GOD DOES NOT GO AROUND KILLING PEOPLE

Photographer Unknown.

       Today, I wanted to touch on a subject that has bothered me every since I was a teenager. 

At that time, I was having my own ‘struggles’ with a lot of what I was hearing at church and being taught from the pulpit. I guess a lot of that struggle was simply from being a teen-ager and questioning the whole ‘formality’ of Sunday morning services, but I felt like there was so much ‘more’ I was wanting to understand and yet was not being given any real teaching that helped me to understand God more.  It seemed all I was being told was how Holy He was – and what a terrible sinner I was. 

 I grew up in a ‘religious’ family, and we regularly attended a local Church with a large congregation of our neighbours.  (The denomination itself is irrelevant here as this teaching I will refer to, seems to be taught by every denomination today.)

            I well remember attending a funeral of a relative when I was sixteen or seventeen.  At the gravesite the minister said some words and at the end of it said this:  “Ashes to ashes and dust to dust; the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.

           I’m sure everyone has heard those words.  They sound very wise and Biblical don’t they?

 

         I remember thinking at the time though, that they just seemed somehow ‘wrong’.  I did not know why they sounded wrong really, nor did I ever check it out with what is actually in Scripture, but I knew even then, that God did not kill my relative.  Nor did the Lord ‘call him home’.  I knew for sure in my spirit that this was just wrong.  Why would God kill my Uncle?  Doesn’t God love us?  Does it not stand to reason that if God loves us, then He would want good things for us like health, long days on the earth, guidance, prosperity, peace, etc.. ?  It did not seem to me that the Loving God I was searching so hard to relate to would just turn around one mysterious day and ‘call me home’ –which is to say, cause my death.  The few times I did enquire about this to anyone, the answer was usually something about ‘God moves in mysterious ways.’   Well, He may well have moved in mysterious ways to Old Testament believers, but the mystery has been cleared up since the New Testament was written.  His ‘mystery” has been written down for 2,000 years now and is there for any student of His Word to see.  (Mark 4:11; Mathew 13:11; Eph 1:9 for starters and especially Romans 16:25,26)

   
  Below in the scripture reference is the verse that seems to be always quoted at funerals (Job 1:21).   You’ve heard it also:  ‘Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.”

  This is a huge part of the cause of people thinking that God kills you.  And that line of thinking is simply Not true!  Jesus came to bring us life –and that more abundantly.  Jesus healed anyone who was sick and asked Him to, and Jesus himself testified that if you ‘Have seen me, then you have seen the Father.’  From this we know that God is not out to give you disease or death but to Heal you so that you will live longer!

  In the first place, the whole statement is not a quote of one sentence, but is made up of two statements. One is from the book of Genisis and the second part from the Book of Job.   The first part about ‘Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dust’ is actually from Gen 3:19.  It is not quoted words, but refers instead to a concept.  God made man from the dust of the ground.  (Gen 2:7)

     Below, I have copied the first chapter of the book of Job.  If you read verse 21 in the context of the whole chapter, you can plainly see that it was satan who 'tooketh away' - not God!
   Also note, that these words are not inspired of God as is so much of the Bible. (especially the New Testament), but instead are a quote out of Job's mind and mouth - and after such a series of disasters!  But even so, it was after he 'fell down upon the ground, and worshipped!  Later on, Job’s wife would tempt him to blame God for all this trouble, and Job rebuked her severely for her thoughts that God was the cause of his misfortunes.

   Remember also, as you read this account of Satan having been given permission from God to check out Job’s faith, that this is in the OLD Testament. 

In the New Testament, we –as individual believers – have been given the authority through the precious name of Jesus Christ, to stop Satan in his foul tracks.  We no longer have to suffer from his attacks on us because Jesus totally disarmed and defanged satan and gave us all authority in His name to rebuke and banish satan from hurting us.  Oh, that rat will still attack us, and we are told to ‘put on the full armour of God’ to stop those flaming darts of his attack upon us.

   No, God does not kill us.  God loves us and has given us all the protection we need to withstand the ‘wiles’ of the devil.  For that is the only thing satan can actually fight us with – his wiles.  If you are not armed with the Word of God to repel those attacks, then you are going to be wide open to receive them.  This is also why so many people today are doubting even the existence of satan!  If you don’t believe you have an enemy, then you are wide open for every and all attacks from him.  Good luck.

   But that weapon –wiles – is more deadly than  we realize!  And here is the proof of that.  If you believe ‘that the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away’ your life, then how my friend, are you ever going to develop a trusting and strong Faith in His Goodness?  I doubt you can.  If you had a friend in the physical world who would fly off the handle and beat you up every once in a while, how long would he/she be your friend?  If your father would suddenly turn on you and beat you, would you love to be in his company and yearn to be with him? 

   This doctrine of God ‘calling us home’ is  a heretic teaching inspired by Satan himself.  It is designed to destroy –or at least greatly weaken- your faith in God your Father.

  I hope this gives some clarity to the misuse of this verse as we hear it all the time at funerals.  I for one, speak to the Minister in charge every time I hear this junk preached.  It is a heretic teaching and most people do not even realize the damage it causes – even those preaching it. 

  God did NOT do these things to Job.
  satan did.


THE BOOK OF JOB

CHAPTER 1

1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.
2 And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters.
3 His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.
 4 And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.
 5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about , that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said , It may be that my sons have sinned , and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.
 7 And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said , From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
 8 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said , Doth Job fear God for nought?
10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
 11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
*12 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.
13 And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house:
14 And there came a messenger unto Job, and said , The oxen were plowing , and the asses feeding beside them:
15 And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away ; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
 16 While he was yet speaking , there came also another, and said , The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
17 While he was yet speaking , there came also another, and said , The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away , yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
18 While he was yet speaking , there came also another, and said , Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house:
19 And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead ; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
20 Then Job arose , and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,
21 And said , Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave , and the LORD hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the LORD.
22 In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

*  Remember, this is OLD Testament.  In the New Testament, satan has no power over us.  We have all power over him through the name of Jesus Christ.

