Relationship with God - 2: Forgiven

You may have heard it said that the only difference between the saint (saved) and a sinner is that the saved are forgiven. 

But that is not true. We are all forgiven.

Christ died for the sins of the whole world once and for all. 

The difference between a saint and a sinner is that the saint has accepted his sacrifice as his personal payment and has come into relationship/covenant with him.

You no longer have to stand before God and try to pay for your own sins. 

It's like buying a airline ticket. Lets say you need an airline ticket to get to Heaven. God tried to give man a free one, but he also gave man his own free will and man chose to relinquish his ticket and follow sin. Then God tried to show man the error of his ways by sending the law. But man couldn't keep the law and actually turned it into rituals and doctrines. Then God sent his son to pay the price of the ticket and to bring man back into right standing with God. Jesus went to the ticket counter and bought the ticket for you. If you do not go to him and receive the ticket that he purchased, you have to go to the ticket counter and try to pay for one yourself. Only you don't have enough to give. You CAN'T pay the price yourself. It cannot be done. You'll be turned away.

When you go to him for the ticket, you are agreeing with him that you can't pay the price and you are accepting the price he paid as your ticket in. Now if you take the ticket then go your way without being thankful and making a commitment to serve him, not desiring to become his "friend", you are like a child that wants to have the benefits of being this father's child (blessings, using the car, a fridge full of food, roof over your head) without a commitment of relationship (won't sit down to eat with the family, or go on family outings or spend any time with them). You want the blessing without the relationship. At the risk of sounding crude, what do you call someone who wants intimacy without relationship or covenant? A fornicator, a whore monger.

Relationship with God -1

John 3:16... Another new meaning ... how can this be? I've always said that if our minds and spirits were open to God that He could reveal something new about this verse each time we read it. I knew that was true but even more so now as I meditate on relationship with God.
 
--For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 KJV

Sounds pretty straight forward. I guess other people have preconceived notions and understandings about words just like I do.  But I find it has hindered my understanding of what God is really saying or all he is saying in His word.  Whether it is my limited knowledge of the English language or instilled by years of mainstream religious teaching, it can cause a person to read over many truths that God is trying to show us.


My Conventional understanding:

God Loves us so much that he sent his Son to die on a cross so that we can be forgiven and go to Heaven.

Ok, so I’m a simple thinker…..  But basically this was my understanding of it.  What else would you tell a pre-schooler?  Now the fact that I held that and didn’t search it out more, grow in it or open my mind to the Spirit and hear more from God on it is only a mystery.  Pride???  Thinking I know what you know?  Or laziness…. “I know that and don’t need to think about it”.  Or maybe even the law of humanity put in place by God Himself…. “train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it”…   God knew that if something would be learned as a child, it would be sort of hard coded into us and not questioned so easily.  However, if we are not also taught that God is the ever-revealing one and that we should listen to the Spirit and be led by the spirit we can hold too tightly to a single truth, and not receive ALL that God is saying in it as we mature and are ready for the “meat” of the Word.


A little Meat:

For God so loved the world (whole world.. not just those that accept him) that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever (not just the worthy) believeth in him should not perish,(to incur the loss of true or eternal life; to be delivered up to eternal misery) but have everlasting life (begins on earth, just as soon as one becomes united to Christ by faith, see John 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. ---
Life eternal is knowing God and Jesus Christ.  Knowing here means an intimate knowledge of him. 

Now I know the truth and am made free to rest in that God gave his son not only so I could go to heaven, but that I would not perish in this life and the life to come.  So that I will not have sickness, disease, lack, a troubled mind, unbelief, or any misery that Satan may try to bring upon me, now and forever!!  That I might come into a wonderful relationship with my creator on a spiritual level equal to that of Adam & Eve before the fall.  

It is not God's will that any be sick, poor or broken.   amen

Religion

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/

Definition of RELIGION

1   a: the state of a religious <a nun in her 20th year of religion> b (1): the service and worship of God or the supernatural (2): commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance
2  : a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices

3  archaic: scrupulous conformity : conscientiousness

4  : a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith

Definition of RELIGIOUS

1 : relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity <a religious person> <religious attitudes>

2 : of, relating to, or devoted to religious beliefs or observances <joined a religious order>

3 a: scrupulously and conscientiously faithful b: fervent, zealous

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By "Challenging Religion" I mean the Religion that people have come to love and embrace that is Tradition and Doctrin. It would be defined under #4 from Merriam-Webster. And religious as defined in # 2.  Being devoted to the belief or observances and not to God himself.  

Oh yes, we love our religion.  We embrace it and how dare anyone try to change our minds or give us insight.  The possibility that there might me more to learn and know about God is ridiculous, right?  The Bible's definition of religion that is pure and undefiled before God is found in James 1:27

- Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. 

-- Just that.  No rituals, ceremonies, mantras, doctrins or traditions.  Don't get me wrong not all doctrin and traditions are bad.  But when our devotion is to the tradition or doctrin and not to God, then it is defiled.  Let's seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness instead of striving to be perfect in our doctrins and rituals.  Let's love God so much that we desire to know everything about him we can know.  So much that we live an unspotted life from the world.  Let our works be only fruits and not roots.

Foundation

A Foundation is something you start with and build on.  It has to be right or the whole thing will turn out wrong.  It has to be strong and sure.  When your foundation is shaken,  you can be shaken to your very core. .  Then you'll need to take another look at things.  What if the very foundation that you built your christian beliefs on was shaken?  I'm not talking about Jesus the Christ.  We know he is the cornerstone.  The true foundation.  But there are certain things that you start out believing  about Jesus and base all the new things you learn on that so called truth. 

You would have to re-think everything else that you thought you knew.  This is where I found myself a few years ago.  While going through a great trial and seeking peace and safety from the Lord, I began to learn that not everything that I had been taught in church was the truth.  It started with small things.. . . . like that the three wise men did not visit Jesus in the manger.  And that some of the animals came to the ark in sevens, not a pair of each.  Those are simple things that I think most people know, but it really started me asking, "what else?". 

I intend to write down my journey through these things as best I can and as I learn more.   Half truths, mis-quoted scriptures, misconstrued ideas, and some favorite "bible quotes" that aren't even in the Bible.  Hold on because some are shocking.  Please remember, these are my understandings.  They are not intended to impose on anyone and certainly not posted for debate.  You came here voluntarily, so if you comment be kind. . . .

I Cor. 13:1 ...and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

Hopefully sharing some things I have learned will help someone else to move forward in God.