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Burned by Religion & Withdrawing from God

Burned by Religion

And

Withdrawing from God?

I’ve had several friends and acquaintances disheartened by Christian “religion” because of various “issues” like creation vs evolution, end times, hell, salvation, legalism, judgment, and hypocrisy to name a few. They still believe in God but have pulled away from the religion and most from seeking God.

I see this happen over and over – people pull away from God because of the religion of man – when in reality the two are often on opposite ends of the continuum. God is not religion and religion is not God. As I was praying about these friends, various thoughts came to mind that I wanted to say to them and I wanted to share with you:

Don’t make a decision about God based solely on others. Many people professing to be of God aren’t. Though they claim to be of Him, He hasn’t sent them or spoken to them. Jeremiah 23:16, 14:14 Deception about God grows worse and worse, but He promises if you seek Him in His Word, you will find Him and He will manifest Himself to you. Jeremiah 29:13

God’s Word is spirit and eternal. Its truth is revealed by the Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit there is no understanding. Many claim to have the Spirit and don’t, therefore their interpetations are wrong. Even those who may have His spirit, they are still human and can present incomplete ideas. Bottom line, don’t seek and rely on man’s instruction – seek God’s. Seek God to establish your foundation of truth, then test all you hear by what you learn from God. God gave us His spirit so that we could commune with Him one-on-one and know His truth without a middle man – this is His desire for us. 1 John 2:27

Look to God, seek Him, and the truth of who He is in His Word. Open up your mind to learn of Him, from Him. Start fresh and you will find a much different God than what you’ve been taught.

There is so much God wants to show and do for you. All He requires is for you to seek Him in His Word because that is His truth. Don’t turn your back on Him because of the lies of others. God’s desire is for you to be united to Him. Don’t let others take from you this unity, which is true abundant life for you because in His presence is peace, freedom, rest, joy, protection, provision, healing, power, strength, truth, mercy, love, grace, and comfort. Seek Him in His Word to know Him and your will find Him. Matthew 7:7

Your salvation and sanctification are in His hands. Man doesn’t save. You don’t save yourself. You are saved by God’s will alone. He has a plan for your life. When you feel His prompting on your heart, draw near to Him and to get to know Him. Surrendering your will for His wll is a process that happens as you seek and spend time with Him.

As for God’s plan for this world and for us (end times, hell, etc), it is much greater than what many preach. Their views are limited because they are fallen men and women. As a result, their ideas are often full of bondage and lies. If you seek Him, He will start to reveal His plan to you bit by bit as you need to know. Many attribute to Him what He hasn’t proclaimed or even desired. Jeremiah 32:35

As you seek, you will find that God’s wisdom is perfect and your understanding of this world will grow, not diminish (like in the creation vs evolution debate). The Word is spiritual. It is written layer upon layer and full of symbolism and parables to teach deeper truths. To deny this structure is to miss out on the truth. Those who read it literally miss out on the deeper layers that bring truth to His entire Word.

Christianity isn’t about rules, legalism, laws, it is about a true relationship with God built upon truth, trust and love. God desires us – not our works.

I pray you put your past experiences that tainted your view of God behind you. Seek to abide in a relationship with God as you were created to do because without Him life remains incomplete, lost, lacking, unfulfilled, and broken. Give God an opportunity to show Himself as He is to you, and He will blow your mind with His goodness, love, and the realness of His presence in your life.

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Our Thoughts Create Our Reality, BUT . . .

Our Thoughts Create Our Reality, BUT . . .

 

There is a great video on the truth, our thoughts create our reality, by Earl Nightingale.

However to be effective in harnessing this power in our lives there is a deeper layer we need to consider – the source of our thoughts. Where do our thoughts come from and how do we decide which thoughts are best? How do we make sure that what we are thinking or focusing on gets us to what we truly desire and what is for our good and the good of others? We often go after what we think is good, but it isn’t. There is a verse from Chris Daughtry’s song, Home, “Be careful what you wish for, ‘Cause you just might get it all” that speaks to this point. How can we be sure the focus of our thoughts will get us where we truly want to be? Often we are blinded to what is truly good for us, to what will truly fulfill. I know I was.

Our thoughts create our reality is the essence of faith. What we believe in and act on (or have faith in) affects of our lives. If it is God’s wisdom then we will experience the fruit of that belief. If it is the wisdom of the world then we will experience its fruit.

Titus 1:15 To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled.

In my previous life, I was an avid believer of the power of thought as I am now. However I lived without God’s wisdom, therefore all I thought was grounded in lies, deception, and wisdom of the world. Wisdom that doesn’t bring what we truly desire; wisdom full of empty promises; wisdom that doesn’t fulfill but creates more want; wisdom that leads to bondage. When we use our thoughts for our own selfish reasons, which we do when God isn’t our center, not only does it negatively impact us but also others. This is the life I had created, one of bondage and destruction to me and others.

I focused, visioned, and tried all sorts of “positive” thinking but deep down my soul remained tormented, thus I tormented others. No one lives in a vacuum. I figured I just need to try harder. When God isn’t our center, instead of being for the greater good our thoughts become a power for the sake of gaining our own power. When this happens we throw things off balance. Our faith is in faith for our own interests. And that kind of thinking leads to destruction because it is counter to God’s will which is for the good of everyone. The lie we have to overcome so that we will seek His will and not our own is that God doesn’t desire a good life for us. It is one we all battle, but it is a lie. I’ve learned the truth in my own life. God truly does desire fulfillment, satisfaction and good for us.

Only when I realized that lie and sought God’s will did my life start to change to become what I truly desired and beneficial to others. By abiding in the Bible, God’s words, His truth became the framework from which I started thinking. His words became my thoughts and started to manifest true life.

