How To Have a Great Christian Life

Watch the vid below, by my main man Steve McVey, Christian Religion Lie #56 “we need to focus on overcoming our sins” and my comments follow…

For a long time in my Christian life I thought that my ONLY job was to focus on NOT sinning.

Oh what a MISERABLE existence that is!

Perhaps you’ve experienced it?

You wake up each morning and start a mental “Sins VS Good Stuff” scoresheet!

And then you start about your day, ever mindful that you’re just a “sinner saved by grace” and with each step you’re in danger of screwing up and adding another tally to the “sins” side of the scoresheet.

Then when you do screw up, you’re immediately begging God for forgiveness — hoping He will grant it to you.

Then every once in a while, you go a good part of the day without sinning, and think “I’m getting the hang of this Christian thing” — only to be hurled back into condemnation when a pastor or more “mature” Christian tells you that you could be sinning without even knowing it!

It’s a day of constant worry, always looking over your shoulder because you know the “big guy upstairs” is constantly watching your every move ready to tell you how you’re screwing up.

The last prayer of the day

Then right before bed, just to make sure, you say a quick prayer asking forgiveness for anything you might of done that was a sin and you didn’t know it… or you didn’t ask forgiveness for.

The whole time, you’ve TOTALLY ignored God.

Your focus has been on your SELF the entire day — never stopping to communicate with your loving Father, except to grovel at His feet for a few moments begging His forgiveness.

It kind of leaves you thinking “Is this all there is to being a Christian? If so, it SUCKS!”

What do you call being so preoccupied with sin all day?

It’s called “sin consciousness” and it’s ruining your great Christian life!

Does the Bible teach you to focus so much on sin? Or is it just something that you learned from more experienced Christians… and heard preached from the pulpit?

The TRUTH is: The Bible teaches you the opposite, the Bible teaches that Jesus came to put away sin (1 John 3:5)… dealt with sin once and for all on the cross… that it is finished (John 19:30)… and you’re now to focus ONLY on Christ.

The Apostle Paul said it like this in Colossians 3:1-4:

“1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

Paul says to pay no attention to the things of this world, and in the next verses gives advice not to focus on things of the “flesh” things of sin, things of “self”.

Instead, set your focus on Christ because as a Christian, He truly IS your life now and is ALL that matters!

The best part is, the more you focus on Christ, the less you’ll even be tempted to sin– you’ll be consumed by His love and want nothing to do with anything that isn’t from His hands.

So this is a lie that we need to focus on the sin in our lives, what we REALLY need to focus on is Jesus Christ and sin will cease to be an issue.

Watch the video below by Steve McVey about Christian Religion Lie #55: “It is a sin to be depressed“ and my comments follow…

So is it a sin to be depressed?

Do you think so?

The truth is a resounding “NO!”

Even Jesus got depressed!

In fact, instead of addressing this Lie directly, I’m going to repost here, one of my own articles from the past. It’s called, “We have an emotional Jesus” and it’s about how Jesus Himself was GREATLY depressed before He was taken away to be tried and eventually executed…

(you’ll also get to see how my writing style has changed since this article was first published, way back in 2004)

“We Have An Emotional Jesus”
– by Caleb Osborne

Yes, even in our most trying times we can be sure that our Lord has already triumphed in our particular situation. So we can be comfortable talking to him about our troubles.

This is important and a comforting thing to know. For it’s comforting to know you can talk to someone who has been through your situation. More important than the comforting feelings is that Jesus showed us the way to deal with these emotions.

In the last email Jesus got mad at people disgracing the house of prayer, the temple. So He did the right thing and threw them out and was rightly justified in expressing His anger with them.

Emotions aren’t inherently sinful…

It’s important for me to interject that anger in and of itself is not a sinful emotion, it’s a natural one. It will occur, the important thing is to be in control of the emotion, let it out and recover.

Remember that after Jesus stopped the selling and misuse of the temple grounds He taught them that what they were doing was wrong (Mark 11:17-18).

Sorrow is one of the most painful emotions…

There is another emotion that I want to focus on in this article though. An emotion so powerful it can hurt worse and cripple more severely than physical pain. That emotion is Sorrow. Sorrow can come in many forms, from many places and can hurt tremendously. So much so that death can seem like a welcomed event..and an acceptable alternative to the present circumstances.

Yes, tis true, Sorrow can be the worst emotion. Just look at the suicide rate in this Country (USA) and you’ll see that there are a lot of people that suffer from great sorrow. I’d bet dollars to donuts that you can probably think of someone that you’ve personally known that has given in to sorrow and taken their life. Such a sad fact, but true (I know it’s true for me).

Jesus has experienced horrible sorrow too!

And He has showed us the way to deal with it! The correct manner to deal with situations that are not turning out the way we had hoped, and the future seems so bleak.

Jesus taught us to TRUST. To trust in Father’s perfect will and trust that He knows what’s best for us even when we can’t see it , even when it seems like the hardest thing to do in the world, Jesus taught us to trust and submit to the will of Father.

