Tag Archive | forgiveness

My apologies…

Had the opportunity yesterday  to work with a client. Was getting her an insurance quote.  She  looked as if she were possibly lesbian (looking at the stereotypes). I knew she had two teenagers and as we were talking i found out the kids were adopted young, she and her partner have been together 23 years,  and even though they share the last name are not married. I did pick on her about fear of commitment at that point.  We talked about adoption,  I have 11 adopted bro & sis in laws.

She had come in a little after 5:00 so our office actually closed and it was a Friday night so everybody had left early. 

That left the two of us alone and as we were working and talking I just felt that I just had to say sorry,  I apologized for what Christians have done to the LGBT community and she actually got a little bit emotional when I did that.I  did to. I explained I had been in the ministry. I was a youth pastor and was one who was in the category of love the sinner hate the sin. To me now, that  is a messed up that mentality is. I had a chance to really connect and I probably spent way longer than I normally would with a client. It seemed like it meant a lot to her but the more I think about it, it meant a lot to me just being able to open up and apologize for the crap in my past. 

To be able to love someone for just them being them, not about their actions, character, abilities, sensibilities, religion, sexualitu, excetera that’s where I want to go.

What’s up with Sodom

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I was wasting time surfing Facebook this week and I saw a post that grabbed my attention.  It was a question,  the question was :

“What was the sin of Sodom and Gamorah?”

You saw the typical answers; pride, immorality, homosexuality, messing with angels,  idolatry, disobedience, sex outside of marriage, etc. It made me think, what was their sin?

Was it homosexuality? Was it pride? Was it immortality?  At the root I say nope. The root of sin is a deception in my opinion. Believing a lie. Sin in its essence is man saying that man can do something without God. Think about it. Man trying to gratify or or satisfy his own desires or needs.

Sin is tied back to mans striving to achieve on his own accord, believing the lie or deception of self. In the garden Adam’s sin was believing he could be like God by the enlightenment of eating of the the apple. He thought if he did something he could do or be something. Under the law forgiveness required a sacrifice an action on mans part. Jesus came and destroyed the law. He wiped out the need for action on man’s part. We were co-crucified and co-resurrected with him. In this we were restored to our original identity, a redeemed innocence.

Here’s the kicker! Adam was already like God! He was made in God’s image. He believed the original lie and that lie was he was not like God and satan made him think if he did something on his own accord he could attain a god like status.

Now for our kicker! We are also made in God’s image. I’ve said it before and if you come back a month later you will probably see it again. Martyn Lloyd Jones (1899-1981) said “what’s true of Him (God) is true of you.” Jesus the final Adam said “if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the father.”

We are in a better position then Adam ever was. He walked with God. God now resides within man. His address is you. Most people believe the lie that God is far off and we must struggle, strive, and strain to get God to even consider giving his attention to us. Do you not understand that God left the heavenlies to pursue man. We aren’t pets we are his sons and daughters. He knew you and justified you into his righteousness before the world was formed. The only thing required of us is to accept the free gift of his grace and acceptance. He even supplies the faith to believe it.

There is a God and he likes you and sees you pure and sin free (spotless) and that is the only view of you!

That is all for now…

Faith, Where does it come from

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Is it our job to conjure up faith?  This has been a concept that has taken me 30+ years to even start to grasp. Have you ever heard someone say something to the effect of  God didn’t answer your prayer because you didn’t have enough faith?  Have you ever been told you need to go out and get faith go dig for your breakthrough? 

Did you get your salvation that way? Most of you should say no to this. (If you said yes contact me you may have some other issus to work out). Of course not!  Salvation is a gift! The same with faith. This is actually fairly new to me. I came from the charismatic faith camp where we worked to get faith.

My faith does not define God,  his faith defines me, his faith is flawless and perfect.  Hey I would rather choose what his faith declares than mine.

Watch this 16 minute video. It will be 16 minutes that won’t be a waste.

Not the Best but…

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I have been reading a book by Andrew Farley titled God without religion can it really be the simple. He poses a statement to the effect; I’m not good at religion and I’m a weak Christian. This is probably true for most of us. I definitely fit the category.  I have sinned and more than likely it (sin) will probably pop up again. Whether that sin is lieing, , cheating, murder, swearing,  etc. it really doesn’t matter what the sin is. There is no scale saying once sin is greater than another. Sin is sin…

My God has grace and forgiveness enough for all of us.

Just saying

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