Sometimes we don’t realize what we want. The world’s wisdom tells us certain things will fulfill us, make us happy, but they don’t. God created us individually and uniquely. When we don’t align our minds to His will then we end up chasing what will never satisfy. Deep down we have desires instilled in us by God. Only God can lead us to the fulfillment of those desires that bring true satisfaction and joy.

Our thoughts create our reality. If we align our thoughts to God’s wisdom then we find what we were always looking for and everyone benefits.

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Why God Calls Himself a HE? PART II

Why God Calls Himself a HE?

PART II

 

In The Shack, which the author shares some very interesting insights, he addressed this issue of why God assigns a masculine gender to Himself in the Bible. He said the reason God did it was because He knew fathers would be the ones to fail more in their roles than the mothers and the majority of people would need a father, thus He took on the role.

If you haven’t read The Shack and plan to you may not want to read any further – I would hate to spoil it for you.

In the beginning, the main character, Mack, meets God as three people representing the trinity; God as a woman, Christ as a man, and the Holy Spirit as a woman. The God character said she came to Mack as someone he could accept so he would be open to what she had to say because Mack had negative experiences with his father. In the end, she changed into a man – when Mack could accept God as his father as well. I believe the author made a good point. God is spirit – not a gender. He can come in any form He chooses. However, He chose to be a masculine figure in the Bible for a reason – some of which I mentioned in my previous post.

Bottom line. God wants us to draw near to Him so that He is first in our hearts. He designed a world to teach us spiritual truths. And one of those truths is how to relate and build intimacy with Him. Describing Himself as our husband and father was designed to do just that.


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Why God Calls Himself a He?

Why God Calls Himself a HE?

Part I

Someone made a comment on my blog the other day asking why I refer to God as a He. It got me thinking . . .

Why do we assign God a gender when in reality He is spirit and far exceeds a limitation like gender? The issue came up because poor physical representations of a male figure – like an abusive husband or controlling father – can impede upon someone’s desire to draw near to God when we call Him our father or our husband.

God ascribes the male gender to Himself in His Word, the Bible. The question isn’t should we ascribe a gender to Him because it isn’t our decision to make because it is His as the Creator and Master Designer, but why did He ascribe a gender to Himself in His Word? This world and God’s Word are His design and it isn’t for us to change – however I believe He does want us to ask why?

So why?

God has a purpose and reason for everything. This is part of His nature that we see clearly in His Word and His creation. Therefore, what is the purpose of assigning a gender to Himself? I think the underlining purpose is to teach us about Him and our relationship to Him.

God put us in the physical flesh world for several reasons, but that is a different conversation. I want to stay focus on the fact that we are flesh and bones, and how we learn, including about God, is in accordance to the physical world.

This physical world was designed in such a way to teach us about the spiritual world. The two worlds interact and parallel each other. Because we learn best from experience, we experience truths in the flesh that point to truths in the spirit. However, even though God uses the flesh to teach us, He is still teaching us about spiritual things. Therefore if you don’t have His spirit in you, you can’t understand His instruction. 1 Corinthians 2:14

In designing the structure of this world, God created male and female; the males to represent God and Christ and the females to represent us – His people. He could have created something completely different but didn’t because this design accomplishes what He wants us to learn if we seek.

Examples of What We Learn:

For example, we learn how we are to relate to God – like we would our spouse. We are intimate, devoted, loyal, open, caring, loving, and so on. We grow in intimacy by talking one-on-one, listening, being honest and vulnerable. And when we don’t do these things we see the ramifications. When God says He is our Husband, then we understand how we are to relate to Him. When we take time to draw near, talk, open up, get to know Him, then a healthy relationship blossoms. If we don’t it doesn’t. Without this physical representation how would we know how to relate to God in this intimate way? How would we understand the consequences of not doing so?

Also with this design, we get a sense of what God feels when we turn our back on Him and don’t cultivate an intimate relationship of trust and love. When you read in the Bible in Hosea, Jeremiah, and Isaiah how God’s people have played the harlot, the imagery gives us an idea of how God feels and sees those who put their trust in something or someone other than Him. He compares Himself to a husband who has been cheated on. Something we can relate to. Now, if you have been cheated on you know now horrible that feels. Even if you haven’t you can imagine! From our flesh experience we can understand a spiritual reality. And for me it breaks my heart and makes me want to draw closer to God so I will trust Him more – because I love Him.

Why Not One Gender?

Why not just make everyone one gender? Because the two genders which are very different from each other yet share similar characteristics, teach us that we are different from God, but our differences create a perfect union – like two puzzle pieces coming together. In addition, having two separate genders teaches us we aren’t God, a lesson we all need in today’s world.

We need to remember that the physical didn’t come first then God related Himself to it. He designed it specifically to teach us certain things in this life and about Him. There are many, many lessons to be gained if we accept the fact it is His design and move on to seeking the lessons to be learned. If we do we will be greatly blessed in the truths we discover.

For Those with Negative Experiences

As for those who have had negative experiences with these physical representations, it is a huge travesty. However there is a great treasure waiting for them. What some of my friends have found, who have had these bad experiences with male figures, is that God filled the deep dark hole in their lives by being the perfect Father or Husband they never had. Yes, it was challenging because of the past, but the rewards were tremendous as they persisted. If we seek God He will fill the emptiness in our hearts and souls left by others. Our depravity is to push us into Him. We need to be open to His healing in this area. We need to realize that every need is ultimately to be filled by Him. We need to learn He is capable of fulfilling every need.

God’s design is perfect to teach us what He wants us to learn. We need to realize it is only an illustration, but He chose it for a reason. What we have done with that design is far from perfect – but there is another lesson altogether.

More next week . . .