Sin - Maybe not what we thought.

Here is the thing I wrote December 2013 - reposting here as mentioned in previous post.

(This will not be about specific sins.) I know this may stir up controversy, but I've been having my thoughts challenged lately and I wanted to just try to get them out.  It may be a bit jumbled, but I just want to share my  thoughts and see if anyone else wants to chime in.  I'm in process.  I am in no way saying the traditional thoughts on sin are wrong, so please no one jump all over me for not including that.  I just want to share some other thoughts that I think may be also true.  I think it's a both / and as my Pastor Norm always said.  :)

I think common thought is that sin is a verb.  Our actions are sinful.  We do bad things and that is sin.  OK, so that is true.... but I'm seeing something beyond that.  

We treat sin as this huge thing and imply that if you do something wrong that God will want nothing to do with you, but yet we see Jesus (the perfect representation of God) eating with sinners and hanging out with them all the time.  (Luke 15:2 for one)  

But look at John 8:34 - Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin -- So now sin has become a noun, it is sort of personified here as some sort of entity that can enslave us.  Also in Acts 8:23, Romans 3:9, Romans 7:8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead.

Sin came into the world thru the disobedience of one man.

1 Tim 2:14 - And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.

Eve didn't have the sin nature - she walked directly with God and yet when the serpent showed up, she was deceived.  She was not a slave to sin, but when it appeared, she followed it.  (again personified)  The teaching I have heard about this incident was that she was not so much guilty of disobedience, but of following a different master.  That was the big no-no.  

Acts 13:39-39 tells us that only Jesus can set us free from sin, not the law of Moses.  So knowing the law and keeping it doesn't keep us free from sin as some people seem to think.   Also Romans 3:20,

In the context of what Jesus did on the cross... Romans 6:6 offers us our freedom from this slavery.  The old body ruled by sin is done away with so we are no longer slaves to sin.  Romans 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. --- So now we have a choice.  

Romans 7 offers up a discourse on being a slave to the sin living inside us and wanting to do good but failing.  This is the battle we are all familiar with.  We believe one thing and often find ourselves doing the opposite.  

Romans 8:3 - For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh,

1 John 3:9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. -- That's a tough one, but if you look at being born of God as a continual lifelong process, you could say that certain areas are not yet born of God.

OK - those are a bunch of passages I found to sort of get to my point.  I don't think I found the one that directly said what I was thinking though.  (I've been thinking on this for awhile, but for this blog I just searched sin on a Bible site)  

So if sin is more of an outside influence, and without Christ we are a slave to it, then when Jesus died to set us free from sin, He went to war against this "entity" called sin.  It is a deceiver who is constantly trying to trick us or convince us that God's way is not the best way.  He's been at it for a very long time and is pretty good at his lies.  

Bill Johnson has said that "it is impossible for a Christian to sin apart from believing a lie."  That is a controversial statement to church people I'm sure, but I think it is true.  If we have been born again, then the Bible says we have been set free from the power of sin, and it says we will not continue to sin if we're born of God.  So is the Bible wrong?  Or is our understanding wrong?  If I look really closely at my life and my sins, I have to agree with Bill.  

How about when Jesus was being tempted by Satan.  He was offered good things, things that were meant for Him to have, but Satan offered shortcuts to those good things.  He offered another path.  Basically implying that God's way isn't the best way.  Kind of the same thing he said to Eve.  

Why do we fear the future?  Because we are believing a lie that says God won't protect us and doesn't have the best plan for us.  Almost always, I can see that beneath it all, the excuses, the fears, is the idea that God isn't really good.    If we truly believed 100% that God is good in every situation, we would never sin.  We would walk according to the Spirit as we were initially intended.  God started off this whole world with 2 people in a Garden just hanging out with Him all day.  They broke that by listening to another voice.  Things got harder for humanity after that.  Jesus restored us to the possibility of constant connection to Father.  

Jesus died to claim victory over the power of sin, to give us the reconnect we needed to live the way He intended.  

