How to Perform a Short Sale on a House - wikiHow

How to Perform a Short Sale on a House - wikiHow

A Grimacing God and a Light Switch

My two-year-old loves to pull up a big chair in the dining room and turn the light switch on and off.

On. Off. On. Off. On. Off. On. Off.

That is her idea of fun.

I would get upset but she is saving me money, about half of the money than if it were just left on.

But here is the lie: “When you sin your relationship with God is turned off.”

This is not true. And when you believe it, you are desperate at best and depressed at worst.

Now if you call yourself a Christian, we can deal with this by using the Bible.

(If you are not a Christian, hang on tight because we will explain why some of your Christian friends are down all the time and perhaps why you want nothing to do with Christ because of it.)

Jesus gives life forever once he gives it to you. You cannot lose your relationship with God if you believe Jesus and obey his commands (John 14). John 10:28 says Jesus gives eternal life. Eternal in the ancient greek means, "eternal." It means life forever.

Also, someone who met Jesus named Paul describes in a letter to another church, in Ephesians 1:14, where says the Holy Spirit - God - is the guarantee or down payment for your eternal life. This means if God backs out of his covenant with you, God is himself blown up. There is no life with a God who is dead. So either he backs out, and you have no life and we put down the Bible forever; or, He keeps his promise and we have life forever.

So, your work is completely done. Life is granted to you forever! It’s complete.

God is not going to back out and lose Himself, like a wishy washy buyer in a buyer's market where you get a better deal somewhere else and have cash to spare. God used himself as that cash money downpayment. He himself is the earnest money, so to speak.

To complete our understanding of this loving sacrifice we need to see the sacrifice was to pay for something. We need to then talk about sin.


Sin is the exposure of your heart bent away from God, offending Him by its unholy existence. Sin is revealing the necessity of Christ to die for you.

James, Jesus’ brother, who if anyone knows Jesus pretty well it’s the little kid who got pinned wrestling with his brother on the living room floor, and he thinks that his older brother is God. He worshiped his older brother as God, so take a hint when he says, if you are producing a bunch of pears you’re a pear tree not an apple tree.

What you do shows who you are and if you sin you are a sinner.

Some people say fellowship and relationship are different. As in, when you sin you break fellowship, while relationship is intact.

The problem with that is this. It is like saying you love me but you don’t like me. It’s like saying God will give you the riches of all heaven but he’ll do it with a grimace because he really doesn’t want to do it. It is making God a human that shakes your hand knowing he got the raw end of the deal, but since he's a big guy, he won't talk about it but just swallow his pride.

The language of the Bible is never so cruel as to paint God as a half-minded deal maker. Rather, God gives an autobiographical portrait of an angry, demanding, sin-hating being who demands complete repayment.

Enter Jesus Christ. Full payment for foul people.

So, when you think you have "messed up," then you go into a tailspin of guilt, you are really making up some false story about what God has and hasn't forgiven. That "mess up" or "I did it again" is a lie about what is true.

There are plenty of false gods which want you to beat yourself up. But Jesus is not one of them. He takes it all.

You are forgiven! When you sin, your relationship with God is not dinged. You are revealing your need for a Savior and that is something you can rejoice about.

What about the Old Testament, you say? Didn't they have a lot of punishment? No. They had training given them by God: discipline. Just like we do.

Romans 3 talks about the Old Testament being a picture framed on our wall to show God's amazing patience. He stacked up the sin on the plate for Jesus to eat. He took the penalties of sins past, present, and future. That includes Moses, Steve Jobs on a bad day, and you and me.

Realize this. There is never any lack of forgiveness with God. You can make light of God - sin - a zillion times, and all it does is show that you are indeed not the one who can pay for your own sin. You need a savior and you should thank God that your sin is forgiven, and repent of your own sin.

Your head in your pillow, your head slamming against a wall, and your curse against yourself, and your plans to cut out your eye - or your enemy's - are all showing that we truly need to reinvest daily our energies into understanding the gospel of grace. Forgiven sins, paid in full, on the cross of Jesus' glory. That's why it's a glorious cross (John 13).

But God does not sit up there and play on-off switch with your relationship with him. You can thank Jesus for that.

No-siree. You - if you are in Christ Jesus - are always on. Repentance never was so joyous.

Let's put back the chair and let Jesus keep that switch on. We'll have more fun -- and keep the room lit.

Snow isn't canceling us yet - stay tuned

Our worship service tonight is still on as of noon today. Please check back before you leave for worship to see if we're still on.

What a beautiful snow! (I.e., if you are not stuck on the interstate in it.)

Brooks

Please Reread

This is a bogus blog -- please refer to SCANTIAC to see my real blog.

I created this blog so I can post on some people's blogs who allow only blogger members.

See you at the Beach