No Condemnation!

Photography by

Rick Mortimer

   I am of the belief that the Holy Spirit does not 'reprove' us for each sin that we commit. 
John 16:9, I believe would be the Holy Spirit reproving us of the sin of not believing in Jesus.  Not the sin of say -swearing or stealing or whatever.  Those are things for a believer's conscious to bring to mind. 
  If we have the Holy Spirit then we are born again.  If we are born again, our spirits are sealed and already in the Kingdom of His Dear Son. (Col 1:13).  Sin has been dealt with already and has been judged.  The Holy Spirit is not here to continue to keep judging us... only to lead us to things of Christ.  To keep us pointed at Jesus.  Jesus became sin for us.  That has already been dealt with.  We are saved by Grace, through Faith.  With our spirits already in the Kingdom, we can now go before the Father.  God could not be in our presence if we where sinful.  Therefor, since God is  a spirit we must have fellowship or come before Him, in the spirit also.  Our spirits are pure and sealed already - for eternity and so now we can fellowship with the Father - in Spirit.
  But the flesh is the problem.  God knows that when we walk with Jesus -in the flesh - we will willingly sin no more.  That is the job of the Holy Spirit - to keep us pointed at Jesus.  When we do slip and sin, our conscience  will reprove us who love Christ; not the Holy Spirit.
  The verse below says it all.  If we are 'in Christ Jesus' by the Grace of the Father, then we will try and walk not in the flesh, but in the Spirit to please the Father.  (our end of the deal is to express Faith.)

Romans 8:1 KJV

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

John 14:
26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

John 15:
26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

John 16:
7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
9 Of sin, because they believe not on me;
10 Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more;
11 Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
12 I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you

 I think to tell people that the Holy Spirit condemns us all the time is bad teaching.  For one thing, He doesn't.  For another who would even want a friend that is constantly condemning you?  Not me!  So why would anyone look forward to receiving someone who is so full of condemnation as the Churches teach that the Holy Spirit is? 
  Why are we all so focused on sin  all the time?  Because the churches have been teaching sin and not the gospel of Grace through Faith.  (Eph 2:8)  Not totally Grace, and not totally Faith, but a combination.  Grace was given to us, and Faith is what we give back.  We can not just accept Grace and not give back Faith while expecting to be righteous, anymore than we can walk in Faith and not accept the Grace that has been bestowed upon us.
 Those who teach condemnation have missed it!  We should be focused on what Jesus has done right for us - not on what we do wrong!  Heb 10:2 clears this up quite plainly by saying that if we do focus on righteousness we will have no more consciousness of sin!

  

The gospel means 'Almost too good to be True, News!"   And that isn't condemnation!

 

 

Heaven is NOW

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by

Rick Mortimer

Today as I was reading an article by OS Hillman, I was struck with the truth that all of God’s Word is passed on through the centuries to me so that I may live well in the time I am here on this earth.

 God framed the world by his Word and created certain principles for it to operate by. The law of Gravity for one; Aerodynamics, Electricity, Sewing and Reaping, and many others.  These laws are unchanging and when we follow them, we will be safe and able to function in this world.

   Does it not reason then, that God’s Word – as given to us in the Bible- is but further instruction on how to live well on this earth?  God loves us and wants to prosper us and see us in good health and forgive our trespasses and to enable us to walk with authority on this earth (the atonement of Christ).  He said to follow His Word and so choose Life!  (Deut 4:1, 30:19)  

  Inside of His instruction book (the Bible) we find other major principles for man to function by also;  The Law of Love; The law of Faith; The Laws of Compensation (“Give and it shall be given unto thee.’);  The Tithe.  And many many others.

  If one truly believes in God and also that this is a spiritual world in which we live, then one must come to the conclusion that our loving Father has also provided us with instructions on how to live well, and with all the blesssings He created for us to have.  Sound health, joy, peace of mind, prosperity, etc..  

 I believe.  Therefore, to me the Bible is a Living Document from God’s own lips that He has breathed life into – preserved down through the ages to be given to me, so that I may enjoy all that He has already given to me.   By following his Word, and being a doer of them - I will be able to receive it.

    Proverbs 1:7 7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

    Hosea 4:6 6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

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GOD Doesn't 'Call us Home.'

Photo by Rick Mortimer

God is not the author of death and sickness.

By

Rick Mortimer

I have been to two funerals this week.  One was for an 88 yr old fellow who went pretty fast.  The other was from a guy my age who went very slowly through alcoholism.  One bottle at a  time.

 I do not believe that in either case, 'God called them home."  We hear this wrong teaching all the time at funerals and it just makes me mad that the churches push this, and that we hear it so much that we believe it.  Even the Baptists 'push' this view of God.
   We live in a fallen world.  There have been two men who would never have to face death.  One was Adam -whom God made in His image. Adam would have lived forever, but brought his own death about through sin.  Through the same sin 'Death then entered the world.'   Now everything is full of death.  (disease, sickness, poverty, unrighteousness, mold, corruptness, etc...) 
 The second man was Jesus.  Jesus was born of the Father and never took on the sin full nature of the human race after Adam.  Jesus gave up his own life.  He stated that.  God did not kill him.  Jesus gave up his own life so that he could defeat satan through his death.  He could not die!  He GAVE his life up for me.  Much like another soldier throwing himself on a land mine and blowing himself up in order to save his friend from walking on it.  Jesus did this out of Love for me.

