When being "nice" is the devil's work

No Gospel study today, as I have a couple of other things that have come up for this week, instead.

First is to let those who are interested know that I'm going to drop off of Twitter and (in a week or so) close the account. Especially locally these days, God's putting more and more into my path people who have rejected Jesus because they (quite rightly) reject the smiling, "loving", evil-living people who most loudly call themselves "Christian" – and yet these folks I'm meeting now are still blessed with craving the real Jesus (though they aren't quite there realizing it yet, their questions and constant coming back to me with them show their real hearts). They ask me hard questions, and need real, non-BS answers, and I'm needing more time to devote to what helps them. So, Twitter is among the things that have to go, to free up my time.

I will continue this blog, however. So if you're happy here, I'll still be here :) But I'm also going to really start pushing myself to write and complete the little resource book for people who can't stomach what calls itself "Christianity" but still want and need (the real) Jesus. I think I've mentioned writing this before, so I'll just say again that I'm looking to write something that's sturdy, pocket-sized, and cheap – something that can be handed out and passed around as suits folks (If you already know of such a resource, please let me know). I already have almost a dozen people locally I'd love to give one to today, if I only had it written already.

Second thing is I've received a public prayer request from a brother who's been around "No Just. Just Jesus" (and its predecessor) for some time. Chris is also concerned with people who reject Jesus because "Christians" are being jerks. Most specially at this time he's concerned with a young woman who's become an atheist in response to bad "Christians", and who will most likely remain an atheist not only due to the storm of devil-heart "Christian" responses she's gotten for expressing that, but also from the lack of response she's likely to get from those who DO truly have Jesus (and not the devil) in their hearts.

Brother Chris writes:

"I'm absolutely horrified that this can somehow pass as Christian behavior today.  The most ironic thing about this whole situation is this:  One big reason this poor girl is an atheist in the first place is the piss-poor job we as Christ's representatives have been doing to show His light in the world.  (In fact, that's a big motivation behind my signature change.) [LYNNE NOTE: Chris' new email sig says: 'Christians are the best people to know when it comes to religious conversion... as long as you want to become an atheist.']  I've been requesting prayer for Jessica, that God will guide her away from those false Christians who would wish harm upon her and show her the true heart of Jesus Christ, and I hope you'll do the same.  Also pray that those Christians who are condemning her, that they will realize the harm they are doing by pushing one of God's children away from Him and to repent of their arrogance.  Pray for those of us who can't pray for them out of our own desire for blood, and help us to truly be the heart of Jesus to these "Christians" who think they already know Him, just as they (and we) should have been for Jessica.  And pray for all sincere followers of Christ to avoid this ironic trap that the devil has laid for us -- leading us to the lake of fire that we proclaim others deserve more than we do."

I am in agreement with Chris in this prayer, and I pray that you are, as well! Here are the thoughts I'd like to add:

There are those who've figured out that Jesus isn't represented by most of those who call themselves "Christians", and we understand that those who threaten and bad-mouth people who are different than them actually serve the devil – and not Jesus.

But too often we don't ALSO figure out that those "Christians" who don't respond to these "Christian" attacks on people are ALSO serving the devil – and not Jesus. The person who commits the spiritual assault, and the person who recognizes the spiritual assault but does nothing, are each guilty of the assault. To recognize that something sinful and wrong is being done but do nothing to stop or speak up against it, makes one even more sin-guilty than the person whose heart is so full of religious-devil they don't even truly know godly right from wrong anymore.

We might see it like this:

A rabid dog is running around the neighborhood, biting people and infecting them with rabies too. A veterinarian in the neighborhood sees the dog and recognizes its sickness and the sickness it's now infecting people with; but the vet shrugs her shoulders and thinks, "Oh well. God will take care of that dog and those people. I'm just going to demonstrate real health for these people by not acting like that dog, and not having rabies myself."

Who's at fault in this scenario?

• The dog so out of its mind with disease it's like someone demon possessed? 
• The people being hurt by the dog, because they don't have the knowledge to recognize its disease symptoms and stay the heck away from it? 
• Or the person who does have the knowledge to recognize how diseased and dangerous the dog is, but who comes up with some B.S. reason not to act to stop the dog and protect and heal those it threatens?

Today, "Christians" who congratulate themselves on demonstrating "Jesus" and "godly behavior" by not acting in the world against evil doctrine and evil actions that harm others spiritually, emotionally, and physically, aren't real Christians, as Jesus defined His followers. At worst, they're selfish jerks who have their own happy, calm lifestyle at heart, and not Jesus. At best, they're people who've been convinced that Jesus, Paul, Peter, John – and Elijah, Isaiah, Moses, and more – were the only people ever supposed to stand up for God's way of doing things, and against the evil that only pretends to be God's way of doing things.

But where would we be..

• If Jesus hadn't actively confronted the Pharisees and Sadducees, and actively helped others to heal from their false messages about who God is and what God demands from His (real) people? 
• If Paul hadn't actively pointed out how ungodly and just plain evil the Corinthians were – and in ways that spoke not only to them, but also to the rest of us since? 
• If Peter and John hadn't stood up publicly against powerful religious groups who were misrepresenting God and His ways to the world, being willing even to be tortured and die if need be, rather than go along with or ignore evil-pretending-to-be-godly?

Too many will argue that God endowed those people with supernatural power to do those things – and still only gives that power to a few, today. Which is total, selfish, hogwash. It's the spiritual equivalent of the hogwash-reasoning that allowed the Communists to take over Asia and Eastern Europe, the Nazis to take over Germany, and the religious bigots to take over the USA today. It's the hogwash-thinking that lets millions upon millions around the world never see or retain the real Gospel of Jesus Christ, because "I'm too scared to speak up", or "God's ordained others to speak up", or "All things happen according to God's plan". Bullshiat.

There are Gay people, people of conscience, politically leftwing people, women, poor people, atheists, pagans, science-oriented people, and more all around you RIGHT NOW who don't know Jesus because they've never heard or seen anything but the devil-worshippers who wear Jesus masks.

They think they can't have Jesus, or that good people have to reject Jesus, because no Christians stand up in their community, in their workplace, in their neighborhoods, to say to those falsely representing Jesus, "You need to knock it off. Your lives aren't godly. Your message isn't godly. What comes out of your life shows your heart is full of evil, and you need to repent – not these other people you're bearing false witness against", and to those who've only heard people falsely representing Jesus, "The Bible warns everyone that false-Christians will be the majority. Jesus said not to be fooled by them. Let me show you what else the real Jesus has to say, to and about you, and then you can decide based on what and who Jesus REALLY is."

It's really not complicated. The devil runs this world, until Jesus comes back. And being a light to others does NOT mean being nice and polite and loving to our neighbors while false-Christians shred their understanding of who Jesus really is. Even pagans and atheists are nice and polite and loving. It's only our own selfish wish for a happy life without demands put upon us that makes us believe being nice, polite, and loving is all it takes to really be about Jesus.

The time is growing short, my friends. Jesus never told us when He would return, but He warned us that really harsh times like no one's seen before would come before He did. And if we believe the world we live in now – with its chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons poised for worldwide action, genetic and chemical pollution destroying our health and twisting life on this planet, politics and religions that lust like mad rapists after the horrors of war, and conscienceless economies that take food from the babies of billions so that a few thousand rich can have more and more – isn't a set up for really harsh times like no one's see before, we delude ourselves.

Not only are we ALL Jesus-charged to make sure our own faith remains intact during the harsh times ahead, but we are also all Jesus-charged to spread and protect God's real Gospel message to all those around us, even if it literally costs us everything to do so (even if it costs us our lives).

To imagine being a true follower of Jesus Christ requires anything less is to imagine that modern faith is opposite the faith Jesus taught and the first disciples lived. To believe that God's ok with that is to make the exact same mistake/sin as all those in the Bible who claimed to be "God's People" without actually doing what He said to do. The Bible tells us their fates – and leaves no question about our own, if our faith, like theirs, requires nothing more than our own ways of happy, quiet, religious pleasure.

