Radical Sonship Conference Was A Success

The Radical Sonship Conference on Friday and Saturday was a great time together with other grace walkers, meeting new friends,reconnecting with old friends and moving forward together in our goal to see the growing grace revolution shatter the misunderstanding many people (both believers and unbelievers) have about who our Father is, what He has done and what it is that He wants from us.

Paul Anderson-Walsh and I sought to share truth that would encourage those attending to move beyond the grace crawler (little child) stage toward maturity as believers who live out of the rights and privileges of adoption as sons of God. While the message of our identity in Christ is new to many, there are also many others who have known the complete gospel for some time and are now hungry to know the deeper aspects of living out this life.

Paul and I will teach this same conference again in London, England on July 3-5. If there's any way you could attend, it would be a great experience for you.

We mentioned to those attending that we may plan to conduct a conference on a cruise ship next year. If we were to take a 4-5 day cruise together, the additional time would allow us to have the chance not only to have teaching, but to get to know each other better. I'll post more news on that topic as we research it and start to form some preliminary plans.

Let me know your thoughts on the conference this past weekend and on the possibility of a cruise next year.

This week, Melanie and I have "gone into hiding" with Paul and Haley and are resting and having fun together. I'm not even answering my phone or emails, which is something Melanie thought was an impossibility for me. She thinks my Blackberry is my "life support system." I always deny it to her, but she's not totally wrong about that! It's my office in my pocket.

Radical Sonship Conference Today and Tomorrow

I've looked forward to the Radical Sonship Conference for quite a while now. We will meet today and tomorrow at the Galleria Sheraton in Atlanta. I'm looking forward to meeting all the people who are coming in from around the country and even from outside the U.S.

Paul Anderson-Walsh and I will be co-teaching together, lifting out themes from the book of Ephesians. I will teach the odd numbered sessions and he will teach the even number ones. Here are our topics for the conference:

SESSION 1 THE PREFACE & THE PURPOSE
SESSION 2 THE PREMISE & THE PROMISE
SESSION 3 TO UNDERSTAND THE MYSTERY IS TO UNDERSTAND THE MINISTRY
SESSION 4 A PEOPLE OF PROMISE & A PROMISING PEOPLE
SESSION 5 BE-LOVED & BE LOVING
SESSION 6 MYSTERY NOT MAGIC

Be sure and introduce yourself to me if you're a regular reader of this blog or if you connect with me through FaceBook. I look forward to meeting everbody.

You're in for a treat. Paul Anderson-Walsh is a gifted and insightful communicator and we're both excited about what we have to share. If you aren't able to attend this time, we would love to see you in London, England on July 3-4 when we will be teaching the same conference. If you can't attend either, check out my resource site at www.gracewalkresources.com in the next few weeks to buy a set of the CDs of this conference.

How To Honor The Lord

The LORD's delight is in those who honor him, those who put their hope in his unfailing love. Psalm 147:11

For many years, I taught people that the way to honor the Lord was to do what He said - to obey Him. Obedience - that was the most important thing in the Christian life, as I saw it. But the problem was that, no matter how hard I tried and how sincere I was, I couldn't seem to be consistent in that area.

This verse from Psalms shows that the Lord is honored when we put our hope in His unfailing love. It isn't our obedience, our faith, or even our level of love for Him that honors Him most. It is by learning to rest in His unconditional, unfailing and unchanging love that He is most honored.

As we learn to accept His acceptance, the calm that comes over us is amazing. No more do we have to struggle to stay on God's good side. No longer do we condemn ourselves because we think we aren't doing enough to keep Him in a good mood toward us. We come to learn that our Father's love has nothing to do with how good we are, but has everything to do with how good He is.

Then, lo and behold, the realization of His unfailing love begins to transform us. We find ourselves being motivated to live a godly lifestyle because we want to behave, not because we think it's the right thing to do. We become increasingly free to relax and just be ourselves, knowing that He loves us no matter what. The love of God for us will mature us, motivate us and minister to us every day. Life increasingly becomes more and more about Him and not about us.

Do you want to honor the Lord? Then stop focusing on yourself and instead learn to rest in His unfailing love. He is delighted when you do that!

(Thanks to Ana Vincent, of Grace Walk Canada, for sharing this verse with me this week!)