  This concept that God kills people is wrong.  God loves us.  God loves us more than we can even understand.  EVERY SINGLE unsaved/unreborn/sinner in the New Testament that asked Jesus to heal him - and whom Jesus healed - stayed healed.  Jesus killed no one, nor did he refuse to heal anyone.  NOT ONE. Jesus brought LIFE to us.  God loves us, why on earth would He 'call us home?  And yet the churches keep pushing this at us.  I know God and Jesus are there to greet us when we do go to Heaven, and I for one am looking forward to THAT hug!  But no, God is not going to kill me for it so I can have it.
  I believe we live in a fallen world.  Crap happens.  If you are standing under a bridge and the supports are weak and give out - because of the law of gravity you are going to be crushed and killed.  If you are in a spot where a bullet has to pass by because of the laws of trajectory - you will get hit and probably killed.  If you are in a plane and the motors quit...probably the laws of aerodynamics will kill you. If you breath in chemicals or germs, there's laws covering that. Plus, our bodies start wearing out from the moment we are born because of Adam's sin.   Etc.. 

   Satan is the author of death, not God.  God’s choice for us is LIFE.  (He even told us twice to choose life in Deuteronomy).  Because God is LIFE not death.
  We know that Satan can put thoughts into your head, but he has been defeated and has no power over us.  So he comes to us with lies and deception. That is the only weapon he has left!   If we believe those lies, then he can maneuver us into a position where we will die.  Through our own ego, selfishness, character defects, lusts or whatever, if we believe the thoughts he can put in our heads and if we choose to follow them, it can/will lead to death.  He is the father of lies, and if we believe his lies, we will act on them, and we will die.  Slowly or otherwise, but we WILL die. God tells us to learn His thoughts.  Satan tries to get us to believe his lies and thoughts.  Scripture tells us "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."  God is life, satan is death.  Which thoughts do we want to 'thinketh' here? 

 And we will die physically, not just spiritually by following satanic lies. 

But conversely, just because we die does not mean we were following satan's lie, either.  We live in a world governed by physical laws.  Break one and you can well die.  The law of electricity for example.  You don't have to be an evil person to die from high voltage.  You can be a saint, but if you touch a high-voltage wire you are going to die.  That is not God killing you.  God will surely welcome you when you get home, but He  sure did not kill you to get you there!
  Of course, according to Psalm 91, we do have protection.  If we listen, the Holy Spirit will guide us to somewhere where that high voltage wire can't harm us.  Or move us from the path of the bullet...or the tornado, or the flood.  But we must be in a position to hear the Holy Spirit.  If you are not 'fearing the Lord' you are probably not going to respond to His quiet urging either.

But God does not kill us.  I think that is one of the greatest heresies in the church today!  
  And here's the reason for this lie being repeated over and over.... How can you trust a God -or have faith in Him - if you think he's going to kill you at any moment?  Or maybe He'll strike your baby with cancer to teach you a lesson?
    What a great way for the father of lies to destroy -or at the least, horribly weaken, your faith in the Father of TRUTH AND LIFE.

  Another reason why it’s preached, I think, is because it makes it easier to tell grieving people that their teenaged son died because God wanted him back in heaven and so ‘called him home,’ than it is to say the truth that the son died because he got drunk and drove his car into a tree – or whatever. It's easier to tell people that God called Grandpa home than it is to tell them that satan's alcohol or nicotine killed him.   In other words, it is easier for us to blame God for our sin-caused deaths than it is to tell the truth about them.  If we told the truth about them, we might have to hurt someone's feelings... and we're much to selfish to do that, because that would be too hard for us.  God is big, He can handle taking the blame, right?  Wrong.  The proof of this is that we now have millions of people believing that when you die, it's because God killed you and 'Called you Home.'

  WHAT AN APPALLING LIE THAT IS!

 I stand on that.
Rick

Where the Impossible happens!

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by

Rick Mortimer

I really had to think about this for a bit before I got it. I finally got it.

"However, when we shift our awareness or "frequency" from self-consciousness -- where fear, impossibility or feelings of separation reside -- to cosmic consciousness, which is in total harmony with the universe and where none of those feelings exist, then anything is possible."
- Rhonda Byrne

Nothing is out of balance in God's World. Not one iota or to one-millionth of a degree is anything out of sync. When we are in harmony with God's Word... then we are in harmony with the laws of the universe also. Those are God's laws... God's Word.

Hebrews Chapter 10 Verse 2 says this:
"2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins."

This then, is the area where impossible things begin to happen. "Worshippers, once purged..." It is talking about making your old ways gone and repented of [stopped from repeating], forgiven [your conscience cleansed of past errors and mistakes],
and new ways that are in harmony with God's Word adopted and integrated into your paradym [mind set] (Rom 12:2)*

The result? New habits that allow you to make new choices, which now put you in perfect harmony with God's Universal Laws. And God is perfect success.
Awesome!


* 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Who did Jesus die for anyway?

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by

Rick Mortimer

   I had always thought as a Christian, that Jesus died for His Own, i.e. ‘Christians,’ and that the whole order of this was pre-destined.  In other words, God chose me to be reborn.  I never stopped to realise that I was not a Christian at the time I was saved by Jesus’ death and great sacrifice.  I was ‘of the world’ at the time I was saved.   How presumptuous of me to think that I was somehow ‘better’ than those of ‘the world’ and that God chose me to be saved.

