Month: November 2017

Bad theology, throughout history, has created images of God in the minds of people that has caused them to look for God or a place of/in God that really does not exist. Let’s look at a few examples quickly that we will discuss in depth later.

Not long after the Israelites left Egypt, Moses went to the mountain to talk to God. The Children of Israel grew tired of waiting for Moses and created their own “god” (golden calf) and called it God. They even said this is God, who delivered us from Egypt. That incorrect image of God was created by the incorrect theology (belief system) learned in Egypt. The image of God in our mind is very important when seeking Him and His Kingdom. What we must watch closely is creating an object of worship within our religious system and calling it God, when in fact it is man-made, and God has nothing to do with it. We will never find Him or His kingdom if we are creating other gods (objects of worship) or looking for something that doesn’t exist.
Maybe that is what happened when the Children of Israel were looking at the Promised Land and decided that they would not go. Maybe they were expecting a land in which they could just walk right in without a fight. Maybe they were not expecting giants. Maybe the image that they had in their mind was nothing like what they saw with their eyes. They did not have the faith that God would give them this land. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. For our faith to be effective, we must have the right substance to hope for and the correct evidence in our mind. The images that we develop from our religious teachings have a great influence on our faith. Those images are the substance and the evidence needed to have faith to enter the place that God has promised.
These two patterns repeat themselves throughout history. People create and worship gods that don’t exist. Then, they understand through scripture, God has a place prepared and promised to them, but when they are face to face with it they don’t recognize it. If you don’t recognize this pattern, it is called RELIGION.
God has always wanted a relationship with His people. He wanted a kingdom of priests, not clergy and the rest of us. When Jesus appeared on the scene, religion (Judaism) had created a special class of people that heard from God and delivered the message to people. This resulted in religion becoming big business. Worship became the buying and selling of animals, so you could have the right sacrifice. Relationship with God became keeping all the rules, so God would be happy. Finally, the Jewish religious leaders were teaching about a king/savior that would come and physically remove them from the rule of the Roman Empire. The Jews would be a free people again. Sadly, they didn’t recognize God or His kingdom when it was right in front of them.
Does any of this sound familiar to us today? What are we really worshiping when we attend church today? Are we just checking off the boxes of the rules that have been created by our religious leaders? Is our relationship with God just a way of making Him happy with us so that we can physically escape this place one day? Maybe God and His kingdom is right in front of us and we don’t recognize either one, because the images (substance and evidence) that have been burned in our mind for so many years, have created a faith for the wrong kingdom and a wrong God.
That could explain why being a Christian doesn’t affect the way many people live every-day life and why Christians struggle with divorce, drugs, alcohol, fear, and anxiety at the same rate as non-Christians. In many ways, Christianity has become religion just like Judaism, in the time of Jesus.
That’s why, in this journey of life…..
We must know our destination to recognize it when we arrive. We must have the correct image of God and His kingdom to have the faith to cross and inherit our promises when we stand at the very edge.
WE MUST TALK ABOUT HEAVEN, HELL, AND THE RAPTURE!

Bill

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I know we were supposed to talk about our destination this time, but I think we need to cover a few things and build a little foundation before we embark on our journey together.

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I want to start with a couple of questions – just how much should we question our conventional beliefs or our conventional teaching, preaching or interpretations of the Bible? Is it ok to question? Where do you draw the line?

Before you say we shouldn’t question, Jacob wrestled with God, Abraham argued with God about Sodom and Gomorrah, and Moses told God to kill him if was going to kill all Israel and start over. I hate it when I ask a difficult question and get the Sunday school answer. One of my favorite teachers always says that you need to run any theology by the graves at Auschwitz, where millions (men, women, and children) were killed by the Germans. Explain that with a simple Sunday school answer.

Just think about it. How did Jesus teach? Parables. Did he ever give a straight answer? What does that say about Him. He wants us to figure it out. He wants us to chew on it. He doesn’t even mind if we get it wrong first. The disciples never got it right. He wants us to the think about it. He wants us to be hungry and to seek Him.

The whole journey of life is about the seeking. Most of my life in church was about coming to get the answer and not to question anything. But the last 15 years has been all about the questions and the wrestling. I won’t say is all been fun, but I feel like that I’m closer to God because I did.

He wants us to dig in and when we really dig in there will be questions. So, we can’t be scared of the hard questions. We can’t be afraid of losing our salvation or our walk with God. He designed us and the Kingdom this way. I believe when we wrestle with God, it’s a sign that we do have faith. There’s nothing wrong with you. When we ask questions, we have the faith that our relationship with God is strong enough to stand against any questions or doubts and its worth fighting for.

For instance, one thing that I know that I believe is that God is love. If I can’t ultimately believe that, I have no hope. So, I know that any question that I have has to come back to God is love, somehow, no matter how twisted the situation is.

When all those bad things happened to Job, he called God the adversary! How many of us have been brave enough to do that? But, in the end God said that Job was his servant and he spoke right, and the others didn’t. What was right about what Job said? Maybe it was that Job was just honest with no fluff or religious rhetoric.

Here is a question for all of us. Do we have the kind of relationship that we can be wrong before God or do we suppress our questions and doubts and put on a performance pretending to know everything?

Maybe you have some questions. Like, God, why do people talk about joy and happiness and I never experience it myself? Or God, why do I feel down or stressed out most the time? Or maybe, why can’t I feel You like other people say they do? What’s wrong with me? Or maybe it’s something like – many people act like God is directing every step of their life and I have no idea which direction I’m going?

I want to say there’s nothing wrong with you. That is the journey. That is life. Those are all things that we need to be wrestling with God. The more we wrestle, the closer we get to Him.
One thing is for certain, I can’t live with the Sunday school answers anymore. This journey that you will take with me, From Egypt to the Promised Land, will be full of hard questions and sometimes no answers. But I promise we will be closer to God. Are you ready to take the trip?

The Destination waits for us.

Bill

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