There's a misconception out there that the God taught by fundamentalist Christians is unaccepting and brutal. There are others whose version of God and Christ is one of a love and total acceptance.
As a fundamentalist Christian, I am proud to say that I don't serve a brutal and unforgiving overseer who demands perfection — quite the opposite, I serve a loving Savior who accepted me despite my vile nature.
There was an Associated Press story written a couple of weeks ago about religion in America; and how religion works around race relations and other social stigmas. In part of the story, it dealt with a young man who said he grew up in a church that said certain people would go to hell, but he left that church to go to a more accepting church.
The truth is, all churches who teach the word of God should be accepting, but for those who reject the truth of Christ — hell is not a possibility, but a certainty.
Christ beckoned all to come to him.
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." — Matthew 11:28-30
Here is the King James Version, which I believe is so much more beautiful.
"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
Want some good news, thankfully, Jesus tells us to come as we are. He doesn't care what evil deeds we have done and about all the wrongs we committed.
No, he shed his blood to cover those multitude of sins in our lives. All he wants of us is to believe in him and what he did on the cross and believe in his resurrection so that we can enter his holy rest.
No matter how good and moral a person seems to be, we all come to Christ filthy and weighed down by sin, but he dips us in his blood and washes away the sins and takes that heavy weight off our backs and we come out clean on the other side.
It takes no works on our part, quite the opposite, there is nothing we can do to earn that salvation.
The problem for a lot of folks, though; is that it ends there.
That young man I mentioned from the AP story, left that fundamentalist church and went to a church that was accepting of his lifestyle. A church that told him it was OK to remain in that lifestyle, that Christ loved him anyway.
Now our stories are at a crossroads, yes Christ loves us all, but we can't know him unless we come to him in true repentance.
"Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death." — 2 Corinthians 7:10
With the conviction of sin, we realize how corrupt we are, but when we confess it to Christ, it is taken away and we are charged to run away from that sinful life.
The word repentance comes from the Greek word metanoeo which means to change one's mind for better.
F.F. Bruce described it like this "Repentance (metanoia, 'change of mind) involves a turning with contrition from sin to God; the repentant sinner is then in the proper condition to accept the divine forgiveness."
The young man in the story from the Associated Press did not want to give up his homosexual lifestyle, instead he searched for a church that said it was OK — contrary to scripture.
Christ will welcome that young man in a heartbeat if he will repent no matter his past, but if he continues in his sin then he is displaying the pinnacle of selfishness. As Paul said, his sorrow will be for the life he is being asked to give up, rather than sorrow for ever living that life in the first place.
There is no difference in sins to God, from the smallest of fibs to multiple homicides, all sin separates us from God. Even after salvation, we are still subject to our sinful natures, but the spirit of Christ works to create something new in us. Following will be a long discourse by the apostle Paul from Romans. His inspired words can make my point much more effectively than I ever could.
"Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
"You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
"Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation — but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." — Romans 8:5-14
I want to focus on the last three verses, but I needed to put it all in context that's why I put so much of this passage in here. Paul is telling the Romans that we have an obligation to live by the Spirit which is leading us to live according to God's laws.
Yes, even after we have given our lives to Christ we will sin, but if you look at the Greek root of repentance, we see "meta" which means change. When we come to Christ in repentance, we are undergoing a change. The Holy Spirit is working in us to make us more like Christ and is destroying our corrupt nature.
It is true, Christ beckons all to come to him, but we must push ourselves out of the way in order for us to kneel before the cross.
As a fundamentalist Christian, I am proud to say that I don't serve a brutal and unforgiving overseer who demands perfection — quite the opposite, I serve a loving Savior who accepted me despite my vile nature.
There was an Associated Press story written a couple of weeks ago about religion in America; and how religion works around race relations and other social stigmas. In part of the story, it dealt with a young man who said he grew up in a church that said certain people would go to hell, but he left that church to go to a more accepting church.
The truth is, all churches who teach the word of God should be accepting, but for those who reject the truth of Christ — hell is not a possibility, but a certainty.
Christ beckoned all to come to him.
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." — Matthew 11:28-30
Here is the King James Version, which I believe is so much more beautiful.
"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
Want some good news, thankfully, Jesus tells us to come as we are. He doesn't care what evil deeds we have done and about all the wrongs we committed.
No, he shed his blood to cover those multitude of sins in our lives. All he wants of us is to believe in him and what he did on the cross and believe in his resurrection so that we can enter his holy rest.
No matter how good and moral a person seems to be, we all come to Christ filthy and weighed down by sin, but he dips us in his blood and washes away the sins and takes that heavy weight off our backs and we come out clean on the other side.
It takes no works on our part, quite the opposite, there is nothing we can do to earn that salvation.
The problem for a lot of folks, though; is that it ends there.
That young man I mentioned from the AP story, left that fundamentalist church and went to a church that was accepting of his lifestyle. A church that told him it was OK to remain in that lifestyle, that Christ loved him anyway.
Now our stories are at a crossroads, yes Christ loves us all, but we can't know him unless we come to him in true repentance.
"Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death." — 2 Corinthians 7:10
With the conviction of sin, we realize how corrupt we are, but when we confess it to Christ, it is taken away and we are charged to run away from that sinful life.
The word repentance comes from the Greek word metanoeo which means to change one's mind for better.
F.F. Bruce described it like this "Repentance (metanoia, 'change of mind) involves a turning with contrition from sin to God; the repentant sinner is then in the proper condition to accept the divine forgiveness."
The young man in the story from the Associated Press did not want to give up his homosexual lifestyle, instead he searched for a church that said it was OK — contrary to scripture.
Christ will welcome that young man in a heartbeat if he will repent no matter his past, but if he continues in his sin then he is displaying the pinnacle of selfishness. As Paul said, his sorrow will be for the life he is being asked to give up, rather than sorrow for ever living that life in the first place.
There is no difference in sins to God, from the smallest of fibs to multiple homicides, all sin separates us from God. Even after salvation, we are still subject to our sinful natures, but the spirit of Christ works to create something new in us. Following will be a long discourse by the apostle Paul from Romans. His inspired words can make my point much more effectively than I ever could.
"Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
"You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
"Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation — but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." — Romans 8:5-14
I want to focus on the last three verses, but I needed to put it all in context that's why I put so much of this passage in here. Paul is telling the Romans that we have an obligation to live by the Spirit which is leading us to live according to God's laws.
Yes, even after we have given our lives to Christ we will sin, but if you look at the Greek root of repentance, we see "meta" which means change. When we come to Christ in repentance, we are undergoing a change. The Holy Spirit is working in us to make us more like Christ and is destroying our corrupt nature.
It is true, Christ beckons all to come to him, but we must push ourselves out of the way in order for us to kneel before the cross.
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