If all this is true, why are we always shouting at "sinners" to change their ways?  They can't.  Apart from relationship with Jesus, they can't change.  A few will try and succeed, but for the most part, they don't have the power to break free of sin on their own.

 I still sin in my life, and I am constantly in search of the truth that will set me free.  I believe God enough to be convinced that His way is better than mine, but I still struggle to trust Him completely, therefore I still sin.   When I do I try to see the lie, or have the body of Christ help me to find the lie.  We are meant to live in community for this very reason I believe.  To help each other see where we are deceived.  That's the nature of deception.  We can't see it.  Victory comes in being connected to the body in which we are placed.  

Sin is our enemy, not our actions.  To win the battles we must seek Jesus and His truth instead of focusing on the sin.  We give it power when we focus on it (not to mention coming under condemnation - which is not of God).  I learned that the hard way, suffering for 15 yrs completely focused on one area of my life that was not ok with me.  When I finally got the memo to focus on Jesus, that thing has just fallen away and disappeared!!  What if we all were able to do that and help others to do it?  Hmmmm.... I think that is the message of the gospel.  Focus on Jesus, seek first the Kingdom, and sin will pass away and we will have the life we were meant to have.  :)

Again, this is my thoughts in process.  I am not claiming it to be ultimate truth, just pondering and trying to find truth.  I welcome input.  

Stop the War!

I try to avoid the news, it just makes me angry.  So much of it these days is some LGBT issue or another.  There are two sides to this issue and it's really messy.  Both sides feel persecuted, both sides are angry.  It's an all out brawl at this point.  When will it end?  I'm so tired of reading all the hateful comments coming from both sides.  What is this accomplishing?  Is war what we want?  Or is there another way?

I was thinking on this while I was waiting for my first call last night.  I wrote this on a scrap of paper:
If "Christians" hadn't been so gun-ho in the past in singling out one type of sin to pour out all their hatred upon, maybe we wouldn't be under such attack now.  When you bully someone long enough, eventually they come back fists flying, and sometimes they've taken up new advanced strategies of combat.

I do not agree with Christians who wave picket signs and chant hatred and point out sin.  That is not Christlike.  I never saw Jesus holding picket signs in the Bible, I never saw him standing on a street corner yelling that only certain sinners were going to hell.  This activity is not in line with the character of Jesus that I see in my Bible.  I wish I could apologize on behalf of God for all these people who are basically just acting like jerks.  I see no benefit to this type of behavior.

Now the tables have turned, the people that were once singled out for this hatred have come back swinging and are now attacking the "Christians" for their beliefs, beating them over the head with new laws and cultural standards, demanding that they comply or be ruined.  I don't think this is right either.  But I get it.  Some will claim they are being persecuted for their faith, but I think mostly they're being persecuted for being jerks.

We are all a part of some group or another, we identify ourselves with labels.  Do you ever fully agree with 100% of other people who carry the same label? I don't.  The issue I would like to address here is to encourage us all to get to know people as individuals instead of making assumptions based on a particular label they carry.  I know, I know, we don't like labels, but we all still do it.  That person is white, black, Christian, white collar, gangster, bum.....  We see, we label, we assume.  Let's not pretend it doesn't happen.  We just don't have to lump them all together and believe that they're all the same.  Every homeless person is not a lazy drug addict that doesn't want to work. Every white person is a rich entitled jerk who has the world handed to them on a silver platter.  Every Christian is not out there holding hateful picket signs.  Need I go on?

I know many Christians who are wonderful loving people who are afraid to even use the term Christian because of the negative reputation that is now attached to it.  It's sad.  The word is supposed to mean follower of Christ, and if you actually read His story, I don't think anyone could take issue with how He treated people and what He taught.  He showed us how to love and have peace in society.  We need that so desperately now.

