Deep thoughts, getting things off my chest

Do you ever have someone's words repeat in your head over and over?  Words you know are not true, but that plague your mind anyway?  Sometimes for days, weeks, or even years?  

This is an issue I have had most of my life.  I know the Bible tells us how to deal with this, we are to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.  Here is that verse: 

2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (KJV)  "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; (5)Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;"

So we can not only take our thougths captive, but we can also pull down strongholds.  

Something that helps me to "Take those thoughts captive" is by writing about them.  For me it's like purging them out of my system, and then they quit repeating in my head.  

So that's what I am doing right now, purging my thoughts.  

For years I was oppressed with reglion.  Don't get me wrong, I am a very devout Christian, but I was also taught a lot of wrong doctrine, and I believed it.  I was taught to be afraid of God.  I'm not talking about a reverential fear, which is a good thing, but a terrifying fear.  The kind of fear that makes you serve Him because you are afraid of His wrath, and not the respectful kind that makes you want to worship Him.  

So I served God like a servant would serve a slave driver, out of fear of punishment, and not as you would serve someone you love, because you want to.  

After I got sick, I was finaally instruduced to ministries that taught about God's love, goodness, and grace.  I learned about various covenants God made with people in the Bible, and that He deals with mankind differently based on each covenant.  The covenant God had with Abraham was a covenant of blessings only, and it was based on Abraham's faith, and not works.  God never cursed Abraham even when he sinned, Abraham was always blessed.  Even when he lied about Sarah being his sister, and even when he committed adultery, God still blessed him.  But the covenant God had with Israel was a coveant of curses as well as blessings, and it was all based on their behavior, not their faith.  You can read about the blessings AND the cursed of their covenant in Deuteronomy 28.  But Hebrews 8:6 tells us that WE have a much better covenant than Israel had.  A better covenant based on better promises.  

Galatians 3:13 tells us that Jesus took all of the curses of the Law, or in other words all the curses that were a part of Israel's covenant were paid for through the cross, so that the blessings of the covenant God made with Abraham could be offered to the Gentiles, or the non-Israelite people, so they could be blessed also, just like Abraham was.  I would encourage anyone that is not familiar with Galatians chapter 3 to read that whole chapter.  

Anyway, it tells us that we can have the same blessings Abraham had through our faith.  Abraham is our example of faith, and if we have the faith of Abraham, we can also have his blessings (verse 14).  And if you read the chapter all the way to the end, it tells us in verse19 that the Law of Moses was only meant to be until the promised Seed (Jesus) came.  Verse 23 tells us that before the way of faith (or justification through faith in Jesus was available). the Mosaic Law was our guardian.  The Law kept us protected, until having faith in Jesus for salvation was revealed.  But verse 25 tells us that we no longer need the Mosaic Law to guard us. Verse 29 says that if we are in Christ, we are now considered Abraham's seed, and we are heirs of the promise.  

That doesn't mean we can live in sin.  Chapter 5 of Galatians tells us that we shouldn't use our freedom from the Law to satify our sinful nature (chapter 5:13), but we should instead serve one another in love, because the whole Law of Moses could be summed up in ONE command, "Love your neighbor as yourself." (chapter 5:15).  Now, instead of being guided or directed by the Law, we are now Led by the Holy Spirit (5:16 & 18).  I believe this is all good news, but the majority of the church does not understand this.

To make a long really long story shorter, and try to wrap this up soon,  I now have a much better understanding of God's love.  His wrath that was released through the Law of Moses, and all of the curses that came with the Law,were satisfied through Jesus' blood sacrifice.  He took all of the curses and the wrath of God for us.  God sent Jesus to redeem us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8).  God doesn't love us because we are lovely, He loves us because He is love.  And sending Jesus to redeem us was an expression of that love. 

Of course we have to ACCEPT Jesus' sacrifice, and there will be a time period (or Day of Wrath) for those that do not accept it, but I believe right now we are in the era, or what Paul referred to as the "dispensation" of God's grace, in Ephesians 3:2 (KJV).   I could go into more detail and use more scriptures, but this is getting very long.  The book of Revelation goes into great detail about what will happen AFTER the rapture for those that did not accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  First there will be a 7year tribulation period for those that are still alive and remain on the earth.  It will be a time of God revealing His wrath to those that were stubborn and refused to accept the truth, but for many it will also be a last chance to accept Jesus before the end of the earth comes.  Then, after Jesus returns and sets things in order (Jesus will set things in order during the time of His Millenial Reign) but after that, there will be a Day of Judgement, and anyone dead or alive that didn't accept Jesus will be cast into the Lake of Fire.

But for now, I whole heartedly believe God is giving us grace, and holding off His wrath.  I beleive He is giving us time to accept Jesus. 

2 Peter 3:9 (N:T)  "The Lord isnt' really being slow about his promise [to return], as some people think.  No, he is being patient for your sake.  He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent."  Yet the the church teaches that God is destroying people now, before they have a chance to repent, or to make others repent.  (brackets mine)

Anyway, the real reason I am writing this is to get off of my chest the frustration of hearing over and over from people, that God is still judging us NOW, and that He puts sickness on people, or other evil things to teach us, and that ALL evil comes from God. 

I can't stand it when people blame God for everything.  Jesus came to redeem us from all curses, not to put them on us.

It infuriates me that the church as a whole is still teaching that nothing much happened when Jesus died, when He was whipped, bruised, crushed, and was cast into Hell.  The majority of the church believes all that happened was that we no longer have to sacrifice animals anymore to cover our sins.  They believe instead of sacrificing animals, we can now confess each individual sin, and if and only if we confess each sin we wil be forgiven.  The main stream church believes that is all that Jesus' sacrifce did.  And by the way, I believe Scripture teaches we must confess we are sinners in need of Savior, not each individual sin, or we are doomed.  We don't even know every sin we have committed, so it would be impossible to confess them all.  But anyway...

God is so much better than that.   Jesus did so much more for us than just make a way for us not to have got sacrifice animals.   He is so much more loving,  and so much more merciful and kind than just that.   He wants us blessed in every area of our lives, and that is precisely why Jesus came.  John 10:10 tells us that Jesus came to give us a more abundant life, and it also says that the areas of our lives that rotten are from Satan.  It says Satan is the thief that came to the earth to steal from us, to kill us, and to destroy us, not God.  That verse tells us the evil and suffering are from Satan, but the church teaches us that God is responsible for all evil, and that God controls Satan.  If God controls Satan, isn't God the one that is evil, and not Satan?  Isn't Satan just doing what God wants him to?

My biggest question is:

Why would anyone ever want to serve a God who supposedly controls all things, and is the one behind rape, murder, human trafficking, child abuse, etc.  I sure wouldn't.  I believe people that blame God for all evil destroy people's faith, and turn many into atheists.  I'm  just so sick of hearing that God is the one causing the world to suffer.  He isn't.  People are evil, and do evil things.  2 Corthians 4:4 tells us that Satan is the God of this world, and 1 John 5:19 (NLT) says, "We know that we are the children of God, and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one."  Those two verses tell us that Satan, and his followers are responsible for evil and corruption in the earth, not God.  

It makes me so sad that the church has no idea what we have been redeemed from.  Hopefully now I can put these thoughts to rest, and be more at peace. 

I will just end with this verse:

3 John 1:3 "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as they soul prospereth."  God is a good God that wants us blessed, He is not responsible for our problems.  Jesus came to redeem us from all suffering.  

If you read this, thank you for listening.