No Title.

Jesus died on the cross, this we know and believe and trust!! And upon that death lies my faith, but do I have to believe that to be saved?? Simplest situation, a tribal guy in the middle of nowhere, knows nothing of scripture… he wants to know God and God wants to know him… this I believe. So he cries out, and begins to find God in the wilderness… in the nothingness… Does he have to hear the “gospel” and believe that Jesus lived perfect, died on the cross, rose again… in order to pay for my sins… Does he need to know this to be saved??

I kinda think not. These things happened in order that I would be made right with God… that my sins would be paid for. Do I need to know about it or is it paid regardless?? The sinners sins are paid for despite him never claiming that prize. How about the tribal guy who doesn’t ‘know’ Jesus… and in not knowing Him, knows Him wonderfully.

If I go to the store and a rich man is at the front and he sees me walk in, recognizes that I’m poor, need money, and gives his credit card number to the girl at the front and says, Pay for whatever that man brings to the front, do I need to know he did that for my bill to be paid?? No clue if that’s a valid analogy or not..

But finally, I think God desires relationship more than anything else, not intellectual conformity!! Therefore, I should think whether or not we fully understand the story, to seek relationship with God would be enough!?? I'm sure my dad will comment this soon and correct something. :) And that's almost what I'm looking for.

Plan B

I heard a well-meaning preacher the other day who said: "there is no plan B!" talking about how God has put His church on earth and has not made any contingency plan!

I've heard this before--most of us have, if we attend church or youth camps. It's a ploy, meant to guilt-trip us into witnessing to our friends because God hasn't made a Plan B, and so if we want our friends to miss out on the eternal torture of hell, we need to be a perfect Christian cause there is NO PLAN B!! :)

I gotta disagree. Seriously. Jesus was plan B!! Adam and Eve and their progeny in paradise was plan A!! That went awry so the Law was put in place... that prepared God's people for the Messiah: plan B!!

So for us to put all this guilt on ourselves about there not being any other options, seriously!! Who do we think we are!!

I have a feeling God goes to plan B with regularity!! Cause we all mess up with regularity!! Stop beating yourself up over it!! Get back up and get moving!!

Stirring or Sifting

I got to thinking the other day: am I just stirring teens up or sifting them?? What's it matter?? Well if I'm merely stirring, then they settle back down to where they were before (or relatively close). But sifting sorts.

Of course neither is worth a plugged nickel if I try to do it on my own, and perhaps both (metaphorically speaking) have their own valuable place in God's schemes, but I just wonder sometimes... stirring or sifting?? I wonder how we might know?