June 2008

Watch the video by Steve McVey, Christian Religion Lie #53 “We Should Ask If An Action Would Be Right Or Wrong Before Doing It“ and my comments follow…

This is a lie because it’s the wrong question to ask.

Asking the question, “Is this action right or wrong” is the same as stepping back into the garden and choosing the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” for yourself.

As Christians our job isn’t to decide 1.) what is right and what is wrong or 2.) to do more of those “right” things. Our job is simply to live and walk by faith.

The Bible says, “The Righteous live by faith” (Romans 1:17)

Live by faith — NOT by “is this right or wrong”?

Romans 14:23 says, “… and everything that does not come from faith is sin.“You can still do “right” things out of your own power… out of your flesh… apart from God. And this would be sin. Just because you’re doing the “right” thing doesn’t make it righteous behavior.

In fact, you don’t need Christ to do “right” things. Even unbelievers can do “right” things — you don’t need Christ to be a “good person”.

Steve makes the point that he could preach the word of God out of his own power, his own flesh, and it would be sin.

How to live righteously…

Our calling is to live righteously, which is living by letting the spirit of Christ express itself through you via faith. Because Christ IS our righteousness (Jeremiah 23:6).

You as a Christian are not called to do “right” things — you’re called to let Christ express Himself through you each and every day, moment by moment.

How do you know if you’re living righteously?

How will you know when this is happening?

Should you compare your behavior to a list of “right” and “wrong” things in scripture?

NO!

You will know when Christ is expressing Himself through you because of 1.) who God is and 2.) by faith in Him and His character.

Have faith that Christ IS doing it (because He said He would) and…

God is love so if you are loving God, yourself and other people — Christ is expressing Himself through you. In fact, this is all Christ commanded people to do during His earthly ministry (Matthew 22:36-40).

Because we are human it’s almost impossible to fulfill this “greatest commandment” all day every day… and that is why Christ will do it for you!

And you will also know because you’ll SEE the fruits of the spirit manifested in your daily life…

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23, NIV)

So stop worrying about how to live “more right than wrong” and instead decide to live by FAITH in the One who is faithful… ask Him to express Himself through you in each moment… surrender anything that comes up in opposition to that decision to Him… and watch as Love and the fruits of the Spirit are expressed through your life more and more each and every day as you learn to walk more and more in faith.

With Love

Caleb

In response to my last blog post, beautiful Linda posted this comment:

“Good post. Excellent points. I agree. However, I would love to read more about what this means to you personally. What does that love and grace look like through Caleb’s eyes?”

I started to reply in my comments section… and it became LONG so I figured I’d post it here.

What does that love and grace of God look like through my eyes?

It’s amazing really, I first discovered God is Love… He is unchanging… and the biggest realization is EVERYTHING about Him is unilateral…

So what does it look like to me… what does it feel like? I don’t even have words to describe what I’m discovered each day about God and The Bible…

Here’s a start:

“It’s all lies!”

Almost everything I was taught as a child, growing up in a Christian home was a lie.

This isn’t to fault my parents — they were well intentioned and did the best they could, it’s just they were lied to as well (probably by other well intentioned Christians who were lied to, etc)…

You see, Christianity today is just “Augustianity” meaning it’s all based on Augustines view of scripture… not on what the Bible actually says.

We’re in the same situation today that Christ was facing during His earthly ministry…

The traditions of man accepted over what God actually says in His word…

Christ didn’t like that the religious teachers of His day were teaching man’s traditions over what the Bible actually says…

“he is not to ‘honor his father with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.” — Mt 15:6, Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?” — Mt. 15:3, “They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.” — Mt. 15:9

Like in Jesus’ time, our traditions today aren’t questioned… and are accepted as “Christian” even though they have no Biblical foundation!

Are all these traditions bad?

No, and in fact, God obviously allowed them to come into being and continue until this day, so in God’s plan they are serving a purpose.

EVERYTHING serves God’s will (even something as horrible as a terrorist attack or a serial killer… in some way… serves God’s will)(This is a truth about who God is — we don’t have to understand it or even like it… we just need to have faith in God and His will).