On the night that Jesus was to be betrayed He knew what had to happen, the horrible suffering that was going to come. I like the way the NIV version translates what Jesus tells His disciples about his feelings, when He was going off to pray:

“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” (Mark 14:34)

Wow! How incredibly troubled He must of been! He was so troubled that He did what most of us would do. He prayed that Father could take the trouble from Him. (Mark 14:35-36):

“Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me…”

But! Remember what Jesus did next is what we should pay attention to (as we often forget). In an almost inconceivable act of humble submissiveness and amazing trust, amazing faith in His Father’s will for Him. He prays:

“…Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36)

Jesus was in such anguish during this prayer that His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground (Luke 22:44). He even went back from praying to find His disciples asleep where He had left them (talk about feeling alone and uncared for–they were sleeping!) and after waking them, went back and repeated his prayer.

3 times Jesus was so depressed He asked for God to save Him…

He did this again. 3 Times He prayed that if it was possible, that His Father could take this burden from Him because He was in such troublesome spirits. But each time He reaffirmed His father’s will for His life to be what He desired most (Mark 14:37-42)

So Take Note Christian! Next time Life’s troubles have you so unhappy and full of sorrow that you don’t think you can stand it. Don’t be afraid to ask God first for deliverance but sincerely, honestly and humbly pray that His will be done, no yours.

Jesus showed us the way to live, relying on the Father and through faith accepting His will even when it seems horribly painful to do so!

[END article]

So there you have it!

It wasn’t a sin for Jesus to be depressed… so it’s not a sin for you to be depressed either. But like Jesus, you can rest, in faith in the One who is faithful — your heavenly Father. You can trust in His will for your life… even if… your emotions are telling you different.

With Love

Caleb

Watch the video by Steve McVey below called, Christian Religion Lie #54 God Only Speaks Today Through The Bible and my comments follow…

This is a BIG, FAT LIE!

Seriously, to think that God, the creator of everything, only speaks through the words He transcribed to saints of old to be written down for us today… is insane.

Now, let me be careful to say this first…

This doesn’t diminish value of the Bible.

And God will never speak in a way through any other medium that would be a contradiction to His word.

So if the Bible says, “Love your neighbor” and the little voice in your head says, “Kill your neighbor” you know for a FACT that it is NOT God telling you to do that

But God can and DOES speak through EVERYTHING in creation…

He speaks through nature, art, music, literature, science (the way He reveals Himself to us), the heavens, skies, women, children, beauty, ugliness, sex, smells, taste, texture, literally everything that is created God speaks through.

Do you have trouble believing God speaks to you through everything, every day?

If you’re having trouble with this, or think it sounds strange, can you ever remember hearing a fellow Christian say (or perhaps you’ve said it yourself):

“Pastor, the Lord spoke to me through you today”

Christians will say this all the time, or they’ll say…

“Wow, the Lord really spoke to me through that song we were singing today, what a blessing”

And yet they have a hard time believing that God is speaking to them like that through EVERYTHING… if… only they’d listen.

God does not JUST speak in Church

I think half the problem is Christians think the only place they can hear the Lord and have a spiritual conversation with Him is in Church.

When in reality, God is initiating conversations with you each and every day… from the moment you wake up… to the last flutter of your eyelids before you drift off into sleep.

How to “Pray without Ceasing”

In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 the Bible says to “Pray without ceasing”

Have you ever wondered how that is possible?

I’ll tell you how, it’s because God is initiating conversations with you all day long through His various creations.

He is trying to show you His love in the cool summer breeze… He wants to shine on your face with the warm rays of the sun… He wants to show you everything is in His hangs when you check your bank account and you could SORELY use an extra decimal point or two.

When you realize this, you’ll realize God is talking to you every single moment of every single day, this is the meaning of “pray without ceasing”.

Listen for Him, He IS talking to you!

God does want to talk with you…

Just like you want to talk with your lover, you want to tell them how much you love them, how much you want to do for them, you want to send them little love notes through email or texts on your phone… and… you want to share that Love with them every moment of every day.

So like a good lover, you only need to respond to God’s messages of love (1 John 4:19)

So, this matter is settled yes? God can and WILL speak to you in HUNDREDS of ways each and every day, you only need to have “ears to hear” to hear Him… so don’t believe this lie any longer!

With Love

Caleb

So, like the notorious B.I.G. (pictured above for the Christians that don’t listen to Biggie ) I’m going back to Cali

Actually, I’m already there right now, as I write this I’m sitting in a Ramada Inn in Huntington Beach California.

Went to the beach today… got some great sun… watched beautiful waves crash on the shore… saw beautiful women walk by displaying the splender that is God’s greatest creation…

Life is definitely GOOD

So I won’t be posting anything new, probably until after I get back on Friday…

Just letting y’all know so you won’t miss me and if you’re lucky, I just might post a video of some of me and my friend’s shenanigans!

With Love

Caleb

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