Separated

We are frequently criticized for parting ways with those with whom we disagree. Our critics perceive that we have a “holier than thou” attitude, and that we separate from others because of our “religious” convictions.

Yes, we have a “holier than thou” attitude. But the truth is we are no different than anyone else. The world has a “holier than thou” attitude and doesn’t know it. We simply see and admit to knowing the truth. Our accusers think one thing and say another; they do what we do and deny that they are doing it. They live in the dark because their thoughts are evil and despise us for bringing them out into the light.

We separate ourselves because God has separated us. So there is a sense in which our agreement with God separates us from those who do not know him and that our separation is, therefore, on “religious” grounds (though we hate “religion” and do not see ourselves as “religious” by the common definition or use of the terms). However, there are many examples of people separating from those with whom they disagree, like churches on every corner, prisons, divorce, private houses, personal property, etc.

Possibly the greatest example of a parting of the ways is The United States of America. This country was founded by those who parted ways. They embraced the lie that people could live together in tolerance of one another though they could not do it themselves or they would have remained where they were. Ever heard the expression “America: love it or leave it”? Either I’m crazy or that’s an “invitation” to part ways.

No one thinks anything of separation or parting ways until it comes to us, then all hell breaks loose! Why are others justified and even praised for parting ways while we are criticized and condemned for doing the same? Why do we have a “holier than thou” attitude for parting ways while others do not? Why are we frequently criticized for separating from or parting ways with those with whom we disagree?

Our simple, honest answer – the obvious truth: people part ways with one another when what they believe is more important to them than what those with whom they disagree believe. We are no different than anyone else. It’s the beliefs over which we part ways that makes us different from and offensive to those with whom we part ways.

We part ways with those who don’t know what we know; who don’t see what we see; who don’t believe what we believe. We part ways with those who have a different lord than we have. We part ways with those who agree with Satan and not God; with those who believe lies and not the truth; with those who love lies and not the truth. If they loved the truth they would love us and we would never have to part ways (which is what we would prefer).

Trouble is, the world doesn’t know that they are spirits agreeing with spirits whom they don’t see. If the world could see the spirits with whom they are agreeing and disagreeing they would part ways with Satan and agree with God like we do.

We part ways with those who are not relatives of God because we are relatives of God. We can not be relatives of both truth and lies, light and dark, life and death, right and wrong, good and evil – God and Satan. God has made us his relatives, and our relationship with him and his relatives is more important to us than our relationship to the relatives of Satan.

We part ways with those who disagree with us because we are spirits who take what we believe seriously. We are children of The Truth and do not like lies. We part ways with those who want to be what we once were and no longer want to be.

We part ways with those who love the lies we once believed because if we don’t stand our ground the one’s with whom we are parting might never find their way.

We part ways with those who disagree with us because if we don’t agree now we will most certainly part ways one day forever.

We part ways because we love peace and don’t want to live with people who bring conflict into our own minds. We are also peacemakers and make peace by parting ways so that we don’t create conflict with those who don’t want to agree with us.

Do you think we are wrong? Are you sure? If so, then the truth as you know it is that we are wrong. Do you want to be friends with liars; with those who will not agree with the truth you know? Come on! Show your love and agree with us! We’re not parting ways with you, you are parting ways with us. Can’t we be friends? Too bad if you want our friendship, because we don’t want to be friends with those who have your “holier than thou” attitude; with those who think they are better than us. (I’ve engaged in a bit of foolishness to make my point. Did I succeed?)

We part ways with those who disagree with us because the truth is that everybody parts ways with those with whom they disagree. At some point everyone comes to an issue in which they can not agree with even their closest friend or relative. Those who can’t work out their differences part ways. Parting ways began with God and Adam/Eve, and it’s been the story of mankind ever since.

Those who think that they can and who attempt to live with those with whom they disagree will find out one day that they will spend eternity in conflict with one another; that they will live forever with Satan. Not a pretty picture!

Be sure that we are not right about this! The truth is precise and unyielding. You don’t want to make a mistake on this one!

Finally, it takes two parties to part ways. We don’t part ways with anyone who doesn’t part ways with us; who doesn’t love what they believe more than they love what we believe. Anyone who doesn’t want to part ways with us can change their way of thinking and agree with us and we will never part ways – ever!

Posted in Views | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off

What God Wants

In order to free us from this present evil world, Christ took the punishment for our sins, because that was what our God and Father wanted. (Galatians 1.4, God’s Word)

There was a time when I believed a gospel (the “roman road” gospel of the evangelical protestants) that promised freedom (salvation) from punishment but not freedom from evil. In all my years of devotion and service to that gospel (of which I was an ordained minister) I never saw the truth. I was more evil than most because I was a minister of Satan masquerading as a minister of Christ. I was evil and deserved to be punished because though God created me to think and act like him, I thought and acted like a mortal.  I believed I was a mortal because I was under the control of Satan who lied to me and made me think that because I am in a body on the earth I am mortal. Though I was devoted I was misguided and disobeyed God because I did not think like him.

But God taught me the truth that Jesus Christ not only died to take the punishment I deserve for believing Satan’s lies, but took my punishment in order to save me from thinking like a mortal and free me to think like him – exactly like Jesus Christ did while on the earth in a body like mine.

Those who accept Christ as the one who takes the punishment they deserve acknowledge that they are evil. Those who believe that Christ died in their place but who do not believe that Christ died for them to free them from evil are evil and deserve the punishment they will get.