A Different Drummer

Living in God-given freedom will inevitably bring the scorn of the self-righteous down on you. Jesus stayed in trouble because the way He acted didn't fit the expectations of the religious crowd who thought it was their duty to police everybody else to make sure they were minding their P's & Q's. When He enjoyed a good meal and a glass of wine with friends, they called Jesus "a glutton and a drunkard." (See Luke 7:34)

When He showed loving concern for those who wouldn't exactly seem to fit in behind the stained glass, they called Him a "friend of sinners" - the old guilt by association ploy. I've even heard people twenty centuries later suggest that there may have been hanky-panky going on between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. How stupid. When He acted in the confidence of God, they accused Him of being arrogant. (See John 6:42)

Jesus described the self-righteous religious crowd by saying they were like little children who pitched a fit, shrieking out, "We played a song on our flute and you didn't dance! We sang a sad song and you didn't cry!" (See Luke 7:32)

Nothing has changed. The self-righteous today still demand that those who profess to be Christians march lockstep together like a bunch of Nazi soldiers. But that's not what you've been called to do. Those of us who follow Jesus Christ march to the beat of a Different Drummer.

They may accuse us of getting "out of line" and they're often right. We don't see ourselves as being rescued from a world of unrighteousness only to fall into a world of self-righteousness. Our grace walk isn't a lockstep march of religious robots. Ours is a dance of grace.

They can mock us if they want, but we're in a Heavenly Conga Line led by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Sound irreverent? Only to religious ears. Those set free by grace never have and never will meet the demands of the flat-liners who secretly begrudge their monotonous, mundane march they call "the Christian life." They brood and seethe over the idea that somewhere, somebody who calls himself a Christian is having a good time. They equate freedom with sinning and to hear talk of freedom from grace walkers strikes in them images of Girls Gone Wild in the name of Christian liberty. It's sad that they just don't get it.

A friend recently told me that he met a man on an airplane who asked him if he knew me. When my friend told him he did, the man answered, "That brother is free!" I'm not sure if he meant it as an insult or a compliment, but either way he's right. I've done my time at, what my friend Paul Walsh calls, "St. Shawshanks" and thank God was finally released after serving a 29 year sentence.

Yesterday, as I visited the King Center in Atlanta with friends from California, I saw those familiar words from Martin Luther King etched on his grave: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last!" That's it - and thank God, we don't have to wait until we're in heaven to be able to proclaim those words.

What To Do When You're In The Pit

The newest Sunday Preaching video is now available to watch on the home page of www.gracewalk.org. Click the Sunday Preaching link and the video player will come on. The message this week is about Joseph and how God brings us through "the pits" and is faithful to fulfill His plan for our lives.

What If ....

What if we've got it all wrong about God in the modern church world? What if He is nothing like we've imagined Him to be? What if the most basic understandings we have about His nature, His personality and His approach to us completely misses the point?

What if God the Father didn't didn't send Jesus the Son to come alone to earth so that the Father could vent His anger over sin against the Son instead of us, but instead so that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit could together come to deal a death blow against sin in order to free us from its grip before it caused us to waste away into eternal nothingness?

What if the work of Jesus on the cross wasn't to change God's mind about you, but to change your mind about God?

What if God isn't nearly as concerned about what you're doing or not doing as He is about how you see and understand Him?

What if God is smiling as He looks at you right now and you could never do anything to wipe that smile off His face?

What if the coming of Jesus wasn't God's reaction to Adam's sin, but was carrying out a plan that had been made long before Adam was even created?

What if the primary characteristic of who God is has nothing to do with being a judge, but has everything to do with being a gentle, loving, Father?

What if you could never cause God to become angry or even disappoint Him?

What if you didn't need more faith, but only need to depend on Jesus to express His faith on your behalf?

What if you were the child God always wanted?

What if fulfilling God's plan for your life didn't depend on you at all?

What if God loved Muslims and atheists and homosexuals as much as He loves you?

What if you were a part of the inner circle of love shared by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit?

What if?

The Man, Christ Jesus

For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus 1 Timothy 2:5

When Jesus Christ came to this world, He didn't abandon His Deity. Theologians call it the hypostatic union. He was simultaneously absolutely God and absolutely man. For the Godhead to bring us into the Trinitarian Circle of Love that has existed for all eternity, He became man in the person of Jesus so that He could reunite us to Himself. Jesus lived a sinless life, and then with the love of the Father in the body of the Son through the power of the Spirit, completed the mission He came to do. "It is finished!" cried Jesus, forever expelling the need for you to do anything other than revel in His finished work and what that means.

