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Posts Tagged ‘love’

Hell…No?

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , , , , on September 23, 2011|

Rob Bell, the pastor who enraged Bible-believing Christians with his book ‘Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived’, has resigned from Mars Hill Bible Church. Bell, who argues that hell does not exist, says God is calling him to pursue a “growing number of strategic opportunities.”

Love is the main theme of God. God is love. I’m not sure I am ready to say that God saves everyone and that hell doesn’t exist, but I do know that no matter what, God loves us all.

True, love is how Christians should be known. God loves everyone and has made a way for everyone to receive the gift of salvation. But God doesn’t force this gift on anyone and those who choose not to take it may one day have to take the consequences for it.

Now, is hell a real place of eternal torment or was it a dumping ground near Jerusalem that has nothing to do with punishment? There is a very real debate over this issue and I certainly don’t have the answer. The thing is, trying to get people ‘saved’ with the threat of spending eternity in hell is not the way to do it. People are truly changed by God’s love, and by God’s people living out that love to everyone they meet.

God does not want anyone to spend eternity in a place of torment. He has provided the way of escape if there is a hell. But we want to focus on the fact the God loves us all, and we want to accept and enjoy his love, not just escape the thought of eternal punishment.

When we love someone, we want to do things that please that person and make them happy. Same with God, we want to be pleasing to Him and do things for Him. We don’t do these things out of obligation, or because of rules and regulations. That’s law. We do them out of love and that is the way we should help lead others to Christ, through love.

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Love One Another

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 9, 2011|

John 13:35 – By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another….

This verse is one of the main points of Christianity, next to loving God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind. The way we are to be noticed as being Christ followers is by the love we have for other Christ followers. I think this is an area where we modern-day believers have gotten off track.

The early followers of Christ were of one mind and one purpose, loving God, loving others and spreading the Good News. They took care of each other, supplied for each other and were generally concerned for the well-being of each other. Today we are divided up into so many different groups and denominations because we can’t agree and get along on basic points of our Christian faith. Non-believers watch us and see all the arguing and back-biting among Christians, and they don’t want anything to do with us.

It is time for the body of believers to get past their differences and start truly acting in love and concern for each other. This is the way that those outside the Christian faith are going to see a real difference and start asking what it is that we have. It is then that we will have a real impact for our faith in God.

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Works vs Faith

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 27, 2011| 3 Comments »

Galatians 2:16 – nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus…….

We Christians sometime spend our time trying to obey the 10 Commandments and trying to do the right thing, when in actuality, we don’t need to be trying to keep the law at all.

We will go to church every time the door is open, tithe our 10 percent, we will not smoke, drink, dance, go to movies, we will look down and condemn those who do or do not do what we feel the Bible commands. We feel guilty every time we mess up and think God is going punish us if we do not do everything we know is ‘right’ to do as Christians.

What happened to grace? What happened to being saved through faith in Christ, and Him alone. Not Jesus and baptism, not Jesus and doing this or that, not Jesus and refraining from doing certain things. We are saved through faith in Christ and to be quite blunt, we do not ‘have’ to do any of these things or do not ‘have’ to avoid certain things to be a child of God. We have a freedom in Christ that was bought and paid for with the death and resurrection of Jesus. That does not mean we just live our lives doing whatever we want, but we living in the freedom we have through grace. We do things out of love, love for God and love for others. It is no longer out of obligation or trying to follow any law.LoveGod

Let’s stop putting all the rules and regulations on others that we think will make them better people and love them with the love of Christ and let God lead them in the way He wants them to go.

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Equality

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , , , , , on July 19, 2011|

Romans 12:16 — Be of the same mind toward one another, do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.

To be of the same mind to me means to think of each other on the same grounds, not one better than the other, but equals. To be haughty is to be proud and snobbish. We should not be this way, but we are to associate with the lowly, the everyday people and the ones that others might look down on. So many people spend their time trying to be noticed by people who they think are someone important, or someone who can do something for them. We aren’t to treat others like that. We are to treat all with love and respect, as equals, and not as better than another.