We need to get out there and love people.  We need to act as Christ acted.  There is no room for us to be attacking anyone for their sin.  There is not one sin that is worse than any other in God's eyes.  We are all sinners in need of God's love.  Only God's love will set us free, heal out hearts, and change our lives for the better.   That is the good news.  We are not capable of earning His love or salvation, but He doesn't ask us to earn it.  He offers it as a free gift.  All we must do is accept His love.  After that, the change just starts to happen as His love permeates our being and heals our wounds.  We are not responsible for changing ourselves, so why do we think we can hold signs demanding others to do so?

Jesus doesn't hate any person, He hates sin.  I wrote another blog awhile back, I think it's on my Facebook account though, I should transfer it over here.  Briefly, I have a different opinion than most about what sin is.  I don't think it is our actions (it can be, but I'm exploring a different side here), I think it is the evil thing that is out to destroy us.  The Bible personifies sin in some places.  It is our enemy, it is that thing that is feeding us lies and convincing us to do harmful things.  That is why Jesus hates it, that is why He died a horrific death to defeat it.  If sin is the thing attacking us, why would we feel the need to act hateful to those under attack? If they are deceived, or wounded to the point of believing that is their lot in life, how can we be mad at them? I know that I have been deceived.  I know that I was wounded and I acted badly out of that place.  I needed God's love to heal me before I ever had a chance at beating sin in my life.  I tried for years, no success.  People need Love.  Period.  They need to be brought into an encounter with the One who can give them that love.  The rest is up to Him.  If He feels the need to change them, that's His prerogative as Creator. It's none of our business.

I am pleading with my fellow Christians - stop attacking, stop defending, stop fighting.  Love is the only answer.  We need peace and unity, not to be "right."  I think of that verse about a clanging gong.  You can be right about everything, but if you don't have love, you have nothing.  We need relationship and love more than anything.  Sin is still sin, but it will never be defeated with hate and judgement and accusation.  It's our job to love, not point out that people sin.  I think we all know that already, quit beating that drum. Please.

Hearsay

Let me write about a strange phenomenon I've been observing.  People are much more inclined to believe some outlandish negative story they hear instead of trusting in their own experience and observation of the facts.  I've been watching it happen around me as I happen to attend a large, somewhat famous church that has a lot of attackers spreading rumors about it.  I know the stories are false because I've attended there for 2 years.  Because of my own experience, I don't believe the gossip.  It just has me thinking about where in life we have this tendency.  How is it affecting us?

A woman is told by someone that her husband is cheating on her.  What is her first response?  Is it 'I know my husband, that is outside his character so I don't believe you are telling me the truth.' or... 'Oh no!  I'm devastated!  My life is over!  How could this happen?!?!?'   I would hope that a married couple has a good relationship based on honesty and trust, but it seems that mistrust and suspicion are often lurking, ready to pounce.  How can a marriage be strong if there's no trust?  How can there be love without trust?

In the case of my church, not that it's unique, it has happened to many others...  People like to tell crazy stories about what happens there, and other people like to hang on every word and form opinions about the crazy people up on the hill.  I've overheard co-workers talking about how creepy "those people" are, yet at the same time, there are many of them employed here and these very people love them!  They think they're great and put them in leadership positions often.  Do you see the problem here?

It seems our first response is to believe a negative report about things we hear.  How about the news?  How many of us repost instantly when we see a scary "article" shared on Facebook?  How many of us actually look into it first instead of spreading fear?  How many "news" magazines post horrible things about celebrities that turn out to be not true?  How many of us can ever get those lies out of our heads when we look at our fellow man?  How many of us are willing to trust someone after we've heard something bad about them? What if it isn't really true?  How are our relationships affected by all this negative gossip we are constantly bombarded with?

In my observation, I can conclude that gossip and hearsay hold more weight than personal experience.  Does that make any sense at all?  I'm all for being open minded, being cautious, but I would hope people would actually look for evidence before passing judgement and believing all the things they hear.

I wonder how our relationships would change if we would stop speaking negative things about other people, if we stopped allowing others to speak negative things to us, if we trusted our own observations instead of instantly believing the stories we are told by people who have a grudge?  Would it make our relationships stronger?  Would it make people better?  Would it reduce our stress?  Would it add to world peace?  I think it would.