When Jesus ascended back to heaven forty days later, He didn't leave His human body behind. The man, Christ Jesus, went back to heaven. Just as He didn't leave His Deity behind when He left heaven to come to earth, neither did He leave His humanity behind when He left earth to return to heaven. Is He 100% God? Of course, He is, but He is still 100% man too. The Bible teaches in Zechariah 13:6 that when He comes back, Jesus will still bear the marks of the crucifixion in His body. Forever He is God and forever He will be man.

The beauty of the manhood of the Son of God today is that, as a man, He mediates divine life to us - not just in a building with a steeple on top, but in every area our lives. My love for music is His love for music. The thrill I feel when I hold my grandchildren on my lap comes from Him. My enjoyment of the sunrise I watched over Tampa Bay this morning was His enjoyment of what He made once again today. My appreciation for exciting experiences is the passion of the Godhead being expressed through me.

Do you see the point? Divine Life in you is there to animate your actions in every walk of life. The man, Christ Jesus, knows what it is to live on this earth with all its ups and downs, its burdens and blessings, and its obstacles and opportunities. And He lives in you, to express the life of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit right in the mix of all of it. We're not in this thing alone. We dance through this world together with the Trinity empowering, encouraging and engulfing us in Divine Love at every step of the way.

There's a man in heaven today and in a mystical way that theologians have never quite been able to adequately explain, that man lives in you and will show you on this very day what Divine Life looks like when it is lived out through you on your job, at your school, in your home or wherever you may find yourself.

Sunday Preaching

I posted this on my YouTube channel but thought I'd put it here too:

Walking In The Will of God Book

I have a copy of the book in my hand now and am pleased with how it turned out. You can order it at www.gracewalkresources.com If you order a copy from our ministry during March, we will pay the shipping. The book will be available in bookstores on April 1. We will ship your book to you the minute we receive them from the publisher, which should be shortly before the first of next month.

Praying To Monkeys & Holding On To Our Old Beliefs

When Melanie and I were in India a few years ago, we were driven around town for several days by the same taxi driver. He was a nice young man who willingly answered any question we had about Indian culture. Over a period of a few days, I had really come to like him.

It was on a Saturday that we were in his taxi going from Kota to the city of Agra, where we were going to see the Taj Mahal. As lunchtime drew near, I asked him if he knew a good place along our route where we could stop to eat. He did and it wasn't long until we pulled up in front of the restaurant.

Since I'd known him for a few days and liked him, I invited him to come in and let me buy lunch for him. "No, thank you," he replied. "Are you sure?" I asked. "I really would like to buy your lunch today." "I appreciate it," he said, "but I'm fasting today."

We went in and ate without him and when we returned to the car, I asked him about his fast. I learned that he was fasting to the monkey God Hanuman. Monkeys are greatly revered in India. You see them everywhere. They are given free reign of the place and come and go anywhere as they please.

He explained a little of the history of Hanuman to me and then I said to him, "You know I like you, don't you?" "Yes," he said. "You are a nice man." "Then may I ask you a question and know that you'll understand I mean no offense by it?" I asked. "Of course," he answered. So I looked him straight in the eyes and asked, "When you're fasting and praying -- now be honest with me -- do you ever think to yourself, 'I'm praying to a monkey!'"

He smiled and said, "I understand why you would ask that question, but you see our culture is different from yours. We are taught how to live out our religion from the time we are small children. We are taught not to question it, but to just do it. So I don't think about it. I just do what I've been taught to do."

As the week progressed, I did talk to him about Jesus Christ and he was very polite. Like many in India, he was respectful enough that if I'd had a carving of Jesus he would have been willing to put it up on his altar at home and pray to Jesus right along with all the other gods he offered prayers. Of course, you know that shows he didn't understand the gospel.

As time has passed, I've come to see that young man's attitude more and more in the Christian church. There are things that many of us grew up being taught that are simply wrong. Many who sit in church every week have horribly faulty ideas about who God is, about who they are and about what He expects from them.

They go through the motions of their religious rituals in an effort to please a God who already is pleased with them because they are in His Beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. But they think that if they don't do the right things, He will curse them and if they do the right things, He will bless them. They think they are rotten people who need God's help to improve themselves and they are constantly trying to do just that. They believe that God has high demands on them concerning what they do, what they say and even what they think. They believe that bad things happen when they fall short in those areas.

The truth of the gospel is that God loves you. He accepts you just like you are. That doesn't mean that He won't change your attitudes and actions over time, but that's His job not yours. Our responsibility is just to yield ourselves to Him in faith that He will transform us by His grace, in His time and in His way.

