The Enemy's Strategy: Keep ‘Em From Taking Bold Steps!

In my tenure as a disciple of Christ, I have had my ups and my downs. Some of the ups have been higher than high and some of the lows have been lower than low! Someone has said that following Jesus is like being on a roller coaster. Well, that analogy seems fitting until you have truly hit the lows in following Jesus. The lows on a roller coaster are extremely fun and exciting, but the lows I have experienced in following the Lord are not fun in any way. As a matter of fact they have been some of the darkest and most depressing times in my life. Being a Christian is easy. Following Jesus is brutal and definitely not for the faint at heart.
Let me explain by asking a question. "How many of us would walk through Wal-mart or the grocery store and say to everyone we meet; "Hi, how are you? I just want you to know I love Jesus. Hope you have a good day." Seriously! How many? Would you? Have you ever done anything like that? Most of us would have to say "no, I have never done that". I am wondering just how many would say; "that's just crazy I would never do that!"? Sure that is extreme with some folks, but it should not be something that we would 'never' do. The fact is that most Christians just would not do it because of the fear of 'what' others would think of them. Who wants to be considered a weirdo? Who wants to be thought of as a fanatic? Who wants to be labeled a "Jesus Freak"? I mean come on, I love Jesus but let's not get carried away.

OK, let's calm it down to just a light roar then. How many of us would simply just do what is right when we know it's right? I can hear all believers saying, "I would!". Of course we all would, wouldn't we? I am not so sure about that. I remember shortly after I got saved and boldly saying that I was going to tell everyone about Jesus. Then I ran into a popular young lady and reneged on my commitment. I felt the pressure and caved! I did not want to appear weird in the eyes of this pretty girl. Sure I was a young believer but still that haunts me to this day that I wimped out. What I find though after years of following Christ that there are those within the body of Christ who do the same thing today. Not just those who are young in the faith, but so many who have been saved for years, those who are seen as pillars in our churches; SS teachers, deacons, elders, and even preachers! For instance, how many times have you ever wanted to clap in church or raise a hand in worship or just sing out with enthusiasm yet held back from doing so because you didn't want to seem weird. Don't even think of going down to the altar to pray. People might think you did something wrong. I say; "WHAT"?! If we hold back in these things, we can rest assure we will never do anything bold for Christ. That's Satan goal! Paralyzed Saints who are satisfied with going to church yet never crossing that line and embracing boldness.

I went to seminary with guy who got saved and started living for Jesus. He was from a religious family who was from another Christian denomination. Because of his stance, his family literally disowned him! He is a pastor today who still boldly follows Jesus! Jesus in Matthew 10:34-36 said; "Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's enemies will be the members of his household." Wow! Those are pretty inflammatory words by Jesus. I find that many who follow Him don't know this verse or simply ignore it hoping it will never be brought up. My friend, following Jesus means taking bold stands that will cause others, even brothers and sisters in the Lord to ridicule, mock, and turn on you. If we are concerned with what people think of us, we will never do anything bold for God! The enemy's strategy is to play on our pride in order to keep us from taking 'foolish' bold steps for God! Then again, the foolishness of the cross is the power of God!

Scott

Breaking Free

Part 1

By Scott Myers

Why is it that so many believers find it practically impossible to live the spiritual life and walk in the freedom Christ gives? Let me ask that in a different way. Why do we Christians simply find it hard to really live the Christian life? What I find even in my own life is that even though we love Jesus, want to truly live a life committed to Him, we simply fail and many times fail miserably! What’s up with that? Why can’t we just get this thing together? I mean, God saved us and gave us ‘new’ life, gave us His Holy Spirit to live in us, and gave us the power to live this ‘new’ life, yet it just doesn’t happen. What? Hasn’t it been said over and over again by preachers, pastors, Sunday School teachers, evangelist and even those who do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ that Christians are ‘supposed’ to live like Christians? If a person has truly trusted Jesus Christ and he has truly been born again and he has truly been saved then he will certainly live like a Christian and possess an overcoming life, right? WRONG! Wrong a million times! Sure, Christians ‘should’ live like they are Christian, but that does not imply, nor does Scripture imply or directly say that it is automatic. Even though many hold to this falsehood and proclaim it adamantly, Scripture just does not say that.

OK then, where does that leave the multitudes of Christians when it comes to really experiencing and living the life we have been given by God? How are we to really ‘break free’ and express this ‘new’ life and experience an overcoming life? If Jesus meant what He said in John 10:10, that He came to give us life and to give it to us abundantly, then surely it is possible to experience this life, isn’t it? Of course it is! The answer lies within the pages of Scripture. Let’s examine some scripture and glean some very important truths concerning this very vital, but very basic topic.

Scripture divides man in to different parts in order to distinguish not only who he is but also how he expresses himself. Scripture in one place talks of man being tripartite (three parts) while in another place it divides man into 2 parts. Let’s look at the latter first and learn the distinction and in doing so gain some transformational truth that will equip us with everything we need to break free and live life to the fullest and live as overcomers.

