Freedom is an interesting thing. So is perception.
To Lalaith and Threnody, Christianty was bondage, a set of chains that held them back and held them down and impressed upon them unhappiness. So they left, which is only natural.
The interesting parts are the theological things that bothered Lalaith when she was a Christian. In this blog, she talks about feeling the pressing weight of being forced to share the gospel with everyone that she came in contact with because God required it of her; there's also reference to the ever-popular question, "If God is good, why do bad things happen?"
There is a large misconception here right off the get-go. Jesus said, "If you love me, you'll keep my commandments." He never said, "If you keep my commandments, you'll love me." The love pre-dates the keeping. You don't keep His commandments and GROW to love Him. You love Him; therefore, you keep His commands. If someone feels they're being forced, cajoled, or blackmailed into doing something, they AREN'T doing it out of love. If I feel like my husband is forcing me to make dinner, I may make dinner, but I'm not doing it 'cause I love him.
Secondly, though Christians are commanded to share the Gospel, we're not supposed to be shoving it in everybody's faces. Sometimes, you have to be very careful about how to present things if you don't want to needlessly give people a negative impression.
Thirdly, God never put the weight of saving people on His children. Christians don't save; Jesus saves. We can tell people about Him, we can exemplify His love; we can't save. Jesus paid the price; the Holy Spirit is the One that regenerates them. Yes, God uses people to tell others and people get saved only after hearing the Word of God; BUT, Christians aren't held accountable for the saving of souls. If I told every person that I met about Jesus and His salvific work on Calvary and none of them got saved, that's not on me. I can't save them; it doesn't matter if I say things eloquently or if I trip over every other sentence. If God is going to save them, they will be saved. If He isn't, they won't.
This doesn't diminish my responsibility to know what I'm talking about, or to be careful to answer questions correctly or anything. I still need to be studying and praying and seeking God's face. It just means that a person's never-dying soul is not my responsibility. God never put that on us.
The second point: If Almighty God is loving and good, why do evil things happen? Basically, because God is more than just love and more than just good. God is holy; God is just; God is merciful; God is gracious; God is humble. If we had never sinned, God would never have had reason to show His mercy to us. If Jesus had not come to die, we should have never known the extent of God's love or the immensity of Christ's humility. If God never judged, we could not witness His justice and wrath and hatred for sin.
It's not God's love alone that makes Him perfect or makes Him God. In order to show His Person more fully, God allows sin to happen. The really fun part is Romans 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." The thing that glorifies God most is also the thing that is best for His children.
Last of all, I want to mention the name of the post. Is there freedom outside of Christ? In a way. God created people logically. That is, we cannot go against certain logical things that are built into us. One such thing is the fact that whatever choice we wish for most is the choice that we will always take. For example, if I see strawberries in my fridge and I want them more than I want to leave them there, I will eat them. Something else would have to come and displace that desire in order for me NOT to eat the strawberries. I will always choose that which I most desire.
This is as true for the unbeliever as for the believer. The difference is that the unbeliever cannot ever desire Christ more than themselves; the Christian can. This is because, in being made alive, we can see Who God is, and every time we look at Him, we will want Him more than anything else. I can do that which is right now; not by my own strength, by Christ's. Now I can leave the proverbial strawberries in the fridge for Him, rather than eating them myself, and I can do it out of no other reason than because I love Him. This is the freedom that I have in Christ - freedom from bondage to sin, from having to always choose something less than perfect, something less than God.
To whatever you love, you are a slave. Whether it be Christ, money, physical pleasures, etc. Whatever you love most will be your master. The question is not, "Are you a slave?" The question is, "Who do you serve?"
Showing posts with label Christianity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christianity. Show all posts
Friday, February 10, 2012
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
For Those Who Seek
My heart is very happy right now. I just finished a good and interesting conversation with my friend, Lalaith. I feel I have a much greater understanding of her reasoning; and we have once again parted good friends. Much to be happy about!
On to the post!
I wasn't sure how to answer this one at first. It's a motivational speech to those who are thinking about leaving Christianity, a pep-talk of sorts. In one way, I admire the writing - it's well done. Really, all of their posts are. There are things that I agree with and things that I disagree with. But this time, something overall struck me.