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Comfort

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , , , on July 19, 2011|

2 Corinthians 1: 3,4 — Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort; who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

Our Father loves us so much. Just as a parent will look over their child and suffer in troubled times with them, our Father does the same for us. He comforts us in our time of trouble, no matter how small and minor, or how overwhelming, He comforts us with His mercy. Just as with money and riches, we are not to horde them or store them up, but we are to give them away to help others. So we are to do the same with the mercy and comfort we receive. When we come across someone who is hurting and going through troubled times, we are to share with them the love, comfort and mercy we received from our Father.

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Confidence

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , , , on July 19, 2011|

Acts 4: 13 — now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John, and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were marveling, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.

In our present day where everyone emphasizes a college education and so much specialized training, we need to remember that this is all man-made thoughts and ideas. It was obvious that Peter and John were uneducated and untrained in spiritual things, they were mere fishermen. They didn’t stand out, had no confidence in themselves, and felt they could not have any impact on their world. So many of us feel the same way today. We couldn’t afford college, we didn’t get into any specialized training of any kind, and we feel insignificant in our world.

The difference in this verse, and the difference in our lives is if we have been with Jesus. On our own, we really can’t do much. Some people do great things in life and make somewhat of a difference in man’s eyes, but when talking about eternal purposes and making a real difference in the lives of others, only those who accept Christ and spend time with Jesus have a noticeable difference to them that impacts others. In Christ we can have a confidence and a spirit of love that makes us different, loving and caring of others.

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Abide in Love

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , , , on July 19, 2011|

John 15:7 NASB

To abide means to reside with, to remain with, to submit to. When we reside with Jesus and submit to His words, we can ask whatever we wish. Why is this? When we abide in Him and He is us, we fulfill His command, which is love.

When we love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind and love others the same way Jesus loves them, we aren’t going to be asking selfishly or with wrong motives. When Jesus prayed to the Father, it was always in perfect line with the Father’s will.

When we come to truly abide in Him and ask Him to abide in us, we will live in love and in complete agreement with the will of the Father.

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Love

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on July 19, 2011|

1 John 4:7 NASB
For us Christ followers, love is the name of the game so to speak. God is love. If we know God and are born again, we live in love. We will love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind and we will love others as ourselves. This is how they will know we are disciples of Christ, by our love for one another.

In the Old Testament the law was given as a standard to measure up to, a way to earn salvation. Basically to fulfill the law we had to be perfect. Of course, none of us could or can be perfect so the law was given to lead us to Christ. When Christ came, died and rose again, He conquered the law, sin and death and bought our salvation for us through His grace.

Now we no longer have to live trying to fulfill the law. This isn’t to say that we necessarily have to ignore what is written in the Old Testament, but we no longer have to try to live up to the law to earn God’s love and our salvation. We are no longer obligated to obey the law because we now live in love.

Just as a husband stays faithful to his wife because he loves her, not because it is wrong to commit adultery, so now we live our lives pleasing to God because we love Him and He loves us, not because we are afraid of the consequences if we break a law.

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God is Going to Get You for That

Posted in christian living, Kingdom of God, Lifestyles, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on July 19, 2011|

Talking recently with a friend of mine, I heard that he was upset because he wasn’t able to tithe to his church. I’m not sure if he was worried that God was going to punish him or not but it got me to thinking.

Many of us feel like we need to do something, such as tithing, church attendance, Bible reading, praying, helping the homeless, witnessing, being active in some type activity that makes us feel like we are doing something to earn God’s favor.

Thing is, God loves us just as a parent loves their children. Would a mother or father withhold their love from their son or daughter because they were not doing some particular act to earn that love? Of course not.

Am I saying that we do not have to go to church, we do not have to read our Bible, we do not have to tithe, we do not have to be in some kind of activity helping others……yes, that’s exactly what I am saying.

