the doctrines that say they have no control. Human beings being on the throne of their own lives, their own hearts, is simply more comfortable than believing you have no control over anything.

         So we struggle in vain. Fighting against the air, boxing with our shadows, convinced that there is a victory to be had if we just work a little harder, argue a little more fervently, insist a little more strongly that we are the masters of our own destiny. Then it all falls apart and we become angry and disillusioned and shake a fist in the air as if being upset at GOD is really going to make it change.

         Still, when it all is said and done, we feel a need to be angry because things are not working out the way we planned and hoped and wanted.

          The world is going to hell in a hand basket. The downward spiral is continuing and accelerating at an alarming rate. Immorality and decadence has taken over our nation and our churches. The perverse and the morbid are common place. What are we to do? Things simply are not going as we think they should and we need to do something.

          For some, that means doubling and redoubling their efforts to contain the decay. They hope that the passing of laws and the restricting of people's activities will somehow change the course of things. For some reason, they haven't noticed that the more effort they put out, the worse things get.

          For me, when things go bad or are contrary to what I had hoped would transpire, I just give up. I stop striving and I stop fighting and I hand it all over to GOD with a firm belief that what HE has planned is what is going to happen, and what is happening. For me, that is a simple concept.

          I know that we are all raised to fight for what we want and to strive to achieve greatness. Some people do, in fact, achieve worldly greatness. But no one has ever achieved real eternal greatness by striving to do what it is clear GOD is not doing.

          I am a strong advocate that we need leaders in this nation. Really good leaders. The kind of leaders who don't think along the lines of forcing people to do what they feel is right. Real leaders show people a better way and hope they take it. Not all will. Not all people are going to accept everyone else. Some are going to be racists, some homophobes, some will hate old people and some will hate young people. Some will despise fat folk and some will disdain skinny ones. But, no law can actually change that, it just makes them fight all the harder for their brand of hate and intolerance.

          In the end, we human beings have no power. We have no position and no authority. All we have is a very weak effort to control our own flesh and no power at all to control others.

And I say it is time to give up!!

         It is time that my Christian brothers and sisters determined to return to the ways of GOD and just let the world go however it is going to go. Let it alone. Let society evolve (or devolve) as it will. Just leave it all in GOD's hands and just turn away. It is time we spent our efforts on being compassionate and loving and kind and meek and a real reflection of how JESUS treated the sinners of HIS day. Because the truth is, JESUS got invited to spend time with the sinners and the religious folk hated HIM. So it should be with you and me.

        This doesn't mean we are handing the world over to the ungodly. Quite the contrary, we are handing it over to GOD. Who HE gives it to is none of our concern. We have enough on our plate trying to overcome the reputation that hateful and intolerant men and women have given to our JESUS. We have enough on our plate to keep us busy doing the work of GOD, and letting HIM do the work of the world. This is my father's world. Though the wrong seems all so strong, GOD is the ruler yet.

So. Let Go And Let GOD.

Stealing (renew your mind)

 

I have recently been reminded of just how easy it is to be a thief and a liar. You see, there are many things that people do in the world that are accepted as normal, and even encouraged. Of course, not encouraged by those who are the victims, just by others who do the same things.

I was at a meal recently and one of the people there ordered the special, all-you-can-eat meal. I ordered a salad. This person said I could have some of their fish, because they could get more. WRONG!!! As it turned out, they didn't even finish the first order, and took the rest home. So, I could have eaten some.

 

Someone recently asked me to make them some copies of my Christian music, so they could share it with a friend. WRONG!!! Not only did I tell her that I wouldn't do that, but I explained that it was stealing. Not just stealing, though, it is stealing from a ministry. (every time you pull out a copied disc, you tell people you stole that material)

 

I was in a Christian music store a number of years ago. A couple was starting a new ministry and wanted some printed materials. The particular curriculum they were looking at was more than they could afford. After some time in conversation with the sales person, she said (in a low whisper), “you could just buy a couple books and then copy them”. WRONG!!!! I quietly walked up behind them and said, “Yes. You could start a ministry for JESUS with stolen materials.”

It seems almost ludicrous to me that someone would consider the LORD wants them to do something and they would start it in sin, instead of just waiting for the LORD to provide.

Then there are memberships into shopping clubs, and rentals and what not. Some allow a member to bring a guest. Some, on the other hand, require each user to be a member. Yet, one person has a membership and uses that membership to help someone else shop. Churches and ministries do this. It is what I like to call WRONG!!!!

The Bible has no gray areas. It is black and white, yes and no, right and wrong, good and evil. Anything that is gray is part evil. Anything that is part evil, is 100% EVIL.