The Inward Man and The Outward Man

In Romans 7:22 the Apostle Paul says; “for I delight in the law of God according to the inward man” and then in Ephesians 3:16 he speaks of being “strengthened with the power by His Spirit in the inner man”. In 2 Corinthians 4:16 Paul tells us; “but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day”.

The fact is that when a person is saved, God, in the person of the Holy Spirit enters into man’s spirit. It is at the moment of a person’s faith in Christ God supernaturally brings man’s dead spirit to life as He takes up residence inside of man’s spirit bringing spiritual life and salvation – one in the same. The spirit of man is the very core of man and is what Scripture refers to as the ‘inner man’. It is this place, the spirit of man, that the Spirit of God resides and fellowships with man and man with God. This inner man died when Adam and Eve sinned against God the first time and is what comes to life when man exercises faith in Jesus Christ for the first time. It is man's spirit.

If the spirit of man is the core of who he is and represents the inner man, then just what is the outer man? The outer man, as Paul referred to as decaying deals NOT with his physical body, but instead with man’s soul. The soul, ‘Psuche’ in the Greek refers to man’s thinking (judgment, how he thinks), his emotions, and his volition (will). All of these are that which is in a fallen state. Man’s judgment, emotions, and volition (man’s will) stand in direct contrast to God’s will. The spirit is housed within the soul while the soul of man is housed within the body. The tripartite nature of man speaks of his spirit, his soul, and his body. It deals with him having a spirit, being a soul, and living in a body. Our subject at hand deals with the first two – the spirit and the soul; the inner man and the outer man.

Therefore the inner man is where God resides and fellowships with man while the soul is how man expresses himself. It must be understood then that if we are to ‘break free’ and experience real life, that abundant life, then our inner man must break free. It is in this breaking free that we find the ability to live life as we should – free in the Spirit. In other words, our inner man, our spirit mingled with the Holy Spirit must be set free if we ever expect to live that life! That means that it has to break through something. It then becomes obvious then that our inner man must break through the outer man. The inner man is housed or ‘shelled’ in the outer while the outer is housed in the body. The inward man must be released and this is where the difficulty lies. Many followers of Jesus Christ find themselves wanting to live that abundant life Jesus spoke of, but simply cannot do it. The willing and the wanting to are there, but the actually doing is not to be found. This is because the ‘inner man’, his spirit wants to but cannot break forth and live. It is hindered from breaking out and being set free. God desires that our inward man break forth and be released, but it’s not easy. Let’s look at a passage in John.

Jesus gives us a great analogy in John 12:24. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.“ Can you see the principle here? This illustration sets a foundational truth concerning believers breaking free and living the life God intends for us to live. When a grain falls into the earth and dies it brings forth ‘new life’. The grain must die and dry up and burst open in order for the life that is inside the grain to come out. If the grain does not crack open, the life will never come forth. Notice that the grain must die. The grain is the shell of the wheat and it must die and crack open in order that the wheat come forth. Life is on the inside and must find its way to the outside if it is to live and bear fruit. This illustrates exactly what must take place with believers.

Notice what Jesus said in the very next verse. “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.” At face value, it would seem that Jesus changes the subject or at least take a different direction, but in reality He explains his previous statement. The word Jesus uses for ‘life’ is that Greek word again ‘psuche’ (soo-kay) which we get the word ‘psychology’. The word itself that means ‘soul’ or as here is translated as ‘life’ actually refers to the life we live. Remembering that it involves three parts; the intellect (how we think), our emotions (how we feel), and our volition (what we choose to do, i.e. our will). Verse 25 could also be translated as’ “He who loves his soul loses it, and he who hates his soul in this world will keep it to life eternal.” Remembering that life = soul = how we think, how we feel, and what we choose to do.

It then becomes obvious that first of all that Jesus is not referring to spiritual salvation for that comes about through faith in Jesus. This passage deals with verities other than eternal salvation, something beyond the spiritual salvation moment. When a person is saved, he is saved for eternity and does not have to worry about keeping it (saving/preserving it) to 'life eternal'. He has it and it is secure. The reference to 'keeping it or saving it to life eternal' refers to obtaining and keeping an overcoming life that will somehow have an impact in eternity. When we hate our life and deny our own ‘thinking, emotions, and volition' now in this life, the inward man will emerge and live an abundant, overcoming 'God' life AND we shall get something later for doing such. Notice Jesus said that he who hates his soul/life now. Hating one's life is equivalent to 'denying oneself, taking up his cross, and following Jesus'. Giving up one's own life now is sowing it to God and the keeping it to eternal life thus means giving up something now and getting something yet future. Denying one's life is work. It's hard work and it takes effort. Sowing is work! Whatever a man sows, he shall reap. Spiritual salvation is a gift that cannot be worked for, so that means the life that is kept to life eternal is something else. Gifts cannot be earned, rewards must be earned. The reaping must deal with God rewarding a person in the future for giving up his life now. The spiritual life, the abundant life, that inner life, the life of the inward man and the reward of such a life is what is in view here, not eternal life.

