Hello strangers, sorry I haven't posted for sometimes. With my exams life is very busy and the blog is taking a bit more of a back seat but I promise I haven't given up! If you have any more misconception ideas please let me know :-)
Anyhow, this is another moot issue for many people. I have seen people very attracted to Christianity over the years but put off by the idea that Christianity is just a load of rules that will stop them having fun in their lives.
Christianity isn't about people not having fun, Jesus states in John 10:10 that He came to give us life in all of its fullness.
It isn't about just obeying rules to please God. In Amos 5:21 God stated that He despised the religious feasts & assemblies of the Israelites because of their hypocrisy and attitude towards them. Jesus came and fulfilled this Old Testament law by living a perfect life and setting us free from it. Forgiveness and righteousness before God comes from accepting His Grace through Christ not through achieving a standard. Paul describes it best in Ephesians 2:8-9...
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast."
It is very sad to me that other faiths such as Islam try to achieve grace by works and don't even know whether they have done enough or not until they die. As Christians, we can know our eternity right now.
Christianity is about relationship with the Father, God wants to know us and that is why He sent Jesus...to remove the barrier between us, sin.
Great to have you back! Though I too have been missing but still...
ReplyDeleteGrace through faith is pretty much what the whole of Galatians is about too. Paul was trying to say that the previous "works of the law" were no longer necesssary. Faith in Christ is the only thing needed.
Two of the things I've heard about not believing in God (though both were serious questions and asked honestly are:
Sins of the father: how can a loving God allow children to be punished when they have done nothing wrong? (eg children born with HIV)
Why is it that when I do something bad it's my sin but when I do something good it's God that's responsible? Am I only capable of bad things then?
Tough questions right?!
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Thanks Laura :D Great to have you back too!!!
ReplyDeleteYeah, the Galatians had believed religious leaders who had tried to insert legalism into Christianity early on and Paul wrote that book to remind them that this wasn't the case :)
I did a post on suffering - http://michaeljamesjourney.blogspot.com/2011/03/why-do-bad-things-happen.html
And another one - http://michaeljamesjourney.blogspot.com/2011/03/why-do-bad-things-happen-2.html
Let me know if you find them helpful or not :)
The 2nd question is answered like this in my mind...God created everything good and it is our sin that let bad stuff happen. The Bible says we can only please God through faith, which means we obviously can please God which is obviously doing things that are good through that faith :)
They are tough!!
but i thought jesus dies for our sins so why is it that bad things happen cuz of our sin? huh? also what proof do you have.
ReplyDeleteJesus paid the price for all sin, but it doesn't mean sin has stopped happening. It means that if we ask Him to forgive us, He will because He has paid the price for us already :)
ReplyDeleteProof of what may I ask? :)