Greetings,My name is AlSayr and I am going to blog on a more personal basis than many of my e-books and inspirational Podcasts. I have a regular plethora of web sites I have been running since 2007 that has been blessed. I invite you to listen to Conspiracies in Religion which is the first in a series of shows that I hope to use to show where the blanket has been thrown over our eyes. Here is how I started the show last evening:"Thanks for listening. I have been podcasting since 2007 and have had in excess of ¼ million podcast downloads. While I was in the process of learning and studying for my sometimes daily podcasts I would keep learning new things, which is the goal of a study I would assumeIt wouldn’t take long to learn a couple of the biggest conspiracies in the Christian religion today. Those are:The myth of Eternal Punishment in Hell is one of the biggest conspiracies and preys on our fears to get us to make a decision to join the Church. How many of you out there can honestly raise their hand to say that the fear of eternal punishment in Hell didn’t have any factor in you becoming a Christian?And the Greek word Ekklesia which I will be talking about next week. We get the word Church from the Greek word Ekklesia. I will give you a little spoiler for next week. The Greek word Ekklesia really means assembly, or congregation. So basically Jesus sets us free with the Gospel; then we throw shackles around believers to make religion fit our needs. Funny isn’t it? Ok, not really.Here is the deal; and I will admit that I get frustrated with how many Institutional Church’s handle the good news of Jesus Christ. It is really simple enough for a six year old to explain to you."I brought on my daughter to explain John 3:16 and 17 which pretty much sums up the Good News in my opinion. I then played a podcast that will be up for download at the main web site I continued:That is just how simple the Gospel or good news is. That is how very simply the Holy Spirit lays it out for us. But never fear; here comes Man to set us straight on what we are to believe. How we are supposed to act. They tell us where to send the money; and we send the money, thinking all along that we are doing the right things that will get us into Heaven.
The truth is you have already done everything that you really need to do when you ask Jesus to come into your life. For many many years I was a hard core believer in baptism being that exact moment where your salvation becomes real in a saving way. I no longer believe that the same way that I used to. But I think it is a good idea to follow Jesus’ example in the waters of baptism. A good friend and really smart Christian friend of mine who is an ex Baptist Pastor explains that not getting baptized is thumbing your nose at God.
If you continue listening to my weekly Blog Talk Radio shows we will be getting into Wayne Jacobsens material pretty soon. Wayne wrote the book “So you don’t want to go to Church anymore”. Wayne also wrote another book previously called “The Naked Church” which talks about how an institutional Church can actually get in the way of the true one on one personal relationship that our creator longs to have with each and every one of us. That is what this whole thing called Religion is really all about. The Bible is not a law book, or a set of rules that must be followed to get into heaven. The Bible is the story (even in the Old Testament) where time and time again we turn our back on our creator. Sure; there are a lot of destruction issues in the Old Testament. But none of these come without God practically begging for his people to just come back. Just come back and I will make everything OK. I will be your God, and you will be my people.
Talking about this brings to mind an old picture of God standing at the door. It says something along the lines of “Behold, I stand knocking at the door”. Have you ever taken a good look at this picture? There is not a door knob on the outside. The only doorknob supposedly is on the inside. You have to want to have God into your life, and you should be longing for the one on one personal relationship that God wants to have with you as well.
I go into the Podcast at this point and that text can be found on my main web site "When I woke up this morning (dot) com. You can download it here http://www.wheniwokeupthismorning.com/forum/8 at the When I woke up this morning web site.
Take the time to read http://www.wheniwokeupthismorning.com/forum/8 as it will lay out Biblical Support for my position. Sign in via facebook on the web site and start commenting on our Forums today.
Thanks,
AlSayr