Slaves to righteousness

I've been reading Leviticus, and I asked God what the purpose of the book was, cause far as I've read through it, it's just repeating the same, long, descriptions of how to sacrifice things, which is useless to us these days right? Well then He told me that it's to show His character, how strict He is. That's what I was going to write a blog about, and when I was writing it that lead me to Romans 6, and then while reading through there to see what verse to use, I read 15-18, which is:

¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. ¹⁸ You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

And that showed me a great way to describe it: we are either slaves to sin, or slaves to obedience and righteousness. Notice Paul doesn't say we're "friends" or "buddies" to righteousness...we're slaves to it. In Bible times, slaves were actually mostly anybody who couldn't pay off their debt, so they sold themselves into slavery(OHMYGOSH look at that! We can't pay off our debt, so we become SLAVES to righteousness! We can't pay off our sin, so we become slaves to the one who can save us, Jesus! oooooooooooooooo!) so slaves weren't the same as slaves how we think of them today. They probably weren't treated nearly as poorly as we think of it. It was actually more of just a job that you had to do and didn't get money for it.

So anyhow, back to my point, since that's what slaves were like back then, it's not a bad thing to be slaves to righteousness. And like I said we aren't buddies with righteousness, righteousness has rules for us, work for us, etc. and if we're slaves to it, then we need to do what it says. If we don't, then I think it's clear we're not slaves to it. Sin lets you do whatever you want, and in the end takes everything you have, righteousness on the other hand requires things of you in this life, then later on pays you back with your freedom and so much more. 

People, "Christians" don't realize what being a slave to righteousness means. They're still slaves to sin, because they're not obeying righteousness. God is still that strict judge He was back in Leviticus, He never changes! Just cause Jesus died for us and now we don't have to do sacrifices and etc., God is still strict about His rules for living. And if we're going to be slaves to Him, we must obey His rules. Why do people think that you can FOLLOW and OBEY God when you aren't actually FOLLOWING AND OBEYING HIM???? There's a reason it's called following and obeying Him! Guess what it is! FOLLOWING AND OBEYING HIM!!!

What do people think, that they can go to church on sunday and pray every day and read their bible every day and say they're following Him and all that crap, when really they aren't being SLAVES to Him!? You can't follow and obey God unless you're dying DAILY to yourself, being ready to die DAILY, for Him. God has rules - clear, rules that He has stated in His word. Anybody who has slaves has rules for them - same with God. Only difference is that God will let his slaves go if they want to, but they'll just end up being slaves to sin if they aren't slaves to Him.  We gotta be SLAVES and follow the rules that God set down for His slaves to follow.

If there were 2 people that owned slaves, and you had to choose which one you'd rather work for, wouldn't you rather choose the one that loves their slaves instead of beating them? It's not a bad thing to be a slave to God, it's a good thing! We have His protection, His caring for us, His love, and without being a slave to Him we'd be slaves to an owner that beats us, mistreats us, hates us, wants us dead.

Strengthened

Colossians 2:7 - "...strengthened in the faith as you were taught..."

Lately I've been having problems with religion(trying to do things to get right with God, which is impossible) and this verse made me think about where the line is for doing good things, and doing good things to try and be perfect. Well it made me think, what was I taught? I was taught lots of good things straight from the Bible by some people who are after God. Basically, I was taught things about Christian living and how to deal with things, some ways to spend time with God, etc.

But I took it back to what I had been raised with, religion, and I tried to do those things in order to BE a Christian. This verse I think makes the distinction. Think of it as "As you were taught, be strengthened" You don't practice "Christian things" in order to be a Christian. You practice them in order to be a stronger Christian.

Short but true and relevant

Like the title says, short:

There will be times, and if you're like me, lots of times, where you think it's over. You can't go on. It's too hard. What's the point. Well I'll tell you this: Satan is the prince of lies, and those are lies from him. Give it maybe a day, for me it's usually just a few hours, and you'll be all fine and dandy, compared to depressed and lifeless.