But I discovered some amazing things I’ve always struggled with and it blows me away how each new discovery proves that much more how God is each of those three things — all emanating from His great, unconditional Love…

SEX is a great example!

Please forgive me here as I’m about to rant!

An example of all this, is the sex ethic that is preached as “Christian morals” isn’t from scripture — it’s from Augustine and early pagan influences.

A sex ethic basically proposing a “virgin ideal”… that all lust is bad… and sex is dirty and shameful.

This thinking is so engrained in our culture that even Christians who SAY “everything to do with sex is ok… as long as it is between two married Christians” can’t actually put those words into practice. They can’t get over their own hangups, emotional baggage, and feelings of shame and guilt to enjoy great sex lives in their marriages.

But this sexual ethic never squared with what I knew of scripture (even as a young child)… and now what I’m discovering of God…

Man’s traditions on sex VS what the Bible says about sex…

Here’s something interesting: I only feel guilty… or in conflict… or ashamed about what I want to do (because I think it’s in opposition to God) when I am approaching the Christian life by trying to satisfy a “tradition of man”.

In fact, I know a teaching is really from God because I know I’ll enjoy it!

(I suppose this is why David wrote many songs about how much He delighted in following God’s ways — He had the same understanding of God and how loving, merciful and awesome He is!)

Sex is a great example of this. The traditions I was taught and told were from the Bible about sex always seemed to be TOTALLY opposed to my own nature (even though the Bible also says I have the mind of Christ…)

Like the “virgin ideal” — that being a virgin is the most holy thing there is (unless you decide to get married to ONE person for the rest of your life, ie. multiple sexual partners is a sin as well)

“But the Bible says…”

I always wondered why I was taught a “virgin ideal” yet great men of God like David and Solomon had multiple wives (and scripture said God blessed them by giving them multiple wives, He would have given them more, etc)

Let’s take David as an example…

• David was a truly holy man. He taught “the fear of the Lord,” (PS. 19:9 etc.).
• David was a “a man after God’s own heart,” (Acts 13:22).
• David “did all thing right in God’s sight except the matter with Uriah the Hittite (Bathsheba’s husband),”(1 Kg. 15:5).
• He loved God’s law, Ps. 119.
• He prayed “Search me, O God, and know my heart…. and see if there is any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way,” (Ps.139:23, 24).
• He was a repentant man, he truly sorrowed because of his sins, and he worked hard at honoring God’s law, (cf. Ps. 51,etc.)
• He is a great example of worship/praise/prayer. David wrote our prayer/worship manual, the Psalms.
• David was Israel’s greatest leader.
• Christ was “one like David.” “The Son of David,” (Matt. 21:9, etc.).

Such statements as the above place David in the very highest category of “holy men.” According to SCRIPTURE — According to GOD. I’m not just saying “David did it so it was alright”.

Scripture, GOD, said: “David “did all things right in God’s sight except the matter with Uriah the Hittite (Bathsheba’s husband),”(1 Kg. 15:5).

(Keep in mind David had 18 wives and many concubines)…

If his multiple sexual partners was wrong (as current church teaching would have you believe) then God would of said “… except for the matter with Uriah the Hittite AND being an avid polygamist and concubinist because I your God intended monogamous marriage to be the only right place for sex for Christians”

God blesses multiple sexual partners?

What do we find instead of that? God BLESSING David’s multiple sexual relationships!

Through the prophet Nathan, God affirmed that He was the actual source of all David’s women. God said He would have given more if David wanted them, (2 Sam. 12:8) (instead of stealing another man’s wife).

God was willing for David and other men to have sexual relationships with many women. Rather than viewing polygamy and concubinage as a sin or even relegating it to “least desirable” status, God’s blessing of David with many wives and concubines proves that God had no such view of monogamy as does the church and virtually all of Western culture today.

Why would I bring up such a “touchy” (pun intended!) subject?

