Category Archives: Great Purposes

All Things Work Together for Good

Posted on by
2

Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

A long time ago, the importance of this concept was impressed on me in a way that I still have trouble describing.

Imagine that you have done the most terrible things you can imagine. Maybe you killed everyone you love in a fit of rage. Maybe you systematically destroyed your life and your relationships, one by one, as slowly and painfully as one can imagine.

The Almighty God will not just “fix” what you’ve done. He won’t make it as if it never happened. Humanity will never go back to a state of innocence, as we were in Eden.

God does not provide a magical “undo” button. What He offers is so much better than that…

Before I carry through to what He does offer, let me make the point that what God considers good is almost entirely outside of our experience. We now live in a fallen world, where sin and death are intrinsic to everything we experience. The taint of this world is inescapable.

What we see as “good” may just be mediocre or acceptable or unremarkable. What God sees as good is thoroughly, unreservedly good. Good in a way that we will never be able to experience in this world except through Christ.

What God provides is SO good that it has no downside, no regrets attached, no hint of evil.

God is in the business of perfecting us, not repairing us.

Those things in our lives that are evil or wrong–the things about ourselves that we know are offensive to a holy God–aren’t just going to be taken away from us or reversed. Instead, God has promised to work them into something Good.

That means He will take the things that are wrong and evil that we do or have done to us and turn them into something more beautiful and better than what could have been without them. No matter how ugly it may be, He has promised to use it to make something that He sees as good.

I cannot imagine a more substantive or meaningful reason for hope than that.

The Problem of Religion

Posted on by
2

What should we believe? (And in believing, what practices/traditions/rules should we follow?) This is the key question that has led to every single schism and ism in the history of Churchianity.

I was once told that now, being free of the Law of Sin and Death we are brought under the Law of the Spirit.

This suggests that, as Christians, we have been freed from the old law and put under a new law, which leads us to life instead of being a schoolmaster that teaches us of our sin and leads us to death.

A great deal of time is spent in the New Testament rebuking this idea, (See Galations. Any/all of it.) So what is the alternative? If we, being under grace, are free of the law, are we not called to do or be anything specific? To follow SOME rules?

No. We aren’t.

In fact, everything is permissible for us. EVERYTHING. (oh the mischief I could get up to…)

What is Christianity without Christ? …Nothing. …Oh.

We are not specifically called to do or be anything as Christians. We are NOT called to follow a particular creed or set of rules. Everything IS permissible to us…

But who is us?

Isn’t everything permissible for me if I just decide it’s so? Short of another human being stopping me, what consequence is there? (And wouldn’t that same human being, usually with a badge and a gun stop a Christian or an anarchist-hedonist-atheist just as quickly?)

So now, what difference is there between a Christian and an anarchist-hedonist-atheist?

The answer is simple.

Christ.

Small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life.

Do you love Christ?

Given the choice between doing ANYTHING YOU WANT and doing what He wants, which will you choose?

Everything is permissible for us, because we are trusted, beloved of Him.

We are not called to live under the law. We are called to follow the Lord, He who fulfilled the law and assures us that not one jot or tittle of it will pass away until the end of the world.

Do not follow the law. Follow the Life.

We are told that everything is permissible for us (and it IS true) as an encouragement not to be afraid, or ashamed, or accusatory, or judgmental, or divisive….the list goes on.

Fellowship with all brothers and sisters. Do not let meaningless nonsense separate you from each other. Do not let ANYTHING separate you from each other.

This was never a call to agree on everything (or be libertine, for that matter). Disagree, argue, learn, grow, live. Do it ALL in fellowship and unity in Christ.

THIS is our commandment.

Modern Apocrypha

Posted on by
Reply

Christian [kris-chuh n] noun
A person who believes in the teachings of Jesus Christ

We live in a lukewarm society. Taking an extreme view on life, the world or nearly anything is frowned upon in “western” society.

How do I measure this? Simple:

Is there anything that YOU would be willing to die for? …NOT hypothetically. Right now, this minute, if you were demanded to live or die to save SOMETHING or SOMEONE, could you? (No evasions. Be honest with yourself.)
I imagine most people give an answer here that involves some sort of selflessness. There is usually SOMEONE that we would be willing to die for, especially if we have a family.

The real question is this:

What would YOU be willing to live EVERY moment of EVERY day of the rest of your LIFE in service to and support of?

Are you being honest with yourself?

More than 90 percent of our society just opted out entirely. Somewhere around 90 percent of supposed CHRISTIANS either lied to themselves or admitted that they aren’t Christians.

I don’t blame them. That is a really radical commitment.

Christian [kris-chuh n] noun
A person who strives to give everything he has and everything he is on a continuing basis in the service of Christ to the glory of God.

What does it mean, really?

First, it means giving up everything that you own.
Next, you must give up everything you believe in.
Finally, surrender everything you value about yourself.
Do this in service of a person who you have never seen or touched.

In the minds of nearly all of society, you must truly be a lunatic, to do such a thing.

I certainly am.

Modern Apocrypha

From Wikipedia: All King James Bibles published before 1666 included the Apocrypha, though separately to denote them as not equal to Scripture proper, as noted by Jerome in the Vulgate, to which he gave the name, “The Apocrypha.”

Our society has forgotten what it means to follow the Christ. Individual Christians flounder along through the morass of modern churchianity. The bright lights of truth seekers are barely visible in the dim twilight of a post-Judeo-Christan society.

The darkness is coming.

All I can hope is to share with you the light that I have seen.

This is Modern Apocrypha.