What we find among those who possess the life of God (i.e. who are saved), many simply do not bear it! In other words, not all who have God’s salvation experience it. Among those who possess the life of the Lord are either in one of two distinct conditions: imprisoned and unable to break free or set free and expressing life!

Now back to the great illustration. Just as the grain must die and break in order for the wheat to break forth and bear fruit, so must the outer man die and break in order for the inner man to break forth and bear fruit. Our souls must die in order for our spirits to emerge and release life!

The question then is not how to obtain life, but rather how to get that life to come forth! There must be a breaking forth and we must find just how that is to take place!

Twisted Love

Ask 10 people what real love is and most likely you will get 10 different answers. When it comes to honest to goodness displays of love one should simply be able to turn to our 'churches' and see. Right? Well one would think so, but that's not always the case. In fact one would have to look hard to find a loving church as defined by God's meaning of love. Love is a small word yet it huge in it's scope and it's application. Unfortunately many within our churches and in Christianity as a whole we have accepted a rather narrow definition of love. In the book So You Don’t Want to Go To Church Anymore by Jake Colsen (Wayne Jacobsen & Dave Coleman), he says;

“… our definitions of love get twisted when institutional priorities take over …. The problem with church as you know it, is that it has become nothing more than mutual accommodation of self-need. Everybody needs something out of it. Some need to lead. Some need to be led. Some want to teach, others are happy to be the audience. Rather than become an authentic demonstration of God’s life and love in the world, it ends up being a group of people who have to protect their turf.”

Very strong words about 'love' being twisted by the very group who are called to portray the love of God. But then again, maybe church 'folk' should only love those who agree with them, like the same color paint and carpet, like the same programs, look the same, dress the same, smell the same, and worship the same and they should reject, verbally assassinate, and look down upon those who do not. I mean surely God would never have me love someone who is not just like me and does not see life as I do. God would never ask me to really love a person, even if they are Christian, who cusses, drinks, or is divorced would He? And what about those who vote different than I do or choose to live out their lives differently than I do. That would be sin, right!? WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! Those examples may sound absurd, but it is happening all the time in our churches! One would have to be blind not to see it! Spiritually blinded that is!

The truth of the matter is that we have been called to love all people. For many in our churches love has become nothing more than showing acceptance to those who 'agree' with us and rejecting those who do not. That is a 'twisted' view of God's love. Yes, God has called us to love ALL people, but NO, He has not called us to agree with all people. I find it amazing that couples, families, and even friends can have disagreements and even heated discussions (nice for arguments) and still LOVE each other. When this takes place in the institution we call 'the church' love is tossed aside or at the least, twisted. How many arguments and dissentions have come about because a program was started, nixed, or changed? How many Christians have allowed hatred to come into their hearts all because music in a worship service stepped up and became relevant and contemporary? How many 'church' goers have allowed resentment to take over because they were not reconized for teaching or giving? On and on it goes. I simply say WHAT!!!!???  It is a sad fact that buildings, denominations, programs, and worship styles have become the focus of what it means to be 'Christian'.  This has led many to feel obligated to protect their 'turf' all at the cost of love. Programs, denominations, style, buildings, hymn books, and computers will all pass - souls shall live forever. We do not need to agree with everyone, BUT we need to love ALL people God's Way, not some twisted way!

The Destruction of God’s People

As I have studied Scripture and observed the people in whom Scripture deals with, I feel the need to write on the subject of the ‘Destruction of God’s People’. It is of prime importance that we understand truth apart from fiction. Truth frees and liberates while fiction puffs up and hinders freedom and can actually destroy God’s people. The fact of the matter is that in the time we live in, it would seem that so many Christians who claim to be such are in spiritual, emotional, and intellectual bondage today. It’s no wonder that the ‘church’ has so many problems; it’s filled with believers who are spiritually bound.