FatherChild

We cannot do anything to earn God’s love and we cannot do anything to cause God to stop loving us. God is love. We don’t earn His love by doing things or being a part of something. We accept His love through what Jesus did when He died for us. We he arose from the dead He conquered sin, death and the law and restored our fellowship with the Father.

The law was made to show us that we were unable to earn salvation on our own. Just as the Bible tells us that a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives, but when he dies she is loose from that union, so we as humans were bound by the law. The law showed us what we had to do to be perfect and also to prove to us that we were unable to live that way. When Jesus died and rose again, the law, the old testament way, was fulfilled and the new testament way of love and grace began.

We no longer have to live by the law. We now are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind and love our neighbor (others) as ourselves. In this you fulfill the law. See Matthew 22:37-40.

Now of course obeying God and following after the way He leads you is important. We are to obey rather than sacrifice. The thing is we obey out of love, we don’t do things to earn our salvation or to keep from God’s punishment. God will watch over us and discipline us when needed just as a parent watches over their child and directs them in the way they should go for their own good and safety. But the parents, and God, do not sit around just waiting on their child to mess up, do something wrong just to punish them and make them pay.

We are now living in the freedom that Christ purchased for us through His death and resurrection. We no longer HAVE to perform and do things. He loves us. He will guide us and lead us in the way He wants us to go. I’m not saying we can be lazy and just sit around waiting on the day we die and go to be with God. Our faith and love for God will produce works but they will be works that God leads us into, and they are done out of love. What we now do is love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, and love others as ourselves. Love, God’s love, is the fulfillment of the law.

Do what God leads you to do….out of love not out of duty. Seek His guidance and do not worry about what everyone else is doing. God will work in and through you in His own way and not the same way He works in someone else. God IS love. Live in love and enjoy the freedom we have in Christ.

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Modern Day church

Posted in christian living, Community, Ekklesia, Scoop.it, The church, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 1, 2011| 1 Comment »

As I become more inclined to follow my feeling that the church of today is way off base of what God intended, the organized, man-made denomination, the ‘religious’ church, I continue to come across books and websites that confirm my thoughts.

Take for instance, the teaching of the church on tithing. We are constantly told we need to give our 10% to the church or we are robbing God. Wait a minute, wasn’t that in the Old Testament? Didn’t Jesus come to fulfill the law and provide grace for us?

Am I saying it is wrong to tithe? Not necessarily, although I prefer to call it freely giving. If you attend an organized church and you feel they are doing what God wants for them, yes, support it. But don’t feel you ‘have’ to tithe. Don’t let a pastor guilt you into giving because he uses some Old Testament verse to tell you that you’re robbing from God. Give because you love God and want to give. Give 1%, 5%, 10%, 50%, whatever you determine in your heart to give. We are free to give the amount we determine and are no longer under law and required to tithe.

nomoretithe

Why get so caught up on being in a building each week, listening to one man (or woman) telling us what God is saying or what the Bible says. Doesn’t God’s word say that we now have the Holy Spirit to teach us?

Am I saying it is wrong to go to church? Of course not. I do believe the modern-day organized church is not in line with what God intended, and I do believe we do not have to attend any organized church. Some will say the Bible says don’t forsake the assembling of yourselves together. That is true, but it does not say you have to assemble together anywhere in particular. Meet up with other believers in a restaurant, or invite them to your home for a meal and a time of fellowship. That is what I feel the Bible is talking about.

In our day and age, it is time to get over the man-made religion and the church building being the center of our Christian life and realize there is more. Most churches today are more of a social meeting place or a big business than anything. We should focus on Jesus and build our relationship with him and realize that WE are the Church and the Holy Spirit lives within us, making us the dwelling place of God. We are the temple of God. We need to build our fellowship with God and with one another. This doesn’t need to be done in a building with an organized service, but in spending time with our brothers and sisters in Christ, helping one another and talking about God and His love for us. Others should be able to know that we are Christians because of the love we have for one another.

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