Threnody is appealing to people who feel constrained by Christianity, who want out, who are unhappy and discontent with their lives. She's preaching freedom out of a desire to see all those who felt as she did become loosed from bondage to the God they don't love. Honestly, on that count, I'm right with her. I don't want people in Christianity who hate it there or who don't love Jesus Christ. They'll be miserable. In fact, GOD doesn't want people trying to hide inside Christianity who don't love Him. (They can't hide from Him; He knows, of course; but they can hide from other people.)
So, please, by all means, if you don't love God, leave the church. You will be happier; the Church will be healthier.
On the other hand, Threnody seems to miss something. Her message is one of hope and overcoming hardship and fear, a message of making your own way. What she doesn't seem to understand is that some people run TO Christ because they don't want to make their own way, because they've been trying that for years and it's hard, and, in the end, it causes pain. All the things that she deplores about true Christianity (as opposed to the religiosity that can easily get mistaken for it), others find reassuring and comforting. The rules that she hates, are not confining or laborious; they're a pleasure. When someone you love asks you to do something simple, that's not confining; that's not difficult. It's easy; it's happy - being able to do something for the one that you love.
Trying to make your own way? How is that freeing? Making my own way sounds like a good deal more work than following the way that God has already made. Think about that for a minute in terms of a massive jungle, wild and overgrown with underbrush. Make your own way, or follow the path where the brush has already been cleared away?
As for being accountable only to your own conscience, that simply isn't true. We live in a nation governed by laws. No matter what your conscience says, if you break those laws, you may very well be held accountable to something other than your conscience. Anyone who's been pulled over for speeding can attest to that - for most people, speeding does NOT bother their conscience, but they're still held accountable for it. Aside from the laws of the nation, people hold each other and judge each other to their own standards all the time. Maybe that's not how Threnody thinks things should be, but it is how things are. Person A judges Person B by Person A's standards. This is not peculiar to Christianity or any other religion.
So here is the counter-offer to Threnody's. Come to Jesus. His yoke is EASY; His burden is LIGHT. Yes, He has a yoke and a burden for you, but He doesn't make you bear them alone. He will be with you forever to help you along. He's already cleared the path and He'll help you walk it. You don't need to fight with the underbrush; just trust Him. It doesn't matter how far you've gone your own way or how deep you're stuck in the brush; He is God Who made it all; it's not hard for Him to pull you out.
If you have any questions, please send me an email.
On to the post!
I wasn't sure how to answer this one at first. It's a motivational speech to those who are thinking about leaving Christianity, a pep-talk of sorts. In one way, I admire the writing - it's well done. Really, all of their posts are. There are things that I agree with and things that I disagree with. But this time, something overall struck me.
Threnody is appealing to people who feel constrained by Christianity, who want out, who are unhappy and discontent with their lives. She's preaching freedom out of a desire to see all those who felt as she did become loosed from bondage to the God they don't love. Honestly, on that count, I'm right with her. I don't want people in Christianity who hate it there or who don't love Jesus Christ. They'll be miserable. In fact, GOD doesn't want people trying to hide inside Christianity who don't love Him. (They can't hide from Him; He knows, of course; but they can hide from other people.)
So, please, by all means, if you don't love God, leave the church. You will be happier; the Church will be healthier.
On the other hand, Threnody seems to miss something. Her message is one of hope and overcoming hardship and fear, a message of making your own way. What she doesn't seem to understand is that some people run TO Christ because they don't want to make their own way, because they've been trying that for years and it's hard, and, in the end, it causes pain. All the things that she deplores about true Christianity (as opposed to the religiosity that can easily get mistaken for it), others find reassuring and comforting. The rules that she hates, are not confining or laborious; they're a pleasure. When someone you love asks you to do something simple, that's not confining; that's not difficult. It's easy; it's happy - being able to do something for the one that you love.
Trying to make your own way? How is that freeing? Making my own way sounds like a good deal more work than following the way that God has already made. Think about that for a minute in terms of a massive jungle, wild and overgrown with underbrush. Make your own way, or follow the path where the brush has already been cleared away?
As for being accountable only to your own conscience, that simply isn't true. We live in a nation governed by laws. No matter what your conscience says, if you break those laws, you may very well be held accountable to something other than your conscience. Anyone who's been pulled over for speeding can attest to that - for most people, speeding does NOT bother their conscience, but they're still held accountable for it. Aside from the laws of the nation, people hold each other and judge each other to their own standards all the time. Maybe that's not how Threnody thinks things should be, but it is how things are. Person A judges Person B by Person A's standards. This is not peculiar to Christianity or any other religion.