Simply because it’s one of the strongest examples of how a “tradition of man” handed down from a man name Augustine who had serious mommy issues (and thus SERIOUS guilt, shame and feelings of sin over sex) has been so ingrained into our Christian culture…

… that it causes us to feel guilty, ashamed, sinful, bad, wretched… all over something that God created for us to enjoy to the fullest!

It’s discoveries like these that just blow my mind away — when I get a glimpse of just how LOVING and amazing my “Abba” is!

(And to be a bit crass: let’s face it — more people call out to God in the bedroom than anywhere else — so it’s a shame God isn’t fully praised, worshiped, and thanked for His many blessings there by Christians!)

My old view of God…

Before I had this idea of God (taught to me by my parents, church, etc which I just ASSUMED was right and never dug into scripture to discover for myself):

God is an angry old man in the sky who created the entire earth full of really fun and amazing things to do. He also created humans with a core desire to be happy and want to experience everything in the earth that was fun and amazing. Then for His own sick enjoyment, He created a set of laws that all his little humans have to live by… and the only way to make Him happy is for you to be unhappy, not have any fun, not enjoy any of His amazing creations, etc… Oh and He’s just waiting for you to screw up so He can say “Ha! I knew you’d fail!” and He wants you to always feel guilty and ashamed because you were born a sinner and you’ll never be anything but that!

To say, “life sucked as a Christian then” would be a gross understatement!

My new view of God…

Then I heard other viewpoints… dug into scriptures myself and considered “hey, maybe they were well intentioned but just wrong… they are just humans after all?”

So that’s what I did, and here’s how I view God now…

God IS Love. He created the earth out of love and filled it with the most fun and amazing things an infinite being who IS love could create. Sunsets, landscapes and creations that bring a tear to even a manly man’s heart because they’re so beautiful. Then He created me and the rest of us humans just so He could show His love to us… and love us daily… and gave us this whole earth to “be fruitful and multiply!” in. Set of rules? Nah. Love is enough. He decided He’d put His very life, His very love, into our hearts through Christ because He knew that’s all we would ever need to guide us in any circumstance. He even wants to do the hard things in life for us… take care of us… and love the lovable and unlovable through us in ways we could never do ourselves. When is life hard? Only when we resist this great love

I couldn’t help but put a smiley face on the end of that one because I can’t help but smile when I think of God There, I did it again!

Life is harmonious and full of love now!

Now, I’m in complete harmony with God, it’s a dance of love with me thanking Him every day for what He has done… is doing.. and will do.

Whenever I consciously realize I’m not in this harmony, this loving surrender, I step back and surrender whatever it is that’s getting in the way of this beautiful relationship…

Like when something happens that I would of viewed before as “bad” or a “mistake” I simply go… “Ok God, you must have needed it to happen this way — thanks!” and I move along.

I have NO regrets… no “coulda, shoulda, woulda”… all because I know my loving Abba is in control

It’s like there’s no attachment to my ego, flesh, etc… I have no fear of death… I just see His hand in every mundane detail in my life… and I can just talk with Him and bask in the greatness of who He is and be awed by it…

Occasionally, I am taken away from this awe state when I have to attend to the daily details of living, but I’m learning more and more each day how to remain in those states even as I live and do “normal life” stuff.

I fight for words to describe it

It’s really a blissed out feeling when it’s like this, not unlike the high point of an orgasm or the “sweet spot” of just enough alcohol to hit that feeling of “euphoria” (I hate to use such temporal states to describe it, but there’s nothing much else that fits!)

Every day is a new journey… a “mini-life” where I’m discovering God more and more… trusting and anticipating like a Child who KNOWS without a doubt his father loves him… knows what’s best for him… and has some awesome presents in store for him.

So yeah, that’s about the best I can do to describe what God looks like through my eyes right now, thank you for asking Linda, it feels good just to write this!

With Love

Caleb

Taking a break today from the normal “lies” video commentaries to share something that I’ve recently discovered.

In fact, this is so important because it deals with…

The Very Nature Of God!

Why is it so important to understand the nature of God?