   The truth is a lot different as we shall see below.  God did not ‘choose’ me to save me [predestination],  but instead offered me a choice which I accepted and therefore chose to became reborn and a child of God – by my own choice.  I accepted His extended Grace to me, by using my Faith, and that enabled  [allowed] God to adopt me as His son.  (Gal 4:5)

   Until such time as I chose to become –and so became- reborn [a new creature] through the blood of Jesus, He could not adopt me.   

   It seems to be tradition in modern teaching to preach that God has total power to do whatever He decides to do.  I agree that God has this power –after all, He is the Creator of all things- but it is also proven that He does not use this power except supernaturally in certain specific times and places.  He always defers to our choice, and therefore is limited by what people allow Him to do.  That is a hard concept to understand at first, because I was so full of the traditional (and wrong) teaching of the modern church, that God has total control over the world and everything is predestined and therefore predicted to unfold as He has commanded it to.  This is totally unscriptural teaching and yet it has been so pounded into me, that I find it hard to renew my mind to the truth.

Romans chapter 5
6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
8 But God commended his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. *

* Have now received = past tense.   It is a done deal.
All scripture taken from the KJV Bible.  All underlines and Italics are mine.

John  chapter 3:
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life

John Chapter 3
36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

So then, while we where yet ungodly sinners,  Jesus died for us because ‘God so loved the World.’   The world is not saved; the world is full of unsaved sinners who as such are enemies of God.  In spite of this, God gave his only son, Jesus, so that we in the world would have a choice whether or not to be saved from our own ungodliness and thereby gain eternal life with our creator, by accepting this gift of God – His Son, Jesus Christ- and asking Him to be Lord of our life.

   Having been ‘reborn’ in the spirit by God’s grace to us, we now are able to receive the full atonement for our sins.  This includes forgiveness for our unrighteousness [our sins], and also the Blessing that was promised to our Father in Faith – Abraham. 

 Upon being reborn we become totally new creations on this earth, the like of which has never existed before:

2 Cor 5:17

17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

 Once having become a ‘New Creation’ our spirit is delivered from the power of darkness [the world] and is translated [totally changed] into the kingdom of his dear Son.  (Col 1:13)

If, however, according to John 3:36, we refuse to accept the gift of Jesus, then we remain children of God’s wrath.  We have no concert with God.  We are adrift in a fallen and sinful world with no thought or help from our Creator.  He gave us free will to choose our own eternity and will not force us to accept His greatest gift.  So we see that we can either choose Life in Him – or Death without Him.  God will always honour our choice.

 Therefore, according to the scriptures above, this whole concept of being ‘predestined’ to be a Christian –God’s child- is wrong.  God does not force anyone to do anything against the free will He has given to us. 

When Adam allowed Satan to become the Lord of his life by obeying him in the Garden of Eden,  Adam became Satan’s servant.

Romans 6:

16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

 Since God had given total control of the earth over to Adam, this dominion came under satan’s control –as did Adam- when Adam transgressed and served satan.  Satan  is often referred to as the ‘prince of this world’ and the ‘power of the air’.

  God always honours His Word.  He had told Adam that he was to ‘have dominion’ over the earth and all that was in it, and therefore He could not take that back away from Adam, once it was given up. (Gen 1:26)

This again, is another example of God being restricted in His actions, by what men do here on earth.  It is us who allows God’s designs and plans to come to pass here on earth. This is why He created His Bride – the Church – so that the Body of His Church could start speaking the things of God to come to pass on this earth!

  Are we doing that?  NO!  Instead we have bought into the satanic lie that God is in total control of it all and we should just lay back and not resist anything at all as it’s preordained to happen.  This is exactly what we have done, and the enemy of our souls runs riot over us!

No wonder we are in such a mess in this world.

    We have made it so.

  Mark 7:7,8,9,13

7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

 8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.

 9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.

13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.

Meet the Author/Painter/Sculpter

  

Photo by

Rick Mortimer

 When you look at a painting... do you not recognize that it was created by someone? It had an author?
 When you see a building, do you not realize it had an architect? Someone imagined and created it?

 Are you so removed from the world, that you can not look around you and see that it too, had an author?

 To think otherwise is to believe that nothing created something - which is a scientific impossiblilty.

  Have you ever studied the human body and mind in it's infinite perfection? Each cell is perfect and wonderfully made! To think this just somehow 'happened' to come about without intelligent design, is to choose the inane.
  Inside of you is the knowledge that you are a created being. You can believe it, or you can deny it. Your choice from a loving God.
   But you choose!
 You've got all the proof you need right around you.  So just do like it says in the picture:
   "Stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God."

Get Ready to Recieve

Photo by Rick Mortimer

I’m sure we’ve all hear the expression, “When the student is ready, the teacher appears!”

And how true that is!  It is a fact of this life that you do not get the things you need until you are ready to receive them.  For example, I never got my first driver’s license until I had a need for it.  I did not receive training on how to pack a horse, until I had need of packing a horse.  I did not receive medicine until I was ready to be healed… the list is endless.  It is just the way things work in this world and it is how we learn by acquiring knowledge at the time and place that we need it.  Before we need it, we don’t need it! We have no use of it.  We are not ready to receive it.  

What I am getting at here is that you do not seriously expect to receive a thing, until you have a need for that particular thing.. whatever it may be.  And when you believe and are ready to receive it, you will receive it.

Many times we ‘wish’ or we ‘hope’ for something… a new job; a vacation; a nice house with a view - whatever it may be.  But what is a wish?  A wish is really just a desire with no action behind it. No goals set nor passion to achieve it – nothing more than an expressed and longed for want.  A hollow thought for something.

  Hope, on the other hand, seems to have a bit more passion behind it.  “I hope I can be allowed to go to the game.  I hope I can get a new car.  I hope I can get that pay raise.  I hope, I hope, I hope.”  We can spend our lives wishing and hoping.