Notice in 1st Thessalonians 2:18; “For we wanted to come to you -- I, Paul, more than once -- and yet Satan hindered us.”  That word ‘hindered’ means to strike against, to ‘loudly’ come up against.” Paul described Satan as a maker of malicious racket; one who seeks to noisily strike against believers! Why would he want to do this, one might ask. Of course he wants to harm all believers, but that’s not the scope of all he seeks to do. Satan’s ultimate goal is to halt any forward movement of the Work of God - specifically in the area of understanding and fulfilling the Word of God He knows that any forward movement for God is a move against him! Satan desires to draw us away from God in order that he can poison minds and cause division among the people of God! Disregard of the Word of God goes back to the garden. Remember that Satan tricked Eve into disregarding God’s Word! Satan’s greatest blow to us today is to hinder us from truly knowing and living God’s Word! Paul’s desire was to go and teach the Thessalonians the Word of God, but Satan noisily and maliciously fought against him! It is the same today, when Satan sees God moving in the lives of a group of believers in such a way that those same believers are set on fire by God through His Word, Satan rises up and does all he can to avert their attention away from what God is doing and what He hopes to do! I feel the main way Satan does this is by enlisting backslidden and immature Christians to make his noise! Those believers who are carnal minded, focused on selfish and worldly things. Those who for lack of maturity and lack of submission to the Lord are enlisted by Satan himself to derail any and all moves of God. These ‘racket makers’ are simply pawns in the hands of Satan! Unknowingly enlisted pawns, but enlisted pawns indeed! Remember when Peter rebuked the Lord? Jesus looked at Peter and said; “Get behind me Satan!” Here is the Apostle Peter, in a weak moment, a carnal moment that unknowingly was pulled into Satan’s web of deceit! Peter became a ‘pawn’ in the very hands of Satan to thwart what God was doing in the life of Jesus. Now just think about that for a moment. If even Peter can be deceived and enlisted, we all are vulnerable! The fact remains that in a moment of carnality Satan enlisted Peter to ‘mouth off’ to the Lord! He used Peter to attack and hinder the Lord! Be not fooled, believers in Christ can and actually do become pawns of Satan! Satan is the author of unruly and idle chatter, complaining and confusion, backbiting and tale bearing. God certainly is not! Now please understand that there is absolutely nothing wrong with disagreeing. My wife disagrees with me more than anyone on the planet, but I love her and she loves me. We can disagree without getting personal and can do so without running the other down in public. It would be wrong in so many ways for me to get out in public and run my wife down by saying ugly things about her. By doing so, I would be harming her and also harming myself. It would be counter productive for a healthy marriage and our marriage could be destroyed by such hateful behavior. It’s the same in the body of Christ.

The body of Christ is a family and when Satan enlists believers, destruction will assuredly take place. The first and most important thing that will be destroyed will be relationships. Satan will use jealousy, bitterness, and even misunderstandings to destroy close, intimate, and deep relationships. God’s greatest desire for His family is that we be intimate with each other building strong bonds within the family of God seeking to grow closer to each other and ultimately to God. Satan seeks to destroy that and keep it from happening. By infiltrating the hearts of carnal and immature believers, Satan launches an attack against the people God and actually hinders a move of God. When Satan is successful, God is not the One who loses, we are! Jesus said in John 13:35; “they shall know you are My disciples by the love you have for one another”. We are not called to agree with each other; we are called to love one another.

Bait & Switch Article by Wayne Jacobsen

I thought this article very thought provoking and wanted to share. Permission granted to share.
 
It is my desire to get the people of God thinking and not just following behind a Pied Piper of religious jargon and the traditions of men. For too long people in the name of 'Christianity' and 'church' have been led astray into the vast and dense wilderness of false religion and fake righteousness weighed down by the yoke of a distorted Christianity. Men and women who truly love Jesus have been mislead and have either been enslaved in it's tight stranglehold or have been discouraged and fallen from the faith. It's time for the sleeping giant to awaken and see what has taken place all in the name of our Savior! Jesus came to set us free and it seems that the very people whom He has set free has succombed to chains again. These chains though are shiny and pretty and attractive. They are called by many names today - 'Christian', 'Church', 'Baptist', 'Methodist', 'Catholic', etc.,.
May God give us understanding and sound wisdom to see and hear what He is saying to His people today!
Scott
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Bait & Switch
by Wayne Jacobsen

Trading the Vibrant Life of Jesus for a Ritualistic Religion Called Christianity.

 

I saw the sign a year ago in Georgia: Live Free for Three Months. It was a developer's marketing strategy for a declining housing market. When I saw it, however, I wasn't thinking about houses. I thought about Christianity and how we invite people to live free in Christ and then soon after saddle them with all the obligations of being a "good Christian". We generally don't even let them have three months.

When the early believers were first called Christians, we don't know if it was a complement or a mockery. We do know that they didn't invent the term for themselves. The culture called them "little christs" because they had found so much identity in following Jesus. Whatever spawned the term, those early believers adopted it for themselves and for 2,000 years it has been the dominant identifier for those who claim to follow Christ. But that might be changing.

 

Recent surveys show even believers are becoming uncomfortable with the term. At least in the United States it is increasingly used not for people who reflect the passion of Jesus in a broken world, but for adherents of a religion that has been built on a distortion of the life and teaching of Jesus, not necessarily it's reality. The results can be confusing.

 

"Are you a Christian?" I used to love it when someone on a plane asked me that question. "Absolutely," I'd answer, proud to be on the side of all that's good and right in the world. But over the last fifteen years, answering that question has become far more difficult. Much of what has been done in recent years in the name of Christianity embarrasses me and disfigures the God I love. Some of it even horrifies me.