Who are the people in your life right now who need to hear God's real Gospel message? Who've only ever heard the devil-worshippers in Jesus masks? Who've been taught they can't have Jesus? Who've been made to believe the only way to be a good person is to reject Christianity - and therefore Jesus Christ, as well? 

What are the ways you can stand up to those who are feeding them full of this false, ungodly garbage? To lovingly, but without reservation, call them on their crap and tell them to stop blaspheming God with their false hearts and false words, so that others aren't fooled by their "witness"?

What are the ways you can show the real Jesus to the people who are being hurt by false witness? What healing do they need? A nonjudgmental and sincere friendship? A shoulder to cry on? A Bible translation that hasn't been reinterpreted to make it seem God condemns them? A simple tract that communicates God's real love for them that they can keep in a pocket or purse for private reading and comfort? Maybe just someone to share with them what Jesus really taught and wants from His people? 

How can you make yourself available to do God's work for these people? Do you need to pray for strength or wisdom? Do you need healing yourself first, so that you don't accidentally pass on the spiritual rabies you still carry, instead? Are there others you can work with, to give each other strength and counsel, to learn from each other and help carry each others' burdens? Doing God's real work requires God's hand - we can do none of it on our own! How will you let God lead, and let God help?

Email me if you'd like to discuss more options or informational tools, or if you have ways you already actively show the real Gospel to those who've been lied to about it. I'd love to hear it! When I can do so without violating someone else's privacy, I will start sharing my own adventures in doing God's salvation work with others, as well.

Until next week –

In His love,

Lynne
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This article written by Lynne at http://NoJunkJustJesus.blogspot.com/. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

Yes, your 'church' is about you - not Jesus

Ok – back to our chronological walk through the Gospels. We're seeking and finding the real Jesus as He presented Himself to us – and not in the sinful human ways those who've so long called themselves His "Church" have reinvented Him (as He warned us they would). 

As always, you can find all our previous posts in this series, going through the Gospels chronologically to find the real Jesus, here.

And as always you'll find the scriptures for today are here. (Note that you can change the human-translation version on this scripture page, as suits you. I have NO theological or other tie to the online-bible site I use for this blog – it just lists many human translations to choose from, including the NASB, KJV, The Message, and the NRSV, which are the ones mentioned by those I chat and email with.)

This week, we see Jesus back among those He grew up with – and we find them so ignorant of God's truth they not only refused to recognize God standing right in front of them, but also refused His blessing and healing. If we look, we can easily see the same thing in ourselves, and in what's most loudly called itself "The Church" through the centuries.

Now, at least partly we can understand their failure to really see who Jesus is. They had known Him when He was just a boy, watched Him grow up, known Him as part of His biological family and the social culture of this town. In some ways, it may have been harder for them to recognize who He really was and could do because they'd grown accustomed to understanding Him within a certain mold: son of Mary and Joseph, brother to His brothers and sisters, a craftsman low in social and financial status who made and sold simple, practical things of metal and wood with His family.

Indeed, when Jesus came back He was anything but the guy who used to sit in the dirt and repair plows for the local farmers. Now Jesus was a miracle worker and a wise man, far different from how they wanted to keep understanding Him. And they didn't just ignore or write Him off – they actually got offended. And as we learned last Gospel study, Jesus' healings and blessings matched what people were willing to believe about Him. Therefore, those who should have been closest to Him got almost nothing from Him at all.

Today we make huge mistakes like this all the time, with all sorts of people. We often continue to understand people in the awful ways they were before, ignoring or getting crappy if they seem to be above and beyond that now. In some ways, it's offensive to us when someone stops boozing it up, or backbiting, or stepping on others to get ahead, or rejects living the materialistic lifestyle we're taught to see as "success" (and even as "God's blessing"), if that's the thing we still want to keep doing. Like, how dare someone prove what a life of falsehood and crud I'm choosing, by choosing what's better than that!

But there's another way we do this, a way easily far more dangerous to our souls, if we've been raised in what calls itself "The Church".

For those of us who've grown up in "The Church", or who came to it later and have embraced it long enough to absorb its way of interpreting Jesus, the message of the real Jesus can seem incredibly foreign – and even threatening. We've grown up in the "hometown" of what most loudly calls itself "His Church", and we rest our whole identity on our "hometown" understanding of Jesus, certain beyond certainty that OF COURSE we understand Him better than anyone else – WE GREW UP WITH HIM!

But that understanding is just as flawed as was the understanding the people of Jesus' physical hometown had 2,000 years ago. And when we're confronted with the huge difference between the Jesus we think we know better than anyone and the real Jesus of power and wisdom, oh boy can we get offended! People of "The Church" have turned their backs on, kicked out, born false witness against, attacked, tortured, and even slaughtered people for centuries, all because these other people challenged their "hometown" understanding of Jesus Christ. Sometimes that's just been "hometown" people fighting other "hometown" people over some stupid theological doctrine that means nothing to God. But sometimes it's been "hometown" people just simply refusing to allow Jesus to be who He really is.

Why? Why would "hometown" people refuse to accept Jesus for who He really is?  

• Sometimes we refuse because we like the gilded dirt hole we've committed years of our lives and our egos to. We like the human hierarchy, the remakes of the old covenant temple, the live-in-a-box spirituality that tells us we're doing God's work even though we're not doing it, or we're passionately doing it for all the wrong reasons (which Jesus says doesn't count). Those things make us "feel spiritual" and "connected to God" – even though they are exactly opposite anything Jesus and the rest of the New Testament said to do or live. We forget or ignore that all religions make their members "feel spiritual" and "connected" – so it isn't the feeling that saves us, but following the real Jesus and doing what He says, that actually makes us real Christians.

• Sometimes we refuse because our "hometown" "church" has taught us to fear any thinking that would challenge its authority over our minds and hearts. We shake our heads when we hear of cults that have lead their members even to death – but then we follow, just like the people of 2,000 years ago, our "church" when it leads us even to spiritual death. 

• Sometimes we refuse because if we accepted the real Jesus, and did what He really said, then we'd have to give up pretending to live godly lives, while our hearts were just full of ourselves. So-called "ministers" are most guilty of this. "If I actually accept the real Jesus, then I'll have to give up the position, authority, money, retirement fund, extra-respect, and extra-honor I went to minister-school to get!" But others do this as well, "If I actually accept the real Jesus, then I'd have to give up my pride of position in church, and I'd have to stop chasing money, and I'd have to do more than just kick in a few bucks in the collection plate to be right with God." In this case, we don't "get" the real Jesus, and we even get hugely offended by Him, because our worldly goodies depend on our not "getting" Him.

This is all just another reason it is SO dangerous to just join or stay in a "church", if what we want is the real Jesus. The "Church" we see most easily around us, with its "sanctuaries" and seminary-educated "ministers" and centuries of accumulated and trumpeted doo-dads, is simply a pagan remake of the old – and by Jesus' death on the Cross cancelled – Jewish temple. So it doesn't even have the real authority and God-connection the Jewish temple had!

Instead, the "Church" we see most easily around us, and which we may have spent many years growing up in, is a purely human reinvention of God's real plan. It uses Jesus' face, and pretends to do His work with His heart, but points those who live in its "hometown" to the Jesus IT knows, and the Jesus IT isn't offended by. If you want to understand why "The Church" so easily supports and participates in war, economic oppression, sexism, racism, homophobia, materialism, and more, the answer is here: that "Church" is not and never has been about the real Jesus. Instead, it's primary function has been to enjoy, pass on, and protect its own limited and sinful understanding of Jesus.

