Shifting Gears

First off... this is NOT a use God/the Bible to get what you want out of life thing. But there will be mention of God and the Bible in this thought.

I fully believe that we have so much more potential than we are willing/able to believe... maybe it goes hand in hand with the fact that we only use a small fraction of the potential of our brain power. But very few people ever come close to reaching their full potential. Most people get stuck in the everyday rat race, living from pay day to pay day... getting through each day just so that they can face the next one.

Everyone gets stuck in a rut. We get comfortable doing things the same way over and over. There's always a reason/excuse not to change how we do things. Which is bad, but isn't. Tradition/routine is good, but it can also trap us. ESPECIALLY when it's a bad/negative routine or habit.

Sometimes in life stuff happens... and it knocks us down. They say that which doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, I only partially agree with that statement. I believe there is fine print that has gotten lost. Sometimes you don't get stronger, sometimes it takes you down a notch and it takes long to recover, sometimes people never recover.

Luckily when you know Jesus... like as in have a relationship with Him and not just know ABOUT Him you can handle things differently. This is where the shifting gears needs to take place. I've been retrenched, been in a bike accident, crashed my car, had stuff stolen, been single for longer than what I believed I should have been, been lonely, been desperate, felt unworthy, felt unloved, felt inferior. I've got my issues.

But God has been revealing something to me, and I've been starting to take note. It's TOUGH because my default is negativity. I like to complain and find reasons why things can't work.

The thing God is revealing to me is something along the lines of the following:
When an obstacle presents itself to you you look at it. You notice it and you have a choice. You can fixate on the obstacle which will cause you to start taking in the details of it, expanding on it and then the obstacle grows and becomes seeming insurmountable. This is how I react by default (I am trying to change it). Or you can choose to try and find a way around it.

The Bible says that the power of life and death is in the tongue Proverbs 18:21. And that the overflow of the heart comes out of the mouth (Luke 6).

So what I propose is not blindly fly into situations screaming "I can do this...", but a gradual shift of mind/heart gears. A shift of bringing more "life" than "death" into a situation. We need to start believing (if Jesus is you Lord and Saviour) that God has His hand on your life and is with you in EVERY situation, promising to never leave nor forsake you. With that belief and spending time with God your heart will change. How you view situations will change. How you speak about situations will change... and strangely... the outcomes of the situations will also change.

My heart aches when I see situations where people could be so much more, but they are trapped by themselves. This is not ALWAYS the case, but I honestly believe we can achieve more if we just stand on Jesus, believe, trust and go for it.

Hell...O PETER DOT COM

So there's a bit of controversy in "Christian" circles at the moment. And if the dudes advocating universalism are right I would like to place a complaint with hellopeter.com.

My complaint is "why do I get up every day and try live a 'different' life? Why do I go to church? Why do I give up my time, talent, treasure? Why?! if I can get to heaven on the free pass they are handing out?"

If they ARE right then I have no need of a Saviour because punishment may only last 3 days... or punishment may not happen... They support these ideas with saying stuff about the word "eternal" used when describing "eternal damnation/punishment" was the same word Jonah used to describe how long he was in the giant fish... which was 3 days...

So because Jonah said "I was in the fish for an eternity" they use that for one of their "facts" or "truth points" for saying eternal separation from God (hell), might only last 3 days.

The say that God can't be both loving AND condemn someone to hell... Now... I guess you could say that they are kind of right... But ONLY because it is not God who condemns someone to hell... the way you end up in "hell" is by turning your back on God and denying Him... So God doesn't do the condemning, the person's actions do the condemning.

My uneducated (in theology) mind understands Christianity as follows:

1. God was kicking it in the garden with Adam and Eve.
   He had given them pretty much the run of the place with only ONE thing they should avoid eating.


2. They kinda only half listened to God (seems to be standard human practice) and ate from which they were not allowed to partake.


3. Sin entered the world and the need for redemption, salvation and other shins arose.


4. For sin to be removed or for you to attain absolution (shins everywhere...) or be clean of sin there had to be a price paid. In the old testament this was the slaughter of animals etc.


5. John 3:16 - God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son [Jesus] so that those who believe would not perish [suffer eternal damnation, hell] but have eternal life.

The reason that a price needed to be paid for sin is because God is just and righteous. He detests sin.

Our pastor gave a really good metaphor/example of how this could be described. Say you are working on the plumbing and getting covered in muck and whatever other junk comes out of the pipes. You are stinky and stuff. You go up to your significant other and say "give us a hug then"... said significant other will tell you to clean off before she will have anything to do with you. The same way God feels about us when we get "dirty" with sin.

Now... if we don't really have to worry about going to hell...or that hell might only last 3 days... then we have no reason to clean off... we can just roll around in the mud and stay dirty. And points 3,4,5 in my little list don't really count... Then Jesus came to earth for nothing... and the old testament was written for fun because it basically sets the scene for Jesus to arrive and helps show us WHY we need Jesus.

ERROR...ERROR...CANNOT COMPUTE.

I cannot believe that God would send His Son to earth to suffer and die for world's sin for fun.

This universalism theology basically says anything goes and everyone can go to Heaven... which in a way is true... everyone DOES have the potential to spend eternity with God... but they need to choose it.