 

So now when I'm asked the question today, I hedge a bit. "It depends on what you mean by 'Christian'," I often respond. If they are asking whether or not I am a faithful adherent of the religion called Christianity, I have to confess that I'm not. I'm not even trying to be. But if they are asking me if I am a passionate follower of Jesus, the answer would be an enthusiastic yes.

In a few short years those realities have diverged significantly. Perhaps there has not been a time since the Middle Ages, where what it means to be a good Christian and what it means to thrive in a relationship with God, couldn't be more at odds. You can do everything required of a 'good Christian' in our day and still miss out on what it means to know him and be involved in a meaningful relationship with him that transforms you to love as he loved.

How many people endure repetitive rituals certain that doing so endears them to God? How many embrace a slate of ethical rules or doctrinal propositions thinking that doing so ensures God's blessings? Jesus offered us a vibrant life of relationship with his Father, and we ended up creating a religion that often disarms that very Gospel of its glory.

 

"These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men." (Mark 7:6-7) These words are as true for us today as when Jesus voiced them to the religious captives in his. His warnings in Matthew 23 about the pitfalls of religion, are more applicable in our day than they were in his. When is the last time you heard a sermon from that text? Read it. You'll know why.

 

Something Is Broken

 

For the last few months I've done numerous radio interviews for people concerned about what's being called the collapse of Christianity. Newsweek did a cover article in April about the collapse of Christianity's influence in America and that fewer people identify themselves as Christian or are a committed part of a local congregation.

 

There's a lot of handwringing going on about those statistics, most of them blaming the culture. But the problems in religion itself have never been greater. Conservative Christianity aligned itself with a political agenda and a party that turned out to be as corrupt as it blamed the other party for being. More and more believers I know are embarrassed at the anger and arrogance of many so-called leaders who speak to the press on behalf of Christianity. So it's no wonder to me that last year 4000 churches closed in America, 1700 pastors left the ministry each month and another 1300 pastors were terminated by their church, many without cause, and over 3500 people per day left their church last year.

 

Clearly we have a problem that cannot be blamed on the secularization of our culture. The kingdom is no longer a pearl of great price, and knowing Jesus is no longer the fruit of our religious activities. And people who are beginning to see that, are often marginalized as rebellious or unsubmitted for simply wanting what Jesus promised them.

 

Many people giving up on local institutions are not doing so because they've rejected Jesus, but finding that the culture of Christianity is actually diminishing their faith not enhancing it. In an email I got the other day, from a frustrated pastor trying to help people follow Jesus, and is just coming to realize that his own job may be at odds with his greatest passion. "Church has become a hindrance to building relationships and loving others."

 

He's not alone. Many of us came to faith enamored by the life and teachings of Jesus. We were promised a relationship with God but were handed a religion of doctrines we had to believe, rituals we had to observe, obligations we had to meet and a standard of morality to adopt. While most of those were true enough, many found that their attempts to follow them did not produce either the life of Jesus it promised, nor the reality of true, caring communities of faith.

 

We have traded the simple power of the Gospel for a religion based on human effort. We were invited to relationship and ended up with a host of irrelevant dogma and burdensome obligations. Fortunately people from all over the world are waking up to a fresh hunger to shed the dictates of religion and embrace the wonder and power of a love-filled relationship with the living God.

 

Was Christianity Ever Meant to Be a Religion?

 

I guess all of this begs the question, did Jesus intend to start a religion called Christianity, or did we do this to ourselves? I suspect the latter. I am wholeheartedly convinced that he came to end all religions, not by lashing out against them, but by filling up in the human spirit what religion promises to fill but never can. Religion seeks to manipulate human effort to earn God's approval, when such approval can never be earned.

 

Abraham, a Jewish man, lead the tour portion of a trip to Israel I was on fifteen years ago. Some of those on the tour had been rude to his faith as they tried to "help" him embrace Jesus as the Messiah. On the last morning, I found him alone by the bus and had the chance to ask him if he'd been offended by some of the remarks.

 

He smiled. He told me he'd been guiding tours for 30 years and someone is always trying to convert him to their faith--Christians, Reformed Jews, Muslims and Mormons. Then he asked me, "Do you know why it makes no difference to me?"

 

I shook my head. He led me out to the street and pointed at a building, "Do you see that synagogue with the star of David? That's our building. The one over there with the cross on it is yours. Further down, do you see the dome? That's theirs. On the surface they may look different, but underneath they are all basically the same. You would think that if one of us was serving the Living God, it would look differently."

 

I still remember how much his words impacted me. Religion is the same all over the world. It is a prescribed set of doctrine, rules, rituals, and ethics. It celebrates sacred space, exalts holy-men as gurus and tries to muscle its way into the culture. For 2000 years many have practiced Christianity as a religion, essentially no different than the others, except in who it claims to follow. But if one of us was serving a Living God, wouldn't it look very different?