So it's no wonder this "Church" only gets and falls for "miracles" from the devil, if it gets "miracles" at all. It's no wonder its members feel so comfortable in a "faith" no different in real substance than any other pagan faith, full of good religious feelings but completely devoid of the real Jesus Christ. "The Church" today, whether it calls itself "Roman Catholic", or "Methodist", or "Baptist", or "Nondenominational", or whatever, is no less God-rejecting and pagan than is polytheistic "Mormonism", Jesus-denying "Jehovah's Witness", Bible-twisting "Christian Science", or New Age "Ascended Masters".

The real Jesus Christ offends these "Churches" – and so the real Jesus has nothing to give them.

What about you? Where are you in moving out of the limited and sinful "hometown" mentality that finds the real Jesus something to ignore at best, and offensive at worst?

In my own life, I spent a lot of years in that "hometown". I soaked in all the teachings of the False Church, in its various manifestations in Roman Catholicism and its Protestant daughters.

First, I didn't even know enough to realize I'd been duped. I was quite comfortable in what my human elders preserved for and taught me. Sure I was living the godly life, I was most in danger of hellfire at this time – not because God wanted me there, but because, despite my insistence to the contrary, I wasn't really choosing God. I was like someone who claims to be going to Boston, but keeps insisting on traveling a road that only goes to Sacramento.

Later, God blessed me with a growing dissatisfaction with "The Church". Something was wrong, though I couldn't figure out why. Something was "missing". I wasn't as "fulfilled" any more. At first, as you might guess, I thought the answer was to become MORE in and about "The Church". I didn't just do the learning, I learned it all. I didn't just do the Roman or Protestant rituals, I did them ten times over. I didn't just pray, I prayed all day. And at first, it seemed to work – but it would always fail again and that nagging dissatisfaction came back into my heart. I prayed for God to make it go away, even to restore my "faith" - but He proved His love for me by making it grow worse and even more nagging, with each passing day and year.

It was that blessed irritation, that sanctified dissatisfaction, that slowly began to make me realize my spiritual life and heart was full of human junk – not Jesus. It was God's gift of stamina, and my willingness to go it alone at times, that helped me wander out of the gilded dirt hole of what most loudly calls itself "Christianity" so that I could seek and find the real Jesus Christ.

What about you? Are you still in the gilded dirt hole, or wishing you could be? I'd guess that if you're here, reading this blog, then you at least have a tiny bit of that blessed irritation, that sanctified dissatisfaction, that God's using to get you up out of the dirt and into Jesus' (real) arms. Otherwise, you'd be too offended by my "disrespect" for what claims most loudly to be "The Church" and its "ministers" to stay.

Are you afraid of going it alone? Of being without "a church"? Jesus said He would be with you always. He also said His real followers would have to give up even their closest relationships if those relationships block His followers from Him. Trust Jesus! And look for those others who are also wanting to be just about Jesus. They are His real church – they are your real family.

Are you still craving the religious doo-dads and goodies you get from only-faking-Jesus "Christianity"? Are you TRULY willing to trade eternal heaven with God because you like the pride, the trancing out, the rituals and do-goods you could get from participation in ANY religion (which means all your "godly" feeling is actually nothing special at all)? Jesus isn't kidding around – and neither is the devil. Drop those religious things and titles and so on like the hot hell-rocks they are, and fill yourself with the real Jesus!
If you'd like to talk more or pray about this, and you don't have a local no-junk-just-Jesus sister or brother to fellowship with, email me and let's talk. Going after the real Jesus can be a shorter walk when you don't have to find the whole way yourself without others who've already made more of the trip and can help you with the signposts along the way.

Jesus didn't come to earth and die so that we'd be stuck in fake temples and wearing Jesus-masks. He came to earth to completely shake things up – to heal people others don't believe worth healing, to put first people others think should be last, and to cancel religion and its inevitable path to forever-death.

Find and keep the real Jesus Christ.

He's waiting for you! 
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This article written by Lynne at http://NoJunkJustJesus.blogspot.com/. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

3 Do's & Don'ts for healing from painful Christianity

There are a lot of people -- and a lot of different kinds of people -- who've been hurt by "the Church" and people in "the Church". 

Many are Gay, but some are straight (divorced, had an abortion, non-comforming somehow, or just in some way "not acceptable" to "the Church"). Race doesn't matter. Socioeconomic status doesn't matter. Where you grew up doesn't matter. Nothing matters.

If the devil decided to stab you in the rump of your religion, that's a wound that can fester your whole life, if you don't heal it. 

And I mean really heal it -- not just "cover-it-up-I'm-fine" heal it.

Getting that real healing is a real journey. And there are many detours and false trails that can make us think we're getting there or even already done -- when, in fact, we're not. I certainly made my own zig-zag journey toward healing, and I've watched and helped a large number of others make theirs over the last many years..

Based on our combined experience, I offer you three Do's and Don'ts, to hopefully make your healing journey that much faster, that much easier, that much healthier:

1) Don't count on those in "the Church" to heal the hurt they are responsible for causing. Do look for those who have healed beyond "the Church" to give you guidance and support along the way.

This is a biggie, because it's a sure thing that the reason a big splat of false Christianity hit your life was because someone else was being a Church-Christian, and not a Jesus-Christian. Church-Christians can be among the nice people of the world, and some are very caring and want to help. But going to them is like asking people in a bar for help paying your hospital bills after you've been hit by a drunk driver. Church-Christians will usually admit that things are far from perfect in their church (or in Christianity in general) -- but they say and mean it as an excuse, not as an intro to getting any problem in it fixed. You'll know that's true when they say you're important, and yes your wounds shouldn't have happened -- but they won't actually take a real stand to protect you or fix the evil that caused hurt in the church.

See, the Bible never says, "Just go along to get along", or "Don't make a (real) fuss when people in the church are acting like asses or making people think 'poo' on God" (in fact, it says the opposite). But that falseness is what Church-Christians are all about. They may feel bad for you, but they will continue to side with, participate in, and go along with their "church" over you and your pain every time -- because to do something Jesus-like, like fixing or no longer participating in the problem, would actually cost them something, like their unrepentent church family (and they also don't like that part where Jesus says you have to give up even your family, if that's what's required to do as He says -- you know, like for "the least of these").

It's even worse trying to get real healing help from a pastor, priest, pope (or prophet, or church teacher, or elder, and so on). Think regular 'ole Church-Christians are hooked into their "church"? Well, those who make their living being Special Representatives doing human-inspired religious tasks God's work for their "church"/denomination, who enjoy respect and honors Jesus always rejected (and said we all were to, too), who have retirement plans and mortgages and career ladders to climb? You really think they're going to do something to risk all that? Hardly (but they'll love you while they tell you there's no need to risk it). 

What they do have to offer you, though, is a course in how to get sucked back in to "the Church". They can't offer you plain 'ole Jesus (because they gave Him up as "too primitive", "too hard", or "too supernatural" years ago). But they can offer you what they have: a path to mashing their decision about who Jesus should have been with their "church" needs ("Here's where you put your contribution to my 401k tithe, each week..") They can even make you feel all warm and fuzzy, all "belongy" and everything. And that can feel great! But it's still short the rest of Jesus that doesn't fit in their church-box. It won't get you really healed (and it will instead make it just likely you'll become a Church-Christian causing or ignoring other people hurt, yourself).

So, who can help you get truly healed? Those who've been hurt themselves, and who've managed through the grace of God to get (as you can) healed so deep into Jesus' arms that they have no room in their hearts for silly things like playing "church" (even if they are the 1 in a million still occasionally hanging out in church), any longer.

• These are the people who aren't going to stand above you, pretending to be better or more "spiritual" than you because they took college courses and were pronounced "Won't make serious waves in the organizational pool" by their denomination.
• These are the people who've been wounded themselves, and some of them have even sucked mud in the gutter before they managed to get back on their spiritual feet again. 
• These are the people who can sit down with you in the real world, and hear and understand your real pain, and even tell you more about the real Jesus -- the Jesus who stays with you and on your side long after the pastor/priest/pope, missionaries, and church workers have all gone home.