Because if you don’t have a correct understanding of God, then you won’t understand anything He says (in the Bible or through the Holy Spirit). Or worse, you’ll never discover which teachings are truth… and… which ones are false.

So without further “foreplay” here are the…

3 Key FACTS about who God is!

1. God Is Love:

1 John 4:8, 16 clearly state that God “IS” Love. And the whole Bible is the story of His love relationship with us.

God loves us like a father:

• God created man in His own image…. (Ge. 1:27; 9:6).
• I said…all of you are children of the Most High (Ps. 82:6).
• You are our Father…our potter; and all we are the work of Your hand (Is. 64:8).
• Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us (Mal. 2:10)?
• Seeing the multitudes…. in this manner pray: our Father…(Mt. 5:1; 6:9).
• Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples….one is your Father (Mt. 23:1, 9).
• Men of Athens….For we also are His children. Being then the children of God… (Ac. 17:22, 28-29 NAS).
• I bow to the Father…from whom the whole family in…earth is named (Ep. 3:14-15).
• Be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live (He.12:9)?

God loves EVERYONE unconditionally and His love is not partial:

• He is good to all. His tender mercies are over all (Ps. 145:9).
• Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth (Is. 45:22)!
• God so loved the world (Jn. 3:16).
• I came…to save the world (Jn. 12:47).
• God gives to all life.…He has made from one blood every nation of men (Ac. 17:25-27).
• I was sought by those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me. I said, “Here I am, here I am,” to a nation that was not called by My name (Is. 65:1).
• He is good to all (Ps. 145:9).
• In truth…God shows no partiality (Ac. 10:34).
• There is no partiality with God (Ro. 2:11).
• There is no distinction between Jew and Greek (Ro. 10:12).
• God shows personal favoritism to no man (Ga. 2:6).
• There is no partiality with Him (Ep. 6:9).
• There is no partiality (Col. 3:25).
• God…wills [KJV] all men to be saved (1Ti. 2:3-4).
• Wisdom…from above…is without partiality and without hypocrisy (Ja. 3:17).
• The Father…without partiality judges… (1Pe. 1:17).

2. God is Unchanging:

God Himself says “I do not change” in Malachi 3:6 – “For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”

This means His ways have never changed… His moral standards have never changed… And Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

And also God is referred to as “the Rock” because of His unchanging character in De. 32:3-4 and many other passages (Ge. 49:24; De. 2:15, 18, 30, 31; 1Sa. 2:2; 2Sa. 22:2, 3, 32, 47; 23:3; Ps. 18:2, 31, 46; 8:1; 31:2, 3; 42:9; 61:2; 62:2, 6, 7; 71:3; 78:35; 89:26; 92:15; 94:22; Co. 10:4)

3. His Love, Grace, Mercy and Goodness are Unconditional (unilateral). We receive them without merit.

This final characteristics of God is both who He is… and how He treats us.

Our relationship to God is very unilateral — meaning God gives us everything without us having to do anything… and without concern to how we respond to Him… this is the meaning of “unconditional”.

The Bible is a story of how God unfolded His plan of unconditional love for everyone.

He created the world out of love… allowed Satan to resist Him… and allowed all men to be disobidient so that He could futher show His love and mercy to them (Romans 11:32)… orchestrated the life events of all the characters of the Old Testament to prepare His Messianic line… Through which His Son Jesus Christ was born to save the world and bring us back into “right” standing with Him… so that He could further shower us with love.

Through none of this did God need the help of any man… He did it all simply because He willed to do it. Nor does God need our help now… scripture confirms it:

“The God who made the world and everything in it, this Master of sky and land, doesn’t live in custom-made shrines or need the human race to run errands for him, as if he couldn’t take care of himself. He makes the creatures; the creatures don’t make him. Starting from scratch, he made the entire human race and made the earth hospitable, with plenty of time and space for living so we could seek after God, and not just grope around in the dark but actually find him. He doesn’t play hide-and-seek with us. He’s not remote; he’s near. We live and move in him, can’t get away from him! One of your poets said it well: ‘We’re the God-created.’ Well, if we are the God-created, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to think we could hire a sculptor to chisel a god out of stone for us, does it?” (Acts 17:24-29 The Message, emphasis mine)

Please, please, please keep these FACTS about God in mind!

