Hell's Beautiful Lie

“He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.” John 1:10

We see hell’s lies everywhere we look. The lie of hell is present in all things. Hell is full of many of the best liars that the world has seen. These guys are big on PR and marketing, that’s why Hell looks so beautiful these days and heaven seems like such a boring place. It’s a big PR campaign instead of a war like we see on the news every day.

Hell has everything you are looking for. Hell has everything you need. You do not have to restrain yourself or do anything that you don’t want to do. Sex, drugs, parties, yep it has it all. Fame and fortune you can have that too. Remember to be a Christian you have to sacrifice all of that. Sex, yeah that’s the first thing you have to give up. Only for kids that’s it, just like the other animals. You like sex don’t you? Of course you do, why would you want to be a Christian then?

PR has even hit Christians enough to make them believe it. I know a lot of metal heads that will tell you that will tell you God loves to rock. Sex is a gift from God that we have been given to share with our spouse. But that’s not what Hell’s lie is. No their lie goes deeper than that.

You want to be successful? Well you got to be of the world to be successful and well you just can’t do that being Christian.  Hell will use God’s own works against the followers and believers. When I was a Satanist I read the bible quite a bit. Why would a Satanist use the bible? In the bible there is a lot of stuff that men do not understand without God showing them what it means.

Why would God ask anyone to give his son up as an offering? Better yet, and pagans love this one, why would God say to hold no other gods above him if there were no other gods? Without the understanding that anything that you put above god is an idol or another God their statement would hold water. So using the same words that Christians use against them puts a lot of Christians in a spot where they do not know what to say or do.

That is part of the point, doubt. If one of the lost see this moment of doubt, that is a point for the devil. But again, many times the beautiful lie is not targeting the soul and faith directly. Let’s just occupy you with things that you love. Idle hands are the devil’s plaything, not anymore. Let people become so busy they have no time to even consider God.

Both parents are now working, and can still only just make ends meet. If you are going to be successful, you have to dress the part. You want your kids to be successful, well they have to have a good balance of extracurricular activities and go to a good college. Well that costs more money so we have to work more. Busy, busy, busy…

But hey you got that McMansion. You are driving the latest and greatest SUV this one getting a whole 19 MPG. You’ve got the iEverything. You have it going on. You’ve got everything just like Hell promised. So why are you so unhappy that you find yourself finding a reason to drink, always arguing with your spouse and have no idea what your children actually like, so you buy them the lasts iThing.

You are feeding the machine, just like Hell asked you to do. That’s what you got to do to be successful right? Well you’ve come this far, next you are going to have to join a country club to network with more people. Yep we can make a few sacrifices so daddy can join up to make a little more.

Don’t forget that perfect lawn. What you have is a new law that you cannot fulfill. As Grace Life International would say, you have all these ways that you try to fill your buckets, but they have a whole in them. Hell has you. But you go to church, but do you have the love of God within you. But I always vote republican and fight abortion. Good for you, but you are missing the cause. Do you share love?

The world tells you things, and it doesn’t matter if you are Democrat, Republican, Socialists, Tea Party or Communist, if you take that walk without the Love of Christ you will fall short. If you are doing all these things to be successful, but do it without God you will fall short. You fill your time with bake sales, choir, and helping the homeless, great, but do you do it with the love of Christ in your heart or so people will love you.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. We tried for a long time to live by the law and fell short, that’s why Grace was given to us. Hell’s beautiful lie does not hold water against the one truth of God. You like heavy metal, keep it, God still loves you. You like tattoos and piercings, keep them, God still loves you. You like to play Dungeons and Dragons, Call of Cthulhu, and Shadowrun, keep doing it, God still loves you. If any of these things inhibit your faith, discard it, but let God guide you in that, not man.

Hell’s lie is that the only way to have fun is to not be a Christian, their boring. Hell’s lie tells us that they are the only way to be successful. Hell’s lie is that if you are going to be a Christian you have to do all these things, keep up the law, never sin, be perfect, be a cookie cutter of those church kids that look so perfect. Hell’s lie tells you that’s the only way.