These are the people who can describe at least part of the way home to Jesus to you, because they've walked it themselves -- dodging Church-Christians and other manifestations of false Christianity the whole way. These are the people to seek out, examine, and learn from. Will they have all the answers? Of course not -- but you know better by now than to believe anyone/thing but Jesus has all the answers, right?

2) Don't let mistranslations and reinterpretations of the Bible tell you what God thinks. Do read and study to learn what God really put there for you to know and live by. 

There are a lot of different translations of the Bible out now (NIV, Message, NASB, and so on). Every single one of them contains errors -- and even outright lies and remakes of what's really there. It's only been in the last several decades that the truth has come out about God's Bible not-not-not saying He condemns Gay people. But there are also mistranslations and misinterpretations about what God wants Christians to know and live regarding violence, hierarchy, women, the poor, how "church" is to be run, the real qualifications for "church leaders", and so on. There are even rewrites about the nature of God Himself! 

Not even "experts" can be counted on to give us the real truth and nothing but the truth -- because they have their own biases and issues they want to cover up or emphasize in ways God never intended. In fact, "experts" are the ones who've mistranslated and misinterpreted the Bible for us in the first place!

What's to be done, then, if we can't just blindly accept the words some other sinful human being put on a piece of paper and stuck in a book, promising us that it matches exactly what God intended for us to know? Do we have to be geniuses or Bible scholars ourselves? No. But we do have to know the basics, and we have to do our homework.

Just like the first disciples (most of whom couldn't even read and write), we have to learn the basics of Jesus and His teachings, and work our way out from there, listening to and reading what others have to say about various scriptures -- but then, when we have a question or something seems to not "fit" somehow, we need to pray and study along with the Holy Spirit. God understands sincere ignorance -- but He has no tolerance for lazy follow-alongs who just do the minimum and follow leadership or sit in church without question as if that will get them to heaven (remember? that's exactly what the people who ignored Jesus or helped torture and kill Him did).

3) Don't let anyone get (or stay) between you and Jesus

There are two things Jesus says people need to do in this world:

1. Do what He says to do, and
2. Hang on to Him (or come back to hanging on to Him!), no matter what happens. 

Jesus fully understands that those who falsely claim to be God's people are a powerful majority -- for now. He truly "gets" that false Christians are wreaking havoc in people's lives, causing all sorts of pain, and doing it all in God's Name. Think He doesn't? Well, check this out, and hear it like the Gay, poor, female, or other despised-minority child of God Jesus said it to:

[Jesus said:] "I see what you've done. Now see what I've done. I've opened a door before you that no one can slam shut. You don't have much strength, I know that; you used what you had to keep my Word. You didn't deny me when times were rough. And watch as I take those who call themselves true believers but are nothing of the kind, pretenders whose true membership is in the club of Satan—watch as I strip off their pretensions and they're forced to acknowledge it's you that I've loved. Because you kept my Word in passionate patience, I'll keep you safe in the time of testing that will be here soon, and all over the earth, every man, woman, and child put to the test.I'm on my way; I'll be there soon. Keep a tight grip on what you have so no one distracts you and steals your crown." [Revelation 3:8-11]

Make it your mission in life to learn more and more each day about the real Jesus. Spend time with Him in prayer -- sometimes talking, sometimes listening, sometimes just sitting with Him. Laugh with Him. Read with Him. Keep Him alongside you when you go to dinner. Learn from your heart of hearts how much Jesus IS on your side, and how much He did to give you an eternity where there will never again be a tear or a pain, and where you can live right next to God, forever.

Take back your crown from those who practice crappy Christianity. Accept healing. Accept Jesus' love.

And stop sacrificing your salvation on the alter of other people's sin & bigotry.

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This article written by Lynne at No Junk. Just Jesus. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

2 maze lessons that work us, even if we don't work them

Not the route I took...

More than a few people have asked me in the last few days about various parts of my spiritual journey. Guess it's been awhile since I made that thing some Christians call a "testimony". ...ok, it's been years.

But the really important thing -- I think -- is not telling about my life so you can be oh-so-impressed with how spiritual my path has been or how wise or strong or faithful I am (because truly, there's no reason you should).

No, the only really important things to pass on are the two lessons I've learned (nearly always the hard way) in my getting-close-to-50-years. The kind of lesson-things hardest to learn, hardest to accept, and hardest to appreciate -- until you finally start to reap some benefits from them.

The first lesson is:

Human beings (especially, but not only, educated ones) can always-always-always be counted on to make healthy things hurt, simple things complicated, inclusive things cliquish, loving things hatefilled, and easy things hard.

 The second lesson follows the first:

...But, if in the deepest recesses of our deepest heart (where maybe even we can't see it yet), if we are even the slightest bit willing, God is always at work behind the scenes to get us where we need to go, anyway.

Let me share briefly how that worked out in my life, just to show an example.

Maze Turn # 1 - I was introduced to God through a fundamentalist church of the 1960s.

That was how I spent my childhood. So, yeah. Do I even need to detail the mess of ungodly, unbiblical, and anti-Christ ideas I absorbed from the truly very well-meaning and intensely (false)-Bible educated people in that church? Most of you will say "No. I get it." But for those who don't, let me just sum it up this way: By the time I was eight years old, I was convinced I had already been such a sinner that I deserved hell so bad even Jesus couldn't save me.

And it just didn't matter that these church people adored me (and they truly did -- all the way up to when I was an adult and they discovered I'm Gay.) They all belonged to a faith culture that takes the Good News of Jesus Christ and turns it inside out, remaking it into something fearful, painful, violent, self-centered, hypocritical -- just like their unhealed hearts. Even though I left their church when I was eleven years old (they couldn't answer my questions, and that bothered me) their false and twisted and self-serving Christianity damaged me in ways I wouldn't even begin to understand until forty years later, when I finally encountered and was healed by the true Jesus Christ.

Yet what was God doing behind the scenes with all that? He was instilling in me a love for the Bible, for one thing. Unlike my fundamentalist forebears, I use and study the Bible correctly now -- but like them, I also cling to it, and refuse to be parted from knowing its truth. 

Maze Turn # 2 - Trying to push the filth of fundamentalism out of my head, I became a tenacious, even vicious atheist by my 20th birthday.

I'd always been a huge science geek (even when I was a teeny little kid, my birthday presents were things like biology and geology books). But while before I'd understood science as just a way to study what God had created, now I started using science and logic to attack and level any and all religious belief -- including Christianity.

I meant well. I truly did. Like all my atheist buddies and mentors, I truly believed that any idea of "god" was nonsense and evil. I really believed that the only way to make the world a safe and healthy place was to eliminate all religions, and run things by logic and science, only. 

Yet what was God doing behind the scenes with all that? He was using all that atheistic insistence on logic, and that hot flame of bullheaded atheistic arrogance, to scorch the fundamentalism from my heart. It took a number of years, but when He was done? Gone. All gone. Nothing ever even tempted me to believe fundamentalism, ever again.   

Maze Turn # 3 - Once my heart no longer had to keep a door slammed against God to keep out the devil of fundamentalism, a tiny part of my heart slowly began to want God again. But the rest of me fled.

I had really done a great job convincing myself during my atheist years that God didn't exist. I now really had NO belief in Him any longer. So imagine my confusion to now all of a sudden have a sort of secret longing for God -- a God I was convinced was nothing more than a neurotic superstition. What was wrong with me??? The only conclusion I could come to for some time was that I had a mental illness of some sort. Nothing else made sense to me -- but nothing made my longing go away, either. In fact, it just got worse and worse.  

And what was God doing behind the scenes with all that? If you're a Christian, you know exactly what God was doing: He was calling me back. He'd let me fall into the flea dip of atheism to rid me of fundamentalism cooties, and now it was time to dry me off and comb me out. Was I going for that? Of course not. I'm much too bull headed for that!

Maze Turn # 4 - So I started (reluctantly) checking out other religions. At least I wouldn't fall to the disgusting depths of Christianity! (or so I swore).

