Sunday, November 20, 2011

Where we went wrong.


In the summer of 2006 I stood before an audience and screamed at the top of my lungs, “if you don’t stop sinning you’ll go to hell and burn for eternity.” Winter 2007 I shouted, “sin is separation from God and he will punish you for those sins.” Halloween 2008, “on this demon’s holiday, will you stop sinning and live for God, or do you choose hell?” Have you ever heard anything similar? Have you ever been in a church service where these words were belted out?

Well, if you have, then you have personally witnessed the greatest flaw in Christianity. You see, all three of these examples are flawed on one basis. Salvation is free, it’s a gift and there is no price that neither you nor I could pay to earn it. And in that last statement, we find where we have all gone wrong.

Think back to the day of Pentecost when Peter preached the first real Christian message. Did he tell those people, the three thousand that he led to Jesus, that they had to stop doing something? No. What he told them was that they simply believe that Jesus was savior. He didn’t even ask them to renounce their gods, just that they believe that He died for them. Is that what we are hearing in churches today? No.

Recently, I asked for the friendship of a young lady who practiced paganism. Sadly, she immediately blew me off because I was a Christian. She went on to tell me how she had suffered for thirteen years because of Christianity and that she would do it no more. I asked her how and she simply said, “I was invited to a church as a guest and was treated like an outcast the whole time. The preacher publicly made fun of my clothing, my piercings, and my beliefs. He offered to cast the devil out of me and told me that I had to stop sinning or I would go to hell. He didn’t even know me.”

Do you think that this young lady changed her mind about becoming a Christian? No. Instead she was pushed farther away and refuses to even listen to anyone claiming the name of Jesus. Can we blame her? No.

I believe that Jesus spoke to this in Mark chapter 7. In fact, he blasted the Pharisees for making man made rules and not adhering to Gods word. Maybe its time that we adhere to Gods word. I’m going to close by adding two simple passages. Read and enjoy.

12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Phil 2:12 and 13 TNIV

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Eph 2:8-10