Freedom.... To or From?

I was pondering freedom today after a brief conversation with a co-worker.  It started with a mention of the Pride parade that I had seen some pictures of on a friend's wall yesterday.  I was commenting on how they sometimes have gone beyond what I feel is appropriate in a public setting, i.e. nudity.  I feel that they shouldn't be doing such things, and my co-worker said something about their freedom.  So I was  thinking....

What is freedom? I want the freedom to make choices for myself.  I want to choose what comes into my "self" through my eyes and ears.  I want to choose how I live my life.  But so does everyone else.  So what happens when what I want to do messes with someone else's life?  Whose freedom wins?  If Bobby chooses to smoke, and  George chooses not to smoke, what happens when they pass each other's sphere?  If Bobby is smoking at that moment, George's freedom to not smoke just got taken away.

I have to conclude that my freedom only extends as far as it doesn't encroach on another person's freedom.  I can only have freedom as far as it only affects my life.  As soon as my freedom takes away the freedom of another, I've crossed the line of polite society.

We live in a nation full of laws.  How many of those laws are written solely because so many people don't understand or live by this basic principle?  We've made laws that you can't smoke within a certain distance of a public door because so many smokers did not act in a way that honored the freedom of others choosing not to smoke.

We all want our freedom, but I wonder how often we consider the freedom of others.  I want the freedom "to" do something, while another person may want freedom "from" that same thing.  I challenge us all to walk with honor, respecting the spheres of our fellow man.  Live in such a way as to not rob your neighbor of his or her freedom.  It's simple really, but how many of us will step past ourselves to honor another?

Rules.

I have been challenged recently by a friend on some fairly "set in stone" , "basic common sense" type guidelines I held in my own life.  Growing up in church, we all learn some extra rules and think nothing of it.  I'm someone who always understood rules in general as things meant to keep us safe.  I found it easy to follow rules because they made sense to me.  Go outside the rules and you'll find a negative consequence.  Easy.

As I've gotten older, I have come to realize that specific rules aren't even really necessary if you understand the underlying principle.  I remember when I was helping out at my old elementary school while in high school and they had just switched over to the "Make your day" program.  They threw out the long list of rules and whittled it all down to just one.  "No one has the right to interfere with the learning or safety of others."  Simple, but I think it really covers everything.  This new rule got me thinking.  Isn't that really the bottom line?  Isn't that why we make specific rules for ourselves?  It all comes down to acting in a loving manner.  Don't hurt people and allow them their freedom to do what they need to do.  It's fair.

I look around our culture and notice how many stinking rules we have!  Why? Because people aren't able to police their own lives very well it seems.  Too many people walk around thinking only of themselves and hurting others in the process.  Jack wants Joe's iPod, so he hits Joe over the head and takes it.  Inability to govern himself to act in love.  We are drowning in rules around here!  It's like slavery.  Don't do this, don't do that, one person screws up and ruins it for the whole crowd. Aren't we tired of this?

I was reading Kris Vallotton's book Supernatural Ways of Royalty today and I came across this same concept again.  This quote stood out to me.
          "I am against governmental structures that react out of fear to the abuses of leadership..."
I began to think about our rules.  Every time there is a school shooting, there is a big push to make more gun laws.  Reacting in fear as if more laws would help when the shooter already broke a handful of the laws already in place.  Instead of dealing with the real root issues of why people shoot up schools, we make more stupid laws that never fix the problem.  It is a useless and expensive process.  We constantly punish people who break the law, but how often does anyone stop to address why they broke the law in the first place?  I'm pretty sure it's common knowledge that hurting people hurt people.  It's the theme of so many movies and tv shows, I'm certain that it's no secret, but who is trying to help them?  Make more rules, punish more people.  Is it working?  I don't think so.

