You Can Stop Trying to Stop the Hurting

Alcoholics Anonymous breeds shame in people.

They feel that God is far away, not talking or moving in them, if they feel bad.

All of this pressure falls on the member of the cult, because he is taught to hold onto this hypervigilance at all costs, or he will drink again and die.

The cult teaches people that they are insane, that they need constant help, that they have to work at staying in "emotional balance", even though they live in a world filled with challenges and hardships.

Every day, I would feel this chronic pressure to fix my feelings, to fix what I was thinking and feeling.

I had been taught, on account of this wicked cult, that faith had everything to do with what we are thinking and feeling.

So, the result is a painful monomania, looking into oneself, constantly obsessed with one's feeling, and then a sense of shame every time that a bad feeling pops up.

I never understood why I was so easily set off, until I recognized how destructive Alcoholic Anonymous really is, and all the Twelve Step programs which follow from it.

I hate this cult, and I will do everything I can to inform the world that there is a better Way -- He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

So much has changed, and so much indeed has changed for the better.

I am no longer responsible for trying to keep Jesus alive and well in my life.

He is my life, and He richly provides everything.

I can stop trying to stop the hurting. The hurting, the feelings, have nothing to do with the blessings of God in my life.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." (Ephesians 1: 3-6)

Grace and blessings are not something that we have to feel or fight for, They are wonderful gifts which we keep on receiving through Christ Jesus! (Romans 5: 17)

The big problem for me for so long was that I kept trying to stop the bad thoughts and feelings, as though they were impediments to faith and trust. They have nothing to do with any of that!

Wow!

Don't Tell Me I Have to Do More

I despise Alcoholics Anonymous!

This awful cult teaches people that the work is never over.

We have to keep working and working.

We have to keep making sure that we work hard and keep God ever close to us.

I am learning so much more about the New Covenant, what Jesus enacted at the Cross.

There is no replacement for this wonderful dispensation.

Nothing.

Not Ten Commandments, not Twelve Steps, not even the 613 Mosaic rules which none of us could keep. Why else would our loving Father have provided to the Israelites an economy of sacrifices until the fullness of time in Christ Jesus>

We have to be very clear and uncompromising about the truth who sets us free!

The fact is - this world is still dedicated to asking the question: "What can we do, that we may work the works of God?"

The answer is Jesus -- the answer is the Person!

The answer is not doing more, but seeing more.

The answer has nothing to do with doing more.

It has everything to do with seeing more.

When are we going to get over this nonsense?!

Once again, the reason why we struggle - because we think that we have some life in and of ourselves.

Impossible.

"Apart from me, ye can do nothing." (JOhn 15:5)

Jesus was not kidding when He told His disciples this truth.

In the next chapter, the disciples still have questions, and still don't quite understand.

"Show us the Father" - Jesus answers: "If you have seen me, then you have seen the Father."

"Show us the way." Jesus answers: "I am the way, the truth, and the life."

Jesus not only answers our questions but supplies so much more that we may ask, even before we ask the question!

Please do not tell me that I have to do more. How dare any of us think that we can add anything to what Jesus did.

Rather, we need to see more, to see more of Him who has been from the beginning, to recognize His great accomplishment, and enjoy more of His grace abounding to this sighing, dying world.

The Only Work I Can Do: Believe on Him

I just love reading and reading this wonderful yet oft-overlooked passage in the Gospel of John:

Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? 29Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. " (John 6: 28-29)

"What shall we do, that we can work the works of God?"

So, the Israelites recognize that they cannot do the works of God yet they still that there is still something -- anything! -- that they can do so that they can start working the work.

Really?

A dead man can do nothing.

We need life, and throughout the Gospel of John, the writer keeps hammering this point about Jesus. He is our life, and His life is our light.

He has come that we would have His life, and that more abundantly.

In John's First Epistle, John keeps communicating this wonderful truth:

"He who has the Son, has life. He who has not the Son, has not life."

So, what really can anyone of us do, that we can start working the works of God?

When are we going to get off our spiritual high horse, and recognize that we were dead in our trespasses, and that we need life!

I don;t need someone to tell me how to live better. We have the standard for how to live, the Ten Commandments, the entire moral law, and guess what?! We cannot keep it at all!

It actually condemns, kills, and destroys! The punishment for not keeping the law? Death!

Really, if we acknowledge what has happened to us in Adam, from the beginning, we acknowledge in turn that we need life!

So, let's get off this idea that we can work for God. That we can serve Him out of anything that we have.

