"For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." I do not know where that particular scripture even comes from, but I know it. "Though we live in Sin", who the hell is we? "Confess your sins for the forgiveness of God." Why? Didn't Jesus sacrifice already forgive my sins? "We are bad by nature, and only God can save us from ourselves." Who comes up with this crap anyway?
For all of the life I spent in a church. I was constantly told how horrible of a person I was. I was a sinner. Always was and always will be. You will never be good enough for God, you are soooooooo lucky he is merciful, otherwise he would let you lie in the gutter like the piece of trash you are. WOW what motivational, uplifting, positive feelings these sermons invoke. My favorite is, you are not worthy. YOU ARE NOT WORTHY. I think the most damaging statement of ALL, is that statement right there. It plays upon almost all peoples small fears of their self esteem. Those with self esteem issues will never be lifted up, and those without them, will develop them in the face of not being able to be the ideal. Thus the oppression that most people feel when going to church.
Now, unless I have a completely different God from the rest of the universe, mine is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient. Omniscient means that he knows all, so he isn't dumb. So If he isn't dumb, why would he give up his most prize possession to save me? Because I am worthy.
The next thing that I want to talk about is our nature. It is said that the nature of all humans is evil. Mine is not. So, since mine is not. That statement is not true. There are some who are so innocent and wonderful, that anyone that make a stupid statement like that, does not look for the good in the world, just the bad. That person may be bad, but that doesn't make everyone like them.
What is the point of all of this. It is about GUILT. We are taught to be ashamed of who we are, what we do, what we think, what we say, what we eat, who we speak to, what we laugh at, who we are seen with, where we are seen, what we are seen doing, what we wear, how we cut our hair, etc........ No matter what doctrine, they ALL have a prescribed behavioral pattern that is accepted, and not accepted. Then, if you step outside of that, someone some to you and says, "Because I love you, I need to tell you...." and then they proceed to tell you why you suck. But the worst part of the guilt, is not because they told you this. Maybe you do suck. But, from the fact that you let down someone you love, so much. God. The feeling that you are not making him happy is devastating. That is used against us way more than it should be. Trying to keep us on the straight and narrow. Basically, following the Doctrinal Organizations behavior pattern. But not Martin Luther, Billy Graham, The Pope, Pat Robertson, Oral Roberts, or anyone is going to be standing with me on judgement day. Just me. So it is between me and my God. If this is so, their opinions of me DO NOT MATTER AT ALL. I can brush off a pastor telling me I am going to hell, a priest excommunicating me,(that one actually makes me laugh, a dumbass little priest telling God who he can and cannot accept, that is hilarious) anyone telling me I won't go to heaven, that I am a blasphemer, heretic, sinner or a devil. Why can I brush this off, because God's opinion is the only one that matters to me, so screw 'em. Yeah there is a little venom there, but DOs are the only place you will find people knifing their wounded. knifing the healthy, knifing the young in Christ, the Old in Christ, hell, they knife everybody. Ridiculous.
Luckily I am a good person, so I refrain from all of that stuff by ignoring those fine established religions.
In the end, it comes to this. We are all basically Good people, Decent people, who love our families and try to do what is right. This makes us something that is valuable, not just to those around us, but to God as well. So valuable in fact, that he gave to us, his most valued thing, his son. Not only did he deem us worthy enough to give us his son, but to allow him to be sacrificed, on earth, and tortured in hell. For me that is a lot of worthiness to live up to, and I strive everyday to live up to God's expectations of my worthiness.
3 comments:
this is so right on with my personal experiences that i don't know whether to laugh, cry, or scream. grandpa gave me an amazing book when i visited him in '05 by a french guy named jaques elull called "the subversion of christianity". basically describing how far we have come in our organizations from the original intent of the scriptures for our "bodies." and what i have seen play out is that there are two living things that go by the name "church."
1. - there is the people spread all over this earth in various places who love and worship god and wish to do nothing more than obey god from a pure heart and a clear conscience.
2. - a socio-political organization that uses the same scripture and language as the above, but does it in such a way as to convince people that disobeying them (humans) is the same as diobeying god. and that if you do disobey them, you are now lost forever and have no hope. you are unworthy.
a horribly destructive force to say the least, but what are we to do? i have obviously been set outside so that i may now freely hear and obey god. because the mental blocks and behavioral inhibitors that were put into place by said organization were actually hindering me from accomplishing the things god has for me. and i had to make a choice of whom to obey.
this is not to slam anyone who has found a good group of people. they exist and are out there. i am just fearful of the organization. the structure of rules and moral codes that parade around as the bride of christ and that demand servitude and obedience. that would seem to me to be idolatry on the grandest and worst scale. because as it is taught in most of these circles, to stop worshipping this idol is to be out of communion with the most high god, and of course, lost forever. controlled through fear.
unworthy.
if only we could have a great awakening and all remember that, "perfect love casts out fear." and that, "there is no partiality with god." and also that, "He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father..." perhaps then more people could walk boldly into the world and bless and heal and love rather than needing the validation of their human leaders before they do so.
Amen. To both of you. I am encouraged. This is EXACTLY where I've been walking lately and I'm done with it. I'm no longer a target for the knives.
Yes!!... the true bride of Christ ... she is every where ... and her lamp is trimmed and waiting for the Lord to return to bring her to the wedding feast. She is free and so very loved and that is why she waits for her groom and doesn't mind waiting ... because there is no love that compares.
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