   The thing about hoping is that it is always in the future.  If it was past tense, we’d already have it.  If it was present tense, we would not need to hope for it because we would be receiving it now.  So hope then, is always in the future tense.  “I hope tomorrow is a nice day…I hope I get that pay raise next month…”

   Enter Faith.  Faith is far beyond hoping and wishing.  Faith is knowing.  Faith is now.

To have Faith is to believe.  A belief is something concrete.  You know that you know that you know.  For example:  you can have Faith that your kids will turn out alright, because you put the time and effort into them to bring about that result.  You can have Faith that God loves you, because you have seen the proof and understand what Christ did for you on the cross and you take His Word for it that it is done.  He cannot lie so it’s a given that the thing is done.  You cant’ see it, but you know beyond factual belief, that the thing is so.

   There are two kinds of Faith…one is sense-knowledge Faith.. and one is Spiritual Faith.

Sense-knowledge Faith is the kind of faith that lets you walk into a room and flop into a chair, ride an elevator, get in an airplane, and a thousand other things we do each day.  We can flop into the chair because we can be pretty well assured that the chair will hold us.  We see it has all it’s legs, it looks solid, or we may have seen someone else just get out of it.  But we apply what we know by our senses before we actually do any flopping.  Or airplanes – we may not actually see the pilot but we know that the law protects us in that an airplane must have a sober pilot.  Our senses give us the knowledge that we can act upon a thing.

 Spiritual Faith is different.  This kind of Faith is an expectant Faith of a future event based on what we believe.  Again, there’s the example of our Faith in our kids turning out right.  The example of having ‘Faith’ that God’s laws and principles are true.  Having Faith in your ability to do the right thing.  Faith in the things you cannot see but believe for – that is the kind of Faith I’m talking about here.

   Hope is for the future, but Faith is NOW.  

  Scripture defines faith as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen.”  (Heb 11:1).   So, using the example of the kids turning out ‘right’ you can see that the ‘substance of things’ is the teaching and the effort you put into raising them.  The evidence of things not yet seen’ is your knowledge of other kids turning out right from proper teaching, even though you can’t see it in your own as yet.  So you can have belief and Faith in the result.

  Belief and Faith differ though.   I can believe through sense-knowledge for the physical things in my life.  “The chair will hold me.  There is a pilot on this plane.  My car will start.”   I can believe those things, but I can also do so without needing faith.  I’m simply believing in the proven – facts.

  Spiritual Faith takes us into another realm altogether.  Faith in God.  Faith in your righteousness in God.  Faith that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.  This kind of Faith is knowing passed and beyond hope.  It is knowing beyond a belief.  This kind of Faith is when you know a thing simply just is or it will be.

   I have wrestled for a long time over exactly how to understand why Faith is such a force, for my own understanding.  I think I finally have it!

   In Mark 11:23 (KJV)  Jesus put it this way:

       “For verily I say unto you.  That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith.

Vs 24:  Therefore I say unto you. What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that receive them, and ye shall have them.”

  I don’t know how many times I have read those words. Quoted those words! But last night as I lay reading them over once again, the light went on!  

       In order to believe for a thing, you must be ready to receive the thing!

Remember the opening statement above?  “When the student is ready, the teacher appears.”  Well, it is the same creative principle at work here.  When you are ready to receive a thing, it will appear if you speak for it out of your readiness to receive it.  Not think about it, but say it out loud.  Jesus used the word ‘say’ three times here for a reason.

     “…For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.”  (Luke 6:45)

Awesome!  I will take some of that please!

    First we speak about that for which we desire.  We talk about our dreams and our visions, our deep desires. and the things we are excited about.  We use our imagination to see a thing in our possession.  In other words, we make ourselves ready to receive it!  We prepare for the event!  We ready ourselves to possess it!

Think about it!  I remember as a child, when we -as a family - got word that the adoption papers had been approved; we prepared a crib and a whole room for a new baby’s arrival!  So first we talked about it and expressed our want.  Then we believed we would receive and put the thing into action.  We readied ourselves and kept speaking an expectant faith in the achievement of our dream.  We do the same process with all things!  If you are getting a new car, you clean a space for it in the garage.  If you buy new furniture you prepare a space to put in it before the deliver man arrives.  You talk about it and you expect it to come to you. Expectant Faith.  This is the creative force!

Awesome!   Get ready to receive!

Do Not Doubt --Only Believe

Photography by Rick Mortimer

    I was just lazing about here on this hot afternoon thinking about my grandson Glen who came to stay and be with me at my Father’s Celebration for Life.  How nice that was of him to come down and spend that time with me, and for me to be able to introduce him to  a lot of my relatives – many of whom I myself had not seen since back in the early 1970’s when I left the coast to go live up north in the Yukon.
   Unfortunately, when it came time for Glen to fly back home to Whitehorse, we found that had missed his flight.  When you buy your tickets online you get an email with flight times on it and these are in military time.  Glen, being a young fellow and unfamiliar with military clock workings, got the hours mixed up and as a result we showed up two hours late at the airport on the night of his returning home.  At least we had lots of seats there at the check-in booth!
  
   This is quite an expensive mistake and I do highly recommend to anyone flying anywhere to check your times!  In Glen’s case he ended up purchasing another full fledged ticket since the airline would not give him any kind of a break on his no-show.  Not necessarily unfairly on the airline’s part either, but still… a downer for Glen.

