Believe Right!

So you want to know what things displease God? They are the same things that displease Christ. Christ wasn't pleased with the ways of religious people who thought they were good or had the might to keep even a tittle of the law in order to transform themselves from sinner to "godly." He was not pleased with the ways of those who put up barriers of rules and regulations (the Law) to accomplish or things to do before one could receive His freely-given healing and every other blessing. In fact, the only place in the gospels where "angry" is used to describe how Jesus felt (Mark 3:1-6) references the leader of a synagogue who was indignant because Jesus healed a woman without her fulfilling the righteous requirements of the law by her own strength. That woman's pastor was angry because Christ healed her when she was on the wrong side of the law aka despite her sin!  To put things in perspective, imagine your pastor telling you that you are neither qualified to r...

Beloved of God, Grace is undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour. For context, God is telling us that man cannot and can NEVER stand or become godly (be like God) by himself through obeying the law. In fact, to attempt to do so is to follow the same doctrine of death which Satan sold to Eve in Eden aka dependence on human effort (the arm of flesh) for the development of godly traits (be like God) through keeping the law (letter) which kills and IS the knowledge of good and evil, just like the tree of the same name.  See the forbidden fruit as a typology for the law which many churchgoers are trying to obey in order to be godly (develop godly traits or “be like God”) in Romans 7:8-12 (MSG)— 8-12 "Don’t you remember how it was? I do, perfectly well. The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of “forbidden fruit” out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide ...

Our Heavenly Father in Christ is not that hard taskmaster or that stern terrorist that is being marketed from some church pulpits—  demanding that you fast for 80 days in order to be clean or spiritual enough to come close to Him, demanding that you keep the law in order to be godly (be like God) or just waiting in the wings to whack you with punishment and let Satan have a go at you when you mess things up. If you would like to know what God is like, look no further than at Christ in the gospels-- when He walked the earth as Man. Colossians 2:9 says of Him- "For in Him the whole fullness of Deity (the Godhead) continues to dwell in bodily form [giving complete expression of the divine nature]." Another version says:  “All of God lives fully in Christ (even when Christ was on earth)." And now see what the Bible says says of Christ who is the fullness of the Godhead bodily    in Acts 10:38 :  “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with great...

I was taking one of my kids out one day when those kids who wipe windshields for money in traffic attempted to wipe ours; pitiful looking children, many of them less than ten years old. It occurred to me that if they had been my children, they wouldn’t be out there begging me for money or trying to do things to earn my blessing. They would be in the car with me, expecting me to do everything for them for free.  I thought of my kids who enjoy all of my freely-given benefits — oblivious to the heat outside, busy playing with their phones as I chauffeured them to places that I did not even want to go. Unlike those kids who try to wipe my windshield  with likely germ-infested water in exchange for my pity or blessing— a work that I do not want because I feel that it makes my vehicle even dirtier — my kids can touch and hug me at anytime without me rushing off to take a hot shower afterwards. I eat their leftover food using the same cutlery. We take care of their every need and the...

Believer, consider Christ’s way with the Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob who had had five husbands and was living in adultery with a sixth man, likely with a string of children from each man. Jesus talked with her! In fact, He went to the well specifically for her sake, so don’t let anyone tell you that Jesus cannot even look at you because of your kind of shortcomings and issues or that He will demand 70 days fast from you before restoring and refreshing you with Himself— Living Water. He came, not to condemn us but to save you and I from sin and death. But I digress. This is about how it is the Word that Christ is “saying” that is alive and active and powerful to save, and not us trying to fulfil what the Word says. Consider an excerpt from the conversation between the same Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob and our Saviour Jesus— “ 7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. “Give Me a drink,” Jesus SAID TO HER, 8 for His disciples had gone into town to buy food. 9 How is it th...