So back to my initial statement about the challenges in my own life, my friend pointed out to me how I was also making rules for myself based in the fear of messing up. Specifically in the arena of boy/girl relationships, there are a lot of basic rules in a church setting.  They have put up a lot of boundaries to try to keep kids from sleeping together.  Side hugs, no boys in your room, no dates alone, no kissing... the list goes on and on.  My friend made me see that it is a fear based response to the possibility of sin and an ignorance of the roots of sin.  Anything that is based in fear is not of God.  Perfect love casts out fear, so if you're walking in that perfect love with Jesus, you don't have to be afraid of mistakes, or sin.  It is for FREEDOM that Christ has set us free.  If two people truly honor one another, no sin will be committed, and if you're in a relationship where you can't trust yourself or the other person to do that, I would suggest you not be in that relationship, because what is the point without love and honor?

Now I'm not saying that we shouldn't be careful, we all have areas where we are weaker and it is wisdom to put up some guardrails, especially if the consequences of a fall are big.  I'm saying that we don't all have to have the same guardrails.  I'm saying that we shouldn't live in fear of mistakes.  God loves us, He knows our heart, and that is what matters.  Are you being stupid and just trying to get away with something wrong because you know God forgives?  Then your heart probably isn't right and that's another issue.  But if you just slip and fall, God is right there to pick you up and help you out.  The intention of the heart needs to be love, and as we learn to hear God's guidance more and more, we worry less and less about falling into temptation.  His love and grace is what enables us to have victory over sin.  Rules are just more bondage.  He wants us to live in freedom.  He came to save the broken and lost.  He doesn't expect us to be perfect on our own, He just wants us to join Him on the journey called life and to do our best to live in love.

Good news!!

If you've clicked through to here, I'm asking that you read all the way through and not give up thinking you've heard this line before.  The whole point of writing it is that I think you haven't.  Based on my observations and conversations with all sorts of people, I don't think you've heard this.  At least get through the 5th paragraph before you decide to quit.

I grew up in church, so God was always just there, a fact, something I never really questioned.  To me He just made sense, I saw the rules and they seemed a logical way to live.  As I got older, I learned more about life and I decided made the faith my own.  I began my own journey of seeking out this God I'd been told about.  I want to share with you what I've learned.

I think the idea of salvation has gotten pretty muddled up over time.  The tactics used are those of a used car salesman, or worse, the hellfire and brimstone style.  I'm not down with those methods.  In this blog I hope to offer up some basic info that will hopefully help you to find the truth so you can make an informed decision for yourself.

I read a lot of apologetics type stuff, and I read comments on public forums from athiests and the like.  'God is a big whiny tyrant in the sky that wants everyone to choose him or he's gonna throw them in hell as a punishment.  God doesn't want us to have any fun, and if we do, he's going to punish us.  God can't be loving because he allows evil to torment us.'  The list goes on and on, you know what I'm talking about.  But the Bible says that there is no fear in love because fear has to do with punishment.  If God is love, as He claims to me, punishment can't be a part of Him can it?  

It really breaks my heart that people think like this.  What it tells me is that they are grossly misinformed about so many things.  That is heartbreaking, because this choice is of ultimate and eternal significance.  If God is really true, don't you think you better have the right facts?  Isn't it worth looking into with an open mind, just in case He's real?  Seems to me that is the intelligent choice.  If He's not true, an open minded honest bit of searching should show that, and what have you lost?  A little time?  But if He is true, you've lost everything.  I think that alone deserves some serious consideration.
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God is good.  He loves us, He created us to be loved by Him.  He wants to walk side by side with us in friendship.  He is always good and always loving.  The only way we can love Him is if we have a choice not to, otherwise, it's not really love is it?  That is why there is evil.  God is a gentleman and He won't force anyone to love Him.  Where we run into trouble is when we really look at what His love means.

