Performance Based Christianity

Do you ever feel like you are not worthy of God’s love?  Do you ever feel that regardless of how much you do, you are still not doing enough for God?  Do you feel condemned because you feel you aren’t praying or studying enough?  Finally, are you trying to earn God’s love through good works?  If you exhibit any of these symptoms, you may suffer from PBCS.  This is Performance Based Christianity Syndrome.

God’s grace is defined as unmerited favor.  ”For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:  Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Eph. 2:7-9)  If we can get this, we will actually be able to enjoy our life with God.  Yes we can do more!  Yes we can pray more!  Yes we can read our Bibles more!  But we should do these things out of appreciation for what He has done for us, not to try to  earn His love or His blessings.  Have a relationship with God.  We are to do good works, but not to prove ourselves to God.  ”But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:8)

We have been adopted in to the family of God.  Jesus said “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.”  That sounds like unearned love to me!

Don’t beat yourself up all of the time because you don’t study your Bible as much as Billy Bob.  Just set aside some time and make sure it is quality time.  That’s all.  Sometimes people get to the point where they believe their work for God is so “sacrificial”.  Kind of saying, “hey, look Lord…look…see how much I’m doing…now can you start answering my prayers?”  That’s the wrong attitude.  There has already been a sacrifice made for you and His name is Jesus.  Accept it and live freely in the liberty God has given you in Christ.

16.  Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

Don’t Starve The Blessings

I live in the South and we have some pretty interesting sayings.  For example, if a someone is hungry, they say “I am so hungry my stomach is gnawing a hole in my backbone.  Recently, I have been thinking about what it means to be spiritually hungry.  Mt. 5:6 says “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”  I know when I am hungry, my mind returns to being hungry quite frequently.  And the longer I go without eating or drinking, the more frequently my body reminds me of the fact that I still have not eaten.  I can cover it up for a little while if I grab a small snack, but my body will not be completely satisfied until I have had a good meal.  We need that kind of hunger spiritually, where our innermost being hungers for the righteous cause of our God.

When we hunger and thirst after righteousness, our born again spirit craves to be filled with the will and desire that God has placed in us.  We are completely respondent to the leading of the Holy Spirit.  Many of us have been there, but few of us live there.

Many times, we as Christians are snacking on the Word of God.  There is a hunger and a thirst for righteousness that we can experience but we can’t go along with one foot in the world and one foot in the church.  If you find yourself in a place where the world is really applying pressure to you and it is winning, you need to renew the hunger.  If you find that the desires in your heart do not agree with the Word of God,  you need to renew the hunger.  If you have lost your peace, if you worry too much, if you suffer from fear, anxiety, or depression, renew the hunger.

Sure, everybody has had ups and downs.  But when the desire of your heart is to please God, that is who Jesus considers blessed.  Jesus says that if we hunger and thirst for righteousness, we will be filled.  That means that we will get a five course dinner, where we are experiencing the Life of God, and drinking of His Spirit.  People will wonder what is on the inside of you because of your demeanor.  People will apologize for cursing in front of you and not know why.  You will pray for people and the prayers will be answered.

If you feel empty, let the hunger of your spiritual stomach gnaw a hole in your worldly backbone.  In other words, let your desire for the things of God drive you in everything you do.  Love the Lord Jesus with all your heart and watch Him perform His goodness through you in your daily life.  God bless.

Organized Religion? Everybody has one.

Religion is described in the dictionary as “a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe” and “a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects”.  Anyone that denies that they are not “religious” or are “against religion” has not read this definition.  In fact, every person has a religion.  Whether it is Buddhism, Secular Humanism, Atheism, Agnosticism, or anything else.  The way they live their life is defined by their system of beliefs.  Everyone believes in a beginning, therefore must also believe in a source of that beginning.

I can’t make everyone believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but I can show them that they are just as religious as anyone else.  If I can successfully make this point to someone without arguing (I never argue with an unbeliever for many reasons), they can see that they are not that much different than I am.  Actually, no one is that much different than anyone else.  We all have a defined point of view.  We all believe we are right.   We will all defend our world view in order to justify why we live the way we live.

What am I saying here?  People that don’t believe in the True God of Christianity, believe that they have the answers.  Yet they criticize us for saying that we have the answers.  They believe they are right and we believe that we are right.  When sharing the gospel with unbelievers, it is very important not to lay in to them about how wrong they are.  The key is to draw similarities in their belief system and ours.  Allow the Holy Spirit to speak through you.  The power of God is strong enough to present the truth to them.  At least then they can be given an opportunity to make a decision.

Ask the person if they have ever done anything wrong and how they knew they were wrong.  We may call it sin, but many will just call it “doing wrong”.  Use terminology they can understand.  Most of the time, an atheist will not be convinced on your first conversation with them unless the Lord shows you something about them supernaturally (like the woman at the well).  Live holy and righteous before them and proclaim the goodness of God.  Give God the glory for experiences in your life.  There are no hard cases with God.  No Muslim, Buddhist, or atheist is beyond the Lord’s ability to love and minister.  Most people who are not Christians have one of two problems.  They have never met a “real” Christian or they have never heard the gospel preached with power.  If it’s not one of those two things, then the person has just rejected God’s message.

In conclusion, remember to always show the love of God.  Jesus was always compassionate on the unbelievers.  The people He had the biggest problem with were the hypocrites.

Organized Religion? Eliminating Excuses

To the Christian:

Do you or someone you know hold the view, “I don’t believe in organized religion”?  Have you ever thought about what this really means?  Let me attempt to translate.  It could mean, “I believe people should only use their belief in God to serve themselves”.  As long as they feel they are born again, than forget about everyone else.  In this self-serving society, people too often want to personalize God around their schedules and their lifestyles.  If this translation is correct, it means that some would like to serve God on their terms.

How else should we take it?  A person may also believe this to avoid having a set of rules  in which they live.  They may feel that if they commit to serving in a church, they would have to live by Bible doctrine.  By not believing in organized religion, they are able to draw their own conclusions, live by their own set of scriptures, and no man is telling them how to live their life.  This type of person’s favorite scripture will always be “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”  This eliminates any accountability for their actions.  This type of person will also have a problem with authority of any kind.

Secondly, a person who lives by this precept is just buckling to peer pressure.  This is an easy way to say.  I believe in God or Jesus, but I’m not one of those crazies.  Translation:  ”I believe that Jesus died for me, but I’m too intimidated by my friends to actually take a stand for what I believe in.  Plus, I’m out here doing the same things they are, so I don’t feel I can take a stand because it is invalidated due to my behavior.”

Another reason people may fall in to this line of thinking is that they have been hurt in some way by a particular church or person in the church.  They fault God for the actions of individuals or the organization itself.  Instead of holding the particular church accountable for it’s actions, they will fault all churches.  In their mind, all churches are lumped in to the same category.  Furthermore, everyone else that serves in a church is just waiting to get burned.

Heb. 10:25  Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

Organization is not a bad thing.  Without it, we never would have been told about salvation through Jesus.  If people would have never put their heads together and planned practical ways to spread the gospel.  If everybody had their own individual, personalized message of the plan of God, we would have never had a Bible with 40 authors.

I encourage those out there that think organized religion is just a bad idea, to rethink it.  Find a church that teaches the Bible.  Allow the Holy Spirit to guide you.  Make a commitment to be a representative of our Lord Jesus.  If you believe the church is full of hypocrites, you be the first one in there that’s not a hypocrite.  And don’t be so thin skinned about everything.  The Church is made up of people, and people will mess up from time to time.  Forgive and let it go.  There are plenty of wonderful people in the Church that can help to strengthen your walk with God.  Keep company with them.