Christian Karma

"Be sure your sins will find you out." Meaning that sooner or later our actions will come back to around to us. So if we do bad things, they will come back, if we do good things, they will come back.

Be Careful What You Pray For

The fun thing about God, is that we do not always get what we want in the way we want. For if we pray for patience, we get the opportunity to practice that patience. If we pray for strength, we get the situation that allows us to be strong.

The Librty Of Christ

I have been thinking lately of the "Liberty of Christ" that Paul spoke of. Most any who consider themselves Christians have felt this at one time or another. The time most spoken of is when they have their conversion experience. When they feel the burdens they possess being lifted to the cross where Jesus so willingly takes those burdens away. The great feeling of relief and freedom that comes with the decision to allow God to rule their lives. What is the first thing that those people do, go to church. Why? Because that is what those who have given their life to God are supposed to do, everyone knows that. Everyone.

When they come in to their new home, looking for the Father, he/she is there to offer advice and give direction on what to do with their new found faith. This is how you should dress, this is how you should pray, this is how you should talk, this is how you should think, this is how you should serve your God, this is how you should behave, those that don't think as you do are not as good as you, you should be constantly trying to get others to believe as you do, this is your mission. Where is the freedom in this?

When those who do not find that "Liberty of Christ" in the church setting, so full of restrictions, the feeling they had when their burdens were lifted, they become disillusioned with their faith. First blaming themselves, as any good christian has been taught to do. "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." It is written in the bible, and not to be disputed. Therefore, the fault must lie in their own failings. When they find that this is not really the case, they did all that was ask of them at their church. They then think that what they have been taught was all erroneous, and that their faith was all a lie. That God isn't really there, and having faith is for the stupid and easily fooled. But this is not the case either.

The truth comes in giving yourself to God Himself, and not to a church made of people. God wants you for himself. Not for you to give yourself a new God called the church. We have many Gods in this materialistic world. The God of the "Cool Car", "Nice House", "Latest Cell Phone", "Big Screen TV", "Designer Labels", and so on. Whatever we live our lives for is our God. So if we live our lives for the church, we have replaced our God, with a false one. Satan loves our current church system. It drives as many away from God as to Him.

When those that are disillusioned with all of this, distance themselves from the church, and start living for God alone, do they ever feel the "Liberty of Christ" again. When they throw off the shackles of the rules handed down by men, and accept God's rule in their lives, can the truly freeing feeling of that liberty be felt again. As for me, "Give me liberty, or give me death."

Sanctuary

Any place of refuge; asylum. Immunity afforded by refuge in a place.

I was struck by this word the other day. Sanctuary. A place of peace and safety. Such an interesting word to use for the main congrating area of a church.

Were We Wrong?

John 14:6
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

This is one of my favorite passages in the bible. It means to me the fulfillment of the covenant made to Abraham by God. I am the way, Jesus created the way to God outside of the priests. I am the truth. "The Truth" is another name for the Holy Spirit. Jesus made it possible for everyone to have the Holy spirit in them. I am the life. Jesus made it possible for everyone to have eternal life. Awesome and wonderful things.

But it just hit me, I may have been taught to misinterpret the next line. No man cometh unto the father, but by me. I have been taught, that that means that I have to accept Jesus as my personal savior, or I am damned to hell. What if it is taken in the context of the rest of the verse, rather than in a separate context. Meaning, that the original context of the sentence, is that "I am causing these things to happen." There is no instruction of an action item in them. Following that context, It is just a statement of effect, not an action to be taken. Meaning, that not all people have to accept him as a personal savior. Just that his actions caused the possibility of coming to the father. Not that you have to make Jesus your personal savior.

This would answer the question for me, "What about those wonderfully devoted Muslims, and Jews that have given their lives to God in dutiful service? Are they just ignored by God because they didn't GET IT?" Or are they still accepted by God, because Jesus has created a way that goes directly to God?

About me #4

I know that I got off of this track a while ago, so if you would like to revisit and get cuaght up on the read, here are the other posts:
About Me #1
About Me #2
About Me #3

Every time that I moved. I had a specific purpose in mind of what I wanted to accomplish. After going home and drying out to a point where I did not NEED to be blasted to cope, I found out I had a crappy job, and had a lot of bills. During My drugs and drunkenness period in Grand Forks, North Dakota, I had BALLOONED up to 198 pounds. 33 pounds over my fighting weight. So, along with drying out, I turned my attention to losing weight, and determining what I would do with my future. I would lift light weights three times a week, and RUN everywhere I went on deliveries for Domino's Pizza. I lost 38 pounds in the matter of 5 months, and got down to 160, with a 31 inch waist, at my final height of six feet. I was the skinniest I had ever been in my life. As to my future, I had decided to try to go back to college. But being a manager at Domino's for so long, I had made too much money. So I had to lower my reported income for a full year so that I would qualify for financial assistance. Delivering pizza became my life for a while in Duluth, Minnesota. But when college let out, I would not earn enough money to pay my bills. Then I got a call from someone that I used to work with in Grand Forks, inviting me to come and deliver pizzas for him in West Des Moines, Iowa. I would make great money, and not have to work very hard. So Off I went.

