Worrying About Hurt Feelings

As I listen to some preachers/teachers speak I often find that I feel as if something is missing. The part that seems to be missing is God's wrath and hell. Please don't get me wrong because I think swinging clear over to the other side of the pendulum with constant fire and brimstone is no better than living in gospel milk toast land. What I am talking about is the way we present the gospel. I hear people say Jesus loves you and God loves you and He sent Jesus to pay for your sins and God has a wonderful plan for your life and all you have to do is invite Jesus into your heart. Don't misunderstand me here, this is all true, however I think we give this picture of this pitiful savior standing at the door to your heart knocking and begging us saying please accept me, please let me in. To me that is a pretty weak way to view the creator and sustainer of the universe. Look at what Jesus says in Matthew 10:28,

[28] And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28 ESV)

I have heard people (who profess to be Christians) when they are shown this verse say "well that isn't the God I worship, I don't like that verse because it makes God unloving." The truth is that verse is God's inspired word whether you like it or not. The whole Bible is true including the verses that make us uncomfortable or that we do not like. We are all sinners living in a broken and sinful world. In God's economy without the love of God that produces grace and salvation through Jesus' sacrifice on the cross we all deserve to go to hell. Our best works on our best most sacrificial day of our lives, without God's saving grace, are just good enough to get us to hell. The problem is that more often than not in the church in America today (less some graciously God given exceptions) we follow the politically correct gospel where we take pains not to step on toes or offend and possibly hurt feelings by failing to tell people that without Christ there is only one other option, namely hell, that most people do not talk about because we want to be cheerful and loving and lighthearted.


I have said it before and I will say it again, the gospel of Jesus Christ is by nature offensive. It is offensive to most people in our world today because it limits your options. Follow Jesus as personal savior and Lord or spend eternity suffering for your sin in hell. No wait I want the package deal sort of follow Jesus and be as good as I can and everybody is happy and no one gets offended. That is not one of the options and it leads to hell, there is only one way and that way is through Jesus who said plainly "no one comes to the Father except through me". Others have said to me, "well telling people that if they refuse God's offer of salvation they accept hell will push away seekers". My answer to this is found in Romans 3:10-12 which says,

[10] as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;
[11] no one understands; no one seeks for God.
[12] All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:11-12 ESV)

No one seeks God is exactly what it says in verse 11.In John 6:44 Jesus says,

[44] No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:44 ESV)

In John Jesus tells us no one comes to Him unless God draws them, Paul in Romans says no one seeks God. So the excuse about pushing people away seems to me to be somewhat less than logical. If God has drawn someone to His Son Jesus for salvation is anything I do going to thwart God's sovereign, yes completely sovereign, purpose? I don't think so. I think we as Christians have an obligation to tell lost people the whole truth. To tell them about God's wrath on those who do not find salvation and forgiveness in Jesus as well as telling them about the grace and love and mercy and eternal life with a loving God in heaven if we do accept Jesus as savior. We also have an obligation I believe to go further than "OK pray this prayer and get baptized and now you are good. We need to disciple these new Christians, help them grow and tell them that following Jesus is not always easy and probably won't solve every problem in life and make you healthy and beautiful and wealthy, and more likely will result in persecution. The troubles you walk through if you belong to Jesus you never walk through alone. The reward in heaven is worth every uncomfortable and painful moment in this brief life and then some.

Bottom line, I think if we do not make the gospel of Jesus clear and do not help people understand that following Christ is not always easy and that the alternative is worse than anything we can even conceive, that we are loving them less than we should. Loving them by making everything about the gospel easy and cheap without showing the one and only alternative, eternal suffering, is not love at all, especially not the love Jesus tells us to love them with in His second greatest commandment, to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

In His amazing grace, Bob

Why Do We Minimize God ?

Why do we minimize God? Our first response may be, "well I don't minimize God" but it might be prudent to think on the subject before giving such a response. I think that today in America we have become so self-sufficient, and self-deterministic, and so full of our own self esteem that the glory and awesomeness of God weighs very lightly in the lives of many who call themselves Christians. In the preface to his book "The Knowledge of the Holy", A. W. Tozer makes the following statement:

"The church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted it for one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshiping men. This she has done not deliberately but little by little and without her knowledge; and her very unawareness only makes her situation all the more tragic. The low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us. A whole new philosophy of the Christian life has resulted from this one basic error in our religious thinking."

