From Hell with Love...

I've had many well-intentioned people tell me (directly or indirectly) that once you become a Christian, your life becomes wonderful. All the old problems go away as we come into the Kingdom, right? We no longer live under the spiritual and material poverty of the past, because God comes in and fixes all that.

Well, it's true that God's principals lead to blessings in this world as well as the next, but it's not without struggles. Sometimes the Father takes us from our life of destitution and lifts us into a position that we couldn't have attained. Other times, He lets us struggle with the opposition. For example, one person may come to know the Lord and immediately be cured of their alcohol addiction. Another comes to know the Lord, yet struggles with alcohol for life.

Does God love one more than the other? Or does He allow us to struggle? This I know:
  • God will not give us more than we can handle
  • Every time I expect that life is somehow supposed to be easy, I'm setting myself up for disappointment... this world resists my efforts and the entire order of the cosmos is against all followers of Christ!
  • Christ has overcome the world!
  • He gives me strength to carry on!
  • We are to count ourselves worthy to suffer with Him!!!
I don't know about you, but I don't always want to count myself worthy... especially when I'm in the midst of the suffering! It's usually only before or after that suffering that I feel privileged. But that's not the attitude I'm called to have... my "attitude should be like Christ Jesus". Christ denied Himself many comforts and underwent suffering undeservedly for our sakes. Similarly, we bear greatest witness not in our prosperity, but in how we choose to deny ourselves in the midst of prosperity. We bear great witness to our Hope as we persevere in His Ways during our suffering.

We can expect to suffer... and we can rejoice in this: that we sometimes know we're on the right path just because of the opposition we feel along the way. It is a long distance run which we run... run with perseverance! Do not stop when you reach an obstacle: go through it or around it! Either way, continue the race that's marked out for you because you are surrounded by a huge crowd of witnesses! And count yourself privileged to fight this battle for the Lord God and King, Who loves you and finds you worthy of the engagement. People are watching for your response: little children, office acquaintances, and other suffering believers.

The prosperity gospel, that promises prosperity once you become a Christian is a lie straight from Hell. Many well-intentioned people preach this false gospel, but it's not the message that Jesus or the early Church taught. From Hell with love... that's what a prosperity gospel is. Don't buy into it.

Popular posts from this blog

What is Alpha?

Image
I want to tell you about the Alpha Course.  Around 30 years ago, I had the privilege of attending an Alpha course at Truro Church in Northern Virginia. I was already a believer in Christ, but I've always struggled connecting with others. Some people may be surprised by that fact because I've been blessed with so many wonderful relationships, but the Alpha Course was special in that it opened the door to lifelong, family relationships. The people in our Alpha group kept meeting until we were pulled to different parts of the country. Yet even after that, we've had reunions, attended the weddings of our daughters and even met remotely during the COVID lockdown. I can't say that every Alpha group is as special as ours. The reunions and remote gatherings were in large part due to one lovely lady in particular who has continued to pull us back again and again, and it was my privilege to see her enter into a relationship with Jesus 3 decades ago, a relationship that has poure
Read more

If I were an Atheist

Image
My Life / My Will If I were an atheist, reality would be centered around me. I would judge things as good if they were in my best interest, and I would judge things as bad if they were not to my advantage. If I were an atheist, all relationships would exist for my pleasure and for the pursuit of my best interest. I would be at the center of the universe, and all others with circle around me. It would therefore be important that people agree with me in all things. Depending upon my level of sophistication, I would get people to agree with me without even realizing how I was manipulating them. In fact, I would take great joy in converting people to my way of thinking, and if I changed my thinking in any way, then I would want others to join me in this new enlightenment. If I were an atheist, I would want people to think of me as somehow “good“, so I would probably have some story to tell people about my “goodness”. It could be around my generosity, which would be just enough to have peop
Read more

Challenges of a Father

Image
I haven’t written in a while because I’ve been trying to form my thoughts for a topic that I’ll post later this month, and like our society in general have considered Father’s Day only as an afterthought. Our society celebrates Mothers pretty easily, and that’s a good thing. But it seems harder to celebrate fathers. Why is that? The message at our church today was a really good one but reflecting upon the content I realized that it was mostly describing fatherhood wounds, the impact of a bad father figure and how God brings restoration. So I could choose to write about the qualities of a good father, and that would also be a good thing to share, but instead I thought it might be better to share my challenges as a father. Assuming that others may be challenged in similar ways, maybe someone would benefit from knowing that we’re not alone. As the father of five children, I know I’ve made mistakes and that I’ve also done the right thing. No one is perfect as a parent, and that shouldn’t
Read more