You probably read the title and might be wondering what in the world I am talking about.  Atheism was not as hard as what?  The answer is atheism was not as hard as Christianity.  At this point some of you are probably thinking I am crazy, but hold on.  Am I?  Do you find Christianity easy?  If you do then I simply have to ask which Jesus you are following.

I know, before some of you even say it, loving a wonderful, merciful, savior is easy.  Loving God as Father is easy also.  He is so very easy to love when you get a taste of His incomprehensible mercy, amazing grace, and unsurpassable peace.  The very real fact that He rescued me from the jaws of death, literally, and an eternal destination far from Him, and even from enslavement by sin and service to the enemy makes it easy for me to love Him.

But is that all Christianity is?

No, it is not.  Christianity, no matter how a postmodern society and church defines it, is really about or should be about, following, serving, and doing as that easy to love Savior-King, Jesus, commanded us.  And He commanded us not only to love Him but to love everybody else too.  We must love our spouses as He loves the church-His body and bride.  We must love our families by obeying our parents and caring and instructing our children.  We must love our brothers in the family of God because anyone that hates his brother is a murderer.  We must love our neighbors even as we love ourselves and we know that we love ourselves very dearly.  We must even love our enemies and show it by turning the other cheek and giving them our coat when they steal our shirt.

This is a love that goes against our very natures.  When someone does not love us like we love them we tend to draw away, to hold back.  But this is in direct opposition to our instructions.  When I am faced by someone that does not reciprocate the love I try to develop I must try even harder.  When I am faced with bitter words coming from a loved one I am to keep quiet instead of retaliating.  When I am faced by ridicule, slander, or hurtful invective I am supposed to pray blessing upon that person.  None of this is easy.  But it is necessary.

It is necessary if we are going to be effective in our mission.  It is necessary if we are going to help win some to the cause of the Kingdom.  It is necessary if we are going to achieve unity in the Body.  It is necessary if we are going to be like our King.

Yes, atheism was easy in comparison.  All I had to do was be self-centered and admit it instead of deny it like we seem to do when we are born again.  Joining Christ’s cause did not automatically take away my self-centeredness.  I also recognized that I pretty much hated everyone and cared little about anyone except sometimes in a self-centered way.  Hate is easy but the eventual destination is not anything I would wish on my worst enemy.  And that is what love is all about.  It is about being truly concerned for the eventual eternal destination of everyone we know or meet.  But loving everyone in a magnanimous, sacrificial way is so very hard at times.

Atheism was not this hard.  But where was the challenge in it.

Love you all

Tags: amazing grace, Atheism, Christian, Christianity, Church, Death, Enemy, Father, God, Grace, jesus, Kingdom, Lie, Mercy, mission, Murder, neighbor, Self, Service

There was a time in my life, not too long ago, that I did whatever seemed right in my eyes.  In other words, whatever I wanted.  If I wanted to watch a vampire movie, or movies filled with profanity, nudity, violence, gore, destruction, or read a book or listen to music with the same things, then I did and thought nothing of it.  And I am sad to say that I didn’t keep much of it from my kids either. 

Then I got saved.  I accepted the call from our Lord to follow Him.  So everything changed, or did it?  This is a response about the discussion from Tuesday. 

1Co 6:12  “All things are lawful for me…”All things are lawful for me,”…

1Co 10:23  “All things are lawful…. “All things are lawful…

According to Paul, in these verses, I can pretty much still watch, read, and listen to what I want.  This whole concept known as the grace and mercy of God has freed me from a legalistic definition of the Law in an attempt to reach and serve God.  And some certainly do live a life, even after “accepting” the call of God, that show us that they believe what Paul said here wholeheartedly.  Paul even repeated this four times in only two verses. 

I, as an atheist, watched people for a lot of years do exactly what I did and called themselves Christians.  So naturally I concluded, along with a lot of other observations, that God was not real.  But this was a large part of the conclusion.  Christians and atheists were doing so many of the same things so, what was the big deal about a supreme being.  But look at the following verses in their fullness.

