Good News: Jesus Unlimited

I felt like this was a good time to comment on the bit of dogma regarding "professing your faith in Jesus." We've been taught most of our lives that this has to be done before one dies, otherwise one will be damned and go to Hell forever. This little doggy presents a BIG problem for the Hell-Burner "christians" because it contradicts the teaching that "God is Love" (see 1 John 4:7-12) along with a great deal of scripture. God isn't a hater of men, and many who claim to speak on His behalf are putting shackles around His "word." (more about that "word" in an upcoming post.)

Jesus said he was sent to do the will of God. He told us what that will was. Who are we to add conditions and limits to what God and Jesus have said they were going to do? Do you suppose it is "Good News" to a devout Jew who not only knows, but also practices, the principles Jesus taught when a 'christian' says God is going to burn him "for ever and ever" in a lake of fire? Jesus was a Jew-he said himself that he was sent to the Jews and that they wouldn't believe Him. Jesus didn't put time limits or conditions on Himself when he said, "And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day." (John 6:39)

All-it's a little word, but it encompasses much. How many is "all"? If you shackle Jesus with the chains of time limits and dogma of some religious denominations, "all" means, at best, only a very small percentage of every human being that ever existed. If you open your mind to the possibility that God really DOES have "Good News" for the world that we are told about in Isaiah 52:7-10 and in 1 Corinthians 15:20-28 (and dozens of other scriptures) then "all" really means "ALL".

If you take off the shackles that religious dogma has been attempting to use to restrain God from the beginning of time, then maybe instead of being in danger of being one of the blind and deaf people Jesus taught about in Matthew 13:11-17 you might be able to experience a love for God that goes beyond any you ever imagined. Freedom is what Jesus came to give us. Freedom from our owns sins. Freedom from the fear of punishment. Freedom to live a life in communion with God NOW, not just in some far-off future state of being (although we get that, too).

When you have cast off the shackles you place on yourself by becoming a slave to the dogma of men, you are free to LIVE in the love described in 1 John 4:17-18 where the Bible says, "In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."

God isn't subject to man's concept of time. He exists outside of time. Jesus can do His work WHENEVER the "time" for Him to act comes-whether that is in this life, or after it. The Bible says in Revelation 1:18 Jesus has the keys to death and hell, are we foolish enough to think He can't use the key and open the gates whenever He wants? We cannot know God's timeline for Jesus, so why attempt to shackle Him by attempting to put an expiration date on God's grace?

p.s.: I'm still taking a walk with John Milton's dogma...it's a big hairy one!