Jesus had to rebuke the Isrealites of His day:

"This is the work of God -- that you believe on Him  -- Jesus -- whom the Father has sent."

How many of us still refuse to believe on Him?

"Oh, I know that Jesus died for me, but I am on my own from here on out.:

Uh? How can you claim to be saved from death to life, and then think that the life you have received is something that you have to work for?

You never earned it in the first place!

Now, the one charge that many church people like to foment falls along these lines:

"So many people are just sitting around doing nothing, saying "I bellieve! I believe!"

The fact is - when someone is talking "I believe" you have to ask them: "What do they believe?"

Most of the time, they will talk about God doing something for them.

Yet God has done far more than something - he has done everything!

He did everything for us at the Cross through His Son Jesus!

The issue -- once again -- comes down to LIFE.

People who are lazy, by the way -- are actually quite busy, in their minds, full of fear.

The truth is, though, that man is dedicated toward doing, doing, doing.

We even "do" in our minds, even if we lie down and do nothing else.

One of the proverbs speaks to the root causes in our minds:

"As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed." (Proverbs 26: 14)

Even lazy people are busy, but in their minds, doing nothing but fear and worry.

The more that we get busy resting in His truth, the more that we recognize that our one work is to believe in Jesus.

Jesus is alive, Him who has been from the Beginning!

There is only one work that I can do - which is to believe in Him!

The rest is the grace of God, which He so freely supplies through His Son! (Romans 8: 31-32)

We Need to Trust that He is Wherever We are Going

For the longest time, I was led astray by false doctrine.

I have written from time on this page about the bad teachings which had held me in bondage for the longest time.

The people who were responsible for training me in the way to go, they did not do their job.

My mother especially, who was a "Stepper Mom" without qualification, had imbued in my false ideas of so many kinds.

For the longest time, I was very angry. Angry with her, and angry with my father, too.

Yet being angry with people who have not taught you the truth - that is not the truth that will set you free, is it?

"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22: 6)

and

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (JOhn 8:32)

The truth that we need to know is the truth of God's grace, for grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (John 1: 17)

The truth shall set you free.

It is very hard for me to accept that I had imbided so many lies, had not been nourished in the Word of God.

One of the biggest lies I was taught -- I was taught to live in constant doubt.

Doubt about whether God was for more or against me.

Doubt about whether he was going to be there for me or not.

Doubt about where I was going or not going, and whether it was a good idea to go or not.

This doubt was constantly forced into my mind through the fearful badgering of my mother:

"Are you sure that that is God's will? What if it's not God's will? You could be doing something wrong. God won't be there for you."

This doubt caused so much pain and unease in my life. Faith is essential.  We have to believe that God is, and a rewarder of those who seek Him.

All of this gets undone as long as we wake up every day believing that we have to think or feel a certain way so that He stays with us, that our feelings or our thoughts will somehow cut us off from God.

We do not need help. We need life.

We need to know that He is going to be there for us, even if we are going a way that is not beneficial to us - at first. He is slow to anger, rich in kindness is He not? Even the Psalms declare this wonderful revelation about God our Father, and we see Him in Jesus, our Lord and Savior:

"Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?

8If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

9If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;

10Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." (Psalm 139: 7-10)

We cannot be separated from Him. This lie that He may or may not be there for us is all wrong, too.

Furthermore, the notion that He could go or run away from us: all of that is false:

"Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." (Hebrews 13: 5)

We need to trust that He is already there -- wherever we are going.

He is not coming and going anymore, the way that He did under the Old Covenant, when the blood of Jesus had not yet been shed, forever cleansing away our sins.

He Is Still Trustworthy, Even if We Do Not Trust

"If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself." (2 Timothy 2: 13)

Here is another revelation worth sharing.

Jesus is still trustworthy, even if we do not trust Him.

He does not come and go in our lives, even if we find ourselves wavering and unsure.

Jesus does not get huffy and angry with us if we find ourselves wondering and doubting about His truth and committment to caring for us.

Consider Abraham, the father of faith, and how open he was about his doubts:

"1After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." (Genesis 15: 1)

Notice, that even though God had quickened Abram to do great and mighty deeds, including the massive defeat and slaughter of wicked kings, the LORD had to comfort and assure Abram that He was with Him, his sure and unwavering reward.

2And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? 3And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir." (Genesis 15: 2-3)

Abram was already having doubts about having a child of his own through his lawful wife Sarai. Instead of getting angry, instead of rejecting Abram or giving up on him, He continued His assurances:

 4And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. 5And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. 6And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness. 7And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it." (Genesis 15: 4-7)

God is not in the business of leading us on then dropping us.