That’s exactly why it’s a lie. There is so many Christian Rock, rap or metal bands out there. Right now there is an organization that is taking up a fund to get oneof their pastors a tattoo, but it’s a 50/50 split between tattoo and supporting a homeless organization. God doesn’t want you to sacrifice fun for him. He wants you to bring him into your fun. If you focus on God and allow him to guide you, you will be successful in ways that you may have never through been possible.

Christians are meek and cannot fight, tell that to Fedor Emelianenko, Matt Hughs, Wanderlei Silva or Chris Weidman. The list is long for Christian MMA fighters, and then there are thousands of Christian men and women in the armed forces. I will quote Pastor Bob Beeman when asked a question of do I have to give up metal music to be Christian, “I think you will find that your love of music will only increase, I know mine sure has.” He also went on to say that the bands specificly that will be a personal conviction.

I know in my walk from Satanism to Christianity there were only a few bands that I stopped listening to and they were Cradle of Filth and Diocide. Later I have replaced them with bands like Demon Hunter, War of Ages and many other Rock groups. My taste in music did not change as much as the taste in what substance I was taking in.

Now I did cut out a lot of things that were not healthy when I converted to Christ, and still fight with cutting a few more things out. Let me let you know a little secret, none of us are perfect. The preacher on stage every Sunday, nope not even him. We are perfected through Grace alone. Through Jesus we have been perfected, not through any act of our own. Don’t believe Hell’s pretty lies, there are a lot of actors, PR guys and lawyers down there to help them out.

God loves you, let him celebrate with you and you will find that Christians can have quite a bit of fun, when they let themselves.

“There should be only one philosophy: Living by God’s commandments. Then people will treat everybody how they would want to be treated.” Fedor Emelianenko

GodForgives.Us

A Doctor Needs the Sick

“But the Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to His disciples, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ Jesus replied to them, ‘The healthy do not need a doctor, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’” Luke 5:30-32

How often do you see a doctor when you are well? How often do you see a councilor when you are in your right mind? Do you frequently call up a lawyer or a bail bondsman? Unless you have a friend that is one of these things, you would probably keep your interaction to the absolute minimum. How much time do you spend with the Lost? Are all your friends members of your church? How much time do you spend telling people that believe in Christ about Christ?

Now we know that Jesus spoke at synagogues from time to time, but where did he speak and perform his miracles most often? Always at church, or with his church friends right? No. No he was in the streets and on hillsides. He spoke to the people that were not at church the most. Look at his chosen disciples, how many of them were leaders of the synagogues? Yeah, so if we are going to be Christ-like where do we have to be? With the people.

Now then we get to the question of what people and which people. Well for each of us we have come from different places and walks of life. Our past shapes how we learn God to be. The walk that we walk with Christ shows us what God can do. Those of us that found God while locked in a cell can see how God can use a place like that to His Glory. Those of us that were saved from a drug overdose can see how God can use that to His Glory.

Those little wake up calls in life are when we see God for who he is. I’m not talking about every earth shattering event in your life. I’m talking about every day in life. The music you listen to, the hobbies that you have, and the books you read are all things that you can use to establish relationships with people. We are given a charge by God to be his ambassadors. Before people will listen to us about God they really have to be seeking or have a vested interest in hearing our story.

“How come you are always smiling and happy? You’re in Jail shouldn’t you act like it?” Not when you know that God has control of the situation and it will end exactly as he wishes it to end. “Come on man, you listen to Heavy Metal and dress like that and you go to Church? You don’t actually believe that crap they preach on Sunday do you?” God uses us all. Judge not or you will be judged. You will be measured by the same measure you put to others. God uses all.