    On the way back home I was telling him that one of the things I’ve learned in my life is that not everything we see as ‘bad,’ is in fact, bad.  Since I am firmly convinced –unshakably so- that as a reborn Christian, I can claim protection and power and Grace, in the name of Jesus Christ, that is not available to people who have not accepted Jesus Christ as their saviour.   I have seen many examples while living in the northern bush, of this protection in situations where something I at first perceived as ‘bad’ turned out to have saved my life.  Some of those happenings involved grizzly bears, and many involved bad ice on the rivers and lakes.  Some involved trees being blown over where I would have camped if the timing had been different, or if the horses had not run off.  In other words, what was ‘bad’ at first glance, turned out to be even life-saving in hind-sight.
    God uses all things for good to those who believe, and a lot of the doing of this turning what we first think is bad to good we are not aware of in the physical realm.  A good scriptural example is Elijah (Elisha) asking God to open the eyes of his servant, when they were surrounded by the army of Syria.  In looking at things through the physical senses, they were in deep trouble with no hope of a way out.  God saw it otherwise and in the spiritual realm, the servant’s eyes were opened and he saw around Elijah and himself, a whole army of horses and chariots of fire ready to fight for them and to protect them from the Syrian Kings wrath.  (2Kings 6:17,18).

    I was telling Glen of this and of the stories behind the attack on the Twin Towers in New York on 9/11 where thousands of lives where lost.  What we did not hear of on the nightly news (tip there!), was that hundreds of lives where also saved.  I believe the number was around 300 if memory serves, who –for various reasons- had not shown up for work that day in the towers, and so lived to talk of it.
  One such person I remember quite clearly;  his dog had eaten his shoe-laces during the night and he had stopped on his way to work to buy new ones.  He had some difficulty finding appropriate ones to go with his shoes, and the delay saved his life.  He was still in the store, many miles from the Twin Towers when the airplanes where flown into the buildings.
   Another was of a lady who, during the previous night had come down with a case of food poisoning and so she too was spared of being caught in the holocaust of the collapsing towers.
   These are only two examples and again, if memory serves me right – there where over three-hundred people who did not show up for work on that day, resulting in their lives being spared.
   Now, when you stop and think about it, did the lady with food poisoning during the night think about how lucky she was to be so sick?  Did the guy needing shoe laces get excited about his time lost from work?  (I can’t imagine it would be too exciting to have to phone your boss and explain that the dog ate your shoelaces!).  Truth is that I doubt if very many of those three-hundred people where thinking in terms of how ‘lucky’ they were that morning – while the towers stood as they had for many mornings before.
   But they were lucky; if you use the word ‘luck’ as the world uses it.  I no longer believe in luck myself.  The word ‘luck’ is like the term ‘coincidence’ or the word ‘try’… it does not exist in reality.

   So I was able to help my young grandson see that there is more than one way to look at things.  What you see as ‘bad’ may in fact be ‘good’.  How do we know that if he’d caught that flight, he might have ended sitting next to someone with an infectious disease?  Or that perhaps we where spared the timing of being involved in a horrible car accident if we’d left for the airport earlier?  So in fact, his bad fortune was actually, his good fortune!
   How do we know?  Put pure and truthfully…we don’t – in the sense realm.  But 2 Corinthians 5:7 tells me that as a Christian I am to walk by Faith and not by sight (sight meaning ‘of the senses’ or with my ‘earthly’ mind) .  In Faith I know that as a Child of God that I am protected and loved, and that God has promised in His Word that I have the power to ‘tread upon serpents’ and be protected in the name of Jesus. (Mark 16; 15-18)

   What a blessing it is to have learned these things in my lifetime and to be able to teach it to the next generation!   By the time we got home from the airport that evening, Glen was smiling again (albeit a lot poorer financially), and I had strengthened my own Faith in the teaching of it.

  God is awesome!  And so:
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!

   
 
 

Recycling the Mind

How to Recycle Your Mind

Photo by Rick Mortimer

  I always wondered why it was that so few people I meet on a daily basis could be said to be high achievers.  That is to say, people who consistently meet the goals they set for themselves in the various areas of their lives.  Some people want to grow in areas of spirituality, others wanted to be healthier, and still others to be wealthier.  However, most of those who admitted to me that they even had goals, also told me that they did not feel very optimistic about achieving them.  I felt about the same way, and since I had the opportunity to do so, I took the time to study on why so many of us do not achieve our goals, and why it seems that so few do.

  This led me to discover the most amazing gift I was ever given:  The power to control my own destiny and to achieve any goal or dream I can believe in for myself. 

  Here’s how it works:

  It is from out of our subconscious mind that our future flows.

  The mind is said to be comparable to an ice-berg in that only the top ten percent is recognized by most people.  This is what we refer to as the conscious mind.  It is the part of our brain that we are hearing ourselves think with, and that we use for logical thought.

  What most people don’t recognize is that it is the sub-conscious mind which directs us to make the actions and choices that we do process each day.  This section of our mind is often referred to as the seat of our ego or our id.  It creates and holds onto our self-made picture of ourselves.  It is also the part of the brain that runs all our body functions for which we do not take conscious thought of; breathing for instance.

 Our mind is programmed by habits which are formed by our predominant thought patterns.  It is from these patterns of thought that we will act, and these actions are what create our ‘outer circumstance’.  

  Control those patterns and you control your future.

  How?

  The mind works by habit-force.  What we program our sub-conscious mind with will dictate how it will think by ‘default.’  Once we understand this, we then have the power to change the way our mind functions as it is faced with our daily situations.  Let’s say for example, I desire to be a more positive type of person.  I may be a predominantly negative type of person, but if I want to change that then it is within my power to do so.  I can start to bombard my mind with positive thoughts in all circumstance by an act of my will, mix those thoughts with strong emotion, and my sub-conscious mind will soon start to act out of that new thought pattern and begin seek out and find the positive side of any given set of circumstance.  The emotion should be joy, or excitement, or even anger; any emotion that is strongly felt. This reinforces the importance of this set of thoughts to your mind.