They will serve you well!

You’ll be able to tell false teachings… you’ll see who is misinterpreting the Bible to serve their own purposes… who is reading into it so they hear what they want to hear… and finally you’ll be able to tell who is telling the TRUTH.

If you hear something about God or about Christianity and it conflicts with any of these three “Pillars” of who God is… then you know it’s a lie and you need to study it more.

With Love

Caleb

Watch the vid below by Steve Mcvey, Christian Religion Lie #52 “We Should Pray To Be Stronger So God Can Use Us“ and my comments follow…

This is another lie that SOUNDS good… till you really look at it closely and compare it with scripture.

People want more strength for themselves

People pray this prayer often because they want more strength for THEMSELVES to DO MORE for God.

The truth is, we don’t need more “strength” to serve God — in fact, as Steve McVey says, “most of us are already too strong”.

Instead we need to recognize our own weakness… recognize our own inability to live the Christian life… and accept through faith that Christ is capable enough (and faithful enough) to live it THROUGH us.

God told the apostle Paul in 2 Cor 12:9 (NIV, emphasis mine):

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.“”

What did Paul know that you don’t?

Let’s consider this for a moment. Paul was a pharisee before His conversion to Christ… He was raised to be a religious zealot… and is argueably the most influental Christian to EVER live…

Yet, what did God tell Paul?

Did God tell Paul — “you’re doing a good job already, now if you pray for me to give you more strength, to help you more, I’ll give you more strength to continue living a great Christian life!”

NO!

God told Paul that His grace was sufficient for Paul and that “My power is made perfect in weakness”.

Paul lived the Christian life by being weak

Paul was obedient and continues in this same verse to say…

“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

Paul understood that living a great Christian life wasn’t about asking the God for more strength so you can do it on your own… No.

Paul understood that amazing, authentic Christianity is realizing our weakness and embracing it — so that Christ is more FULLY revealed THROUGH us each and every day… moment by moment.

We want people to see Christ when they look at us, NOT us.

Is your life a good advertisement… for… Christ?

I write advertisements and marketing materials for a living. Now the purpose of a direct response advertisement is to sell a product… the vessel this sale comes through is my writing.

Now, some writers like to write elegantly, use fluffy words and try to dazzle the reader with how clever their writing is. But they don’t make as many sales!

Why?

Because a good advertisement showcases the product being advertised… its only job is to get the SALE… and if someone is distracted by the “strength” of your writing… the cleverness of your words… then they aren’t focusing on the product for sale and they won’t build up the desire to buy the product.

(do you see where I’m going here?)

A good advertisement is written in such a way that you forget you’re reading it… all you can think about is how great the product is and how much you want to order it… you dont’ even notice the “strength” of the writing.

People should forget they’re seeing us and instead see Christ!

So instead of asking for more strength for ourselves (which will only take the attention off Christ) let us instead embrace our weakness so that Christ is more fully revealed through us each and every day… like the apostle Paul… and like a good “typing salesman”.

With Love

Caleb

Watch the vid below by Steve McVey Christian Religion Lie #51 “Grace And Truth Need To Be Kept In Balance” and my comments follow…

I gotta say I’ve never heard this one…

If I did, I think I’d flip! haha!

It just doesn’t even make SENSE to me, now that I’ve come to know who I fully am in Christ.

Is grace on one side… and truth on the other?

But Steve makes the good point that this LIE draws a line between grace and truth… which isn’t correct.

It’s as if to say “Yes Grace is “kind of” true… but it’s not REALLY true…”

In fact, it bears a strong resemblance to the lie that “we need to be careful how we teach grace or people might abuse it”

Christ IS grace… and… He IS truth!

Grace IS truth and they are both embodied in the person of Jesus Christ. Legalism and following the “law” are on the other side of the line (not truth!).