We, who are in this world as ambassadors of CHRIST, who are not of this world, need to reflect the values and concerns of our holy and perfect LORD. Not for our sake, not even for HIS sake (although HIS reputation should be our concern) but, for the sake of those who see us and know what and WHOSE we are. For conscience sake. Not your conscience, but the conscience of one that might see.

The renewing of the mind is a process of learning to think from a GOD centered perspective.

For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

1Corinthians 2:11-12

Religious Oppressors

The most important reason for the formation of America, the travels of the Pilgrims, and the strength of our nation, is the foundation of religious freedom and the ability to escape religious persecution. The Christian church flourished here because the government was established in such a way that the truth could overcome all other teachings.

Now, the Christian church leads the charge to limit the freedoms of people based on religious reasons. They lead the way to discriminate against people and force a particular religious view down the throats of those who do not agree.

It doesn't take much effort to see that this approach has become the foundation for the greatest resistance the cause of CHRIST has felt in this country. When you pick up the Bible to use it as a weapon against any group of people, or even an individual, the natural response is to recoil and defend.

If, on the other hand, the church were to put more trust in the power of the truth, and the power of GOD, and handed the Bible to people for them to use as a weapon against Satan, than all of the spiritual issues facing this nation would be overcome.

We do not have a problem with drugs, alcohol, divorce, homosexuals, or abortion. These are symptoms. Symptoms of a spiritual sickness. It is not just a sickness in the nation. It is a sickness in the people who say they trust in GOD.

If we, as a people of GOD, trusted in HIM and HIS power and spent our time doing what HE has asked us to do, living by HIS precepts, and being the people HE has called us to be, then the spiritual aspects of the decline in America would be reduced and the issues we face would be reduced. There is no place in the Bible that we have been told to use the government to battle evil. We have a lot of instruction on how to battle evil. The government is not in there.

The Bible, the founding fathers of America, history, even common sense should tell us that the approach we have been lead to use does not work and is not a good idea.

There was a time when the nations of Europe were run by the Christian church. Now, it is likely you would get arrested for preaching JESUS in the streets.

We, as Christian Americans, need to protect all Americans from religious persecution, particularly from Christians. Undermining these principals will result in these freedoms being lost to Christians as other groups rise up to defend themselves from the persecution by Christians.

Church Buildings

I recently had a chance to speak with a person, who is a relative of a person, who is a member of the congregation of JESUS CHRIST that I am currently the pastor of. She was visiting from a ways away and she spoke of how their church was at a point of getting ready to build a building. Being as this is one of the places GOD has impressed upon me HIS displeasure, I shared with her a simple thought.

Instead of building another big building to have church in (which no community needs) why not put their money and effort into building something the community does need and then have church there.

What does it say to a community when a church spends millions of dollars to build a building to have church in, that is seldom used for anything other than having church, while the people who live around it go without basic needs and are loosing their homes and jobs? Do you think it reflects the love and concern of JESUS? Is GOD impressed?

The LORD used me to build 2 youth centers with indoor skateboard parks and concert stages and games. I held church services in the second one. If I had started a church in the first one, it would have thrived. I learned.

Recently I read an article about a church that build a fitness center. The fitness center is for the community. The gospel is shared there. This is a good thing. Sinners do not seek out a church, but many different kinds of people seek out a fitness center.

A group of Christians in a town in MI. have built a youth center in one place, an after school learning center in another building and a clothing store in another. In another town, I have seen a thrift store with a food bank and they run a restaurant where you choose what to pay. The homeless and poor are encouraged to come and eat for free.

All I am saying is this;

If you are involved in a new church or are in some way considering building a new facility, build a movie theater or youth center or any of a number of facilities that can serve the community, and not just your church.

I realize that there are churches that have clothes closets and food banks and do events for the community. In the end, they really are a church building doing stuff that is seen as being for the church. A facility that is seen as being for the community, however, has a different impact altogether.

Peace Makers

           I want to be known as a peace maker. I want to be known as a child of GOD. I want my tombstone to reflect that GOD was what is important to me.

           I do not want to be known as an activist, or an author, or and preacher or pastor. I want to be known as a peace maker.

           I have failed at this in times past. Having been wronged by some folk I found I wanted it to be known that they wronged me. That is not what being a peace maker is.

          More than anything, I want to reflect the truth of JESUS in this world. I have no desire to be a part of this world. I want to be in this world as a representative of the kingdom I belong to. I do not want to be caught up in the affairs of men, and the concerns of this world. I only want to be focused on GOD and to focus others on GOD..

          So, I write this blog to reach the Christians I can reach. I write a book to reach the Christians I can reach. I comment on news stories and Christian Face book pages to try to get my Christian brethren to see the difference between what JESUS has told us to do and what we are doing.

          Can't we all just get along? Why does every person feel they need to force other people to live as they think is right? Why is it that we all have our way of looking at morality and determine to fight to make people live the way we think they should?

