Tag Archives: Church

     I see churches, none in particular or that I will name specifically in an effort protect the guilty, that serve up this superficial, “it is all ok” Christianity.  They impress that once you become a Christian, give you life to God, all will be perfect. Nothing bad will ever happen to you again, God will give you the big house, the fancy car and the ideal mate.  Everyone will adore you, you will walk about in gardens of flowers and fruit trees, reminiscent of the Garden of Eden and lounge about all day without a care; and life will be smooth sailing until we all get to Heaven.  I don’t know what kind of dog and pony show these people are running but they are fooling people and this is how believers become despondent, disillusioned and disgusted with the church and with God.  The latter entity is not to blame; it is man who has perpetrated this fraud!  God never promised you that once you gave your life to Him that nothing bad would ever happen to you ever again, that life would be a completely positive experience from here until eternity!  Paul followed the teachings of Christ but was persecuted and wrote of the thorn in his side.  He asked God to remove it and He said “No”.  The thorn is the one thing that sticks with you that doesn’t let your forget that God is God. 

     The unpleasant, irritating and obnoxious things that happen to us are not all caused by nor the fault of the enemy; it is not always the devil out to get you.  Some of the bad things that happen in our lives are pre-destined by God Himself… no, don’t look at me like that!  God has what is in your best interest at heart and no, He doesn’t want to see you suffer.  However, He does allow certain things to happen in order to prepare you, to build your trust in Him and so that you know, recognize and accept that it is only He that keeps you.  Other negative things that happen to us are of our own design, construction and implementation; we are the perpetrators of our fates.  Our entire repertoire of bad decision-making comes from the free will that God granted us upon our creation.  God made us a spirit confined to a fleshy prison.  There is always a war raging within us, the Holy Spirit doing battle against our worldly desires.  There is an old Native American parable that states that within each man are two dogs fighting for dominance, one good and one evil.  When asked which one wins, the person answered, “The one I feed the most”. 

     This is where we get to superficial Christianity.  The Word says, that as we mature as Christians we cannot be only milk-fed like children but must become meat eaters.  Thus, you must take the easy to digest with the more difficult to digest. The easily digested part of Christianity is that God loves us, He loves us so much that He sent His only begotten son, Jesus, to be a sin offering for us.  The only thing that He asks in return is that we obey/keep His Commandments.  The harder to digest part of the Faith is submitting to God’s will for our lives, killing our flesh daily, accepting that even if we believe we are doing everything right, we sill always fall short of the glory of God.  So when you only give the masses superficial “Christian” teachings, you are stunting their growth.  If you feed a child only formula and never move them to solid foods, you are inhibiting their natural progression into adulthood; they will begin to waste away.  The same holds true for us as intelligent human beings, we crave knowledge and understanding. It is only when you take the easy with the difficult that you are cultivated, groomed and moved to be all that God call you to be… Personally I prefer steak over hotdogs any day.

Blessings and Happiness

T. Nicole