 

When we cram the life of God into a box, we rob it of its life and power and only distinguish it from other religions by claiming a more truthful doctrine. Could that be why Jesus didn't teach his disciples how to gain a following or build institutions. He didn't teach them how to meet on Sunday mornings at 10:00 with a worship band and a leader to lecture the others. He didn't give them a prescribed set of behaviors that people were suppose to follow as the means to serve God.

 

No, he invited them into his Father's house, and a reality of relationship with his Father that would transform them and opened the way for them to share that love with others. That you can't put into a religion and trying to only chokes out any hope of relationship. Putting creed and doctrine above a growing friendship with him supplants the reality he offered us, no matter how correct our doctrine or moral our ethics.

 

Don't get me wrong. Truth is vital, as is righteousness, but without love they are also empty. Learning to live as a beloved child is far more transforming than the greatest principle you can follow. The life of Christian community isn't found by sharing religion together, but by embracing a journey of growing relationship with him that transforms us by his grace and power.

 

Losing Your Religion

 

What does this mean for us? Should we stop calling ourselves Christian or judge those who do? Should we come up with a new term to franchise so we could separate the ones who live it relationally from the ones who are caught up in religion? If we did, we'd only be making the same mistakes that have diminished our life in Jesus over the centuries.

 

The truth is that Christianity as a religion is a dangerous disfigurement of the God of the Bible. But not all who call themselves Christians live religiously. Given all the excesses and failures of Christianity, I am delightfully grateful that the Gospel of Jesus is still relatively intact inside its doctrine. Unfortunately it only lets new believers live free for so long before burdening them with religious obligations.

 

And I meet many believers and leaders who have a profound faith and are seeking healthy ways to communicate that journey with others. I rejoice in that, as I do the amount of compassionate aid that such groups share with the world in need. But too many people miss out on the life Jesus offered them by practicing it as a religion instead of growing to know him.

 

Ultimately the transformation from practicing religion to living inside a relationship with God is not an institutional battle; it is a personal one. We could tear apart all of our religious institutions today and nothing would change. I've been in many a house church filled with people who see the institutional church as the problem and are oblivious to the fact that they've just moved their religion into a home, where close fellowship only makes it more oppressive.

 

 

• When God is a distant concept to you instead of a real presence.
• When you find yourself following another man, woman, or a set of principles instead of following Jesus.
• When fear of eternity, not measuring up, or falling into error drives your actions.
• When you find yourself in empty rituals that do not connect you in a real way to him.
• When you are burdened by the expectations of others and feel guilty when you can't do enough.
• When you look at others who struggle with contempt instead of compassion.
• When the approval of others means more to you than remaining in the reality of his love.
• When you hesitate to be honest about your doubts or struggles because others will judge you.
• When you think of holiness as an unachievable duty, rather than aglorious invitation.
• When you think righteousness depends on your efforts instead of his grace working in you.
• When following him is more about obligation than affection.
• When correcting someone's doctrine is more important than loving them.
• When God seems more present on Sunday morning, than he does on Monday.

 

If you have only known Christianity to be a set of doctrines, rules and rituals, I have great news. Jesus came and died to open up access between you and his Father. Religion supplants that, distracting us with discipline, commitment and hard work that never yields the fruit it promises. If you've been worn out by religion, don't think you're alone. Others are just pretending, afraid they are the only ones, too. Life is only found in him.

 

Switching Back

 

There's something about our flesh that craves the illusion of safety that religion affords. Anyone of us can find our heart easily turned toward following rules instead of engaging him. When we recognize that happening, we can simply turn our hearts back to him and choose to move away from the religious traps and connect once again with God as our Father.

 

Living the Gospel means we live in his love. We come to know the Father's love for us and then sharing that love with him, and with others he puts in our path. (John 13:34-35). No other motive will suffice; no other is necessary. This is where the journey begins and this is the only place it can continue.

 

Returning to our first love isn't as difficult as we like to make it. For me it just means finding a quiet place and talking to God. When you find yourself caught in religion, tell him you're tired of chasing a religion that isn't working and you want to know him as he really is. Then, wake up each day with a similar prayer on your heart. Watch how he makes himself known to you in the simple reality of living each day. Follow the nudges he puts on your heart instead of the obligations and rituals. Find others who are on this journey and find ways to share the reality of a growing relationship and help guard our hearts about following into empty religious practices.

 

If you've been steeped in religion for a long time, you'll find yourself going through a very disorienting time. One woman I met called it a Pharisectomy, which is simply having your inner Pharisee removed. You might feel guilty, lonely, lost, or fearful in the process. Your former religious friends may feel threatened that you're no longer doing the things they do. But in time you'll find yourself sliding into the reality of relationship with him that is as increasingly real, transformative and engaging.