Are you a parent?  If not, can you at least think like one?  If your child wants to play in the fire, you're going to tell him "no" right?  That child might think you are a big meanie for not letting him play in the fire right?  But you love him and don't want him to get hurt.  That is the bottom line with God.  He created us, so He knows what will make our life run the best possible way.  Initially He only gave one rule.  'Don't eat from that tree.'  That one choice was His love, simply giving us free will to choose Him or not.  All the other rules came later, and I don't think they were really what He wanted, nor what He expected.  (IMO - this bit is my understanding)  Mankind didn't want to listen to God directly, so they asked for rules, and they asked for a king.  It wasn't how God wanted things, but He gave them what they asked for.  He gave them a ridiculous set of rules and penalties that they could never hold to so that they would come back to His original plan of relationship.  People who quote old testament law all the time have missed the point of it all if you ask me.  God didn't intend for us to have those rules, or He would've given them to us all back in the Garden of Eden instead of waiting a couple thousand years.  (again, this little portion is my own belief based on my understanding - I am not a theologian)

The Israelites chose over and over to walk away from relationship with God, and they ended up stumbling into trouble every time.  Was that God's fault?  Was that God punishing them for ignoring Him?  No!  He wants to be in a relationship where He can talk to us about our path and our choices and help us make good ones that bring blessing instead of consequence.  This world is fallen, so the consequences are piling up as we make more and more poor choices.  It's just a big sick circle..... but there is a way out!

Some people think that all the things that God tells us are bad are actually fun.  I understand that they may be fun in the moment, but if you're really honest, there are plenty of not so fun results from those choices.  They may not be immediate, but they're there.  The thing is, God loves us enough to still allow us to make those choices, but I'm sure it breaks His heart to see the pain that we suffer as a result.  But He still doesn't stop us.  Do you know of anyone who has been struck down by a lightning bolt because they sinned?  I don't. God loves us enough to tell us the way to go, but also to not drag us kicking and screaming down said road.
I've heard people talk about hell being one big party full of all the 'fun' behaviors that God calls sin.  They seem to think it's going to be great.  Here's the problem with that theology.  Hell wasn't created for humans, it was created for Satan.  We are given a choice.  Be God's friend, or not.  Choosing 'not' leads to an eternity without God.  There is a verse in the Bible that says that ALL good things come from the Father.  That means that apart from Him, nothing will be good.  I don't believe it's direct torture, but there will be no comfort, no peace, no happiness at all without God's presence.  Hmmmm... Kinda throws a wrench in that whole 'Party in Hell' theory.  That is why the Bible also tells us that it is God's will that none should perish.  He doesn't want us to choose eternity without Him, but He will still let us make that choice.  Would He really be loving if He didn't?

God is good.  I believe that with all my heart because that has been my experience.  Does that mean my life has been all wonderful and perfect?  No way!  It means that bad stuff happens, but as I look to God for my help, He makes all things work out for good, some way or another.  I fully believe that He has my best interest in mind.  He wants to see me healed up, set free, and living life to the fullest in His love.  He knows the hurts of my past and He is working with me gently to heal them up and help me to be me in every situation.  He is helping me grow in so many ways.  Always gentle, always loving, never condemning, never throwing lightning bolts.  Jesus already paid the price for my sin, so I don't have to.  Being a Christian isn't a license to sin because we're forgiven, it's the freedom to live a life full of love, peace, and joy without being tied down to the consequences of our sin.  It's a beautiful gift given freely by an incredible loving Father.

I would love to converse with anyone who has thoughts on this topic.  If you liked this post, please share it on your own wall.

God's Not Dead: a review (possible spoilers)

Since this blog is called "Through My Eyes" - it stands to reason that I should write about what I see, and that includes movies.  I love movies.  I go to the dollar theater to see pretty much every movie I'm interested in, which can mean weekly.  Sometimes I splurge and go to the "big theater" and pay the higher price to see something I'm really interested in.

Today I saw God's Not Dead.  If you're not aware, the premise is a college philosophy professor asks his students to write "God is dead" on a sheet of paper and sign it, acknowledging they won't be wasting any time talking about God in this class.  Freshman student, Josh, can't sign the paper, so instead he must defend the antithesis in three 20 minute lectures to the class and they get to decide.

