A post to go with the most
Yes, 'tis been a boot a week, well, a week and a day since I last posted. I feel a lot has changed. The main thing that has changed is my view of God. I was stuck in a paradigm, a box of thought, if you will, and I started reading a chapter in "The Divine Conspiracy". It presented the idea that Christianity has two extremes of sin management.
The people on the Right think that salvation is all there is to it, we just believe in a thing that Jesus did 2000 years ago and then that's it, no more affect on our lives.
The people on the Left take Jesus out of the picture and just spiritualize things, we just need to treat people nicely, love each other, accept people for who they are, but only according to what society says is ok to accept.
The two sides are very noble and effective for some life changes, but they aren't complete. God wants a complete change to occur when we dedicate our lives to him. The act of praying the salvation prayer shouldn't be treated as something to manage your sin. "Jesus, forgive me I fell again" is ok as long as it's taken in the attitude that our life should be an ever increasing spiral up. But praying that prayer, just to feel better, and then ignoring the things that Jesus has done and taught in order to live a life without him, well that's obviously not right.
So what has this done for me and what can this do for you? Two very good questions. For me it has been a renewal of the spirit I should have had right when I prayed the prayer to ask Jesus in my heart (although I was 5). I have made some especially good life changes and decided to once again dedicate this life to what Maya Angelou said last night "dedicate every conscious hour to the liberation of the minds and spirits of human beings."
For you, well, you should catch this vision too. Jesus came that we would live life to the fullest. He died and gave us eternal life NOW, not just when we die. The word everlasting in John 3:16 isn't just a time period, it's an amount.
The people on the Right think that salvation is all there is to it, we just believe in a thing that Jesus did 2000 years ago and then that's it, no more affect on our lives.
The people on the Left take Jesus out of the picture and just spiritualize things, we just need to treat people nicely, love each other, accept people for who they are, but only according to what society says is ok to accept.
The two sides are very noble and effective for some life changes, but they aren't complete. God wants a complete change to occur when we dedicate our lives to him. The act of praying the salvation prayer shouldn't be treated as something to manage your sin. "Jesus, forgive me I fell again" is ok as long as it's taken in the attitude that our life should be an ever increasing spiral up. But praying that prayer, just to feel better, and then ignoring the things that Jesus has done and taught in order to live a life without him, well that's obviously not right.
So what has this done for me and what can this do for you? Two very good questions. For me it has been a renewal of the spirit I should have had right when I prayed the prayer to ask Jesus in my heart (although I was 5). I have made some especially good life changes and decided to once again dedicate this life to what Maya Angelou said last night "dedicate every conscious hour to the liberation of the minds and spirits of human beings."
For you, well, you should catch this vision too. Jesus came that we would live life to the fullest. He died and gave us eternal life NOW, not just when we die. The word everlasting in John 3:16 isn't just a time period, it's an amount.