  By taking every thought captive and deliberately reinforcing this action, habit-force will eventually take over and soon my subconscious mind will be directing me to the positive possibilities in a situation instead of the negative ones.  I will now find myself having a positive outlook without having to ‘work’ at it anymore.  Even more importantly, my outer circumstance will change and become more positive also, because my mind will now see the positive choices available to me, instead of those choices being based on the old negative view I was being directed to previously.

  Any change in your outer circumstance comes from change on the inside first, simply because our circumstances are the result of our actions which come from the decisions and choices we make; which of course come from our thoughts.

And that is how you change your future.  One thought at a time. 

  The key is desire coupled with self-discipline.  I must first want to change, and then I must be determined to pursue that desire with diligence.  I must be persistent.  I must be patient –and I must be thorough!

  It is a sad fact that in North America, 95% of people over the age of 65 are considered to be unsuccessful financially to the point of needing some sort of financial assistance to sustain a decent life style.  The other 5% obviously found the key above and applied it to take the road to prosperity instead of poverty.

  Which group do you want to be in?  Think about it!

 Rick Mortimer

How to have J-O-Y

Some people just seem to be happy and peaceful all the time!  It used to make me wonder what was wrong with them.  I thought that if you where going through hard times, and you appeared joyful -even somewhat happy - you where just being hypocritical.
   Not so, says the Word...

Hebrews 12:3  “For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”

 This verse says it all to me.  Consider Him [Jesus]..... lest I be weary [worn and dull of mind] and faint [grow weak in my Faith].
    In other words,  I need to keep my mind on Jesus ALL THROUGH THE DAY so that my Faith will be strong to accomplish what needs to be done.  What needs to be done?  I need to live for Christ and through obedience to Him [action Faith] do the work the Father has chosen me to do.  I will know when the time comes what that is in it's totality.  In the meantime, obedience is the job.
  The key I'm seeing with this verse is this:  Keep your mind on Him.

Chapter 12 of Hebrews starts with the word (KJV)  Wherefore.... that means that the verses leading up to it have led us to a point being made  ..and so we need to know what led us up to this point:
   Leading up is Heb 11 and a message about people of Faith and their accomplishments.. vs 33-40 in particular, is talking about the early Christian's who where martyred for their Faith, mostly in the Roman Coliseum.  They were fed to lions, spitted on stakes and set afire, sawn in two, boiled alive in oil, and a hundred other obscenities.   These people, when they where being tortured in the Coliseum sang and Praised God in their martyrdom to the effect that Nero (Emperor of Rome) would plug his ears and cry out "Why are these Christians so eager to die?"  
 The early Christians were eager to follow Jesus.  They KNEW that with Jesus was the place to be!  I'm not talking suicidal...I'm talking of a total lack of fear of death.  Jesus had just given us power over the fear of death, remember?  These people lived such fear free lives that they went to the Coliseum singing and praising God!  Even some of the soldiers quit their posts and ran to take the place of those being martyred because these people had 'something' that others had never seen before.  Jesus! 
  Listen to this truth and reflect on it ---within 30 yrs of this, the most powerful nation that had ever existed in the known world, fell.  It disintegrated  - imploded- because of the Christian Faith.
     Oh how we have fallen away!  Today, we are scared to even mention His name in places!

This then all leads into Hebrews 12 and now we need to pay attention, for the point leads us to what we need to do:
    

1 Wherefore seeing [by the preceding verses] we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, [of bearing any sin] and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

  Paul is telling me to remember those that have gone before and how their walk with Jesus was.  To lay aside everything I am going through at present and to focus on Jesus.  By doing so, even during these afflictions [persecutions] my Faith will enable me to persevere with patience the trials before me.

 How could Jesus, knowing and aware that the torture, brutality, and cruelty of the cross was directly before Him, possibly walk toward it in Joy?  did you ever wonder about that?
Joy?  ???

  Jesus had joy because He kept His mind on the Father.  He had Joy because He knew He was doing what the Father wanted Him to do .  The assignment did not matter - obedience was the issue.  The fact that it was going to kill Him and cause him untold pain and undeserved horror and shame-did not steal His Joy!  He did not endure the trek to the cross with a sulky self-pitying attitude.  His mind was fixed on the prize He was to attain over his victory and he was flooded with joy because of it.  Even in the midst of His worst earthly moments, He had joy.

   That sure takes away any excuse I have for my next pity party!
  This teaches me that JOY is under our control. It is an emotion and so subject to our control.  Your emotions follow upon your actions.  Actions follow your thoughts.  You can stir yourself up to feel any emotion you desire to have. What are you focusing your mind on?  What emotions are your thoughts creating for you? 

How then can we possibly allow ourselves to be depressed, discouraged, sad, etc...?  We can stir ourselves up through remembering what Jesus did and by doing the same.  He stayed focused on the joy of serving His Father.
  This is an incredible teaching. 

    There are some hard things coming in the near future.  I for one, and keeping my mind on Jesus. Otherwise, I will be too weak to endure my own race.

Keep the Important thing the Important thing

Photo by Rick Mortimer

Keeping the important thing the important thing.

There is a graveyard behind my house.  It is a huge graveyard of about one hundred acres and has existed since this city was incorporated about one hundred and fifty years ago.

 Yesterday when I was walking by it I saw graves where the people had died almost one hundred years ago.  Some of those people where old at the time they died and some where not. 

