The Way We Were

“And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.” (Hebrews 11:15-16)

Don’t look back, keep moving forward. Why? 

Because it is our tendency when we look back to start longing for what was, rather than appreciating what is or what can be. The above Scripture refers to Abraham and his family.Had they looked back to Ur from which God had told him to leave, they would have had a tendency to want to return to the past. And if so, Abraham  would not have become the father of FAITH.

Barbara Streisand sang beautifully about memories in the hit song of the movie The Way We Were…

"Memories light the corners of my mind, misty watercolor memories of the way we were

Scattered pictures of the smiles we left behind,
Smiles we gave to one another for the way we were

Can it be that it was all so simple then or has time rewritten every line,
If we had the chance to do it all again – Tell me – Would we? Could we?

Memories may be beautiful and yet, 

What’s too painful to remember we simply choose to forget

So it’s the laughter we will remember whenever we remember the way we were"

When times get tough, we have a tendency to want to return to a better place memorialized in the corners of our minds. Yet in those times we rarely remember the painful part of those memories, only the beauty and the laughter.

The now is almost always better than the past, and the future that God has prepared for mankind is off the charts - more than we can ever dream!

“…one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus…" "...as it is written: What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived - the things God has prepared for those who love him - these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.” (Philippians 3:13-14; 1 Corinthians 2:9-10)

Our Heart Condition

“A rejoicing heart makes the countenance cheerful” (Proverbs 15:13).

When I used to sing in a church choir we would sit in the choir loft during the worship service. It always amazed me as I looked out over the congregation how little joy was in the facial expressions of those attending the services.

Too often religious doctrine does not bring joy, just bondage and fear. Many people go to church hoping they can avoid the the wrath of God for not doing so.  They would prefer to be hunting, fishing, golfing  or just resting.

Only the freedom of knowing and actually believing that God has taken away the sins of the world makes a heart rejoice.  If our facial expression, especially during a worship service, is not “cheerful”…why not? Maybe because the message in most churches has become something other than good news...

“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)

Now that is good news...and I'm smiling!

"Looking Unto Jesus" ... Why?

"...let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”(Hebrews 12:1-2)

Life is what it is. We don’t ask to be born, but here we are. We can’t request where we are born or to whom. It is what it is…God has decided. Sooo the best we can do is to "run with patience the race that is set before us”.

But why should we be “looking unto Jesus” in FAITH?

Jesus was a man just like us. He had a race to run as we all do. His particular race reveals to mankind what, but for sin, we could be now, and what, after sin is done away with, we all will be after God is finished with us in this present mortal life. Jesus died just as we will die, and he was resurrected never to die again, just like we will be. And that is what is meant by “looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our FAITH”.

"For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters...It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—MORE THAN THAT, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?...I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons...nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:29-39)

So we need to run our particular race as best we can, forgetting day by day the blunders we have made in the past, and focus on our eternal destiny by looking at what happened to Jesus and remembering where he is now. Then just keep on keeping on as best we can...

"Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead...hold on to the progress we have already made...we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own..." (Philippians 3:13-21)

The Testimony That Matters

“With great power the apostles continued to TESTIFY to the RESURRECTION of the Lord Jesus. And God's GRACE was so powerfully at work in them all.” (Acts 4:33)

It is the testimony about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus that is important for mankind. And in that testimony alone does the power of GRACE work among mankind.

The Christian church has lost the proper emphasis when proclaiming the gospel. It is not the cross, but the resurrection that gives mankind hope beyond death. The cross is an instrument of DEATH. GRACE has to do with the unmerited favor of God toward mankind. And mankind, all of us, miss the mark (SIN) which results in death to us ALL.

“…in Adam ALL die”…”For the wages of SIN is DEATH” ... "...people are destined to DIE once..." (1 Corinthians 15:22; Romans 6:23; Hebrews 9:27 )

The RESURRECTION is the means by which sinful dead men are SAVED and this SALVATION is a FREE gift flowing from the POWER of the GRACE of God. It is our HOPE and the GOSPEL (good news).

“The FREE gift of God is eternal life”… “By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.” (Romans 6:23: 1 Corinthians 6:14)

The ONLY hope for mankind is to be resurrected “a new creation” after we die.

“As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall ALL be made alive” … “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the NEW CREATION has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (1 Corinthians 15:22; 2 Corinthians 5:17)

Testimony of the resurrection of Jesus and faith that my family and I have a future resurrection by the GRACE of God is the heart and power of the gospel for me. And it is FAITH in this HOPE that produces a LOVE for God and my neighbors. And I find PEACE in this faith…

“For it is by GRACE you have been SAVED, through FAITH—and this is not from yourselves, it is the GIFT of God”… “This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our HOPE in the living God, who is the SAVIOR of ALL people, and especially of those who believe. Command and teach these things.” … “Grace and PEACE to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 6:14; Ephesians 2:8; 1 Timothy 4:9-11)

The god of theology

“The god of theology is a well-meaning, good-intentioned weakling, whose intentions, however amiable, cannot in every case be carried into effect, and whose universe is a rickety affair subject to accidents of every kind.” — Alan Burns

Most Christian leaders speak of God as an Omniscient, Omnipotent and Omnipresent Sovereign God, and He is. However, certain of their false doctrines reveal their true opinion of Him to be those set forth by Alan Burns above. To them each man determines his own fate regardless of what God desires to do…which is to SAVE them.