          I like Star Trek. I like the ideology of a society that simply chooses to coexist. I like that each person is free to think and believe as they choose. I think this is good for every one.

          Why don't we strive to let business owners choose how to run their business, instead of forcing our moral superiority on them? Why don't we let whomever do whatever and not try to bully them into submission?

          Why, for GOD's sake, are Christians leading the fight to disrupt peace in the world? OK, maybe just in my world. In America. Why can't we just strive for peace and love and absolute freedom without interference from the government?

          I am always going to fight against the flow of human precepts being taught as the precepts of GOD. I am always going to strive to reach my Christian brothers and unite them to embrace the sinners and spurn the pharisees. I want to follow in the footsteps of JESUS and be the man of peace that puts an end to the judgmental intolerance that has pervaded the Christian message for these past 50 years.

         Why?:

“Blessed are the peace makers, for they shall be called the children of GOD”

Forgetting The Past

Forgetting the Past

It is regularly stated that forgetting the past condemns us to repeat it. This probably is never more true than in seeing those of GOD's kingdom interact with the kingdom of this world.

Now, most of the time, I use the history of Israel and GOD from the scriptures in an effort to show how we are repeating the same pattern in the Christian churches today. However, there is a more current history that aught to shine as a beacon of truth for those who would have the church influencing the government and courts in ways that bully smaller groups of people.

A friend of mine, a number of years back, went to Belgium for a conference/synod to discuss his doctoral thesis. He came back with this story;

One Sunday he and a group of preachers were out looking for a church to attend. What they found was a few churches with chains and padlocks on the doors. So, they began to discuss amongst themselves that they could just start preaching in the street. As this discussion began, they noticed a newspaper vending machine. On the front of the paper in it was a story of a preacher who got arrested for preaching in the street.

If you have any understanding of the government of this nation, then you know that just a couple hundred years ago the government was the church. Not only did the government pass laws to control the masses, but if you had any question about doctrines or Bible interpretations, you took it to the parliament.

The lesson here seems obvious. The Church is not supposed to be passing laws and interfering in the affairs of the world. We have laws from GOD that are for HIS people. We cannot force those laws on a world and a kingdom that they are not intended for. In the end, the world will rebel and Christians will loose the freedoms they once had.

This will happen in America. This will come to pass. We Christians have established the very real fact that we need to be silenced. It is not too far away from now that there will be laws that say where we can and cannot preach the gospel or share the message. After all, it is not an infringement on our religious rights to limit where we can preach. We will still have the right to believe as we choose and teach and preach in our buildings.

This will not be an infringement on our freedom of speech. After all, we are not being told what we can and cannot say, just where we say it.

This is the legacy that we have established for our children and their children by not learning the lessons of the past. This is the foundation upon which the world will shut up those annoying Christians. We will only have ourselves to blame as we have abused our position and power in this nation and throughout the world.

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A Christian Voter

The title isn't talking about me. It is an “IN GENERAL” statement.

If you have read my blog, then you know that I cannot get on board with what Christian politicians are selling as a Christian agenda. As I have pointed out, I have read the Bible a few times, studied it for 20 years, and what I see in it simply doesn't walk with what I see Christians doing in this world.

You can read the blog on Christian gangsters and bullies. You can read the blog on Sanctity of marriage. You can read any of my blogs, or my book (when it comes out) and you will see that there is a sharp difference between what I see in the Bible and what Christians are being fed by those with a social and/or political agenda.

So, I have a problem. I cannot vote for a Christian who is running on a platform that flies in the face of the precepts of GOD and the Bible, and our founding fathers and the Constitution of America. Because, to me, this is treason against my JESUS and the kingdom to which I belong,  and against the nation of America where I currently live.

I cannot vote for a person who is not a Christian because they have no power or position to be able to bring the blessings of GOD back to this nation;

  Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Our nation is suffering from a spiritual sickness that only GOD can over come. GOD will only do this when HIS people put their faith and trust in HIM and not in government and courts. HIS blessings only come when HIS people are humble and can clearly see that they can do nothing without HIM and anything in HIM.

I have said it a dozen dozen times over and over again. GOD set down a perfect plan for how the world might go forward in it's fallen state as a relatively moral and decent place to live. HIS people needed to follow that plan, and need to return to that plan, if it is ever going to happen that we will see real prosperity of the spiritual and physical.

All of that rests not on Christians trying to force others to live the way they think they aught to, but on letting the world go about it's merry way and returning to the task GOD has given us. That task is to call HIS people out of the world and into HIS kingdom. If we do it well, then we either improve the condition of the nations for all of the people, or we reach the last person whose name is written in the book of life and JESUS returns and this creation gives way to the next.

Either way, the only thing that works is for Christians to humble themselves and pray and seek HIS face and turn from THEIR wickedness.

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