Pagan stuff is big in certain areas, as you no doubt know. I tried to get in to some of that, but I kept coming back to the same thing: "If I can't go with a God, why the heck would I go with a goddess, or multiple gods, or fairies, or wood spirits, or whatever!" It just seemed a put on.

I did check out some other religions, too. But same problem: if I'm not believing it works here, why would I believe it works over there?

What was God doing behind the scenes with all that? I'm sure He was shaking His head at how stubborn I can be, and how I continued to torture myself. Here I was trying to patch my longing for Him like He was a computer virus, but at least He kept me from falling into another vat of flea dip I didn't need. His hand was there.

Maze Turn # 5 - Then, since I hated the whole idea of "God" but couldn't make myself stop wanting God, I decided maybe I could soothe my longing by getting into a religion that didn't even have a god. That was my Zen Buddhist period. And I did pretty good at it. Got real good at being able to sit and do nothing for a very long time. Even decided at one point that I would become a Zen priest. THAT would fix that nagging God-longing, I was sure! I was starting to feel good about all this, finally.

But what was God doing behind the scenes with all that? Well, He seems to have let me go for a time. Just as I did get some healing from my atheism time (but couldn't stay there), I also got some healing from my Zen time -- but couldn't stay there, either. So one day a Zen priest that I admired more than anyone else in the world told me that because of who I was I belonged back in the Christian world. I was devastated.

The Zen priest's reasons were very Zen-like, and came right out of his Asian culture and beliefs in reincarnation (etc) -- so they had nothing to do with Christianity or God. But I'd gotten the healing I could get from my time there, and God knew it was time for me to go -- or I'd probably never leave. So, mad as a wet cat, out I went.

Maze Turn # 6 - Try as I might, I found myself still just too damaged by fundamentalism to go back to anything Protestant. So I became a Roman Catholic. Getting back to Christianity of any kind was still not easy for me -- in fact, it was more painful than anything I'd ever done before, with a LOT of stops and starts, before I could finally let God start to heal the damage false Christianity had done to me. In the end it took me three times and several years to complete the Roman Catholic mumbos you have to go through to join up, but then let me tell you -- I was full bore. I've never done anything spiritual halfway, I guess, so after finally getting baptized and so on, I was one intense Pope follower. I even let the priests abuse me for being Gay (one yelled at me so loud the whole church turned to see), and I just knelt there and took it. But dang it -- I'd decided to be a Christian, and I was going to stick it out!

What was God doing behind the scenes with all that? Continuing to heal me. Teaching me. And then turning my head ever so slightly so I started seeing a new angle. So I started seeing the (really BIG) false Christianity of the Roman Church, too. Since the "newness" was no longer covering for the fact that this wasn't a place to satisfy my longing for God either, after a number of years, I started thinking maybe it was time to go "home".

Maze Turn # 7 - Except I thought "home" meant a Protestant church. In fact, I thought that through several of them over several more years. But it didn't matter: Gay churches, straight churches, mixed / "welcoming" churches, and conservative, liberal, medium churches -- all. All just inevitably got me all excited thinking this was finally going to be the place I could be whole with God. I even became a pastor and church leader, myself (would have made my grandmother proud, and maybe healed her horror of my previous Roman Catholicism). And yet every single church / denomination / fellowship was a big #)^%*@ pile of human beings, along with all the cultural "church" poo they'd decided to pack on top of God as if that made God "better" or "more accessible". True, some where more poo-filled, some less. But since all that poo covered up the fact that Jesus is supposed to just be there, in your heart, without all the human poo (even your own), nearly all these folks were just as happy to sit around making more poo and calling for new revivals or campaigns to fill in the Holy Spirit gap even they sense on some level in their churches.They were so happy-tranced on what they could do with their religious doo-dads and titles and organizations and good works that they just assumed that must be Jesus in there, making their hearts swim. I still couldn't fill my longing for God. Plus, it was all just starting to gross me out. 

And what was God doing behind the scenes with all that? Quite simply, He was doing exactly what He's been doing my whole entire life: trying to get me to let go of all the nonsense people (including me) make up about Him, and instead just sit with Him and do what He says! Doesn't mean I don't hang out with church people any longer -- I just no longer buy that they corner the market on Jesus, any longer.

CHEESE!

It's taken me nearly every decade of my life to figure out that ideas like "God is about relationship, and not (even Protestant pretend-its-not-ritual) ritual", and "Jesus was serious" are true far, far beyond the self-congratulatory platitudes we make of them when we're twisting His meanings so we still get to do what we want to do, but now feel God-approved in doing it.

I guess if my life would have a "testimony", it would be that God moves even when we're in His way. He can see even when we're blocking His light. And He can work even when we're sleeping on the job. And my ridiculous maze of a life is good proof of that. 

Thanks for taking care of all that for me God. 

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This article written by Lynne at No Junk. Just Jesus. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

Why church doesn't - or shouldn't - satisfy

In my life, sometimes by my choice and sometimes not, I've actively belonged to several different church denominations or communities, including (but not only) fundamentalist, roman catholic, charismatic, progressive mainstream, and emergent ones. And though I stopped "belonging" anywhere more than a few years past, in the last several months I've been off and on going along with friends who want to try new churches each week in hopes of finding a "spiritual home" -- so, my thoughts have been stoked anew regarding what's available "in church".

And I find that things just don't change very much.

Oh, what things look like, talk like, or offer changes. The music changes, what you call each other changes, what kinds of religious doo-dads are used changes (wafers vs bread, high tech vs low tech gadgets, etc), and that kind of thing. And every single new generation (yes, including mine, 30 years ago) even comes along to say that everyone who came before just doesn't get the Real Truth (tm) but THEY do, and then they put forward a Brand New Thing (tm) that's Finally Right (tm) -- except that anyone who looks discovers that all that too will in a few years be overrun and trashed by the next generation following (which will itself bad-mouth everything that came before them, and so it goes). So 'round and 'round it goes.

And like a spoon of dry sugar, or day-old fast food fries, it just doesn't satisfy.

And it shouldn't.

Because if it did or does satisfy, it means we really believe:

• "Our ways are better than God's ways." We do like human ways of being and doing better than God's ways. For example, even in churches that claim "everyone's equal" or "everyone's loved" or "everyone's right", the human heart always finds ways to draw lines between who's some kind of pastor/priest/pope and who's not, and to lay out better accommodations for those who are loved just a little bit more than others, and to give kudos to those on the "right-right" team and cut out those on the "wrong-right" team, and so on. And the more organized a group of people becomes, and the longer they've been an organized group, the more full of themselves they become (yes, even the latest "Finally Right" people of today, who are already being overrun by the next "Better Than Thou Who Came Before" generational arrogance). It takes no time at all for us to decide that since doing things our way makes us happier and is easier than God's way, and since God loves us, doing things our way is actually God's way. Bleh.

• "Our church, by pleasing God, is the center of the (or our) universe". Doesn't matter how "good" a person or church we are. Each and every one of us struggles (or should struggle!) against imagining that the godly things we can love, form, build, and do are a huge part of what's important in the scheme of our lives and the lives of others around us -- bigger even than that part of God's plan (which is actually His whole plan) that is so much bigger and greater than any pathetic little thing we could do or be as to make our stuff basically nonexistent. We're victims of our secular and religious cultures, which have taught us to feel good about being Number One, when God would have us feel good about being Number 6,890,490,454 (as of 18:33 UTC [EST+5] Dec 27, 2010). We're taught that things are going right between us and God when we feel emotionally and physically satiated, when God would have us feel things are right between us and God when we're doing what He said to do. We're taught that being loved and valued is the most important thing God can give us, when God wants us to know that being able to love and make others feel valued by God is His greatest gift to us. Because we don't truly have a real understanding of Christ's message that the only way to be on top is to love the bottom, and the only way to be first is to push everyone else ahead of us in line, we can have the most open, loving, and sacred hearts in the world -- but we're still putting ourselves above God.

