Cheap Shot Christianity

Joh 14:15 If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments.

Joh 15:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

Joh 15:11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

Joh 15:12 This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you.

Joh 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

If you inquire of the members of the Church today, in private, you will find that there is almost no limit to the things that Christianity does and does not include. The truth is that the average man or woman naming the name of Christ today has no idea what the Bible actually has to say about anything! We have a few thousand radio and television preachers, right, here in the U.S. I've heard, with my own ears, everything from God has no poor converts to the rich man is damned by his wealth, both are lies. In the prosperity gospel I heard a certain preacher teach that if you drive anything less than a Mercedes that you cannot be saved and I heard people of the Jim Jones and David Koresh ilk teach that if you have any wealth, property and virgin daughters that you have not surrendered to them, you can not possibly enter into the Kingdom of God.

Then, today, we have the Joseph Smith followers of the Mormon Church and of late, the LDS Church that teach the heresy that Jesus, the Christ is a created being and his brother is Satan but that any "man” can become a god and these are closely followed by the Jehovah's Witness' who freely admit to having no Heavenly hope and also teach that Jesus was never, is not now nor will ever be God. Both of these major groups of heretics are now claiming to be Christians. How does the seeker know the difference?

And just as you believe you've struck pay-dirt and have found a surviving fundamental Baptist, Pentecostal, Methodist or Bible Teaching Independent Church, one of the life-long members drinks a beer and everyone pulls out their .357 and shoots him dead because he fell into sin. (The above is a figure of speech but they might as well have shot him, his Christian life is over as far as they are concerned.)

This message is depressing if you do not understand that these things were foreknown by our God and that He prepared the Way for us anyway. On some forums, this message will sit there, ignored, as folks do their best to ignore the impact of it and on others I will be slam-dunked for being Judgmental and in violation of the "most sacred” Christian fundamental. A few will be brave enough to speak up and admit that they, at some point in the past have fallen into this trap... on one end or the other! Over the past 21 years of my walk with the Christ I have found myself getting ready to pull that trigger and once I was dismissed from the Church I and my family were attending and although we were run off by the ?pastor? because of his sin, that was not the perception by some, especially by those helping him to sin against God.

This will be short but sweet tonight. The point is that as the followers of Christ it is our duty to follow His lead. Remember old foot in the mouth Peter? Jesus picked the servants ear up off the ground and I'll bet with a funny look at Peter put the man's ear back on his head, right where Peter had just lopped it off from. And when Peter denied Jesus three times that same night... Jesus, after He rose from the grave restored Peter to his former position. As the followers of Christ we will be so busy lifting our brothers and sisters up and restoring them that we will have no time to sin if we obey Him.

By the time we find out enough to discern who is genuine and who to let walk we'll need teams to hand the fallen over to as we look into the state of the one's just fallen, since. God bless.