God wants us to know and believe the truth like him. He has demonstrated his kindness and good will toward mankind by giving his Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, to his firstborn Son, Jesus Christ, and sending him to earth in a body like ours. He did this to reveal the truth that we are spirits like him; that we are those who can and will know and believe the truth instead of lies. ”So Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him, “If you live by what I say, you are truly my disciples. 32 You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8.31-32, God’s Word)

Those who believe God are his relatives, having the same spirit and same relation to their Father that the Lord, Jesus Christ has. News doesn’t get any better than that!

Posted in The Gospel | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off

What I’ve Learned So Far

I am one of the many who have agreed with God that Jesus Christ is his son who lived on earth in a human body, was killed, was buried and was raised from the dead to make the truth about himself and his children clear to those of us spirits living in human bodies on earth. I am one of a minority of the spirits living on earth in a human body at the moment (though I do not know how many of us there are on earth at the moment) who obey God in thinking that he has granted me this faith in Jesus Christ to let me know that though I have offended and made him angry enough to kill me by disagreeing with and disobeying him he has not only forgiven me and spared my life, but intends to save me from disagreeing with and disobeying him by giving me his spirit, the spirit he gave Jesus Christ. So due solely to the kindness of God I not only get to live forever, but I get to think and live like God!  This is very good news to me!

Contrary to what most people believe (and what I once believed), faith is the evidence of God’s approval and not the means to it. We don’t get saved by God from God for doing or believing anything. We believe in Jesus because we have been saved from God by God. His anger at mankind is tempered by his love for his children.

Furthermore, contrary to what most people who call themselves Christians believe, Jesus Christ did not die for our sins against God so that those who believe in him could “go to heaven” after living on earth any way they choose. Jesus Christ, in willing obedience to his Father and for the joy God set before him, came to earth in a human body, lived and died in a human body, was buried and brought his human body back to life to demonstrate the power of thinking like and obeying God while in these bodies. Those who believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins but not for the power to obey God like Jesus believe in Jesus in vain.

So am I perfect? Don’t be silly. Of course not. God’s belief that I am his child is perfect, but I’ve got to be trained to think like him. I’m still learning what is true of my Father, my Lord, and my family. But on account of being in this body and thinking like a mere mortal for so long, I sometimes lose sight of the truth of who I am and give in to the temptation to think like I once did. But it doesn’t last long because I get disciplined for it. One of the greatest assurances that I am God’s child is that I get disciplined for thinking like a mere mortal. I’m even right for agreeing with God when I’m wrong! God will not tolerate his children’s disagreement with and disobedience to him. He wants children like himself, and that’s what he’ll have. Thank God!

My older brother, the Apostle Paul put the matter of his own perfection like this: “It’s not that I’ve already reached the goal or have already completed the course. But I run to win that which Jesus Christ has already won for me. Brothers and sisters, I can’t consider myself a winner yet. This is what I do: I don’t look back, I lengthen my stride, and I run straight toward the goal to win the prize that God’s heavenly call offers in Christ Jesus. Whoever has a mature faith should think this way. And if you think differently, God will show you how to think. However, we should be guided by what we have learned so far.”  (The Apostle Paul, Philippians Chapter 3.12-16, God’ s Word)

Posted in Testimony | Comments Off

Who Do I think I Am?

Human beings are not the one thing in all of creation that get to choose what is true of them; that get to be whatever they choose to be. We are not the only thing in all of creation that gets to create ourselves.

Who I think I am is the most important thing in my life. It dictates everything else that I think. (And who I think I am is apparently pretty important to others since most do not like what I think of myself, and do not take kindly to me disagreeing with who they think they are!)

No one is a Christian because they are devoted to some concept of God or some concept of Jesus Christ. One is a Christian if they are devoted by God to his precise concept of himself and his children. God, my Creator, has made his precise concept of himself and of his children abundantly clear in Jesus Christ.

I am who God thinks I am. He thinks I am his child because in his kindness he has given me the knowledge and the love of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is everything to me. Jesus is who I want to be; Jesus is who I am. This is the truth that has set and is setting me free to be what God has created me to be. Because it is not who I think I am but who God thinks I am that is important. I agree with him about my older brother and Lord, Jesus Christ, and I agree with him about me. That’s why he sent Jesus Christ to earth as a human, and that’s why Jesus Christ agreed to come to earth as a human: to inform and convince God’s children to agree with him about themselves. Any wonder he calls it “good news”?

You anger God and me if you make his desire for me out to be evil. If you make me out to be evil because I share my Father’s desire to be like him as he has revealed himself in my Lord, Jesus Christ, you are in big trouble with my Father! Thinking that way will get you killed (not the body you live in but the spirit that is the real you). Believing the lie that it is wrong for us, those created in God’s image, to be like him is killing and will result in the total destruction of the human race. God, our Creator and my father, will take the life he has given those who offend and anger him by not agreeing with him.

If you want to disagree with God and make him angry and lose your life to the beloved lie that you are a mere mortal, you can do so with no objection or opposition from me. It’s your life. The lie you believe can not hurt me because I’m not believing it. I have no fear of my Father’s anger because he has saved me from this lie and set me free to know and believe every word that he communicates to me.

God loves me and I love him. Nothing has the power to destroy our love for one another.

Who am I? Thanks to God I am the son of God and servant of my Lord, Jesus Christ! If you know God you know me. If you don’t know me you don’t know God.

Posted in Testimony | Comments Off