So here is the counter-offer to Threnody's. Come to Jesus. His yoke is EASY; His burden is LIGHT. Yes, He has a yoke and a burden for you, but He doesn't make you bear them alone. He will be with you forever to help you along. He's already cleared the path and He'll help you walk it. You don't need to fight with the underbrush; just trust Him. It doesn't matter how far you've gone your own way or how deep you're stuck in the brush; He is God Who made it all; it's not hard for Him to pull you out.
If you have any questions, please send me an email.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
October 3, 2011
My goal is to post at least three times a week until I get caught up with the other blog. So here I am, about to talk about what was one of the hardest things I've ever read. Very sad, but very much able to be explained.
Here's the post.
I think, for every Christian, reading that ending is rough. It should be; we love our God and hearing someone speak about Him in such a way is offensive. It's also saddening because it's obvious that Throendy worked very hard to try to do what she thought was right; she read the Bible, she prayed, she even sought help from the leadership.
But even in her words, you can find the error. She WORKED for it. She was trying to WIN God's love. She fought for it and she failed. It's sad, very sad. But the fault is in the theology, not in God. No person can WIN God's love; that's why Christ had to come and die. If we could earn it, win it, work for it, the sacrifice of Jesus would be the most unjustifiable waste imaginable. Why would an Infinite God die for finite people, if the people could earn salvation themselves?
There's a warning here for everyone who is living the life that Threnody and Lalaith did for so long. They were indeed wasted years for them and no one seemed to see the real problem. If you are calling and calling and God is not answering, you should probably reevaluate some things. Are you really a Christian? Are you calling improperly, pridefully, as if God OWES you an answer because you've done your Bible reading that week and gone to church (or whatever good thing)? Are you calling only because you're in trouble right now, but last month when everything was fine, you wanted nothing to do with talking to God?
That isn't Christianity; that's religiosity; that's works-based. Christianity is Jesus-based. Jesus paid the price; Jesus already bought God's love with His blood; now He gives it to us free of charge with the understanding that we can do nothing to ever earn it. No amount of time that we give Him, no amount of energy can ever begin to pay Him back. His sacrifice was infinite because He is infinite; anything we can give is finite because we are finite.
Back to the questions. Those are a few things that you can ask yourself as to why God might not be answering you. The Bible says, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." If you have sin that's just sitting in your life and you're not doing anything about it, why should God listen to you? You're already not doing what He's said to do. Why would He give you more directions if you're not taking the first step? What parent tells their two year old five things they have to do when the two-year old isn't doing the one thing that they have to do every day?
Repent and believe. Repent of your sins (this isn't saying, "I'm sorry I did X"; repenting is turning away, it's wanting to leave them all behind; it's running the opposite direction. If you were a drunk, it'd be seeing a bar and immediately turning around and RUNNING the other way. That's repenting; taking action to leave it behind. Repenting doesn't mean you never sin; it means at that moment, you never want to sin again); believe in Jesus (believe that He is Who He says and that He's done what He said; He is God; He died to save sinners). This formula works for Christians and non-Christians alike. It's what happens when we're saved; it's what happens when we fall down afterwards.
If we repent as Christians but don't believe, we get depressed. We fall into despair because we hate our sin and want nothing to do with it, but we're not believing that Jesus can help us. If we believe but never repent, we also get depressed because there's no relationship; we have sin in the way all the time.
The other thing I want to touch on is the reasoning behind religiosity (works-based religion). People look at Christians who are DOING things, good things, and they see it as working FOR acceptance with God. There are two possible reasons for this: One is that the people just can't imagine NOT having to work for it; the other is that the Christians are doing good things for the wrong reasons. Like the Church at Ephesus, they've left their first love. They're doing all the good works, but they're not doing them out of love for Jesus anymore.
What people should be seeing is something that they don't understand. They should be seeing Christians who are serving God happily, not because it's their duty or their job, and definitely not because they're trying to EARN some favor with Him; but they should be working for God because they love Him. We don't serve to get saved; we serve BECAUSE we're saved. It's just like a job. You don't work in order to get hired; you work BECAUSE you were hired. We don't serve to get God's love; we have God's love so we WANT to serve Him.
