I am so frustrated tonight, as a matter of truth, I have been frustrated since lunch. Since I discovered peace in Christ I can typically let go of things and stay present time the majority of the time. Since a conversation I had at lunch today, my heart has been racing and I’ve been on the verge of tears. Typically, I can break soul ties, pray for the other person in the conversation, and move forward with my day but today I have not been able to at all! I’m asking Dad what I am missing, what question I need to ask to find peace again, but I am not getting any answer but pray for them. I don’t even know what to pray!
My heart is breaking. I am going to fill you in but I want to offer a bit of backdrop to help you understand how this is affecting me so heavily. I watch shows like Leah Remini’s Scientology and read of other religions holding it’s members captive in thought or even physically. When I watch and read those ways of believing, it’s so far removed that my compassion sensor is low. It breaks my heart to a degree, I hate that people can be convinced to give everything of themselves to anything without even realizing it’s falseness and their bondage to it. There is a God and He does love us. But what about when it is in my own back yard?? What about when it is a church that confesses to believing in Jesus, I’m still making the assumption that is true, but believes there is an “earning” by works to receive salvation? My simple question to us earning what Jesus gave us freely is this, “What did Jesus die for if not all of our sins?”.
What was that massive beating when no one even recognized Christ as a human being?? What would that have been about if not grace, pure, utter grace. My last pastor made it as clear to me as anyone ever has when he explained it this way, I am paraphrasing but here it goes…
Let’s say you are playing and you make a group of mud people and as you are playing, one of them falls and messes up another project you’ve worked even longer on, what would you do? I was thinking about it when he said what he would do is smash it all down and start over. God made mud people, us, and rather than smashing us all and starting over when we were utterly corrupt, He came here and became one of us. The next thing He did was allow us, the mud people, to beat Him beyond human recognition and hang on a cross to His death. He had to show us that only God could overcome the lies of the enemy we all have which is Satan. The entire story is in the Bible but if you don’t study the entire Bible, you only have part of the story. This particular religion does not use the Old Testament as the living, breathing, Word of God as the it says it is.
The conversation I had today was with a man that only reads the New Testament and he takes many Scriptures out of context and he is teaching people about God. What???? I received some disturbing information about the denomination he attends and I now know is an elder. When Hubby and I read the information I’d received and I’d done some of my own research with Google, we had so many more questions. I texted this morning that I had a lot more questions and at lunch my phone rang. Hubby and I were in the car so I put it on speaker and we listened and asked questions and at the end of the call we realized the thoughts we had were accurate. My heart was sank. They truly do not believe that Jesus death and resurrection was enough. I’m righteously angry for Jesus sake though He continues to tell me that He can take care of Himself. Outside of that I am simply put, heartbroken. What exactly is grace??
In the conversation he told me that the Bible itself had disproved the “once saved, always saved” theory. What??? That takes me back to my childhood, one time my grandmother told me if I died while I was in a movie I would go to hell. Again, what??? My grandfather was a Nazarene preacher and their belief was that you had to get re-saved every time you sin. After reading Joseph Prince I’ve learned he used to believe something close to that. God does not want us to be sin conscious, that is how the enemy plays with us and lies to us and keeps us from our full potential. I know how hard it was for my mom to break out of that even though she and dad had changed denominations and chosen Southern Baptist. They ascribe to the grace principle because Jesus died long before any of our sins, how couldn’t He have died for all of them? Also, though it wasn’t talked about a lot, I know they also believed we were given the Holy Spirit as our connection and completeness to God and Jesus. That’s it, it’s done. If He died for one of my sins, He died for them all. Hubby’s question to him was good, he asked, “If works are what will get us to heaven, how many works does it take?”. Exactly, what human decides how many works it takes and what is sin and what isn’t?
My heart goes out to him and his family. I know some of his family well and they have come to their own conclusions about the Bible and the truth gratefully. But for this man, he and his wife and possibly other children are being held captive to the enemy’s lies. I sense the spirit of religion all over it and I do not have a clue how to help. What I do know how to do is ask Daddy to reveal Himself to them fully and completely. I hate that they are captured in this web and that they haven’t gotten to experience John 10:10 because they have believed they have to earn what is already theirs. He asked me what my belief about how to get to heaven and I told him FAITH. His next comment was that faith without works is dead. Hubby tried to explain to him that he was taking that out of context because what it means is that the Spirit within us brings about the works of the Father, not our humanness.
All I can do is pray and love. That is what I am called to do and I can offer that because though I don’t know this man well, I know his family. I want the very best for all of them and this is not God’s best. I pray that God will reveal Himself fully to the entire congregation and I know that is not too big for our God. I’m grateful to know the truth and the truth has set me free. Please join me is asking God to reveal Himself to all churches, I know they have a heart for Him or they wouldn’t be in any church. My hope is that they can let go of whatever stands in the way of repentance (changing their mind) and let God do what He does best, show them more grace than we could ever deserve.
“For EVERYONE who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:13
I can offer so many more Scriptures that speak to what grace is but this one sums it up. Thank you Jesus for coming and showing us what loves looks like, without you this Gentile sinner (me) wouldn’t even have a chance. ♥️
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