 

Among It, Not of It

 

So let's not go to war with religion, railing against its failures fighting against its dictates. Instead let's do what Jesus did--let's live beyond it. Let's find a reality of freedom and authenticity in him that can walk alongside anyone with patience and gentleness. Religion is what people crave when they haven't found life in him. Taking their religion away won't fix that. The only thing that will is helping them see a reality of relationship with God that makes all our religious activity unnecessary and unattractive. Jesus could be in religious settings and not be captured by them. He could care about a Pharisee as much as a prostitute.

 

Live among religion if he asks you to, loving toward those mired in it but you never have to be of it. The Gospel opens the door for us to re-engage the transcendent God, to know him as our Abba and to walk with him through the twists and turns of life, sharing his affection with others.

 

Live in the reality of that relationship and you'll find it quite naturally finding expression through you as you love and treat others the same way God treats you. People who refuse to live to fear, conform to ritual or put doctrine above love will find themselves having ample opportunity to help others on this journey as well. A dear friend wrote me recently who was feeling a bit swamped by all the people seeking out his help these days, "You didn't say anything about being safe is like hanging up a "counseling available" shingle."

 

We live in a great day. The emptiness of tradition is being seen for what it is and people are hungering for the reality of relationship. Live there each day and there's no telling where that will take you or who you'll end up walking alongside as Jesus becomes your life.

 

Then you can live free, not just for a few days or even three months. He came to set you free eternally!

 

It Wasn't Friday!

Sometimes what we hold as fact just isn't truth. Sometimes traditions are based upon false premises. Sometimes we are just wrong. There is clear, concrete evidence in the scriptures that Jesus was crucified on Wednesday, not Friday!

Think about it for a moment! How could Jesus have been in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights if He died on a Friday afternoon and rose before sunrise on a Sunday? This always used to bother me for I could and still can only come up with one day and two nights (Friday nighttime, Saturday daytime, and Saturday nighttime). 

The Old Testament lamb was killed between 3 and 6 PM on the afternoon of the 14th of Abib/Nisan and prepared, because the 15th was the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which was an annual Sabbath observance (the first and last days of Unleavened Bread were annual Sabbaths in addition to the normal weekly Sabbaths). A clear search of the scriptures is important, not because it affects a person's salvation, but because it answers the questions whether Jesus kept His Word, AND whether the Bible is really true or not. So many want to take away from the validity and the reliability of God's Word, so a clear understanding of this subject will help us prove that God's Word is true!

"In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the Lord's Passover. Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation ; you shall not do any laborious work. But for seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work." Leviticus 23:5-8

The above text confirms that the first and last days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread are annual Sabbaths, to be observed as a day of rest in addition to the weekly Sabbaths. These days would occur on the 15th and 21st of Abib/Nisan. The Passover meal was an important religious observance in which to remember that the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their houses kept them alive when the angel of death 'passed over', and that God had delivered them from slavery in Egypt. The Passover is a perpetual observance to celebrate passing from death to life. These ancient events foretold the blood of Jesus being spilled for our sins, and our passage from death to eternal life, by the everlasting covenant of the blood of Jesus. They also foretold that Jesus would die as the national Passover Lamb, exactly on the 14th of Abib/Nisan and that the day following was an annual Sabbath.

What follows is an examination of the biblical record, in which Jesus was killed on the 14th of Nisan in the afternoon, and the next day was the annual Sabbath, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This annual Sabbath did not fall on the weekly Sabbath, in the year that Jesus died.

"Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered Him, saying, Teacher, we want to see a sign from You." But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; yet no sign shall be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish; so shall the Son of Man be THREE DAYS and THREE NIGHTS in the heart of the earth." Matthew 12:38-40

Jesus Himself tells of the extent of His stay in the heart of the earth (study that verse for a good while and see that He is talking more than just about being in the grave!!!).

"The Jews therefore, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for THAT SABBATH WAS A HIGH DAY, asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away."

OK, did you see that? This Sabbath was a HIGH Sabbath! It was not just an ordinary, weekly Sabbath, but instead the ANNUAL or YEARLY Sabbath!

Understand that the Jewish day started at 6PM in the evening. For instance, if it is 6PM Monday night in our world, then it would be the beginning of Tuesday for the Jew.

The Passover meal was actually the meal preceding the Annual Sabbath, the HIGH Sabbath day. Jesus was crucified Wednesday and placed in the grave before 6PM Wednesday evening, (Jewish Thursday/Annual Sabbath), in accordance with the Jewish Law.

He was not there when the Mary's arrived at the tomb at 'twilight' (that is before daylight!) before 6AM Sunday morning. He was gone!!!

Once the preceding about an Annual Sabbath is understood it can easily be seen that Jesus was crucified and buried on Wednesday and remained in the grave till sometime prior to Sunday morning - 3 Days and 3 Nights!(Remember, the Jewish day started at 6PM! To put it in understandable terms - by 6PM Wednesday evening, which would be the Jews 'Thursday', Jesus was in the tomb, 1 Day, Friday - 2nd Day - Saturday 3rd Day!