• Either, "God orders us to oppress women, the poor, Gay/Lesbian people, people of Middle Eastern descent, etc -- so we do", or "Because God hates oppression, we snuggle up to everyone (even those actively harming others among us, trashing our (and God's) whole mission, or steering us away from the Gospel)." Pick one. They're both positions held in high regard by their proponents, but they are two sides of the same coin. They're both wrong -- not only in real-world practice, but also according to New Testament ways we're supposed to be and do in our lives.  

'Course, if we find any of these things to be problems, we're invited to "fix" them by getting into a "conservative" church -- or a "progressive" one. Or by changing denominations -- or becoming "nondenominational". Or by going to a straight church -- or a Gay one. Or even by joining up with one of those "OUR generation figured out the truth all you older folks were too stupid/selfish/sheep-like to come up with) things.

But those things don't fix the problem, because the problem is the rot on the inside, and not the color of the decorations on the outside. Everywhere, it always becomes or stays the same.

And that rot travels with us everywhere we church-plant or fellowship or whatever, as long as we see and understand church (even "un-church") as based in two things:

1. What we can do for God -- like our religious accomplishments, do-goods, etc. -- and,
2. What God can do for us -- like give or protect our crap, make us never have to suffer or be unhappy, put us into trancey la-la's every church meeting, etc.

That's not what being a Christian is all about. God didn't create us or come to die on the Cross so that we'd have the same relationship with Him that pagans do with earth gods and wood spirits. If we are Christians, we're supposed to be doing something different than the rest of the world. We're not supposed to be "better" -- we're just supposed to be about the real God and what He means to accomplish before this is all done.

And when our church is nothing more than a Christian-looking pagan faith?  

Then it doesn't -- or shouldn't -- satisfy. 

A lot of the time, we wail and moan if we aren't having a great church experience. I know, as I've spent enough of my years doing it, and I've sat alongside a number of you while you were doing it too.

What I've discovered, though, is that when I started understanding church, and God, and God's plan, in the way that God shares through Jesus and the Bible (as He put it in its original languages and contexts) -- and stopped obsessing on how I or other human beings would like all that to be instead -- a lot of better things started to happen in my spiritual (and emotional, and physical) life.

Examples? Here's three:

I just see one church now -- one Body of Christ -- one set of Christians. It's been awhile since I've seen lots of individual churches, or any denominations. In fact, though I don't often say anything because I don't want to be rude, at this point in my life I'm kind of embarrassed for people who are really proud of their individual little religious spots or fellowships as if they are anything more than just a little drop in a great big bucket. I'm proud to be a tiny, tiny little speck of a drop in God's great big bucket -- and I'm proud of all my other tiny, tiny brothers and sisters, too.

I also don't worry anymore about whether someone has the right "credentials" to "do ministry". Human beings use "credentials" as a way to manage power and goodies in their religious organizations, and as a way for many to avoid the responsibility God puts on every believer (Human beings buy "No, I just give money each week, and the minister takes care of feeding the hungry, telling people about Jesus, etc", but God doesn't). Today, I judge whether someone is qualified to be a minister based on what they accomplish: did they make someone feel loved or cared about? did they show up with a bag of food (not just their throwaways) for the hungry? did they pass out tracts or talk to their neighbor about Jesus? did they help their persecuted brothers and sisters in other lands, with letters of encouragement or blankets or bibles or...? did they take care of and pray for those who hurt them? are they growing in the fruit of the Holy Spirit (and not following after any spirit that will amuse them with spiritual tricks)? did they do these things making sure God got the glory and thanks, and not them? Then stamped and sealed: QUALIFIED TO MINISTER.

I don't worry about my salvation or begin to lose my faith if I'm long out of some "church". In fact, I realize now that most of my best spiritual growth in my life has either occurred while I was away from any church, or despite the church I happened to be in. That's because churches are full of people whose primary action is to get, maintain, and praise their physical church -- and not really about doing God's work of feeding, caring, loving, and healing. For example, if every Christian church in the world were to sell everything it owned and put it to helping the poor, no one would go hungry, or be without medical care or clothing or clean water or a roof over their head for dozens upon dozens of years. What a testament to God's goodness that would be! Imagine the billions of people who would turn to Christ because of that! But Christians still attached to buildings and religious doo-dads and human organizations haven't yet learned to see and be God's way in the world -- so anyone not following their lead is already potentially in a much more spiritually healthy spot!

And that's what a lot of this comes down to:

It's NOT a good thing to be satisfied with something that's crap.

It's not a good thing to enjoy smoking cigarettes. It's not a good thing to drink and drive. It's not a good thing to ignore our conscience. And it's not a good thing to be happy in a church that makes God sit quietly in a back pew somewhere, only bringing Him up front when they want Him to make someone speak in tongues or to guarantee tithes will keep coming in or to pronounce two people married.

Not satisfied in your church? Good! More time for Jesus.

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This article written by Lynne at No Junk. Just Jesus. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

Friday links 12/10/2010

Hawaiian bobtail squid

It's often said that Gays and Lesbians need to be "out" so our friends and family and coworkers can see how normal we are, so fewer people will hate or despise us. Here's a great article from a former Gay-hater talking about just that. 

Who isn't needing to save some money -- and some heat -- this winter? We used to do this all the time when I lived in the frigid midwestern USA. Now it seems everyone can benefit to one degree or another, outside the warmest band at the equator!

At last, some science behind what people are mostly getting when they so much enjoy "going to church" -- and it isn't God. Turns out belonging to a human community -- having a social circle, in other words -- is what makes people in churches happier than those outside, and not so much the God stuff. In short, when people "in church" have the social ties and friendships that most people in our alienated society do not have these days, they are happier. We need to keep that in mind when it comes to our longings: are we truly longing for God, or for the human fellowship we might find in a religious organization? (This study also shows why people "in church" are so hot to get more people in, even to claiming that "church" = "God", and leading people to just most religious stuff without figuring out the God stuff themselves: it expands and justifies their social circles).

Do you enjoy writing, but have gotten "off track" lately? Here are a couple of writing bloggers who will be helping get folks back on track for 2011, during the month of January -- and all for free. 

It's true that people have anticipated the end of the world a million times in the past, and many use that as reason to discount any End Times ideas today. But there's a big difference between then and now, and it shows up in articles like this (and this, and this, and even this and this). Yes, there has always been pollution and war and so on in times past, but never before have chemical, nuclear, biological, and other technological "advances" been set waiting in the wings while their potential for nation and world-side destruction and suffering and oppression grows beyond comprehension. Is this reason for us to fear or obsesses on the End Times? Absolutely not. But it is reason to understand the truth of the Bible and why we need to keep ourselves devoted always and only to our Savior, Jesus Christ!

Well, it's official: our brains decide what we will see before we see it, and then we see what we expected to see instead of what's there (wha..?) Of course, stage magicians have known all this for some time!

More of God's creation showing off -- this time, the sun. This week people have also been talking about God's solar powered hornets, His squid with cloaking devices, and one of the moons He placed around Saturn. God is so awesome!

There aren't that many squirrels where I live now, but if you've lived where there are lots you know squirrels aren't always the brightest lights in the bucket at getting themselves across traffic safely. Here are some folks who built and have been maintaining a squirrel bridge for their little fur-friends. Awwww!

Just US $25 will get a Christmas Care Package to some of our persecuted brothers and sisters in India.

Until then, People get ready - Jesus is coming! Soon we'll be going Home!

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This article written by Lynne at No Junk. Just Jesus. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

If Christians were Christian - 002 (An Unreal Dream)

[This is a continuation of my series "If Christians were Christian (an Unreal Dream)". You can find the rest of the series here]. 