1Co 6:12  “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be enslaved by anything.

1Co 10:23  “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.

I left the emboldened parts out originally to point out how it seems that Christians read the verses, based on their perceived lives.  Based on the choices of countless Christians I have watched both before and after I joined their ranks, I have to conclude some have never paid attention to the three concepts Paul stated about all things. 

In the first verse Paul has been talking about different types of sinners, not sin, but sinners.  And he has concluded that the believers at Corinth used to be these sinners but are now washed clean by Christ.  Then he does let us know that all things are lawful because of that cleansing. 

Looking at the next verse in context we find Paul again concluding that whatever he does is lawful.  But in both cases he is quick to let us know that it is not really good for us, because all things do not help us in mission, in our freedom, or in our witness.  Read chapter 6 and 10 of 1 Corinthians with this in mind.   

A real relationship with Christ brings change.  We become new creations and I stand as a witness to this.  When I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ, some of the things I did for entertainment became vile to me.  So I knew instinctively that they were vile to the Holy Spirit because His taking up residence in me was the real change that had occurred in my life.  Dee concluded that Jesus being in the room would decide her choices and she is right.  We just have to remember He is in the room.

The questions we really have to ask ourselves about entertainment choices are; does it help us in our mission?  Does it help us in our freedom?  Does it help us in our witness? 

Does it help us in our mission?  Probably not in most cases.  As Laura stated about Seventh Heaven and such shows, they may actually hinder us because of the false gospel that is being presented.  Our mission is to reach the lost with the good news and make disciples of them.  The very idea behind entertainment implies a suspension of mission. 

I do not think it is terrible to take a break from the warfare and work we are to be doing for the Kingdom, but God gave us an example of six days work and one day of rest.  But it seems most Christians do the opposite.  They might actually do something for God on one day by going to church but then they take six days to relax from the real work by ignoring the things of God. 

Does it help us in our freedom?  Jesus freed us from our slavery to sin.  But many of us are so willing to visit it again and again like some really exciting, fun, and enjoyable relative.  The implications beneath the quote that Heath provided point to the reality of the intoxicating hold that ungodly things can have on us. 

Most of the comments had some suggestion of the idea that we need to be conscience of the effect on our spirit that our choices have.  We can become addicted to entertainment and addiction is the exact opposite of freedom.

Does it help us in our witness?  The very heart of the whole matter is how our choices can affect our witness.  Reread what I used to think about Christians.  People who see absolutely no beneficial difference in the narrow path and the wide highway are not going to creep along on the narrow.  Why should they. 

Finally, if you love your children, you have to filter what they watch, read, and hear.  There is absolutely no way that the correlation between the rise of violence, sexual promiscuity, death, the demeaning of women, and other things that are accepted in all the mediums of entertainment and the rise of the same in real society today, can be dismissed.

So to conclude I am offering these thoughts to ponder.

Do you watch The Shield but would never watch Charmed?  Do you watch Friends but would never watch Will and Grace?  Would you read Jeff Lindsay but never Stephen King?  Is country and western music okay but gangsta rap taboo? 

If you answered yes to any of the above, you might want to ask Jesus which one he would rather enjoy. He is right there with you.

Love you all

Tags: atheist, Death, Entertainment, fun, gore, Grace, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Kingdom, Mercy, nudity, profanity, rap, Sin, spirit, vampire, violence, witness

The people of this nation have spoken.  But what have they said?  They have said, in my opinion, “There is no God, and if there is I really do not have to pay any attention to Him.”

Before I go any further I want to say that I have held off this long before saying this because I have been consulting with my Father about what to say, or if I need to say anything at all.  I am convinced that I do need to.  And if you disagree, see me as judgmental, or as filled with hate, or as bitter, or any of a number of ways you could see me, I am not. 