John said it like this in John 1:17 (NIV, emphasis mine):

“For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.“

So you see, the idea that “grace” is on one side of the line… and “truth” is on the other is totally absurd and has NO basis in scripture…

So this is one heck of a lie that I’ve personally never heard (gladly)… but… if you do hear it — don’t believe it for a second!

With Love

Caleb

Watch the video by Steve McVey called Christian Religion Lie #50 “We Had Better Be Careful Or People Might Abuse Grace” And my comments (crazy as always ) follow…

You hear this a lot when you preach grace and only grace as a way of Christian life.

You hear, “yes, but you can’t take it to far“…

… “yes, but you have to be careful or else people will abuse the knowledge of grace and use it as a license to sin“…

… “yes that’s true, but be careful how you share that or else some people might abuse it“…

It’s all a faulty, fear-based lie!

This Lie is grounded firmly in FEAR

Fear is the opposite of love. God is Love and according to 1 John 4:18 (NIV, emphasis mine):

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

So either we are having FAITH in God and His unconditional Love (which Hebrews says is the “only thing which pleases God”)

… or faith in our fear (which is the opposite of Love/God and therefore can’t be pleasing to God).

A simple choice … your fear or God’s Love?

So which of these things are you going to choose to have faith in…

Your fear of people abusing the Grace… love… and truth of who God is… or… are you going to have faith in God.

The truth is, you don’t have to fear people abusing the Grace of God because God (the creator of the universe, the alpha and omega, the originator of all, etc) is quite capable to make sure that people don’t abuse it.

He doesn’t need your “help” to make sure people “stay in line” (according to your limited, finite view of what “staying in line” actually means!)

God is quite capable to perfect His will all by Himself… like a big boy!

Besides, your job is to reveal what you know to be truth… NOT to worry!

The message of Grace is truth.

Your job is to tell the truth as you know it. (which will never be complete, we all understand God only “in part” 1 Cor 13:12)…

And you allow the Holy Spirit to take care of the fear of “people abusing grace” because God is quite capable to handle His creations.

And besides…

What you see as “abusing grace” is just God’s will being played out…

Let’s say you share the message of grace with someone and it seems to you like they take it and “abuse” it by taking it as a license to “sin”.

They go out and have their way with every fleshly desire there is in the world… Have they somehow upset God’s perfect will?

Have you somehow been responsible for “messing up” God’s perfect plan for that persons life?

Of Course NOT!

Either God is totally IN CONTROL… or He is Not.

None of us is bigger than God or has the power to upset His perfect will.

In our hypothetical example, Perhaps God needed that person to travel the world, become a crack addict, alcoholic, who contracts AIDS from sleeping with thousands of other drug users who share needles…

… and then… is overwhelmed by the Grace of God after 5 years of living homeless on the streets (the message you shared with them originally) and goes on to start a ministry which brings Christ to crack addict, alcoholic, AIDs victims all over the world!

My point is:

You have no idea what God’s will is!

So you don’t have to “play God” by pretending to know what’s right for everyone… you just have to share God’s Love and Truth as best you understand it… God is totally and completely capable of taking care of the details

With Love
Caleb

Watch the vid below by Steve McVey – Christian Religion Lie #49 “Repentance Brings God’s Goodness Into Our Lives“ and my comments follow…

This is another Old Covenant based lie.

You can usually spot these lies when they seem to follow an “if… then…” equation to them. Meaning:

“IF… you do this for God…. THEN … He will do this for you“

When you hear something like that then you KNOW it’s a lie!

God’s Love, Grace, and Goodness is UNCONDITONAL

What does this word “Unconditional” mean? It means God decides to be God and do the things God does (Love, Grace, Goodness) without regard to anything else. Without being influenced by anything else.

It means God will give these things just because of who He is… and… you can do nothing to 1.) get them or 2.) stop them from being done to you!

So the idea then that God gives goodness to us when we repent is not true — God gives goodness to us just because He chooses to… because it’s in His nature to bless His children.

So why would anyone repent?

Repentance is just recognizing when you’re sinning and turning away from it and back towards God.

