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Why is ‘your God’ the one we all have to follow?

To answer people who think that because I am a Christian, that I “want to force my religious beliefs, customs, and traditions on them”,

(and who have understandably pushed back hard against some people who are fighting hard to force certain religious beliefs and practices through government upon those who want no part in such things),

And to answer those who ask:

“Why is ‘your God’ the one we all have to follow?“

My answer:

“My God is not the one all have to follow.  In fact, He freely gives all of us our own independent free will to choose to either follow Him or deny Him. I don’t even demand that you follow Him or obey some list of rules in order for Him to accept you.

I just want you to know that He loves you enough to not just show you a better way and expect you to walk it — He demonstrates it and says that if you believe,  that He will come live in you and help you walk in the fullness of life.

And “the rules” aren’t even there for you to have to “live up to” — but so that you can see as He lives in you and through you — that you are actually being changed to be more like Him — by Him. I don’t expect those who don’t know Him and love Him to live up to a set of Godly morals or principals,  because I believe that isn’t even possible without His help.

And I know very few will actually know and love Him, and many will hate Him — and because of that,  they will also hate the things that we see as valuable and important to the successful growth and progress of humanity,  society,  etc. I’m not here to force anyone to follow my rules or believe what I believe or practice what I believe.

I’m here to introduce you to Almighty God the Father through the person of Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Spirit of God who lives in me. He is my closest friend and my greatest comfort and encourager. He is my strength, and my hope, and my peace when times are tough. And He is the love that I want to be able to share with you in a way that you can see — past what seems like outward religious traditions and practices — to know the difference inside that makes all the difference.

When you find that thing that you know needs to change and you aren’t strong enough to change it yourself — you can humbly reach out to my God, because He opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble, and because He hears and gives justice to the oppressed.

When life’s circumstances become dark and worrisome and hopeless — you can reach out to my God, because He lifts up the downtrodden.

My God is not a tyrant, but a servant and a friend. Amen.”

If you know me, and if you listen to what I have to say, and if you watch how I treat others — I pray you will see a stark contrast in me to the ugly things that we all know about people who are driving political and religious agendas.

Very religious people (who are dead on the inside and worried about forcing everyone into compliance) have committed atrocities in the name of God throughout the ages — but their God is not my God, and their father is not my Father. Those people are dangerous,  and no matter how much they want to paint themselves white, as pure, as good — my God says that “their insides stink of death”.  He says that you can see it in how they “are jealous and envious”, how they “brag and are arrogant”, how they “are rude and self- serving”, how they  “demand their own way” and “are easily angered”.

But I tell you that I was those things too, and would still be those things but for the grace of God. So let’s not just throw rocks at each other,  but let’s show love to one another — that is The Way that I choose to follow my God..

And if you don’t think you are capable of loving such wretched religious hypocrites — or loving such wretched, filthy sinners — I’ve been both,  and I pray that my God will make it possible for you to forgive me for my many shortcomings and love me — and I forgive you and love you as well.

That is a great place to start — forgiveness and love — because that is the whole of what my God asks of us — not some laundry list of rules.  Amen.

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Hurt isn’t a Seed to be Buried

Hurt causes us to see enemies instead of our fellow man. Truly praying good (and meaning it) for “our enemies” — and not wishing justice or vengeance upon them is a shift that needs to happen in all of us.

This shift (into “loving the undeserving”) is aligning ourselves with the gospel instead of opposing it.

Even when we have differing perspectives or even when we have unresolved hurt — the resolution doesn’t come by both sides ignoring it to fester or by continuing to feed the hatred, the bitterness, and the division.

We all need to pray good for them — and that they would pray good for us — and that if either or neither of us are yet able to do that for each other that others will know and pray for us until we can.

And we should seek out those who are hurt and hurting and divided — and pray genuine, heartfelt prayers for reconciliation — that we will all not see enemies but brothers and sisters and the beloved of God, created in His image — who He was willing to come live among us, die for or sins, and be raised to new life as The Way, The Truth, and The Life.

In these politicized, divided times, where hurt people are hurting each other — where people’s words and actions tear at each other violently like two wild animals fighting to the death — we all need to not just hear the gospel or speak the gospel, but to be the gospel.

#Forgiveness #Prayer #Reconciliation #FellowMan #YouAreNotMyEnemy

“This is My commandment, that you love and unselfishly seek the best for one another, just as I have loved you.
John 15:12 AMP

And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should also [unselfishly] love his brother and seek the best for him.
1 John 4:21 AMP

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this [present] darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) places. Therefore, put on the complete armor of God, so that you will be able to [successfully] resist and stand your ground in the evil day [of danger], and having done everything [that the crisis demands], to stand firm [in your place, fully prepared, immovable, victorious]. So stand firm and hold your ground, having tightened the wide band of truth (personal integrity, moral courage) around your waist and having put on the breastplate of righteousness (an upright heart), and having strapped on your feet the gospel of peace in preparation [to face the enemy with firm-footed stability and the readiness produced by the good news]. Above all, lift up the [protective] shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one . And take the helmet of salvation , and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. With all prayer and petition pray [with specific requests] at all times [on every occasion and in every season] in the Spirit, and with this in view, stay alert with all perseverance and petition [interceding in prayer] for all God’s people.
Ephesians 6:12‭-‬18 AMP