   I tried to imaging what their lives must have been like.  These must have been pioneering people who came to this city when it was young or maybe even still pretty much a wilderness even.  And then I got thinking about what their world was like for them and of all the technology and changes that have come and gone since their deaths.

   You know, they were normal people.  They had issues and pet peeves, and things that gave them pleasure.  They had families and bills to pay and jobs to go to and food to gather.  They had things they cherished and things they hated about their lives.  The had issues.  They had relationships.  They had sadness and happiness come and go in their lives just like I do.  They loved living as much as I do.  They lived and saw other die.  They had their own social circles and valued their friends just like I do.

  But none of those things matter now.  It’s all gone for them.  Their earthly trip is over.  Not one thing matters to those people now except where they are spending their eternity. 

  Think about it.  

The only thing that really matters in our lives is our relationship to God. 

When someone walks past your headstone one-hundred years from now, what are they going to think about the things that you value and place importance on  today?  What are they?  Are you putting a priority in your life on your job?  Politics?  How much money your pension is going to bring?  If your child goes to this school or that school? What your boss thinks about the last report you filed?  Where you are going to vacation this coming summer?   Which hockey team is going to win the Stanley Cup?

    Are these things going to matter down the road to you?  To others?

The only thing that matters in our lives is our relationship to God.  When that is in place, the rest will be added to you.

  What did you do to Praise God today?  Did you ask Him to spend the day with you?  Did you thank Him for bringing you the prosperity that you have and for giving you the good health you enjoy?  Did you thank Him for loving you today and paying the horrid price of the death of His precious Son so that you could know Him today?  Did you thank Him for delivering you from the fear of death and for inviting you over to His house for the next bazillion years of eternity?

What value do you put on God?   Because that is the only thing about you that is going to remain one hundred years from now.  The only thing.

  What value you give God in your life today, is the only thing that is going to remain in the future, because this is what is going to determine where you spend it.

  Keep the important thing the important thing.  That’s what really matters.

Photo by Rick Mortimer

Learning about Grace.

When I was about 14 or 15 years old, one day on my way home from school, my pals and I went into a local shopping market and I stole some cigarettes.

  I got caught.

Being rebellious and pretty cocky, when the store manager informed me that he could either phone the police, the principal of the school or my Dad, I told him to phone my Dad.

  Dad showed up and made peace with the store manager.  He and I went home.  Once there he and I went directly to his room where I got a good strapping on my hind end with his belt.

  I made sure I did not let any tears show, and as casually as I could, sauntered out the room to go to the kitchen for a drink of water.

    In the front room that I had to pass through, sat my mother in a chair sobbing her heart out.  “How could you do this thing?   Did we not raise you to be better than that?”

  My heart broke.  Tears streamed down my face as I stood condemned before her by her tears of agony.

   I never stole anything again.

   My father did no wrong giving me a strapping with the belt.  Scripture (Proverbs 13:24) tells us that ‘He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.”  And my Dad loved me, there is no doubt of that!

    Punishment of this kind is force.  It is effective and necessary.  But it’s goal is to produce fear.  If we are acting ‘right’ because of the fear that we may be caught and having then to face some kind of painful punishment being handed down to us, then our motives are totally wrong.

   My mother on the other hand, responded out of her Love for me.  Her disappointment was very real; not for herself but in me, and it was this that brought such conviction upon me and made me realize the true error of my act.

This is the difference we see between New Testament Grace and Old Testament Law.

The Law was never brought to show us how to live Holy and righteous.  The Law was brought to show us that we could never live Holy according to what God’s standard of Holiness is.  We may be able to live a life in a more Holy manner than other men, but we can never measure up to the standard that God has set for us.  The Law was brought to man, for this purpose only – to show us how far we are from God’s standards, and to fear the judgement that comes through sin.   This was the curse of the Law through the Old Testament.

  Jesus redeemed us from the Law.  The word ‘redeemed’ means to ‘recover’ or ‘gotten back’;  much the same as you ‘redeem’ an item from a pawn shop.  So Jesus literally ‘bought us back’ from the curse of the Law.  He did this by becoming a curse for us through his submission to being crucified.

  Gal 3:13 “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.”

   After Jesus was crucified, the NEW TESTAMENT came into effect.  For a testament is of no effect until the testator has died.  This is what we celebrate on what is known as Good Friday and Easter.

 The New Testament brought in a whole new set of ‘rules’ for God’s people.  We were set free of the Law and now come under God’s Grace which he has extended to us who accept his Son –the price God paid- for our redeeming (redemption.)  The curse of the Law has been lifted off of us, and through Grace and the Faith in it we show back to God, we are made to be partakers of the Blessing of Abraham. 

Romans 4: 22 And therefore it was imputed to him [Abraham] for righteousness. 23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; 24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;

  Gal 3: 29 And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

  So we are now living with the Blessing of Abraham upon us through New Testament Grace, and not under the curse of the Old Testament Law.

    This is the GOOD NEWS given to us by the saints who wrote the New Testament.

     Unfortunately, the church seems to have been –and still is – preaching the Old Testament message of the Law and condemnation to those who do not live up to it.  Such teaching makes the work of Christ to no avail.

Galatians 5: 4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.

We can never hope to achieve righteousness through our works.  We are of a fallen nature and impure.  That is what the law came to show – and the message that I learned in that house so many years ago by parents who loved me.

  We can only hope to be righteous [living right] though Grace and the unconditional Love of God.  Faith is but our gift back to Him for Faith works by the law of Love, and when we see the love that our Heavenly Father extends to us, the only response is to accept it in Faith and show it back to him through our actions.  God is Love.   Love always makes you want to respond in kind.

   And Love is always the right motive.

Rick Mortimer