So the solution? Just don't believe the lies in the first place! Even if things seem bleak, even if things ARE bleak, force yourself, and I mean FORCE yourself to remember the last time you thought everything was ending. And remember how you got over it in the end and got back on track. Because times will come when you feel that way, and you'll get over it. It's best to just not get depressed in the first place. Maybe you'll have to put on Pillar and crank the volume so the next county over can hear it, but Do. Not. listen to Satan. All it will do is cause hurt and guilt. Neither of which are from God.

Broken Heart?

I won't lie. I've had a pretty easy life, emotionally speaking. However, there have been times where I thought my heart was broken. These times were mostly due to a girl.

When I found out she didn't like me I thought it was the end of the world, or at least the end of me. A week of moping later, things were pretty fine and dandy between us. Then, because we talked exclusively through facebook, when she told me she was deleting her account, I thought it was the end of the world. How would we talk? But then this thing called email happened and guess what, everything was fine and dandy. Then at one point she told me she didn't want to talk about certain things with me, that I should talk to somebody else. I thought that was horrible, how could we possibly be as close if we didn't talk about those things? But everything turned out fine and dandy.

Several other things like this happened, but every time, usually after a day or 2 of thinking things would never be the same, it all worked out. And now I realize something - those things, me liking her, talking on facebook, talking on email(face to face is much better), talking about those things...now that they're gone, our relationship is so much stronger.

My point isn't that facebook is evil or anything like that, but more that our feelings, our hearts, deceive us.

"The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?" - Jeremiah 17:9

If I had just believed that she wasn't the girl for me, or believed that there were other ways to talk, then that would have saved me a LOT of emotional crap. Somebody told me that they couldn't make me feel anything that I didn't want to feel, and I have to admit, that's true. It's pleasurable to think that somebody made you feel bad, that it's somebody else's fault, that we have a right to feel bad. But really if we wanted to we could be happy and cheery all the way through it. I CHOSE to be depressed about those things, I had a choice. I just chose wrong.

Now yes there are some things that truly are bad. I've never experienced anything like it, but losing a family member, or even a friend, having to move away from all you know, etc. those truly are sad things. But you have to remember that at some point you'll get over it and things will be happy and good again. Here are some lyrics related to this:

"If you lose it all and it just won't feel the same, in the fight to carry on you stand and face the rain. And as you watch it fall, you learn to live again...it isn't all that bad when you're still standing in the end." - Pillar

How can we believe there is hope, yet be hopeless ourselves?

Revelation 3(Part)

 God had me read this this morning when I woke up. Verse 8 means a lot to me...Thought maybe I should share this message of hope.

“To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:
   These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. ⁸ I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. ⁹ I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you. ¹⁰ Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.
   ¹¹ I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. ¹² The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name. ¹³ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
  

Some lyrics

"Will You teach us how to love?
See the things You see?
Walk the road that You walk?
Feel the pain that you feel?
At Your feet I kneel...
I want to see You shine...
See Your light, not mine...
Cause light gives heat."

Please appease

Some time ago this little sentence got stuck in my head from out of the blue: You can't appease God, but you can please Him.


What it means is this. You can't "get right" with God, or to be precise, you can't be righteous, by doing things. When you try, that's called legalism, and it's bad. Now most churches that I know are very messed up when it comes to this subject. They say they're trying to avoid legalism, so they act exactly like the world does. I guess in their minds, if you do anything "good" to improve your relationship with God then you're legalistic. (And of course at the same time they do things to make themselves feel like "good Christians" such as go to church every sunday...)

The place they mess up on this subject is that they seem to forget that God is a conscious entity that is constantly here and wants to see us do His will. True, doing your best to keep the ten commandments won't get you to Heaven - but if you try, with a pure heart, it will surely improve your relationship with God.

So don't do something thinking that it will make you any better - it won't. Hope this doesn't offend anyone, but everyone thinks that Mother Teresa was one of the greatest people ever to live...when really, all those good works she did would have gotten her nothing but Hell. Absolutely no work you do on this earth will get you to Heaven. It's your relationship to Jesus only. But again, just because those works did nothing as far as getting to Heaven, that doesn't mean those works didn't please God.

You can't appease God - but you can please Him.