I grew up listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd, AC/DC, Bad Company among many other things listed as Classic Rock. I also listened to Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Metallica, Megadeth which eventually lead me to KoRn, Staind, P.O.D., Type O Negative  and many other bands of that era.  Why do I bring this up? Well for one of my first examples of Christians going to where Christ is needed. The Whosoevers is an organization that are set to influence those that they have influence with to share what God has done in their lives and what God can do in theirs.

The lead guitarist of KoRn, Brian Welch, better known as Head, gave his life to Christ quit drugs and actually ended up quitting the band to play music for Christ. P.O.D. was actually a Christian band, but very few actually knew it. The name of the band is Payable On Death. These people are involved with this movement that is growing.

They hold concerts and worship services to talk to people that would not come to church. They are taking the word of God to these people. They are a great example of going to the sick. They are not the only ones. Missionaries I do not discredit what you are doing, you are doing what God has called us to do as well. You are bringing the word of God to people that would not be reached otherwise. It is because of you that people are becoming educated to Christ.

The second group that I wish to speak about are those that do Prison Ministry. These people walk into environments that most would be scared to go to. They are casting seed and water to people that life would say are in the worst situation that one can be in. I would disagree with that statement, but many that find themselves in this place see it as a low point in their life. Sometimes the lowest parts of their lives.

You are going into places to shed light upon these lost souls that have little hope. So many people in these places turn to the Word of God when they would not touch it otherwise. There are many of these people that will not step foot in church once they get back out, but there are those that will try and hold onto the Word to keep them from going back down the roads that they have walked down before. Then there are those that God will fully change. Again, the sick in need of medicine that is the Truth of the Word of God.

Now I recently watched a sermon by Steven Furtick, the pastor for Elevation Church. He had a quote in his sermon that really rang true with me, “Truth registers best on the other side of complexity.” Only after you have crossed the chasm do we really know how hard the chasm was to cross. So you know best how God works only through what God has done in your life. You get a good idea with close friends and family going through hard times, but nothing substitutes life experience.

If you have not been addicted to drugs or alcohol you have a good idea how hard it can be to break free from that addiction, but you don’t know. If you haven’t been through jail, you can imagine what it’s like, but you don’t Know. There is power in that knowledge. God will use what we have been through to get his greatest glory out of us. So how were you sick?

Was it sex? Was it alcohol? Was it abuse? Was it addiction? Was it disbelief? Was it anger? Now who can benefit most from hearing your words? People that are like you were might be a good place to start. Could it be the people that you were going through this stuff with? How about your own family? Now that you have been shown the Grace of God, who can you share that with? What talents do you have and how can you use them for God? That’s what God calls us to do. Use what we can to share his story and his glory.

What has he done for you? Are you healthy now, or do you still struggle with things? I don’t care if you have been raised in church all your life and have been a Christian all your life. There is something that you have had to struggle with in your relationship with God. 

You have a story to tell.  If you have a story of addiction, abuse or personal weakness you should check out a local Celebrate Recovery to visit and see what people have to say. You will be encouraged, and even more you might be able to encourage others.

You have a talent, how can you use it for God? Talk to your friends, family, or your church to see if there is something going on. Is there an outreach that another church in the area is doing that you feel called to participate in? It’s not your church, but that’s part of our problem. We are all part of God’s body. You feel the calling to do something and someone else is involved with it, get involved.

We can busy ourselves to the point that we cannot listen to what God might want for us. You have too many obligations at your Church to do what God is telling you to do… you might want to check in on that. The message is simple, how can you glorify God? Where can you be a doctor? Where can you be a friend to those in need? Where are the sick that you are called to help? What can you do to share the God of your life with others?

What can you do to love others and show them God’s Grace?

Secondly, be careful who you judge for you cannot see their heart. Which of these would you think are Christians or closest to God?

Billy Joel –The Piano Man

Demon Hunter– Dead Flowers

An open heart ready to do God’s work is one of the greatest things in the world. Open your heart to glorify God and ask yourself then God what can you do to Glorify God and tell the story of how God has been influential in your life.

“Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.” Joel A. Barker