Sunday, December 10, 2017

A Part Time God With Full Time Benefits

Rerun Brown


1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not acomprehend it.
John 1: 1 - 5 NKJV

I was thumbing through some fake Facebook news the other day when I came across a flash news story where California governor Jerry "Rerun" Brown was accusing president Donald Trump of not having a "fear of God."  My first thought upon reading this was of the old pot calling the kettle black.  For if there were any man who did not fear nor respect Christ Jesus it would be Jerry Brown.  For ol' Jerry, I believe that God is but a part time entity but with all of the full time benefits of any devout christian.  You might ask how it is that I know this, and I'll be glad to tell you.  See, I notice people not for the many words they speak, but by their actions.  Jerry Brown can shout from the highest rooftop that he is indeed a christian, but what do his actions tell us?  Honestly, I have seen more behavior from Donald Trump that would tell me that he is a man of faith than I have ever seen from rerun Brown, but that's just me.  So I will ask the question which arises from this, is God only with us in the good tmes and not when we so desperately need Him?  I would say not at all.  The apostle John tells us in John 1 that ALL things were made through Christ {John1:3}.  We cannot fall into the trap of human thinking that the story of Jesus begins with His birth in Bethlehem.  No, Christ has been with us from the begining.  Not only that, He will always be with us and we with Him {Galations 2:20}.  So, it is safe to say that we do not serve a part time God.  Yet some believers cotinue to hold to this belief.  These people are fine with walking with our Lord on a part time basis when they need Him, yet celebrate their independence from Him when they don't.  To me, there is no half way with God, you're either all in or your not.  The false belief that we are independent from our heavenly Father is a road paved with a false belief.  Do we believe that God created all which we see, or just all that WE think He created?

12No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
1 John 4: 12 - 16 NKJV

I was asked the question the other day that if we were all millennial christians, then from where is it that we receive free will from?  Of course, this was a trick question.  Indeed, if our Lord has created everything about us, then our own free will was included in the mix.  Now, how is it that we will choose to exercise that which He has given us?  That's the question of the million dollar question we must ask ourselves daily.  If I know in my heart that Christ Jesus is in me, then it is my CHOICE to accept His truth.  On the other hand, if rerun Brown CHOOSES not to accept the reality that he shares the same gift of Christ as I do, then that's on him.  What hasn't changed in all of this is the reality of Christ.  Through our Lords love and grace through which He breathed life into His children, we have all that make us who we are today {Genesis 2:7}.  Now, I am not a Pharisee school educated theologian who chooses to answer questions on faith and religion with still more questions, so I am not an authority on scriptural matters.  However, I am assured by my own choice that it is not I who controls my own destiny.  Nor is it I who stands alone against the world.  My heavenly Father who created me has given me the freedom to choose Christ or to choose...myself.

20“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."
Galations 2:20 NKJV

~Scott~

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