SIMPLE

SIMPLE

"You who are simple, gain prudence; you who are foolish, set your hearts on it."

Proverbs 8:5(NIV)

We try to complicate things in life sometimes. Make them harder than they have to be. Christian faith is no different. People try to complicate things. Maybe it's pride? ignorance? I don't know the reason, but many christians, churches, and pastors try to make becoming a Christian and being a Christian a lot more difficult than it has to be.

Living and growing a Christian life is not easy. It takes effort, time, discipline, study,etc...to grow your faith. I'm not trying to suggest being faithful is easy, but what I am suggesting is that we make coming to Christ, and being a Christian alot harder than it has to be, do to our human ego, error, or agendas.

Jesus is the son of God. God sent Jesus to be sin for us. To be the sacrifice for our sins. Only through Jesus can we be saved. The salvation process and knowing what God did for us is not that complicated. God gives us His word to explain to us how much He loves us, why He created us, and what He has to offer us. It is up to us to accept or reject. That is simple.

However, satan has used many a person and church to make being a christian too complicated. When churches and christians are constantly bickering, fighting, gossiping, and pushing issues they make salvation and christianity complicated. Christianity becomes about a cause, an issue, an agenda and not about a relationship with Jesus.

Human beings with the devil's help complicates faith. We begin making christianity about other things. You musts listen to this type of music in this way, you must read this bible version only, you must have this spiritual gift, you must believe in this end of times way, you must not believe in this, you gotta do this, can't do that....yadayadayada.....Do you see why we have so many denominations and churches and beliefs? Do you see why so many are turned off by the church and christianity? it's not God, it's us.

We need to ask ourselves before any issue. Is this a salvation issue? What that means is if I do this or don't do that or if I believe this or practice that is it going to change my salvation? Or the better question to ask ourselves is, Is this kingdom bearing? Which means, does this issue really matter in the big scheme of things? The most important thing we can know is God and Jesus and be saved by His blood. We must believe the Bible is inspired Word of God. We make A LOT of issues salvation issues and they are not, or we make them Kingdom bearing and they are not!

Whether you sing new songs or old songs, use a KJV or NKJV, whether you believe in the rapture or none, whether you beleive in singing with music or without, whether you think we are predestined or not, whether you believe in the gift of tongues or not, there are lots and lots of issues we can debate and debate til Jesus comes back, but then again some faith's don't believe He's coming back, because he's just a profit.

My point is, we've got to stop complicating what God intended to be simple. When we complicate things with all our beliefs, practices, opinions, and preferences, and make them law or doctrine, we make God and salvation out to be complicated. I believe this is what the Pharisees did in the bible, which is what Jesus and Paul and others fought against them for. They tried making serving God complicated with legalistic rules, rituals, and laws. Sound familiar? We do it today with all our little agendas.

We spend our whole faith trying to prove others wrong, or pushing our beliefs on people, or carrying on and arguing about stuff that is only hurting the church. Stop it. We need to get back to basics, to simple truth. God loves us. God sent Jesus for us. He wants a relationship with us. He wants to give us freedom. Stop complicating christianity. Stop worrying what everyone else is doing that's not what you like or prefer or think is wrong. Start focusing on what is right, what God is doing, and what God has to offer.

How different would our churches be, our ministries be, our witness be, if we'd stop complicating things and just stop and enjoy God and keep it simple.