I enjoy apologetics, so I thought this movie looked fun.  It didn't hurt that my favorite Clark Kent (Dean Cain) was in the movie, as well as Kevin Sorbo as the professor.  I did enjoy the movie, but I will say that I don't think they proved the point they set out to prove.  (Here come possible spoilers)

Josh started out his lecture by basically trying to prove the Creation story.  He shared quotes from famous scientists, athiest ones, and shared how they sort of line up with the Bible.  While that's all well and good, how does that prove God is not dead?  If anything, it might prove that God was once alive, but something that happened thousands to billions of years ago (depending on your beliefs) hardly proves He is alive today.
It later gets a little better when Josh discovers why his professor is so adamantly against God.  When we start to hear the backstory, then we gain some compassion and understanding.  That's great.

I won't go too deep with the story, in fact, I think I'll stop there.  It goes on to show some divine interventions and one powerful miraculous moment with Dean Cain's character.

My thought in leaving is that if you want to prove God is not dead today, all you'd really have to do is the very things Bethel church is doing every day.  Bringing God's supernatural power into the here and now.  We see people healed every week of all sorts of things.  Pain leaves, cancer disappears, blind eyes open, deaf ears open, crooked feet straighten out, metal dissolves out of bodies .... the list goes on and on.  If those things don't prove God is alive and well today, nothing does.

Apologetics is fun, but I don't think an intellectual debate is going to have half the sway that an outright supernatural encounter will.  The thing is, a lot of today's church doesn't really believe in that stuff.  When we pray for people, not everyone sees the answer they're looking for.  So instead of continuing to take God at His word, we re-write our theology to say that God once healed people, but He stopped.  Why would He stop?  That makes no sense.  When we stop expecting a miracle, we stop praying for them.  

I know that not everyone gets the healing they were looking for.  I can't answer the why question that comes with that.  I know that when Bill Johnson and his team started praying and believing for healing, they didn't see anywhere near the positive results they do today.  I know that they just kept pressing in, believing that when Jesus told His followers to go out and heal the sick, He actually meant it.  Now, 20 yrs later, they have a totally amazing healing ministry with many, many healings every week.

 I was diagnosed with the need for a root canal in July 2012.  I told the dentist "no" and have gone to the healing rooms almost every week since then to receive prayer for healing.  It's been almost 2 yrs, and I still have a slightly tender tooth and a small bump on my gums.  But I keep going.  I know that God showed me a picture of some new teeth He was making for me.  I know that my time is coming.  I also know that it hasn't gotten worse, and I would expect after 2 yrs in the natural, it probably should have.  I believe that God is good, and in His time, I will get this tooth fixed.

Why do I believe that?  Well, because God's not dead.  ; )  I don't believe in God because some old book tells His story and I'm just supposed to blindly believe in it.  I don't believe in God because my parents took me to church and raised me to believe. (although that gave me a baseline from which to start)  I believe in God because He has revealed Himself to me in such personal ways. He has shown me love and spoken to me in my language.  He has physically healed my arm in a powerful way.  11 yrs of pain, gone in an instant when I watched online as Bill Johnson called out a word of knowledge about a left arm.  He's healed my heart, changed the things inside me that I hated but had no power to change, pulled me out of the miserable pit I'd found myself in.  There's too much to even list.  He has proven Himself real, alive, powerful, and GOOD to me beyond a shadow of a doubt.  I can't call a list this long coincidence.  There are no other explanations.

I did enjoy the movie, but I would much rather have seen them give testimony of God in the here and now.  He is here, He loves you, and He has an amazing plan for your life, for which He wants you to be saved, healed, and set free to do.  He's not out there with a lightning bolt waiting for you to screw up.  He loves you and wants more than anything for you to find what you were created for and do it with all your heart!  I've found my purpose.  He planted Uganda in my heart back in 2007 and everything about me makes sense in light of that calling.  I am thrilled to find what He made me for.  I look forward to stepping into the now with that vision.  I have hope and a purpose, because Jesus loves me.   He has only good things for me.  Life may throw me some curves, but I know that God will give me the grace to knock 'em out of the park.