The Ugly Reality:

Recently, a pastor/priest/pope decided that a really good way to demonstrate Christ to the people around him was to take away the ability to afford seeing a doctor from 19 people whose families he didn't like. So, to please his god, he did some hatemongering, and some bearing false witness, and some rebelling against government authority he didn't like in order to get just enough others on his band wagon to make his dream other people's nightmare.

All in God's name, of course.

Unfortunately, in his eagerness to make God seem like a evil jerk, and his enthusiasm to spit on Jesus' teachings, he didn't get all his legal i's dotted and t's crossed -- and he also managed to take away the ability to afford seeing a doctor from some 200 people whose families he does like, as well.

Does he regret hurting people he does like in order to hurt people he doesn't? Of course not. That would require having the Holy Spirit -- and not an evil spirit -- in one's heart. Instead, he says he only did "what's right". He also reminds everyone that we now have to respect his will, which he re-made into the governmental "will of the people" -- even though he hasn't respected anything at all.

The Daydream Not to Hold Your Breath For:

If this pastor/priest/pope was part of a real Christian community, a number of the people of his church would have noticed and felt deeply against his ungodly feelings toward others and the lack of the real Holy Spirit in his heart. They would have individually, lovingly admonished him, reminding him of Christ's tale of the Good Samaritan, and of how we Christians are to remain separate from the world rather than becoming so entangled in it that we start taking on its hate-filled and oppressive attitudes and values. 

If this pastor/priest/pope wouldn't repent, the church would have called in the elders of the church to strip him of any authority in the church until he was healed, and then to pray for him, and to exorcise him, as needed. 

If he still would not repent and allow the real Holy Spirit within his heart, with great sorrow and prayers for him to return to the real God, they would have removed him from fellowship and sought to see what they could do to repair the damage he'd done to God's name and all the families who'd been stolen from.

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This article written by Lynne at No Junk. Just Jesus. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

3 great things about the End Times

It's amazing how much "stuff" is out there these days proclaiming the End Times right around the corner, isn't it? And everywhere it's all about how terrifying they will be. I mean, just cast an eye over these Google images for "End Times"! Not a smiling face in the bunch... (until you get to the parodies, that is). And we just hear more and more specific dates for when Jesus is coming back -- as if millions of Christians all around the world just stopped taking their Savior seriously (oh, wait... most Christians stopped doing that about 1,900 years ago).

Of course, all those terrifying images are supposed to scare the non-Christians. They're supposed to make them understand just how desperately they need to be just like the people who put out all those scary images of shrieking babies and so on. Unfortunately, it's not really working because most non-Christians associate shrieking babies with Christian war-lovers and right-wing Christian family abuse.

In fact, all these freaky End Times warnings really do is:

• scare the Christian people who put them out, 
• embarrass the Christian people who want to pretend there won't be an End Times,
• make non-Christians believe they have to be against Jesus to be good people, and 
• just generally put a real bummer on everyone's spirit. 

Blah.

Now, there really will be an End Times. And beyond saying they really will be the most horrendous time ever seen on planet Earth, pretty much everything else about them (like, when did/will they start, how will they play out, and so on) is entirely, lovingly debatable even by good Christian people who really know their Bibles and history (despite what we're constantly told by those of Christian Corporate Media).

Still, despite differences of opinion about how the End Times are or will play out, I find three great things we Christians should always remember (and be telling our non-Christian friends and neighbors) about the End Times:

Great Thing # 1 - Jesus and the Bible are far more interested in making sure we know how to make it to and through the End Times, than with specifics on what's going to happen and when.

God wants as many people as possible to make it to heaven. But He knows too that no way could we human beings ever really understand the full depth of what's going to happen, even if He told us every last detail in vivid color. We'd still argue about it, and confuse it, and re-imagine it, and re-translate it, and so on (especially if we have theology degrees or church positions). I mean, He can't even tell us something simple like "turn the other cheek" without us turning it into something else entirely! 

So, just like we don't explain to our kids the how's and why's and histories of, for example, making ourselves presentable to the world each morning, but instead just give them directions like "Brush your teeth", "Wash your face", "Comb your hair", and "Put your school clothes on" -- in the same way God gives us the directions we need to make ourselves presentable for His heaven.

Jesus tells us about the End Times, for example:

• Don't get tricked or discouraged by what only looks like and pretends to be Christianity (most people will become false Christians, or they will either never choose or will choose to leave the real Jesus because they confuse Him with False Christianity).
• Don't be afraid when big bad things start to happen (that's just part of the whole plan, and Jesus will make sure you're off-planet before He starts its big "remodel").
• Don't worry about being persecuted -- expect it even, if you're still among those hanging on to the real Jesus (No matter how it happens, if it happens, just go with what the Holy Spirit puts in your heart, and keep hanging on to Jesus).
• Keep sharing the Gospel and caring for other people until Jesus comes (stay focused on what's really important, and don't start getting lost in worry, boredom, time-wasting, or sense indulgence and be caught spiritually napping when He arrives).
• Don't try to figure out when Jesus is coming back (God's doing this by how He counts time, not by how you do).
• Everyone will know it when Jesus comes back (so don't chase after reports of where He supposedly is, or fear you've missed it somehow).
• When you see Jesus coming in the clouds, stand up tall and lift up your head! -- this is the best day of your life on this planet!

And that's a lot more human-friendly than if God had said: "Work out exactly what every single cryptic End Times prophecy means before I get back!"

Great Thing # 2 -- just like there are overwhelming and scary labor pains in birth, but then the miracle of new life for a baby, there will be overwhelming and scary labor pains for the End Times, but then New Life for us and the earth.

The Bible says after Jesus comes and rights everything, because the earth itself will finally be completely filled with knowledge of the Lord, even the animals that previously ate other animals will now only eat plants, and peacefully right alongside those animals they used to prey upon. Imagine! Lions eating straw alongside cows. Little children playing quite safety right next to cobra nests. Packs of wolves napping next to little lambs. The earth itself will finally be set right, once again.

The Bible also says that after Jesus makes everything right again, God will wipe every tear from our eye. It says there will never again be death, mourning, crying, or pain. Even more, every brokenness in our bodies will be erased, our bodies made new just like Jesus' resurrected and glorified body was.

When it's time for God to rip the devil-bandaid off the world, just hang in there, knowing that soon and very soon, you are going to see the King -- and then expect only the joy you've earned by toughing it out!

Now, I fully understand the need to let people know there are scary things in store for those who continue to enjoy evil and insist on doing things their own way (instead of God's way). But that's only the subplot to a much larger story.

Jesus didn't come to die an agonized death on the Cross so that human beings could be scared of going to hell, did He? Of course not. He died on the Cross because God loves every person on this planet, no matter what they've already done, no matter what they will do in the future, no matter what they think or ever will think of Him.

Jesus came and died an agonized death on the Cross so that every person who chooses to can be freed from the Roach Motel of sin the devil has placed around this world.

And that's what needs to be shared with ourselves, our friends, our families, our neighbors, and even strangers on the street:

"Friend, there's something really bad coming not too far in the future. And Someone Really Big would like nothing better than for you to know how to avoid it..."

 So, here's Great Thing # 3 about the End Times -- you.

Remember that part of what Jesus said about not being tricked into believing in False Christianity (and make no mistake -- even people who hate False Christianity believe in it, or they wouldn't confuse it with the real thing)? Remember that most people are going to be tricked? The # 3 great thing about the End Times is that you have a chance not only to not be tricked yourself, but to also help others either not be tricked, or get un-tricked, before it's too late.

So, while you are modeling the real Jesus for people who don't know the real Jesus, leaving soul-safe tracts laying around on park benches or bus seats so people can read and think about the Lord privately, helping Gays and straights understand what God really thinks about them, and so on, you can be doing the work God has assigned each of us to do, in preparation for His coming again. 

What are some ways you are already doing God's work to plant seeds of understanding for others regarding the real Jesus, and the real Scripture as God gave it to us? What are some new ways you might be able to help out? Is there someone who needs prayer? A hug? A friendly ear? A fresh look at Scripture?