I love you, I love Obama, I love all but, I love Jesus more.  So for Him I speak. 

It is no surprise that the lost have said there is no God.  That is why they are lost.  I used to believe the same thing.  And when I believed this, I hated you, I hated Obama, and I hated everybody else.  Unborn babies were nothing.  Starving children did not move me.  The poor and needy did not receive a thought.  I was my own god. 

It is a surprise to me that a whole lot of the self proclaimed body of Christ does not believe they have to pay attention to Him.  If eighty five to ninety percent of this nation is calling themselves Christians, (not my statistics), how in the world can a man who believes in the slaughter of the unborn be elected?  And he could not have been without a lot of those same people voting for him. 

I hesitate in the name of love and unity to write this.  But in the name of true love and real unity I must.  The Jesus who snatched me from the jaws of death and hell could not possibly be happy with the choices made yesterday.  If you believe differently, then you do not know the same Jesus.  And I really want you to. 

Understand this.  I am not saying McCain was the right choice either.  In fact, I voted for neither.  And if he had of won I would be writing about him.  The things that would make me believe in his need for salvation would just be based on other issues.

There is a whole lot of angry, bitter Christians out there today.  Then there are a lot of people actually calling for prayer for the new POTUS.  In that I am in agreement.   But not with their focus. 

The focus of the prayers that have been called for are not proper.   J. Lee Grady has tried to give us a list of specific prayers to be prayed here.  My problem with this and many other of the suggestions out there today is that no one is saying to pray that Obama be saved.  On one forum I suggested it and a believer was shocked. 

Why in the world can we not recognize that just because someone declares something, it does not make it true? The Jesus I met and now serve, instilled a compassion and love in me that causes me to feel physically sick over the rampant murder of the unborn.  And I truly, truly, used to not care.  If that is what Jesus makes me feel, then why wouldn’t I believe that Obama does not know Him?

Look at Grady’s 3^rd suggestion and tell me how in the world a man that does not know God can use His wisdom?

We are losing this war because we are not focused on the right things.  Those things are the things of God, and exposing what and who is not of God.  We are called to battle.  Whether we answer the call or not is totally up to us.

If you don’t like any of this or think I am something I am not, then so be it.  I will be in good company.

Because I love our president-elect I will pray for him.  I will pray that he meets Jesus Christ.

Love you all

Tags: Body of Christ, Christians, Death, God, Jesus Christ, Judgment, Love, McCain, Murder, Obama, POTUS, Prayer, Salvation, Self, Sin, starving children, unborn babies, Vote, War

Have you ever watched a movie about the revolutionary war?  Did you wonder why on earth the soldiers in those armies would just march right at each other, wide open, with no protection?  As if they were daring an enemy round to hit them. 

Look at a movie depicting warfare in a medieval setting and it is even crazier.  They just all dive in at each other, slashing and hacking away.  I wonder how they even know who they are killing. 

Somewhere along the line, as far as warfare tactics go, some smart soldier came up with the idea of cover.  Learn how to present as little a target as you can to the enemy.  That definitely seemed to make sense. 

Military institutions have underwent a lot of change since those first armies, with whatever they used for weapons, charged and started pummeling each other. The constant search for better equipment and weaponry is a never-ending necessity for those who engage in battle. If they intend to overcome their enemies, that is.  

When I joined the US Army in 1983, they were just finally wrapping up some of the equipment exchange programs they had initiated a few years prior to my enlistment.  Some of the new recruits were outfitted with the new battle dress uniforms, BDU’s, while others got a few articles in the old standard olive drab uniform.  For the first year of my enlistment I was issued the old “steel pot” helmet instead of the current Kevlar head protection.  The equipment is constantly being exchanged as the warfare strategy of the enemy changes. 

Weapons, tactics and strategy also constantly evolved while I was enlisted.  Mercifully I served my five years in peacetime.  But we still trained constantly.  Practicing and learning so we would be ready at all times.  A new weapon meant a lot of extra training.  Tactics and strategy was constantly revised and updated to counter any new threat.  The whole concept was known as combat readiness. 