The following are well established doctrines of Christianity and are false. They have each contributed to the separation of mankind into two categories…those who agree with us and go to heaven, and those who disagree with us and go to hell.

I feel certain that the following false doctrines offend God.

Self Determination (Free Will)
Eternal Conscious Torment
Immortality of the Soul
The Trinity
Vicarious Atonement

My brother Bill posted that he wished I would write a book exposing the false doctrines I have found in my study of the Bible. I appreciate his faith that I could write such a book, however, even if I could, and did, nothing would change. Others have done so already and Christianity in general continues believing those doctrines of theologians.

Those who read the Bible in order to find out what it says will eventually see that the above doctrines are false. However, most read the bible, if at all, as a mere commentary on the doctrines of their theologians, rather than read it in a search for the truth. They will never discover the truth because they have placed their faith and trust in opinions of men while having convinced themselves that their faith is in the Word of God.

“I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me…I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things. Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth SALVATION, and let righteousness spring up together; I the Lord have created it…I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded…I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways…For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else. I have not spoken in secret…and there is no God else beside Me; a just God and a Savior; there is none beside Me. Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by Myself, the word is gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear...” (Isaiah 45)

Rejecting god

Some people get condemned and shamed for rejecting the gods of religious institutions. If you are one of them, do not worry about that at all, for you have not rejected the real GOD, but the made up god of religious institutions. And that is a good thing, in my opinion.

“Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because ye go round the sea and the dry land to make one proselyte, and whenever it may happen -- ye make him a son of gehenna twofold more than yourselves.” (Matthew 23:15)

I think it is impossible to reject the real God.  He does not "separate" Himself from us…only the gods of religion do that.

“I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor messengers, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things about to be, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God...” (Romans 8:38-39)

And the Academy Award Goes To....

“Be not judging anything before the season, till the Lord should be coming, who will also illuminate the hidden things of darkness and manifest the counsels of the hearts. And then applause will be coming to each one from God” (I Corinthians 4:5)

In 1991 Anthony Hopkins won the academy award for outstanding actor in a leading role for the film “Silence of the Lambs”. He played the role of Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a psychopathic murderer. Anthony Hopkins played the part just as the script was written and performed so well he received the highest award of the motion picture academy.

God created the universe and all that is in it according to the Bible.

“I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things…I made the earth and created man on it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host…by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.” (Isaiah 45:7, 12; Colossians 1:16)

He has a purpose for the ages and all those in them. He oversees the role of all of the creatures in those ages if we believe He is the Sovereign God described in the Bible. In other words, God wrote the script for the drama of life as we know it. So if you do not like the role you are playing, well, take it up with God, He wrote the script for the part and cast you into your role.

Paul was given insight into the mystery of the ages and says he was to…

“…bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.” (Ephesians 3:10)

And Paul had told the Ephesians in Chapter 1 that God has a purpose for all things and that all things work according to His wil, and that all have redemption in Christ…

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will…” (Ephesians 1:7-11)

We certainly do not have to like the evil villains as they play their roles in the drama of life. And our role may be to destroy them in this age...but sometimes I wonder if in the end, after the grand drama is played out and the curtain falls,.“then applause will be coming to each one from God”, the heroes and the villains...for God wrote the script and cast all into their particular roles...and of course Christ Jesus came to save the whole world, not just the good guys in it.

The State of the Church

"God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired..." (1 Corinthians 12:18)

Once upon a time it was understood that the body of Christ was the church.  That the body was composed of people chosen by God and resided in the hearts of its diverse members. Families of its members would meet together in homes, and then in separate buildings constructed for that purpose.  Each Sunday they would gather with other members in the area  to study the bible, sing the old hymns, listen to a sermon, and when necessary help those of their community in need. The church residing in those families would then go to their individual homes having felt good about being with friends.  They were not concerned with growing the numbers, they grew in numbers as they helped people in the community who saw in them the love of God.

Then one day it all began to change when some decided the church was an entity residing in the buildings and if they would incorporate and cooperate together they could win the world for Christ...and as an added benefit their gifts would qualify for an income tax deduction. So they incorporated and built bigger buildings, hired professional ministers and missionaries, went on mission trips, bought sound systems, televised services, started choirs and bands, dimmed the lights and started programs in the buildings to attract and entertain people. And now....

Many years have come and gone. Those gathering in buildings have split into many tax exempt groups and conventions.  People still gather on Sunday in the buildings, but now they teach denominational doctrine and support the programs of the various conventions they agree with rather than focus on the physical needs of the community.  Much money is collected in tithes and gifts but most is needed to pay salaries, utilities, insurance and the the convention programs.  Little, if anything, is done to help with the physical needs of people in the communities.

As for the true Church, the body of Christ...well it is still alive and well and God's plan for it has never changed and its success is certain.  For the church has never been about buildings, conventions and the associated programs.  The Church resides in the homes of people - in the hearts of families who love God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and their neighbors. And each day, God still places people in the body all across the world "just as He desires". Jesus continues to build his Church in homes, and the doors of the buildings, nor the various doctrines and programs of the conventions of men, shall prevail against it...

"And Jesus said...I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it...thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 16:17-18; 22;37-40)