Would someone please explain to me where the hell we got the phrase "cheap grace" or "watered down gospel"??? The vomit is at my throat and about to spew out if I hear those phrases again.
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Jesus Christ
Does that sound "watered down" to you? Too easy? If so, maybe we need to spend less time with the god of religion, and more with the God who offers His rest, unconditionally.
4 comments:
what do you want chuck? you have so much complaints. if the world has always been...then what more of its people...i know, we wish things reflected more the truth about god, but it is not the state of affairs right now and i don't think it ever will be, for the truth to be fully understood until he comes. if everything became manageable, then we wouldn't need to go to him. we'd settle for consulting with each other. we already do. it becomes a battle between camps. it reminds me of when the disciples where conversing with each other and jesus knew and told them why do they ask each other instead of approaching him. i don't mean to say refrain from expressing your observations or opinions. otherwise, i wouldn't have this to write. jesus' invitation is opposite man's. that's why those who cling to him do. and then there's those who cling to him after they've offered him stuff, lots of stuff that would please him, or so it's thought and taught.
I can only speak from my experience, bro. I grew up in a dead, ritualistic church, so I had no idea what was watered down or not.
The scales fell the first time in high school, not b/c of that church but b/c of my (blood) brother and another friend who were lives were very different from my "act nice and fool everyone" routine.
I didn't realize the church I grew up in was really a country club rather than a church until those scales fell (upon getting to know the Man).
The verse you quote about Jesus' yoke is not watered down. It's strong, bro. Everything about Jesus is strong.
It's the man-concocted ideas, rituals, principles, claims, virtues, morals, etc that have been (errantly) pasted on Him (that aren't of Him) that water things down.
Everything in and about Jesus is solid.
I say that in a "dare Him, to see for yourself" way, not a "believe or else" way. (I long ago gave up playing the "convince and prove" game. I prefer to tell people to dare Him to show himself, IF in fact He is.)
He absolutely blew me out of the water less than two weeks ago, dude. The humility and fierce love with which He met me at an extremely low and rotten point in life recently made my jaw drop...and at the same time it didn't surprise cause it is just like Him.
Is there stuff that is watered down that the Body does?
Yeah. We're told so in a lot of places in the NT. Matt 7:21-23 and 1 Cor 3:12-13 are examples of this. So are the rebukes to the churches in Revelation, and there's quite a few other places.
So even though He is tight in every regard there is some man-laced crud done in His name that cheapens and waters down.
God knows mankind, and knows even despite our desire to get and be on the same page with Him that some man-made stuff was going to knead its way into the dough.
It's cool to want the dough to be flawless. But until every 'vessel' be purified to pure gold there's gonna be stuff that causes the eyes to roll within the Body.
Plus the fact that religious spirits will be swamping around doing their bullshit until That Day too.
I respect the heck out of your desire for the Truth to be unadulterated. Yet as long as there are clowns like me around as the messengers...it's gonna be awhile before we get to the point of your desire, if in fact we get there.
All I have to say is you are so right on! I wrote a thing about grace that addresses this. I'm thining about putting it on my blog. Maybe if you give your email, I'll send it.
But seriously Amicotonic talks about "battling with ourselves". Paul writes a critical letter to the Corinthians. He's calling them out on the carpet. We are responsible to speak the truth when compelled to. Paul didn't have exclusive rights to call people on getting it wrong.
Grace is the cornerstone of our faith. If you don't get it, you can't accept it. If you can't accept it, you not walking with Christ but a cheap imitation, a taskmaster not a friend. If we don't stand up for that, it is equivalent to spitting in his face. Grace is what compels obedience and right living, only grace. It is the fuel in our car. If it's not in the tank, we ain't going nowhere, bro. Last I checked fuel price was pretty high!
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