Once was lost.

WELL it's been a few ages since I last blogged. Haven't had much to say I suppose. But I do now.

People really don't like Christians.
They don't like to feel wrong.
They don't like to feel judged.
They don't want to hear that there is an alternative to Heaven.
They don't like our churches.
They don't like our values.
They don't want us to say anything.
They want us to mess up.
They like it when we don't stand up for anything.
They will do anything to point fingers at our failures.
They just really don't like us.
And a lot of their reason's are pretty valid.
We point fingers.
We judge.
We mess up.
We claim to have a loving God when horrible things have happened to them.
I think if I didn't understand my faith I really wouldn't like me either. Honestly guys? We really don't give them a huge reason to like us. How many times have we ignored someone because they aren't in our crowd? How many times have we pointed fingers at others when we should have been pointing it at ourselves?
How many times have we repaid evil with evil? An eye for an eye? Refusing to turn the other cheek?
We claim to live by all these principles. By stating that we are Christians, we are putting an open Bible in front of us and saying that we live by it, but we don't. We don't even try. It's such a waste of time. Of glory. Of Jesus.
When we claim to be Christians, we claim His sacrifice and post it in our lives front yard. We pack up the kids for Sunday church and we keep a bible on the bookshelf and we wear WWJD bracelets and we lead VBS and we do all this stuff but it's such crap, because it's all a show. Unfortunately, people who aren't Christians see right through it. Seriously, ask any one of them. They see it and they laugh on the inside and then they throw it in our faces and we're all like, "dude, I'm not perfect! I'm a sinner but Jesus saved me," which is totally accurate BUT IT'S ALL A WASTED LIE WHEN YOU USE IT AS A FALL BACK. Yes, Jesus sure did save us, but not so that we can go and use it as a  barbed wire fence around our stupid lives that we can freely go in and out of and choose when we want to use His sacrifice and coverage from God's wrath. Jesus isn't a bomb shelter to use only when times get rough.

Quit this stupid cycle. Refuse to follow the patterns of this world. REFUSE to give them a reason to look at you and say that your life is a lie.
Hey, you're gonna mess up. But when you do it's not some light stuff. Screw ups and failures and sins and stupid moves separate us from God. They take us and put us on one side of the Grand Canyon and God on the other. It's not some joke to be used and it's not some sacrifice to abuse. When Jesus was hanging bloody, scarred, broken on the cross, I am positively sure that His thought process did not include, "Ok, I'm dying so that they can have an excuse to sin and not feel bad about it. This will totally work out and I'll just get them off the hook for everything because they are awesome."
Jesus died so that we didn't have to be separated from God anymore.
If your brother gave his life for you so that you could be free from slavery, would you just go back to being a slave because it was easier than trying to go find your way in an unfamiliar world?
No, you wouldn't. You would turn and run as fast as you could to live your free life.
"Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you." - Galatians 5:1

"So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ - that's where the action is. See things from His perspective." - Colossians 3:1-2