One simple basic error allows us to over look things that God would never want us to overlook. Our low view of God allows us to fail to read our Bibles the place where God talks to us and reveals Himself to us. Our low view of God allows us to fail to pray and talk to God, unless we are in deep need or our life explodes and then we pull out the emergency parachute and throw up a prayer because now we need God. Our low view of God allows us to start our prayers with God I need this and so and so needs this, instead of hallowed be your name, and thank you for your Son our redeemer, and your will be done, as Jesus tells us in scripture it should be done. (See Matthew 6:7-15) The truth is we all need God all the time, every second of every day we need God, and because of our low view of who He is, we more often than not fail to realize we need him even to simply keep breathing. Our low view of God allows us to sit in churches where Pastors preach and teach a gospel that isn't even close to the true gospel of Jesus Christ. They tell us that God loves us and He wants us to be rich and healthy and we aren't just because we don't expect it like some spoiled child. Scripture tells us that false teachers will come and they are among us and a low view of God allows us to listen to them and then believe the garbage they tell us. If you find these last comments offensive then good because a gospel that does not convict and offend is no gospel at all! Psalm 43:3-5 says this,

[3] Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling!
[4] Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.
[5] Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.
(Psalm 43:3-5 ESV)

Send out your light and truth and let them lead me to you God, and you are my exceeding joy, and I will praise you O God my God. These are not the words of someone with a low view of God. They should be the words of every single person who professes belief and faith in Jesus Christ and if they aren't then shame on you. The entire universe continues to exist and hold together because of the will and the power and the unconditional love of an all powerful, holy, and righteous God who has purchased us with His own blood. We all need to open our hearts and minds to the glory and greatness of God experienced here on earth through the Holy Spirit. A holy spirit I might add that a low view of God has allowed many who profess Christianity to deny that He (the Holy Spirit) even exists. Personally I desire to have a very high view of my God, my savior. I hope and it is my prayer that you desire that as well and then that we act on that desire.

Where Is Your Identity ?

I was thinking today about how we view ourselves. I personally believe that our identity as "Christians", should be in Jesus Christ. The truth is that many who you may talk to will say oh I am a Baptist, or a Methodist or a Catholic or a Protestant. What happened to "I AM A CHRISTIAN"? Jesus Christ died for my sins, a very painful and humiliating death. I (we as followers of Christ) murdered Him through our sin.
He accepted this cup as He called it in prayer to God the Father, this place in history because He loves us, all of us, even those who refuse to believe He ever lived. Yet people often ask what is your religious preference. I remember when I entered the Navy and went to boot camp. They asked me what religion I was. I said Christian, they said OK Protestant. There it was on my dog tag, faith in the savior of mankind reduced to the letters "PROT" on my dog tags.
I talk to people who say Oh well I am a Baptist or Methodist or Lutheran. I ask do you believe in Jesus Christ that He was the only Son of God, that He was murdered and died on a cross and rose again three days later and now intercedes at the right hand of God for those who confess with their mouths and believe in their hearts that He is Lord? They most often say "well yes of course". At this point I want to scream, "THEN WHY DO YOU NOT REFER TO YOURSELF AS A CHRISTIAN" If you have to have a label would it not be better to have that label represent your identity in Jesus Christ and not a man made institution?
Believe me I understand different religious groups believe different things, their theologies are different concerning certain things, but the fact that if you are drawn to God by the Holy Spirit and you receive the gift of salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and understand that He is the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father God but through Him, there can be no differing of opinion among Christian denominations that ultimately everything is about Jesus Christ, everything! Scripture says Jesus was before all things and in Him all things hold together. ALL THINGS nothing left out me you the car the house this planet, all things. Don't you think that the one being capable of saving the world and holding it all together deserves the honor and glory of having all those who claim to follow and worship Him claim their identity in Him by calling themselves "CHRISTIANS"? I do, my name is Robert Best and I am a Christian.