No, contemporary Christians aren't praying to a monkey god. But we are stubbornly holding on to old beliefs just because it's what we've always believed so we dare not question them. The fact of the matter is that, if we are going to grow and go on in our grace walk, there will be things we must reconsider -- things we must subject to the Word of God as if we are learning it for the first time. To walk in freedom, there are things we may need to reject, to put aside out of our belief system and our actions.

Have you changed as a Christian in the past years? Months? Weeks? Remember that growing things always change. Don't allow old viewpoints to become idolatry in your life. Submit yourself, your views and your actions to the Holy Spirit and ask Him to show you the truth. Be willing to think about what you believe and do and ask yourself why in light of God's Word. That's how you'll grow and how you'll experience your freedom in Christ. Dead, religious tradition binds but the Truth will set you free.

Have You Ever Met Somebody "More Spiritual" Than Jesus?

I know I'll probably catch some flack over this one because it's too close to home for some people. Note that what this video does is not to make fun of Christians, but to mock the hyper-religious actions of some Christians. Ridiculous, dead religion deserves to be mocked. (Think Elijah mocking Baal's prophets when they were trying to call down the fire or Paul suggesting to the Judaizers that they should just go ahead and castrate themselves.)

In my opinion, if you think this mocks Christians, you're missing the point. These sort of hyper-religious antics exist in the modern church world and insults authentic Christianity. Obviously, many believers express spiritual gifts in authentic ways, but there's a spirit of religious fanaticism that grips some people and disgraces the true work of God in His church.

To tell the truth, I just thought this video was funny. If you think so, we're on the same page. If it upsets you, oh well, there are other things you'll be upset with me about too if you knew me well. Just show me some grace. I'm not trying to offend anybody. I simply think that, for whatever reason the video was made, it does make a legitimate point.

101 Lies Taught In Church Every Sunday

As I have time, I'm working on the 101 Lies Taught In Church Every Sunday manuscript. Here's one of them:

Lie #5: Our sins are “under the blood of Jesus.”

Just as there are trite statements in all cultures that sound true on the surface, but don’t necessarily convey the truth, so it is in the church world. We’ve heard some things said in church that have been stated so often and sound so logical that we believe they must be true. This is one of those statements. Take a close look at that statement: Your sins are under the blood of Jesus. What could possibly be wrong with that affirmation?

There’s a very good question you should get in the habit of asking, that will help you cut through the fog of vague and confusing talk. It’s simply to ask, “What do you mean by that?” Ask people what they mean by a phrase or term, and you’ll finally be able to pinpoint what the controversy or teaching is really saying. Often you’ll discover that you actually agree with what a person is trying to say, even though you disagree with how they say it. Other times, you’ll discover that what sounds good on the surface actually disguises a serious error beneath. Either way, you’ll not discover what you’re really dealing with until you ask people to clarify what they mean. Many of our shorthand expressions and clichés serve to promote errors and reinforce misunderstandings.

In this case, what someone usually means by saying that our sins are under the blood of Jesus is that we are forgiven. I would certainly do nothing but agree with that assertion, but I do have a problem with this way of trying to say it. It communicates a serious misunderstanding about the work of Christ.

TAKE A FRESH LOOK AT THE SCRIPTURES

It is important to understand a major difference between the Old and New Covenants and how they describe the process of sacrifice and forgiveness.In the Old Testament period under the Law of Moses, forgiveness was indeed offered people of faith, but the dominant concept was that of atonement. Atonement literally means “a covering.”

You may remember how the priests would offer sacrificial animals for the sins of the people. There were many, many types of sacrifices, offered continually. There were daily, weekly, monthly, and annual sacrifices. The most important day of worship for ancient Israel was the annual observance called Yom Kippur, literally, “The Day of Atonement.” This was the one and only day of the year when a human representative, the High Priest, would enter the Holy of Holies, the innermost room of the Tabernacle or Temple, and approach the Ark of the Covenant.

The Ark represented the foundation of God’s very throne. When the blood of an innocent animal was poured on Ark, the Judgment Seat became the Mercy Seat. Men’s sins were considered “covered” by the blood, and the people were counted forgiven by God — for now only, however, because no sacrifice under the Law ever provided for tomorrow’s sins. At best, they were temporary and up-to-date.

However, things have changed with the coming of the new covenant. The Law’s observances were only shadows and previews of the work of Christ, who would accomplish a far greater work.

Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. Hebrews 9:23

Jesus’ offering of Himself was truly a “better sacrifice,” but that’s not all. Remember the scene when Jesus showed up at the Jordan River where John the Baptist was baptizing? John said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” (John 1:29). That Old Covenant prophet, John, understood better than many Christians today that Jesus came to do something different than previous priests had done. He didn’t come to hide away our sins from God’s sight by putting them under the blood of a sacrifice. He came to do away with them completely. As John wrote, “And you know that He appeared to take away sins” (1 John 3:5).

The book of Hebrews teaches that Jesus was an infinitely better sacrifice than any of those offered in the Old Testament. In fact, He was the perfect sacrifice. When He offered Himself for our sins, His shed blood didn’t just “cover” our sins. By His sacrifice, our sins were taken away. Hebrews 9: 26 says,

But now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

The words “put away” are one word in the Greek language, which means “to disannul, to do away with, to completely destroy.” Jesus didn’t come to cover your sins. He came to take your sin away, and that’s exactly what He did. As if to make this point unmistakably clear, this contrast is described:

Every [Old Covenant] priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for all time, sat down at the right hand of God … For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. Hebrews 10:11-14

CLARIFY YOUR THINKING

So it’s actually great news to know that your sins are not under the blood of Christ. His blood doesn’t cover them. The blood of Jesus Christ has taken your sins away! Some have said that the doctrine of justification is the teaching that because of Christ’s finished work, our status can be described as “just-if-I never sinned.” It’s really more than that, but that’s a good start. In the eyes of your heavenly Father, you have an unblemished record. He isn’t overlooking anything. He has rewritten your history by taking away the sins of your past and giving you the history of Christ Himself.

Believing that your sins are “under the blood of Christ” doesn’t truly honor the finished work of Jesus. Ironically enough, it actually diminishes His sacrifice. What He did is much greater than most Christians have understood. He doesn’t condemn us for our sins now because there are no sins to condemn. The cross has obliterated them!

Your sins have been blotted out and you have been given the righteousness of God in Christ. You don’t ever need to be bogged down with a preoccupation about sins again. Instead, you can now walk in the confidence of knowing that your life isn’t defined by sin anymore, but by the righteousness of the Christ who has become your very life.

So, though it sounds good to say that our sins are under the blood of Jesus Christ, it is a lie. The Bible says our sins have been taken away from us, forever, by the finished work of Christ at the cross.

My Dormant Talent - Yeah Right....

Susan Moss Carder - "Fern" was one of my closest friends in college. When I got married, Melanie loved Fern too. We have many wonderful memories with her. She was the first person our now 34 year old son every reached out to touch. In my first pastorate, when I was 19 years old, Fern was my church pianist. We used to play this "little ditty" on the piano back then.

Recently, thanks to FaceBook, we reunited with Fern. We spent the day with her yesterday and, for the first time in 35 years, Fern and I sat down at the piano together again. This is the result. We probably won't take the show on the road, but it was fun. There is no greater gift in life than old friends, don't you agree?

Sunday Preaching

If you haven't watched the Sunday Preaching on my home page at gracewalk.org, I encourage you to check it out. Every week I share a grace based message from Scripture on Sunday, then leave it online all week. Today's message is "The Storms of Life," from Acts 27.

It has been encouraging to see the response so far. I've heard from people who watch from around the world - Norway, Scotland, Vietnam, Israel, as well as from all over the U.S. and Canada. The following note came this week from Ireland:

I would like to respond to your request of sending an email to you with regards to your Sunday Preaching online. We really appreciate and want to thank you for doing such a wonderful work. We have been tremendously inspired and encouraged by the Words of God through your Sunday Preaching.. My wife and myself are Malaysian but we are living in Ireland at this moment. We got to know about this online preaching through my brother who have been watching this in Malaysia all the while.

Many Thanks and God bless !!

Will you help me spread this word about this online ministry? I think it's a good way to get the gospel into many places.

Il Divo sings Amazing Grace

I think this is awesome. (Thanks to Mark Vilen for sending this to me.)

God Sometimes Works In Not So Mysterious Ways

I'm in the Tampa airport early this morning, on my way to Macon, GA to conduct the funeral service of Marjorie Sims. Marjorie and Jim have been dear friends and I served as their pastor almost 30 years ago. I conducted Jim's funeral a couple of years ago and now Marjorie joins him.

I was thinking this morning of how God used them and other friends to bless my family back then. One particular incident that happened with them still makes me smile today.

I was a struggling pastor in a small country church, barely able to keep food on the table and pay my bills. My four children were all still very young. There was a time when they became obsessed with a desire to go to Disney World and asked if we could go.

