Conditional Worship.

As I try to process the events that have transpired over the past 24 hours of my life, it leads me to consider the act of conditional worship. This is when a fellowship, be it christian, Jewish, Muslim or any religion enforces a set of rules that you must obey in order to be a part of their congregation. In Christianity this is called legalism. In other fellowships this is called occultic practises, sacraments and rituals. Jesus issued strong warning against those who practise their faith as a ritualistic form and warned others not to do as they do as many fell under the leadership of these false teachers. The reason why Jesus warned his followers of this Hippocratic way of living your life was because he believed that those who wanted their religion were in fact rejecting Christ and consequently the One true God who could save their souls from the consequences of their sins, which is hell.

God gave these religious leaders up to their own error because instead of doing things His way, they hardened their hearts and eventually committed the unpardonable sin which is not just a rejection of Christ, but a rejection of God himself. "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened." When we reject the gospel we reject Christ the only one who can save us from our sin: "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

The Pharisees not only rejected God, but they rejected the cross. You can have a form of religion but not be saved,"having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them." There are many so called professing christian churches out there that fall into this category, having a form of godliness and we are warned to flee from such people. If you are looking to your denomination to save you or your good works, flee from that. Only Jesus Christ can save you and he does it through the cross and his blood. Any church that denies this reality is not a church and is quite possibly a cult, or just a religious institution which in my opinion is even worse. You may as well be a Buddhist or some other isms when your church abandons the cross and the only person who can save their soul from God's judgement.

This is Mike.

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Catholic Identity.

I was born into the Catholic Church and was baptized as an infant, I had my first communion and reconciliation as a child, and was confirmed as a teenager. Although I was never devout, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Saviour when I was 21 through an evangelical Christian radio ministry, which in turn gave new life to my Catholic faith. Although I remained a Catholic, I identified as a born again Christian. It wasn’t until much later in my life that I learned the difference between the two denominations and what they taught about being born again. Regardless, there was a significant change in my life back then, which continues to this day. Being Catholic is much like an identity to me and I remember growing up under the papacy of St. Pope John Paul II. The culture I grew up in was largely affected by his papacy, and the way the culture viewed the church was significantly different from the way the current culture views it. Growing up, the pope didn’t try to be rele...

Age of Brokenness.

We are living in an age of brokenness, no matter what age you are, you probably have been touched with relationships falling apart, which causes more and more people to live in isolation. In this generation there is less of an incentive to heal and reconcile relationships, but that doesn’t excuse the amount of people who are broken. Why people don’t seem to be motivated to heal relationships is because our beliefs about faith and God have changed, really giving us less of an incentive to do what our religion says. If I act from my personal beliefs, but the person that I am responding to has abandoned religious beliefs, than the response to my wanting things to be better can be misinterpreted and rejected then by someone else. Generally when a society has expectations about broken relationships, loneliness and isolation, and the beliefs are generally accepted, society becomes a more compassionate society, because all value the same things. When religious values are undermined and ...

The Biblical Meaning of “Life in the Spirit.”

“Life in the Spirit” is an example that the Apostle Paul gives in the book of Romans starting in chapter 5 and going through to chapter 8. He begins by telling us we are justified by faith (5:1), and have gained access by faith into the grace of God (5:2). We have been delivered from God’s wrath (5:9) and we have been reconciled to God through the death of His Son (5:10). He goes on to explain that through Adam all die (5:12), and that the free Gift of God brings justification and righteousness to the believing sinner (5:15-17). Through our conversion we are baptized into Christ and into his death, which frees us from the law and makes us dead to sin (6:2-4). He explains that just as Christ was raised from the dead, we are given new life in Christ (6:4). Our old unregenerate self was crucified with Christ so that our body of sin might be done away with (6:5-6). Because we have died to sin, we now submit ourselves to God being that we are now under grace, not the law (6:8-1...

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