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Have you been to a grocery or department store or perhaps a Mickey D’s and seen some kid just going berserk, wailing, possibly screaming, throwing themselves down on the floor and other colorful antics? Isn’t it an almost a knee jerk reaction of wanting to go over there and straighten this messy situation up, not just dealing with the kid but the parent/s as well? The thing is, we’re not responsible it’s not our child.
To my way of thinking this sure paints a picture of God’s kids acting up, perhaps into stuff that is at best questionable and a busy body thinks it’s their job to deal with His kid/s, cause if God was really on the ball He would have done something about this mess sooner than later.
Really, isn’t this all about the lack of trust in God’s ability to grow His sons up without the aid of some self-appointed spiritual deputy? Can you smell the stink of rules and regulations or is that just me?
Our journey began in a re-birthing, it always has been and is about Life, it has nothing to do legal wrangling, and the institutional religious organizations will always struggle with this. So much of religious teaching revolves around the salvation message being basically a “get out of hell card free” the focus not having anything to do with Love or Life, but all about escape~wow!
In reality salvation is principally about an exchange or renewal of life and only secondarily about eternal reward. This misplaced emphasis on salvation’s purpose leads many Christian’s to miss the benefits of living a renewed life in this world. Many born again believers are robbed of their blessings of new life in the present time by the mistaken teachings of church organizations that emphasize rebirth in terms of the next life and reconciliation with God in terms of effort which traps them in needless worry about their salvation.
This salvation-by-grace-life thing is a forever proposition, as a result of our salvation coming through God’s working as opposed to our own, there can be NO possibility of our efforts mattering in our salvation status.
What religion and its teachers do not want you to realize is that our empowerment comes from the life of God operating in us and our salvation comes as a result of this life alone!
If any who read this want to read some great thoughts shared here on Life, my good friend Bill Landon has a few of them he shares in his book, The Life That is Real Life, as well as, My Father and Your father, both are obtainable at iUniverse.com.
Rich
To my way of thinking this sure paints a picture of God’s kids acting up, perhaps into stuff that is at best questionable and a busy body thinks it’s their job to deal with His kid/s, cause if God was really on the ball He would have done something about this mess sooner than later.
Really, isn’t this all about the lack of trust in God’s ability to grow His sons up without the aid of some self-appointed spiritual deputy? Can you smell the stink of rules and regulations or is that just me?
Our journey began in a re-birthing, it always has been and is about Life, it has nothing to do legal wrangling, and the institutional religious organizations will always struggle with this. So much of religious teaching revolves around the salvation message being basically a “get out of hell card free” the focus not having anything to do with Love or Life, but all about escape~wow!
In reality salvation is principally about an exchange or renewal of life and only secondarily about eternal reward. This misplaced emphasis on salvation’s purpose leads many Christian’s to miss the benefits of living a renewed life in this world. Many born again believers are robbed of their blessings of new life in the present time by the mistaken teachings of church organizations that emphasize rebirth in terms of the next life and reconciliation with God in terms of effort which traps them in needless worry about their salvation.
This salvation-by-grace-life thing is a forever proposition, as a result of our salvation coming through God’s working as opposed to our own, there can be NO possibility of our efforts mattering in our salvation status.
What religion and its teachers do not want you to realize is that our empowerment comes from the life of God operating in us and our salvation comes as a result of this life alone!
If any who read this want to read some great thoughts shared here on Life, my good friend Bill Landon has a few of them he shares in his book, The Life That is Real Life, as well as, My Father and Your father, both are obtainable at iUniverse.com.
Rich
2 comments:
Seems like I've heard a lot of people make a similar point to the one you're making here, that basically the Church has erred by putting too much focus on eternal salvation, thus causing many people to "miss the benefits of living a renewed life in this world"...
But the thing is, when I read the scripture, I don't see any disconnect between focusing on the eternal reward, and living a full and Spirit-led life now. What would seem to be the real problem, is that, (like you mentioned) that we have redefined what "eternal reward" is all about. If our concept of heaven is merely that it's a better place to hang out than hell, then that is a pretty weak, (and unbiblical) understanding of it. If heaven is where we go to live forever in a loving, Kingdom relationship with God, then why wouldn't we look forward to it!?
Also, "salvation" isn't something that we should think only pertains to the life to come, but something which encompasses our entire lives here on earth as followers of Christ. I guess I'm just trying to understand why I keep hearing people talk about this dichotomy between eternal salvation and life here and earth...
Yes, it's true we can't be policed into a new life with God through some religious "deputy", BUT, we are called to spur one another on towards lives that reflect the heart and mind of Christ. From our own experience, it's just as easy to be branded a "legalist" when you take that calling seriously, even if we have abandoned every vestige of institutional religion...
I don't know if I'm even making sense here, just thought maybe you could better help me understand the place you (and maybe other people as well) are coming from...
Daniel
Daniel,
I'm always delighted in hearing how father has provoked and stirred you up, these holy provoking, nudges are and can be so life altering imo! :)
I would love to delve further into all of this and more if time permits, so why don't you contact me via skype or yahoo and we can do a live voice chat??
I'm on my last of 3 weeks of holidays!
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