"Not Just Believe"

Dear Christian reader, since you know the true gospel is "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved," are you now going to believe that "believing" is not the only thing that God want you to do?   It would seem that belief.... is secondary.

"You Are Called To Belong, Not Just Believe"

~Rick Warren

You Are Called To Belong, Not Just Believe  BY RICK WARREN — MAY 21, 2014

"Don’t Just Believe. Belong!"~Rick Warren 

"Don’t Just Believe. Belong!"  BY RICK WARREN — MAY 21, 2014

Who, Christian, do you belong to?  Why, you belong to the one who puchased you with his own blood!  But curiously Rick doesn't talk about you" belonging" to Jesus, but rather, you, belonging to a "community." It's rather odd, (don't you think, Christian,) that he fails to teach that when a person believes in Jesus they DO belong... to the Lord. (see Mark 9:34)

 "Belonging" is not some secondary thing that one must accomplish on their own in addition to believing, however, if you believe in Jesus, Rick wants you to realize that simple faith in Jesus is not enough.  No.... there are lots of requirements and expectations now placed upon you.  It would appear to Rick that those old- fashioned churches that just accept you and love you, give you a place to come and be discipled... you know, learn about God, get it wrong.  They do not place requirements and expectations on you, like Rick does.

Rick laments:

"In churches, membership is often reduced to simply adding your name to a roll, with no requirements or expectations."

Imagine that!

Imagine, if you can fathom it, a church being so lame as to be a place whereby membership comes about with no requirements or expectations placed upon you.  All they dare to do is accept you and maybe  add your name to a roll.   (This would be that kind of church whereby you are a member because you simply heard the gospel and responded in faith, making proclamation of your faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior and then you attend church to learn more and grow in your knowledge of who God is and to be a part of that church!  Can you imagine that membership in a church would even be that simple?

Rick is here to help:

"We need to recover and practice the biblical meaning of membership."~Rick Warren

He means you must tithe to your church.... ten percent, show up all the time and volunteer your time too.  It's required for membership.  

"Following Christ includes belonging, 

not just believing."~Rick Warren

You must understand... you not only to believe.  You have to also belong!  Isn't it great to know that being a Christian is not easy? In addition to a membership covenant with your church... you will need to buy study materials, attend all the appropriate classes, and go on missions but only after you make yourself useful... that is, once you discover the purpose God made you for, but you'll need Rick's best selling book.

.....and while you' at it, besides  believing and belonging, you must also master the art of balancing the "five purposes" God has for you.  (What happens pray-tell if you cannot balance them right?)  And be aware, that task actually doubles, because in addition to you balancing the five purposes,  you need to know that there are five purposes for the church too.

It's a double whammy!.  

"God’s purposes for his church are identical to his five purposes for you."~Rick Warren

Whoever said that all a person had to do to was "believe?"

Simple  faith, (the kind of faith a little child has when you tell them something; what is that anyway?

.... Not Just Believe.

You Don't Need Guilt

It was March 14, 2016, and this day's devotional message was titled, Gods Grace Covers Your Guilt.   Loaded Christian sounding words and terminology, like, "guilt" and talking about how "grace covers," it even mentions, "God." It almost could have been a news headline taken right out of the Bible.  It sounds biblical, but read the message in the light of gospel truth and you will discover, it's not!

It might be correct to understand from the scriptures how it is that "God's grace covers your guilt," but the grace of God, being the amazing thing it is, does not begin and end there.  God's grace really does so much more than merely bring a person happiness in this life.   In reading Rick Warren's publication about how God's Grace Covers Your Guilt, one finds it is a message void of the simple truth: that Jesus Christ died to give you God's gift, the gift of forgiveness for sin and eternal life.  

Rick's concept of Jesus wants followers, and in exchange, you get to escape that nagging feeling that you find makes you unhappy.... "guilt." 

"Even if there were no eternity, it would be worth it to become a follower of Jesus in order to escape the guilt."

 Rick Warren, 

God’s Grace Covers Your Guilt,  Daily Hope with Rick Warren,  MARCH 14, 2016

(And please note, Rick also does in fact talk about "sin." Now you cannot rightly say that Rick Warren never talks about "sin."  He indeed does.  "Sin" however, is not reason God became man and dwelt among us.  If you listen to Rick, he will not tell you that God was concerned with the fact that people would die in their sins and be eternally separated from him forever because of it.... instead , God didn;t want people, like you, walking around feeling guilty.....

No joke:   

"Sin brings guilt.... God doesn’t want you to walk around feeling guilty. That’s why God sent Jesus to the cross to die for all of your sins."

 Rick Warren, 

God’s Grace Covers Your Guilt,  Daily Hope with Rick Warren,  MARCH 14, 2016

God felt sad about you feeling bad...feeling guilty all the time, so he sent Jesus to die so that your guilt (due to sin, ) would stop making you miserable

Rick does inform you that "sin" happens, but it's apparently not the problem to be reckoned with.   The problem, the main problem that plagues all humanity, the problem that is "basic to the human existence," (according to Rick,) is the nagging feeling of "guilt."  It's such a  bad thing... (guilt) that, like satan, it tempts us.

Rick explains:

"Guilt is basic to the human existence. Since no one is perfect, we all are tempted by guilt over our past mistakes."

 Rick Warren, 

God’s Grace Covers Your Guilt,  Daily Hope with Rick Warren,  MARCH 14, 2016

Guilt is a problem, but guilt does not "tempt" a person, evil desires do that. (James 1:14)

Furthermore, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, guilt actually works in us to show us our need for forgiveness, our need for a savior.  In fact, it's far better to feel guilty over a sin and know you need a savior than to have no remorse over the wrongs things we do or have done.   And sin, (not guilt), is basic to human existence.  Sin is humanity's problem.  We inheirited it from Adam.  While Rick tells the reader that sin causes guilt..... he then does a slick switch-a-oo and directs the reader to think that guilt, your feelings of guilt. not sin, is the problem.

Warren also works to explain how Jesus removed the condemnation we are under before God.  Rick says:

"No condemnation” means God doesn’t judge you for all you’ve done wrong if you’ve trusted Christ because Jesus took that judgment upon himself on the cross. God doesn’t have to judge you because Jesus was judged. He doesn’t have to condemn you because Jesus took your condemnation....."

It's true.  This is what Jesus Christ did and it is good  news indeed, straight from the preserved pages of scripture, but as Warren continues explaining this concept of Jesus' atonement...Christ's death for our sin, Him in our place, it is delivered to us with no hope of there being such a thing as eternity or the realization that all of our sins are forgiven.  He does not even talk about how great it is to be reconciled to God.  Instead, what we have is the ability to sin, without the guilt:

".... That means you don’t need the guilt. Notice that it doesn’t say that after you become a Christian, you won’t sin. You’ll still sin. You’ll still make mistakes. You’ll still fail and look stupid. But Jesus has paid the price for those failures. You are free from guilt!"

Rick Warren, 

God’s Grace Covers Your Guilt,  Daily Hope with Rick Warren,  MARCH 14, 2016

Rick's message about how God cares about how you feel can be of some comfort.  After all, God does care about you.  It's true.  God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have eternal life.  It's also true that following Jesus is a good thing.  However, it does remain quite remarkable that Rick Warren, given half a chance will work really hard verbally to circumvents real faith issues, like, how Jesus was born and he died to save us all from sin and that by faith in him, all your sin is washed away.