The answer

Last time we talked, we asked the question how we can possibly represent God here on earth.
We are a problem until God invites us to Himself, and, when He does, He adopts us as His children. Remember this is after we’ve slapped Him in the face every day with our sinful actions and He still wants us, welcomes us with unconditional love and wraps His arms around us. Question #1 to ask yourself – Do I do that? Do I wrap my arms around those who sin against me? You and I as followers are taught we must forgive others so that our sins may be forgiven…that means no grudges, no rumor starting, and nothing hurtful to any other person.
So now we are adopted by God as His children and asked to represent Him here on earth. How can we as humans represent God Almighty…something we can barley understand ourselves? God gives us this privilege. You might ask how this is a privilege because on the outside it seems like a chore. It’s a privilege to bare the very name of God. In the “Our Father” it says, “Hallowed be thy name.” This means Holy is His name. People used to not even say the name of God because they thought they were unworthy because his name was so Holy. So, it’s a privilege.
Back to the original question – How can I represent God?We could take all of this from being taken out of the burning building to being adopted and commissioned to spread His word and we would still fail. God wants to make us His Victors. Give God your body and He will come in and make it His home. He will take your hands and feet and make them His. Your mouth and they will speak His word. He’ll take our hearts of greed and sin and make them hearts of love so it will beat with His burdens and we will care for the very things God’s heart cares for. Then our prayers will become His prayers. Then our thoughts, our attitude, our life…every minute of every day will be the very behavior of God.
Question #2 – Will you allow God to overtake your life…all of it?
So we must go. Go and make disciples of all Men. We must be unashamed of His word. His Gospel and preach it to anyone who will listen. Preach it to the poor, sick, healthy, gay, straight, man, women, follower, seeker, confused, stubborn. Just as we’ve talked about here before that the Church is for everyone…that means the Gospel is for everyone. God’s word must be heard by everyone from you and me.
I leave you with this thought. Our God mocks the powers of both Earth and Hell because the powers of Heaven are so much greater. Will you, God’s little lamb, put on the face of a lion and allow God to fill you with Himself?
May you grow in the love of Jesus Christ for the rest of your lives.
-Brian

SIn

You and I are sinners and rebels because we are born in sin. Whether we want to acknowledge it or not doesn’t really matter. When we say we are sorry, Jesus Christ takes what we deserve. God died for you and me because of our natural disposition of sin. Do I truly believe that amazing reality?
We need the prevenient grace of God. When we accept God instead of what is evil, we go from condemned to forgiven and redeemed. It’s like being in a burning building. We sin over and over and beg His forgiveness and get it, but we stay in the building and allow it to catch on fire again every time he puts it out. The building goes from on fire to out; from condemned to redeemed. Yet, we remain inside because we are scared there is fire on the other side of the door. We forget that God wants us to check the door. When you and I get absolved that isn’t the end to what He wants for us. He says to avoid the near occasion of sin. His blood was not only shed for the forgiveness of sins, which is important, but for what sins are. God isn’t concerned with the consequences of sin; it’s more about the root of sin. This is where we must check the door and not be afraid.
What is on the other side is God’s love…because that’s what God is; love. He is there waiting for you and me the sinners. Think about this for a moment. The living God died for you and me, we still go against Him, AND He still loves us. Wow, how could He want me? How could He want to adopt me as His child? How can I possibly be worthy to be in His presence?
We are brought to share his heart…our understanding broken by His love. He asks us to work for him…to represent him here on earth. We need to go back to that burning building he brought us out of and get the rest. To save others the way that he saved us. We can’t say no, but it’s hard to say yes. This is the other part of our test of Faith on earth. He asks us to be the one people hate, mock, ignore, make fun of, deny and worst of all try to hurt and kill our Faith. Do we say yes to this? Do we sacrifice our reputation for God because He sacrificed his LIFE for us.
We’ve talked about this before…sacrificing our reputation as Mary did (who is supposed to be our role model in Holiness.) He wants us to represent him…which is amazing in itself.
How can we do this?
We will talk about this next time.
For now, I leave you with this thought – Is not the lamb that was slain worthy to receive the reward of his suffering?
May you grow in Christ forever
-Brian

Sin: Pleasure of Not?

When you and I look at sins, as Christians, it almost seems unfair. We love that the sacrament is there and that our all loving God forgives us of whatever we may do. If I have 3 one-night-stands in my life and you have 300, and we are both sorry, we both get forgiven. So you get to have sex hundreds of times and I only get to a few times and we get the same treatment; complete forgiveness? This is a natural feeling and way to think. Look at what you are saying…the person who sins more, who breaks down his relationship with our Lord more, who leads others into sins more, who has the demon of lust on his heart, who puts his safety at risk more, and who has no dignity for his body is the one we envy…the one we wish we could be like.
We have to get this idea of immediate pleasure being a good thing out of our minds. It may feel right, but then again, OUR FEELINGS MAY BE WRONG. We say well, I don’t believe in this or I don’t feel this way. Well guess what? It DOES NOT MATTER how YOU feel. No one cares how YOU personally feel about a social issue.
That is the beauty of The Holy Bible. We don’t have to guess and trust our self-righteous feelings because it is spelled out what is truth.
Then people say “well I think God loves me no matter what.” Yes, God loves us no matter what…you, me, and everyone. Now lets move past that childish response and ask ourselves some serious questions.
We need to ask ourselves things if we are going to call ourselves followers and I will give an example. I call myself Christian AND pro choice. These cannot both be true yet it is said all too often.
I leave you with this thought… what does God think of me because I call myself his follower?
May you grow in the love of Jesus Christ forever.
-Brian