What can you do to make things great for others, regarding the End Times?

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This article written by Lynne at No Junk. Just Jesus. You can contact Lynne at NoJunkJustJesus@gmail.com.

What's your denomina-sin?

Some people watch television. I listen to podcasts. The other day I tried a new one, the first topic being how to get the various denominations of Christianity talking with and comfortable with one another. As I listened, I grew more and more appalled (an emotion I just don't feel all that often!)

I've found that one of the truths of the human (and demonic) world is that our answers are only as true as our willingness to start with the right questions. Even "genius" is just so much impressive garbage, if made from a mountain of garbage.

But considering if we are truly starting with the right questions is most often the last thing human beings do. We're too busy being:

• pleased with ourselves (how smart we are, how much study we've done, what kinds of organizations we've built, etc), and
• protective of our own interests (which most of us disguise as caring about others' interests, especially to ourselves)

I read the other day, for example, that a favorite thing to do in pharmaceutical new drug safety studies for the last 30 years or so is to exclude from the research data anyone whose body reacts badly to the new drug, or who get little benefit compared to the problem side effects. Then – scientific miracle of miracles! – the drug is "proven" safe and effective.

So while the researchers claim to be asking, "Is this new drug safe and effective?" they are actually asking, "How do I use my scientific authority to get this new product released into the marketplace as quickly as possible?"

But neither of those is the right question to start with. What would be the right one? How about:

"Am I trustworthy enough to remain unbiased about this new product, even if it costs me (present or future) prestige, money, position, or power to let the truth of it come through?"

And because that's not the question these researchers are asking (or having asked of them), flawed, pseudo-scientific, and biased "studies" continue to cause huge amounts of damage to the people who take these completely unscientific drugs.

Well, human beings have the same faults, whether those are expressed in the scientific world or the religious world or the sports world or the (you get the picture). So it shouldn't be surprising to us when Christian people fail in the same ways. Just like these folks discussing "fixing" denominations in the podcast.

Consider:

They claimed to be discussing, "How do we unify the Body of Christ?" But what they were really talking about was, "How do we continue to get the emotional, psychological, and physical goodies we've built and maintained denominations to give us, while joining forces with other denominations we disagree with?"


Neither of those are the right question either. The right question would actually go something like this:

"Am I surrendered enough to the real Jesus Christ that I will release anything that pleases me more than it pleases Him, or that brings me more glory than it brings Him – even if it costs me my friends, my family, my job, my good standing in the community, my material wealth, and more?"

That's the question that would lead them to truth, and it should be the question all Christians ask of themselves at ever available opportunity.

See, denominations are beautiful failures – seeming to point us toward God, but actually tricking and leading us astray – for a number of reasons.

First – Denominations produce, encourage, and protect Good Religious People by the many, many millions – but the same kinds of Good Religious People who either:

• Self-righteously hunted Jesus down for not being "godly" enough, or
• Obediently walked away and did nothing when Jesus was slandered, tortured, and murdered.
  

Nothing changed over the last 2,000 years. "Catholic" or "protestant" or whatever, Good Religious People continue even today to do the same evil things to hundreds of millions of human beings, and their denomination – their "group-mind" – rewards and assures them of the "godliness" of each such action/inaction.

Second – Denominations are self-serving human institutions, whereby we convince ourselves that God's real work is only accomplished via human budgets, building and other programs, seminaries, social and doctrinal conformity, and mission trips to spread our denomination. Then we "lovingly" look down our noses at what we call the "primitive" church of 1,800 to 1,950 years ago, because they "only" had the testimony of their lives healed and saved through Jesus Christ, to spread and protect the Gospel. That's sinful arrogance, at best.

When we become melded within the "group-think" of a denomination, we even come to believe that the Gospel message the early church spread, and the denomination message we spread, is the same – and that's idolatry, at the least.

Third – Denominations grow from one or more human founders and their interpretation of Jesus Christ, usually in reaction to someone else's interpretation of Jesus Christ. There's nothing wrong with coming up with one's own interpretation of the Bible and so on. Being only human beings, we all have to do that (run screaming from the people who insist they don't interpret!).

The problem is that denominations interpret Jesus through their human founders and the ongoing traditions that followed them – rather than interpreting their human founders and traditions through Jesus and correcting their spiritual understanding as needed.

Fourth – Denominations squelch the Holy Spirit in the hearts and minds of God's people while encouraging them to continue seeing themselves through a religious spirit – and this is true even among so-called "Spirit-filled" denominations.

By creating and enforcing structure -- however "comforting" it may feel -- on how God's people act and interact with God, rather than letting the wind of the Holy Spirit blow where it may, people living within denominations become spiritually "stuck" within "church boxes". They lose opportunity to grow in the Lord according to how He would lead them, while gaining lots of opportunity to grow in how their denomination decides God wants to lead them. And again, people really into their denomination come to believe those two are the same thing.

Fifth – the Bible itself specifically prohibits denominations or anything like them. For example, Paul scolded the Corinthians:

Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? (1 Corinthians 1:10-13)

Today people do even worse, not only wrapping themselves around an individual but also the human institution that sprang up from his or her interpretations. Today, people essentially say, "I am of Baptist", "I of Methodist", "I of Presbyterian", or even "I of Non-Denominational"!

But if we have such a mindset, we should realize we fall under Paul's scolding: Is Christ divided? Was Thomas Helwys crucified for us? How about John Wesley? John Calvin? Martin Luther? Last report I saw said there are now 38,000 Christian denominations in the world. Which of these 38,000 human founders died to bring salvation to a spiritually dead world?

None of them, obviously. And to the extent to which we allow the cliques we call "denominations" today to cloud that issue even to a tiny degree, is the extent to which we have sinned against the God of heaven and disrespected Jesus' true body of Christ.

So, how should we understand ourselves within the Body of Christ? And what do we do about disagreements, and about other people who call themselves Christians but seem to be anything but?

First of all, we must understand the Body of Christ from God's perspective. 

People often split into a new denomination because they disagree with something someone else believes. And indeed, we are told to stay away from people who cause problems for their own benefit in the church. However, that's a far cry from creating a false division between yourselves because you don't like the worship music! Find a group to worship with that fits your own "style", but continue to understand yourselves as still all part of the same church, and act like it! Because that is indeed what you are!

More, we have to remember always that the same God who created us to have hands that are different from eyes which are different from lungs, while all are required and respected parts of the whole, is the same God who created the Body of Christ to have "parts" which serve different functions, while remaining required and respected parts of the whole.

Does that mean "anything goes"? Obviously not. We are told not to judge – but we are told to discern, as when Jesus praised His church for testing those who claim to be apostles and not tolerating those who were found false. To prevent thinking we are going towards God when actually we are moving away from Him, we have to know God's Word, and we have to make decisions about our lives according to it.

That means:

• Taking responsibility for ourselves. I'm sorry to those who want to lump all that onto other "leaders," but you're selling out the trust given you by Jesus if you do that. Am I saying leaders are bad? No. I am saying that almost all church "leaders" are self-deluded, at best. And deciding to just go along with them because you think you can escape responsibility for the work God wants from you by doing so, just isn't going to cut it. Check out the parable of the ten talents, if you don't agree.

• Learning to release all the "church" rules, laws, doctrines, beliefs, traditions, and so on that we don't find any requirement for in the Bible, and learning to replace those with the one's we do find in the Bible – including all the ones our Western cultures teach us don't apply to us (like, "you can't serve God and money", and "turn the other cheek")

• Really coming to understand that being a Christian is about belonging to Jesus, first and only. The only thing that's real is your relationship with Him, and your understanding of yourself and the world, and how the Holy Spirit prompts you to live, learn, and love. No denomination, no matter how "Christ-centered," will ever do anything more than water down and corrupt the pure Spirit God wants in and from your heart.

Abandon "denomina-sins" for the untainted love and life of Jesus Christ!