Reflecting Joyful Gratitude

I absolutely love reading The Holy Bible. It truly is nourishing food for my soul and living water that quenches the deepest thirst within me which was unable to be satisfied by any other religion, philosophy or new age spiritually.

Honestly, because of the Bible I can walk into any church knowing fully that I am completely loved and wanted by Jesus Christ just as I am. I have such faith and belief in Him, who He is, and what He has done that I can trust that I am also loved by our creator...because Jesus tells us so. Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so! It is as easy as a children's song, and that is why I believe those who receive the Truth He has proclaimed just as a child would are blessed...and that The Kingdom of Heaven is for such as these (Matthew 19:14).

Children tend to believe what they are told (except for my son who came into the world skeptical about pretty much everything). They don't complicate it or over think what they are told when they are weee little. They TRUST as they have fresh eyes and have not been jaded by the inevitable suffering that comes in life from being hurt and disappointed many times by others.

I can see no other way to approach Jesus except in this way. He told us what we needed to know for salvation in The Gospels. Literally, all we have to do is BELIEVE and TRUST in it! God is not a man that He should lie (Numbers 23:19, Titus 1:2, Hebrews 6:18). It is safe to believe Him. Jesus says that He is The Way, and I have put ‘all my chips’ in on His statement.

This is why I feel bold to step into any Christian church, regardless of the denomination, as I believe this simplicity of the Gospel message. Unfortunately, humans have complicated it, as we seem destined to do, just as the Pharisees and Saducces (the religious leaders at the time of Christ) did. When this happens the Spirit of the Truth is lost within doctrine, not built around The Gospel of Jesus Christ, but some human conglomeration of Old Testament laws combined with Jesus' gospel of salvation. It is taught as if we are under the law and Jesus only came to be our safety net for when we cannot do it since, of course, we will fail daily. This confuses so many people as well as keeps many away from turning toward Jesus, where there is hope and unconditional love, let alone stepping into a church.

As Paul states in his epistles, The Law is good in that it reveals our sin (Romans 7) and what we are unable to do. To follow the law of the old testament for salvation requires following all of the law...and Jesus has already stated that only He can do and did it (fulfilled it). This is why He says he has not come to abolish the law (get rid of it) but to fulfill it (do all of it that we would never be able to do) and die as a substitution for everyone as a perfect sacrifice to cover US all. It is the Faith in this that sets us free...free from the law and free from the consequences of the law. This is also why Jesus says that “my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:30)

So, how do you get to The Kingdom of Heaven? By believing and trusting that His life, death, and resurrection accomplished this for us. The problem is that many Christian brothers and sisters don't seem to believe or teach that this is enough. They somehow confuse faith with obedient works as what makes one righteous and worthy. True good works comes from The Spirit working In the person of Faith and it is a process. This process is referred to in the Bible as sanctification...becoming more Holy and pleasing to God. It is His work in us and not us forcing anything, but rather surrendering and cooperating with The Spirit as he lovingly teaches us.

I was recently told that Jesus' sacrifice does not give us "license to sin."  It is an often used cliche among many Christians who I observe to be more works minded. What breaks my heart is that it is these very statements and teachings that turn so many away from The Church, where they could learn more about Jesus and His messages of grace and love, because they will hear works that they somehow need to do first and therefor turn their hearts and ears away. No no no! This is NOT good fruit and this is Not what I hear Jesus teaching and showing in The New Testament.

These are likely people who are being drawn in by the Holy Spirit, needing hope for things in their life by the very fact that they showed up to a church service or two because they have been exposed to some true compassionate Christians, only to then come into contact with judgement and works based Christians, who unfortunately then come off either as intimidatingly perfect (which cannot be true) or obvious hypocrites. I don't think anyone who comes to know and love Jesus are in any way believing that they now have license to sin, but that all their sins are covered by the work of Jesus Christ and anything they do that could come across as works is done solely out of love for our Lord.

We need a true revival in the body of Christ that is not 'lukewarm Christians' nor confusing ‘works based’ Christians, but authentic life giving gospel Christians who are so thankful for what Jesus has done for them, for us all to be free and live eternally with Him in Heaven, that they have no ounce of judgment or condemnation to hold or hand out because of the sheer joy of this GIFT. Everything else is for The Spirit to handle within each believer and it is a process that starts with first turning to Him and seeing that He is indeed safe to turn to by such joyful life giving Christians. Thanks be to God!