One last thing that deserves being mentioned. The Bible says that God is love. What people don't understand is that what they want is not real love. Without the saving work of Christ Jesus people are addicted to sin; feeding their addiction is what they want; it is not what they need and it is definitely not what is loving. In not giving them what they want, He is being loving. They just can't see it - because they're addicts.
Here's the post.
I think, for every Christian, reading that ending is rough. It should be; we love our God and hearing someone speak about Him in such a way is offensive. It's also saddening because it's obvious that Throendy worked very hard to try to do what she thought was right; she read the Bible, she prayed, she even sought help from the leadership.
But even in her words, you can find the error. She WORKED for it. She was trying to WIN God's love. She fought for it and she failed. It's sad, very sad. But the fault is in the theology, not in God. No person can WIN God's love; that's why Christ had to come and die. If we could earn it, win it, work for it, the sacrifice of Jesus would be the most unjustifiable waste imaginable. Why would an Infinite God die for finite people, if the people could earn salvation themselves?
There's a warning here for everyone who is living the life that Threnody and Lalaith did for so long. They were indeed wasted years for them and no one seemed to see the real problem. If you are calling and calling and God is not answering, you should probably reevaluate some things. Are you really a Christian? Are you calling improperly, pridefully, as if God OWES you an answer because you've done your Bible reading that week and gone to church (or whatever good thing)? Are you calling only because you're in trouble right now, but last month when everything was fine, you wanted nothing to do with talking to God?
That isn't Christianity; that's religiosity; that's works-based. Christianity is Jesus-based. Jesus paid the price; Jesus already bought God's love with His blood; now He gives it to us free of charge with the understanding that we can do nothing to ever earn it. No amount of time that we give Him, no amount of energy can ever begin to pay Him back. His sacrifice was infinite because He is infinite; anything we can give is finite because we are finite.
Back to the questions. Those are a few things that you can ask yourself as to why God might not be answering you. The Bible says, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." If you have sin that's just sitting in your life and you're not doing anything about it, why should God listen to you? You're already not doing what He's said to do. Why would He give you more directions if you're not taking the first step? What parent tells their two year old five things they have to do when the two-year old isn't doing the one thing that they have to do every day?
Repent and believe. Repent of your sins (this isn't saying, "I'm sorry I did X"; repenting is turning away, it's wanting to leave them all behind; it's running the opposite direction. If you were a drunk, it'd be seeing a bar and immediately turning around and RUNNING the other way. That's repenting; taking action to leave it behind. Repenting doesn't mean you never sin; it means at that moment, you never want to sin again); believe in Jesus (believe that He is Who He says and that He's done what He said; He is God; He died to save sinners). This formula works for Christians and non-Christians alike. It's what happens when we're saved; it's what happens when we fall down afterwards.
If we repent as Christians but don't believe, we get depressed. We fall into despair because we hate our sin and want nothing to do with it, but we're not believing that Jesus can help us. If we believe but never repent, we also get depressed because there's no relationship; we have sin in the way all the time.
The other thing I want to touch on is the reasoning behind religiosity (works-based religion). People look at Christians who are DOING things, good things, and they see it as working FOR acceptance with God. There are two possible reasons for this: One is that the people just can't imagine NOT having to work for it; the other is that the Christians are doing good things for the wrong reasons. Like the Church at Ephesus, they've left their first love. They're doing all the good works, but they're not doing them out of love for Jesus anymore.
What people should be seeing is something that they don't understand. They should be seeing Christians who are serving God happily, not because it's their duty or their job, and definitely not because they're trying to EARN some favor with Him; but they should be working for God because they love Him. We don't serve to get saved; we serve BECAUSE we're saved. It's just like a job. You don't work in order to get hired; you work BECAUSE you were hired. We don't serve to get God's love; we have God's love so we WANT to serve Him.
One last thing that deserves being mentioned. The Bible says that God is love. What people don't understand is that what they want is not real love. Without the saving work of Christ Jesus people are addicted to sin; feeding their addiction is what they want; it is not what they need and it is definitely not what is loving. In not giving them what they want, He is being loving. They just can't see it - because they're addicts.
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