I told them that we didn't have the money to go there, but that we would pray and ask the Lord to make a way for us to go sometime. Immediately, they all started praying for that desire. Every night, when our family prayed together they would each pray, "Lord, please give us money so we can go to Disney World." Night after night, their prayer was the same.

As summer came and the weeks passed, it began to be apparent to me that we weren't going to be able to go to Disney World. Melanie and I tried to distract the kids from the idea by doing other things with them, but they kept praying. I hated to see their prayer go unanswered but there was nothing I could do about the situation.

One day there was a knock at the door. When I answered, there was Jim Sims (Marjorie's husband) and Clarence Ivester. I invited them in. We sat down in the living room, when Jim suddenly stood up, walked over to me and dropped five hundred dollars on my lap. "Take your kids to Disney World," he said in a matter-of-fact way.

"What made you do this?" I asked in disbelief. "Well," Jim answered, "it's just something that Marjorie and I and Clarence and Shirley want to do." I was amazed.

That afternoon I went to the bank and exchanged the larger bills for one dollar bills That night, before we prayed I took out the cash and began to throw it up in the air around my children. "Look!" I said to them. "The Lord answered our prayers!" We were all thrilled.

An amazing answer to prayer, don't you think?

Well, here's, as they say, the rest of the story. Later we learned that our oldest daughter, Amy was going to Sunday School every week where Shirely Ivester was her Sunday School teacher. And every week, when the children prayed in Sunday School, Amy would pray aloud, "Lord, give us the money to go to Disney World!"

Shirley heard that prayer week after week and told Marjorie. The ladies talked to their husband and the result was five hundred dollars on my lap days later.

Did God answer my children's prayer? Of course! He used the compassion of Jimmy and Marjorie and of Clarence and Shirley. The result was that my children were able to take their first trip to Disney World.

God does work in mysterious ways sometimes. At other times, we discover it wasn't so mysterious after all. Either way, it's Him.

As I think of my friends, Marjorie and Jim, this morning, I know they are together again in heaven. And I'm thankful for how they both enriched my family's life - not just with our first trip to Disney world, but in many ways.

The Most Controversial Subject I've Taught About

What would you guess has sparked the most opposition of anything I've taught in the past years? Think about it before you keep reading. I'll give you a hint. If you've watched my "101 Lies Taught In Church Every Sunday" videos on YouTube, it's one of them.

The topic? Keeping the Sabbath day. On YouTube, Lie #101 was that "Sunday Is The Christian Sabbath." That one brought the house down in anger - at least the Sabbatarian House (those who believe we still must observe Saturday as the Sabbath Day).

I've been amazed how many people have become outraged with me for daring to suggest that Jesus Christ is our Sabbath rest now and that we aren't under a law to observe the seventh day of the week as a Sabbath Day anymore.

The point of the video was to correct the faulty view held by many Christians that Sunday is the new Sabbath Day. The Sabbath Day is the seventh day - Saturday. I didn't imagine what a can of worms that video would open. Some have emailed me, telling me that I'm going to hell. Others have said I'm destroying the church. Others have accused me of denying the Word of God. Wow, all that for saying it's okay to go to the mall on Saturday? :)

What's amazing is that those who so vehemently argue that we must still observe the Sabbath seldom do it themselves. Do they drive? Take more steps than "a Sabbath Day's journey" would allow? Cook? Spend money for anything? Do anything at all that any serious Orthodox Jew would recognize as a violation of the day? Be assured, they all break it no matter how loudly and proudly they tell you otherwise.

And on that note, why are they so big on the Sabbath Day while ignoring or at least minimizing the other Laws? One whole denomination is built around the idea that we should worship on Saturday and many believe if you don't, you've taken the mark of the beast. Why doesn't somebody start a church built on the idea that we shouldn't commit adultery, or steal, or bear false witness, etc? You might can slide on those but, boy-oh-boy, when Saturday rolls around you'd better be in your place.

I don't mean to sound ungracious in this post, but it irks me to see how many people are living in bondage because of this teaching. Besides, grace sometimes takes a harsh approach. If you don't believe it, ask the Apostle Paul. Or better yet - Jesus, who didn't mince words with Pharisees.

The Apostle Paul wrote, "Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day - things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ" Colossians 2:16-17.

There's no doubt about it - a lot of C.R.A.P. (Christian Rules And Procedures) is being taught out there, but this is the one that's in my face today. Hence, this blog :) Maybe I just need a nap....