Are we, the Church, combat ready?  I wonder.

We have been in a war against darkness of the most desperate kind, for the whole history of the Church, but not all seem to understand this.  I don’t think much of the Church even realizes they are at war.  This has to change.  We must do our duty to inform all of the body of the necessity of battle.  And even for those that are seasoned and battle hardened warriors, it looks to me like somewhere along the line, we failed to realize the enemy was changing his warfare strategy and we failed to see any need to update ours. 

We not only must teach all disciples the reality of spiritual warfare, but how to recognize the tactics of the enemy.  What is the goal of Satan?  Is it to rule in hell, so in essence, he can to take as many of us down as possible to rule over?  I don’t think so.  Satan as ruler of hell is a misconception.  He rules over this domain, because we gave him this rule. 

He is not dumb.  I believe he knows that he will suffer judgment and punishment.  Maybe he fights so hard to somehow try to change the inevitable outcome.  He has to know he cannot win.  But he can hurt God by making a whole lot of us follow his path to judgment. 

As far as tactics are concerned, do you think he is still employing the same methods he did one hundred years ago?  Or even fifty or ten.  I don’t.  I believe he adapts and adjusts every time we do. 

A little over one hundred years ago something happened that had been hidden for almost two millennium.  Some faithful followers of Christ realized something was missing.  They earnestly sought answers and were graciously answered.  The precious and powerful Holy Spirit of God came on the scene after being unwelcome for quite a while.  When He filled those early Pentecostals with a new power and a revived spirit, the Pentecostal movement was born.  And spiritual warfare was recognized once again as a reality. 

Through the gifts of the spirit, the enemy was pushed back and defeated in many areas and lives.  The movement has grown into the third largest group of confessing Christians.  And actually is believed by some to be the largest of those groups that actually try to live in a Christlike way.   

Those early Pentecostals were a force to be reckoned with because of their humility, their hunger, and their love. 

The enemy had to change tactics.  He had had many successes, mainly by manipulating the church into its concerns with the world, culture and government.  But these Pentecostals and their pursuit of holiness instead of the world set him back.  But he responded.  How?

He slowly seduced us.  Through acceptance by the rest of culture, though entertainment, through false manifestations and manipulations of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, through pharisaical legalism, through a false gospel of the pursuit of happiness and wealth, through academics and the pursuit of knowledge, and finally through a misperception of relevance.

We have become in many ways the very thing our founders wanted liberation from.  A worldly religious system.  And worldly religious systems do no harm to the enemy and sometimes even advance his campaign against our King. 

My church, the Alabaster Church of God, is in a revival at the moment.  My pastor, Robert Barnes, and the evangelist, John Ritcheson, seem to be putting forth a message from God that we must go beyond a simple personal refreshing.  Instead we must come back to our roots, which are humility, hunger and love.   

(2 Ch 7:14 ) If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

We must change our tactics and strategies from what they have become.  Instead of the elevation of self, and a pursuit of pleasure, and an attitude of hatred and judgment, we simply must humble ourselves before God, hunger for His presence and instruction, and turn back to the love for God and the love of all that He loves. 

The things that the enemy has used to divert us that I listed above are not all inherently bad or bad for us.  It is sometimes just the misuse or improper esteem we place on things and ideas and movements.  If we are to be effective in defeating the tactics of the enemy at the moment we simply must come back to the proper place in Christ that we should be. 

And if you know anything about current events, you know we must not tarry.

Combat readiness.  In my peacetime army training that simply meant sweat, lack of sleep, weariness and monotony even. 

In this real war between the forces of heaven and hell, it means life or death

Love you all

Tags: Combat, Combat Readiness, Death, Enemy, Heaven, Hell, King, Kingdom, Life, Spiritual Warfare, Strategy and Tactics, US Army, War