Misconception of God

Romans 12:1-2

New International Version (NIV)

Romans 12

A Living Sacrifice

¹ Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

I am learning that our world is terribly misguided about the nature of God. His word speaks clearly about things that are and aren't acceptable to him and we all find fault within those things. He is not some magic genie that sits around only granting good. He does allow people to suffer the consequences of their actions. There is no scale that measures our good deeds against our bad, once we confess our sin it is removed. There is no manner of good works that will solely bring us favor in his eyes. It's our honest faith in him that is our ticket to heaven. Someone can do bad their entire life and in their final breath (honestly and wholeheartedly) confess him as savior, returning their life to him and go to heaven. Someone can do good their entire life,but never once acknowledge him and God states that their judgment is hell. Christianity is a way of life, not just a name. God is merciful and has the right to judge as he sees fit, but people cannot become consumed with the thought that our manner of suffering on earth or in death will give us a free pass.

Sin is sin, life is life, and most importantly God is GOD. He doesn't change with the times and neither should we. He loves unconditionally, and so should we. He forgives us our sins, and we need to forgive people who wrong us. He is our example of living a life without wavering our values. It can be done and because we are human we will fail at times (daily even), but we need to walk hard in his presence and keep him at the top of all things.

Romans 8:1-16

New International Version (NIV)

Life Through the Spirit

¹ Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ² because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you^[a] free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,^[b] God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.^[c] And so he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

⁵ Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. ⁶ The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. ⁸ Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

⁹ You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life^[d] because of righteousness. ¹¹ And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of^[e] his Spirit who lives in you.

¹² Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. ¹³ For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

¹⁴ For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. ¹⁵ The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.^[f] And by him we cry, “Abba,^[g] Father.” ¹⁶ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

I've taken notice that there are so many people walking around believing that God and Jesus sit about covering their eyes to sin and don't deal accordingly with it. God never said that in his Word...never.

Romans 1:18-32

New International Version (NIV)

God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity

¹⁸ The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. ²⁵ They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

²⁶ Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. ²⁷ In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

²⁸ Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; ³¹ they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. ³² Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

It's time for Christians to step up and be the difference. We can't proclaim the gospel and act like all the unsaved out there, because it defiles our testimony. We have to show the world that although bad things happen to good people, God has mercy and is open to a relationship with every last one of us. We cannot be consumed by the "magic carpet riding God" perception that the world is trying to paint. God is a just God, but he is also merciful. He holds an expectation for his creation and he allows us the choice to walk in it or not, but he also lays out the guidelines and benefits for walking according to his will. And there are many who say they read the Bible and they know that God doesn't punish people for one act or another but it was painted out in no uncertain terms that denying Christ and giving into the world's perception of God is putting your soul in imminent danger.

It's not my job to lie to you and make you feel better about who you are and what you do. It is my job to love you unconditionally and show you the same love that Christ shows me, and to guide you as gently as possible into at least hearing God's will for all of our lives.

2 Timothy 2:24-25

New International Version (NIV)

²⁴ And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. ²⁵ Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth,

He loves every last person out there...Good or bad, right or wrong. It's our sin he hates; mine, yours, and every Joe Blow Bag'o'donuts. But accepting him, confessing to him, admitting our sins, and allowing him to work in our lives and develop a relationship with him...those are the only "deeds" that carry any meaning with him.

Ephesians 2:8-9

New International Version (NIV)

⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.