(no subject)
This isn't something I do very often. To me, it's almost like homework. Now, I don't necessarily want to be a teacher or a pastor or whatever. But I really felt like God put it on my heart to share what I've been thinking today.
Have you ever noticed that people say "God, do (insert wish) and then I'll go to church"? Or maybe around the lines "Thank you God for doing (certain mini-miracle) for me, I SWEAR I'll go to church next weekend".
It really got me thinking.
Now, don't get me wrong. It was one of those things that I said how God SERIOUSLY got my attention. I had been going to church for awhile when I wasn't on tour while I was in a band called Day Two. It had been slow going for me but I felt okay about the whole thing but I hadn't made my commitment to Christ yet. At the time, I was in a serious long distance relationship with a girl that didn't seem to go anywhere. She was supposed to move to Utah and I was supposed to be this huge rock star but it seemed like it just wasn't happening on either end. The relationship had gotten stale and thus, I ended praying:
"God, just have this relationship and whatever you do with it, I'll go with it and follow you."
Couple of days later, I had found out she cheated on me. She might be reading this right now, and we're still on good terms. It could've turned out a lot worse. But I had realized God made a SERIOUS thing happen in my life to turn to Him. I realized what Jesus did on the cross finally, and I accepted Christ. Ever since then I've been learning more about God and Jesus and things have been going very well.
The reason why I typed out my story is that I gave God a conditional prayer. I let God know what I wanted and wouldn't follow Him unless He did something. Now, thank God that He felt like answering my prayer. But a lot of times, people will want to feel like they need to be a better person, or want something from God before they feel like God can be even approached.
First of all, I'd like to say guilt is a huge reason why this is a problem. Regardless of what you may think, but guilt is only a slice of the "human emotion" pie. But I can't think of a bigger emotion that keeps humans away from God. In it's infancy, guilt can be dealt with. Keep that feeling in for too long, I believe it can seriously damage a person's psyche, keeping us away from happiness, freedom and God Himself. It drives us to say things like "God hates me."
Now, I don't blame people for not wanting to get close to Jesus. Some of Jesus' followers do a good job of keeping people away from Him.
Protests at abortion clinics.
Calling homosexuals "Faggots" and making fun of them.
Being self-righteous bastards.
You get the picture. But all in that self-righteousness, it creates a picture of us fulfilling our own perfection, thus trampling on the grace that God has given us through Christ and cementing the guilt in non-Christians.
"I masturbate way too much."
So what.
"I drink on the weekends."
That's fine.
"I don't want to wear church clothes."
You don't have to.
"I'm a wreck of a person."
That's ok too. So am I.
It'd be interesting to know for a lot of people (it was for me), that Jesus made A LOT of moral people mad. The religious groups of the time, HATED that fact that Jesus hung out with people they deemed unholy. He loved everyone enough to make wine for people at a party (John 2). He hung out with cheaters (John 4). Jesus loved everybody, regardless of what they did or didn't do. In Mark 7, The Pharisees (the main religious group at the time) were so caught up in working for God's love that they forgot about what God wants most from us. Our hearts (1 Samuel 16:7).
The truth is, the reason we have so much guilt is that we blew it in the first place. God's standard is that we HAVE to be perfect. We have to obey every single commandment of ALL of our lives to go to Heaven. Have we used God's name in vain? I'm sure I have. Have I stolen something? I stole three packs of baseball cards when I was six years old. If that was my first sin, I would've blown it at age six. Because the Bible says that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).
But that's why God loved us so much that He didn't want to see His kids ruin it all anymore. He didn't want us to die over our crap. He sent Jesus, God in the flesh, who knew every single temptation we know, to save the world and not condemn it and to give us eternal life. Through Jesus' death on the cross and resurrection, God paid for every single sin IN OUR LIVES.
Knowing that, why would do we want to work on ourselves in able to be presentable to Him when knowing God loves us without condition? Without question? Without any work to be done on our end other than accepting Him?