This instituted the next phase of my life. At the time I did not know it, but it was the "who am I going to become" phase.

So one day, I loaded up my car, and set off for Des Moines, and to kill time until I could go back to school. I showed up at my buddies house, car loaded up, and knocked on the door. Cora, one of the most beautiful people I have ever known, answered the door. There was a great look of surprise on her face, and she said, "Hey Nate, what are you doing here?" Her husband had not told her I was coming, AND going to live with them. Got a real warm welcome there. But as I said, she was one of the most wonderful people I have ever met, and she made me as welcome as she could. I am not a good roommate. She hated me living there, but would never say a word to me. The next day, I found one of my favorite restaurants of all time. Shang Yuen's chinese restaurant. Cheap, with lots of food, and very good. Just thougt I would throw that in there. But, I started working for my friend, out performing everyone the first night I was there by far. I had never even driven in that neighborhood before. But along with this, my friend had told the district manager there about me and my management talents. So, as the only driver in the city to be invited, I found myself with the managers on a celebration for achieving sales over last year for the first time in a long time. We went to a minor league baseball game. I remember that night pretty well, I got drunk and made an ass out of myself. I also met a bunch of new people, one of which was a woman, the only female manager. She was short, about 5' 2", skinny, and kind of quiet. I got a weird feeling when meeting her, but didn't dwell on it. After that, I was still invited to the manager functions, because the District Manager wanted me to manage for him. So delivering pizzas, and hanging out with Domino's people getting drunk became my life. Sound familiar?

I convinced one of my friends to come down to work in Des Moines, because he was not making enough money in Duluth. He started working for the female manager. Her name was Sherri, and he said, "she is kinda quiet until you get to know her, but she is really cool." Tony, my friend, and I used to go out to a new restaurant every Tuesday, and then go to "Frogs" and shoot free pool. One day, he wasn't able to make it, so I invited Sherri to go. We chose Raul's, and we ate. I was trying without much success to try to get her to talk, and finally gave up and took her back to my house. She was Cora's friend, and had parked her car at my house. I thought that Tony must be off his rocker if he thought she was cool. Just to continue my wonderful roommate ways, I brought a girl back, and while leaving, Sherri and Cora ask, "Who was that?" "Some girl named Debbie," I replied. When people asked Sherri what she thought of me, she would say, "He's good looking, but what an asshole." She was right on the money.

Also at this time, I found a place that really helped me shape who I would become, Ebenezer Frog's. It was a bar with pool tables in it. I had turned twenty-one the previous year. But being broke and living with the pastor dad, I had not done a lot of the bar scene thing. So I started hanging out there. It was my kind of place. A dive. I love dive bars. I love the people in dive bars. They are a real that cannot be duplicated. They are just who they are, and don't give a shit if people don't like it. But there I learned to relate to real adults. Not just the party people that I normally hung out with. Also, I started playing pool. Eight ball, nine ball, and what ever other game. But mainly eight ball. Why is this so important? It taught me focus. It taught me to rely on my skill. It taught me to achieve in a directed path. I know it sounds strange, but it was very important to my life as a whole.

This post is only covering four months of my life. It is really set up for next post. As this one is too long already. But these seemingly unrelated events, churned into where my life would go for the next 18 years.

Believe It or Not

A pastor put a large box of softball, or so, sized rocks prominently up front on the stage before the service began. All of the leaders of the service were told to ignore the box, and act as if it was not there. So the service began, and the congregation began to wonder about the box. The pastor could see the intrigue on their faces. The minds spinning just wondering what it was all about. The pastor gets up, and begins his sermon. His sermon was on John 8, and the adulterous woman. At the critical point, he asks, "Anyone who is in this congregation today, who is with out sin, come and pick up a stone." To his shock and dismay, and that of the whole congregation, a young man stands up, walks to the front, mounts the stage, and picks up a stone. The flabbergasted pastor, walks over to the young man, and says, "Son, I asked for those who had no sin to come up. Are you saying you have no sin in your life?" The young man looks at him a little confused, and can tell that the pastor is a little upset at him. He replies, "No sir, I have no sin. Jesus took my sins away as far as the east is from the west. You read that to me from out of your bible. What's wrong, don't you believe what you read in the bible?"