BUT… if you don’t “get anything” when you repent… why repent… why would you ever turn away from sin and back towards God?

The answer is: even repentance is a gift from God… and… is our RESPONSE to his unconditional goodness in the first place!

God’s love will lead you to repentance

Paul says in Romans 2:4 (NIV, emphasis mine):

“Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?”

See once again, it is God initiating something we only have to respond to…

When we start to understand (or even “sort-of understand”) the depth of unconditional love and unconditional grace God has towards us it leads us to repentance.

When you realize how much God loves you… how much He is blessing you… and How much grace He is pouring out on you… EVEN while you’re still sinning… you can’t help but to love the guy!

Then you decide, “You know what Father… nothing I could do apart from you can match the incredible Love and Grace you are showing me… I’m done with all that stuff… it’s not who I am anyways!” and you turned back into your father’s loving arms.

That’s how repentance works. It’s not an “If… then…” equation or treating God like an ATM machine… it’s recognizing God’s goodness is already poured out on you and choosing that instead of your own self.

With Love
Caleb

Watch the vid below by Steve McVey of Grace Walk fame: Christian Religion Lie #48: “We Need To Speak Out Against Sin” and my comments (of course) follow…

This is a great one… and sadly this lie has affected the whole of Christendom today!

Jesus already dealt with sin once and for all when He gave up His life for the sins of the world on the cross.

In fact, He did such a good job with it, that He proclaimed “It is finished” right before His last breath.

Why talk about what’s already DEAD?

We aren’t called to talk about something dead. With Jesus’ death AND resurrection the power of sin (death) was conquered — so why spend so much time talking about it… worrying about it… paying attention to it… and drawing attention to it?

We’re called to talk about the Gospel — the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.

To speak of His love, his grace, and His FINISHED work.

People already know they have indwelling sin…

To think “If I don’t go beat that guy over the head with the knowledge of how sinful he is… He’ll never want to accept Christ” is a poor idea at best.

I think most people know there is something wrong deep down inside. Our fall from God, because we were born in Adam, assures us that something is missing. This is why there are so many different religions in the world. Religion is man’s way of trying to get back in touch with God.

This is also why when people here on earth conquer everything on the “lower levels” of living… wealth… fame… women (or men)… and have an abundance of EVERYTHING they ever thought could make them complete…

They’re still miserable. They’re still searching. And the ones that don’t realize it’s God they’re searching for end up committing suicide because they think “if I already have everything, and I’m still miserable — there must be no hope!”

It’s NOT our job anyways

And the Holy Spirit can convict people. God… the creator of the universe, time, and everything in existence… is quite capable of convicting people of their sin — if they need it.

It’s simply Not our job.

Focusing on how God wants to punish them for their sins turns people away from God

If a person comes to see God as a mean man in the clouds who created them sinful and now wants to punish them in eternal torment forever unless they agree to accept Him and follow Him like a slave… then it’s going to “turn them off” to God.

They’re not going to want a relationship with Him because they will be relating to God in FEAR.

Our Job is to reveal God’s LOVE to people

Our job is to love and to tell people about God’s love.

Revealing God’s love will take away the fear people have about God (1 John 4:18 ). They won’t be afraid to run back into His arms like the prodigal son in Jesus’ parable.

God loves them UNCONDITIONALLY (yes, even if they’re still sinners). Because it’s this which will turn them away from their sin and cause them to want a relationship with God.

Scripture says we Love God because He first Loved us (1 John 4:19).

So what’s the best way to bring the lost to Christ?

So if we can allow God to love people THROUGH us first… and then when we’ve showered them with love (as opposed to beating them overhead with condemnation)… when this perfect love has cast out their fear of the unknown… the fear of coming back to God and they ask us “why are you the way you are?”

That’s when you tell them the Gospel… when you tell them about why you’re loving them so much… why God loves them so much that He gave His Son for them and only asks to have an intimate relationship with them again… and… Loves them so much — He’ll even keep the relationship going.

So don’t believe this lie anymore that we need to “speak out against sin”

With Love,

Caleb