So if you don't know Jesus... I must ask this question with all of that being said.
Why aren't you running towards Christ as fast as He's running after you?
Have you ever noticed that people say "God, do (insert wish) and then I'll go to church"? Or maybe around the lines "Thank you God for doing (certain mini-miracle) for me, I SWEAR I'll go to church next weekend".
It really got me thinking.
Now, don't get me wrong. It was one of those things that I said how God SERIOUSLY got my attention. I had been going to church for awhile when I wasn't on tour while I was in a band called Day Two. It had been slow going for me but I felt okay about the whole thing but I hadn't made my commitment to Christ yet. At the time, I was in a serious long distance relationship with a girl that didn't seem to go anywhere. She was supposed to move to Utah and I was supposed to be this huge rock star but it seemed like it just wasn't happening on either end. The relationship had gotten stale and thus, I ended praying:
"God, just have this relationship and whatever you do with it, I'll go with it and follow you."
Couple of days later, I had found out she cheated on me. She might be reading this right now, and we're still on good terms. It could've turned out a lot worse. But I had realized God made a SERIOUS thing happen in my life to turn to Him. I realized what Jesus did on the cross finally, and I accepted Christ. Ever since then I've been learning more about God and Jesus and things have been going very well.
The reason why I typed out my story is that I gave God a conditional prayer. I let God know what I wanted and wouldn't follow Him unless He did something. Now, thank God that He felt like answering my prayer. But a lot of times, people will want to feel like they need to be a better person, or want something from God before they feel like God can be even approached.
First of all, I'd like to say guilt is a huge reason why this is a problem. Regardless of what you may think, but guilt is only a slice of the "human emotion" pie. But I can't think of a bigger emotion that keeps humans away from God. In it's infancy, guilt can be dealt with. Keep that feeling in for too long, I believe it can seriously damage a person's psyche, keeping us away from happiness, freedom and God Himself. It drives us to say things like "God hates me."
Now, I don't blame people for not wanting to get close to Jesus. Some of Jesus' followers do a good job of keeping people away from Him.
Protests at abortion clinics.
Calling homosexuals "Faggots" and making fun of them.
Being self-righteous bastards.
You get the picture. But all in that self-righteousness, it creates a picture of us fulfilling our own perfection, thus trampling on the grace that God has given us through Christ and cementing the guilt in non-Christians.
"I masturbate way too much."
So what.
"I drink on the weekends."
That's fine.
"I don't want to wear church clothes."
You don't have to.
"I'm a wreck of a person."
That's ok too. So am I.
It'd be interesting to know for a lot of people (it was for me), that Jesus made A LOT of moral people mad. The religious groups of the time, HATED that fact that Jesus hung out with people they deemed unholy. He loved everyone enough to make wine for people at a party (John 2). He hung out with cheaters (John 4). Jesus loved everybody, regardless of what they did or didn't do. In Mark 7, The Pharisees (the main religious group at the time) were so caught up in working for God's love that they forgot about what God wants most from us. Our hearts (1 Samuel 16:7).
The truth is, the reason we have so much guilt is that we blew it in the first place. God's standard is that we HAVE to be perfect. We have to obey every single commandment of ALL of our lives to go to Heaven. Have we used God's name in vain? I'm sure I have. Have I stolen something? I stole three packs of baseball cards when I was six years old. If that was my first sin, I would've blown it at age six. Because the Bible says that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).
But that's why God loved us so much that He didn't want to see His kids ruin it all anymore. He didn't want us to die over our crap. He sent Jesus, God in the flesh, who knew every single temptation we know, to save the world and not condemn it and to give us eternal life. Through Jesus' death on the cross and resurrection, God paid for every single sin IN OUR LIVES.
Knowing that, why would do we want to work on ourselves in able to be presentable to Him when knowing God loves us without condition? Without question? Without any work to be done on our end other than accepting Him?
So if you don't know Jesus... I must ask this question with all of that being said.
Why aren't you running towards Christ as fast as He's running after you?