This must be for if Jesus died on Friday, he would have been considered in the grave for a very short period of time that no one in their right mind could come to a 3 Days and 3 Nights conclusion as the Bible specifically says.

OK this was the shortened version but I hope it suffices. I know that some will never see it other than Friday and that is OK for them! Everyone has a right to be wrong. :)

Proper Conclusion: Jesus was crucified on Wednesday, not Friday!

Violent Men ~ Rebels For God!

Matthew 11:12 says; “The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force.”

I don’t think we grasp the enormity of this verse today! Let me explain by quoting John Eldridge…

“How many of you know that God meant something when he meant man! John said that God made the masculine heart, set it within every man, and thereby gave him an invitation; Come, and live out what I meant you to be! He said that in the heart of every man, God gave him a battle to fight, and adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue.”

How many of you know that the world is totally against this! In the past 40 years or more, men have succumbed to the lie that feminism and Oprah have preached. Masculinity has been stripped down to nothing but a weakness to be mocked, ridiculed, and laughed at. From sitcoms in Hollywierd, to our very own communities, churches, and families we can see that men just aren’t what God meant when He meant man!

If this isn’t bad enough, these very lies have crept into our churches, into Christianity! How many times have we been told that we are created in the image of God and that we are to be Christ in the world we live in and in the same breath be told to be nice and non-confrontational and polite and well basically weak. Maybe not out right told be ‘weak’, but it’s surely implied! Christianity has taken on a new meaning and that meaning has nothing to do with Jesus or God or violence or passion or anything that is powerful and confrontational! If that is what being a Christian is, Jesus certainly was not Christian! The fact is that our churches have successfully taken the ‘wildness’ and the ‘passion’ out of real Christianity and replaced it with impotent religion! One doesn’t have to go far to hear about people in our churches ‘whining and complaining’ about things like; ‘the music is too loud, too contemporary, too long, too short, too ‘musical’, or the pastor didn’t come see me when I was sick (uh – if you are sick, no one wants to see you – that’s how other’s get sick!), or ‘it’s too cold or too hot in the sanctuary, or the preaching went too long, or blah blah blah, waaaaaa… And I am talking about grown men doing this, not grannies, even though grannies can do a lot of griping too! Grown men who have succumbed to the lie and wouldn’t know passion or wildness or anything about the real Jesus if it bit ‘em on their backside! They hide helplessly behind an institution called ‘the church’ never embracing anything that might cause them to live a life of adventure and excitement. They’ve been weighed down by religion and strangled by the traditions of man. Men created in the image of Holy and Wild God yet never, ever seeing that image for what it truly is!

Created in the image of God. How many of you know that God was a Warrior? When you look around at men in the church what do you see? Do you see any warriors? Any who even look like they would pick up a sword and wage war for God? (There are many who would wage war and fight about by-laws and whether or not to have services on Sunday night or other stupid man-made tradition!)

I love what C.S. Lewis said of Jesus; “Safe? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course He isn’t safe, but He’s good.”

The image of a warrior God! Why do boys want to attack something? Why do they whack and hit things? From a baseball to a 10 point buck, God has placed within boys and men a warrior’s heart, His heart! Why does a Veteran well up inside when he sees the flag or hears the national anthem? Why is it we get so excited when Wallace addresses his fellow Scots prior to battle in Braveheart? Why is it that we feel the rage in the heart of Benjamin Martin in The Patriot when he fights and kills the enemy? It’s because God has given us a warrior’s heart! That’s why!

But then again, the toll has been taken and so many men don’t even know that they have been given a warrior’s heart! The sad thing is that Christianity doesn’t even miss it! Men, we have been lied to for so long that we have accepted the lie that Christian men are to be nice and polite and well, “Christian”. Guys, I am here to tell you that is so far from the truth! Life needs us to be fierce, our families need us to be fierce, our wives and children need us to be fierce – and fiercely devoted! The ‘nice guy’ mentality is promoted in churches all over today. We are told to be nice like Jesus was, stay in line, and mind our manners. How many young boys grow up and never become the warrior God has called them to become all because they were taught that Jesus was a nice guy who never rocked the boat or caused any problems. Have we ever read the Bible??? Jesus didn't 'stay in line'! Jesus rocked the boat, called people names, turned tables upside down, raised His voice at people, and at times got angry. Jesus was not crucified for being nice, He was killed for being a rebel with a warrior’s heart who did what was right instead of being nice and trying to please everyone.

This flies in the face of modern Christianity and especially churches that are ‘run’ by egotistical, self righteous goobs who hide behind the traditions of men, you know … traditions such as by-laws, ‘we’ve never done it that way’, and majority rule. Jesus never hid behind anything and always stood for what was right even when it was not popular.

The fact is God created men to be warriors who were filled with passion and wildness and life! Don’t you think it’s time we embrace that once again? Man I do!