He does not prop up our hopes, then dash us.

He comes though and has continued to come through for us time and again.

He is trustworthy, even when we think that He is not worthy or trust. When we understand this, then our faith is no longer an obstacle, for faith is not about us, but about Him who has been from the beginning (1 John 2: 12-14).

It's Hard Work Believing -- This is a World Obsessed with Doing

"Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? 29Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. " (John 6:28-29)

This passage brings out the truth about our Lord and Savior.

He is still our Lord and our Savior.

He asks us to believe on Him, to trust Him, and this trust is a growing process which takes us faith to faith, as we grow in grace!

Why do we struggle with this?

Because like the Israelites of Jesus' time, we want to know: "What can we do? How do we work the works?"

We have nothing we can give God, for God gives us everything.

We are not autonomous.

We do not even create ourselves.

Such is the nature of sin, that we think that we can take care of everything, including ourselves, and thus do not have to rely on anyone or anything else.

We do not need other people. We need life.

We need Jesus, and the Good News is that Jesus, Savior, came to us and provided us everything.

It is hard for us to believe this. There is an innate need for us to keep trying to be more, to do more, to have a part in all that Jesus has done for us.

For years, I was so busy on the inside. So busy trying to figure out what I needed to.

He is our Life, and He has taken care of everything. It is the height of arrogance for me to think that i have to add something that what He has already done.

Now, once again, why do so many Christians have a hard time with this?

They have not accepted the harsh truth: I am dead, separated from God in Adam. I need a new life, a new identity, a new standing, out of Adam and into Christ.

Do we really accept what Jesus says when He told His disciples: "Apart from me, ye can do nothing."?

Most Christians still think that they can -- and must -- do something.

There we find ourselves right back to the Israelite dilemma: "What must we do, that we may work the works of God."

Jesus rebuffed their demand for a list of demands, and told them:

"This is the work: that you believe on Him whom He has sent."

Faith is Not About Blind Allegiance, but Trust

I was a Kierkegaardian.

The Danish theologian-philosopher cast Christianity in a dark and dour light, imposing on readers the sense of guilt and shame about their sin before God.

I recall one of his sermons, in which he wrote: "You are always guilty before God."

At first, a lot of this heavy-handed moralism sounds good and true.

The truth is, however, that it is false.

Kierkegaard's theology is just as wicked as any other false preaching out there.

One of the most dangerous aspects of his philosophical system argued that faith was somehow irrational, a blind hope, and leap into absurdity.

That is simply not the case.

There is so much in our experience based on what other people say.

The notion that faith is a some mystical felling and that we have no assurance about anything -- that is a fantasy all to itself.

Biblical hope is not about "maybe" or "could be".

It is all about "He did it all" and "It is Finished".

We are not called to believe on something which may or may not be true.

We are invited to trust in Someone who has already proven Himself Trustworthy.

He took the leap onto the Cross and rose again. He took us all with Him, too.

Faith is not about a physical effort, If we belong long enough and hard enough, then whatever we are believing comes to pass.

As the writer of Hebrews clearly defines: "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen."

Just because something is invisible (to us), does not mean that it does not exist. Just because I do not see or clearly understanding something in my midst does not mean that it is not true, either.

Faith is not a fantastic pressure placed upon us. It has nothing to do with our feelings or the facts in our face.

It is the foundation of what Jesus did at the Cross, and our growing awareness of all that He accomplished there.

I used to think that it was up to be to believe right to believe hard enough and long enough, to ensure that God was going to be there for me.

So much wrong teaching, so much misleading doctrine, too much emphasis on myself created this morass of confusion.

I was so convinced taht everything -- everything! -- in this life depended on me.

For a while, I knew that I needed to let go, and then He would take care of everything.

Then when things would go well, I was convinced, by lies and misleading frauds, that now I had to start doing something.

Never once did I understand that I was stepping into a Finished Work in every way.

I have been surrounded by church people who have been talking "Do! Do! Do!" all their lives.

Jesus was not kidding when He cried out on the Cross: "It Is Finished!"

And yet so many Christians run around hurrying and scurrying, as though everything in our lives will collapse if we do not hold it all together.

Once again, faith is not some kind of human effort to hold on in the face of painful opposition. Faith is an intelligent acceptance off something which He has already accomplished.

We are not jumping into the Unknown, but rather we are receiving By Him who is Known, and more importantly knows us!