Antithetitudes

"If we were to set out to establish a religion in polar opposition to the Beatitudes Jesus taught, it would look strikingly similar to the pop Christianity that has taken over the airwaves of North America."Tony Campolo

I wrote this because I see that the Christianity we see today has taken a name and then done whatever they want with it. We say we follow Christ but we often don't know what He said or follow it. Or worse yet we interpret Christ's words to mean whatever we want and justify our beliefs. God help us all.

Antithetitudes
Blessed are the rich for God bestows financial gifts on those He loves and withholds blessings from those who displease Him.
Blessed are the prideful for God raises some above others and the prideful know it.
Blessed are those who have all of the answers for God loves those who have Him all figured out.
Blessed are those who give others what they deserve for this is how God treats us.
Blessed are those who can hide their mistakes from others for appearance is everything.
Blessed are the violent and the war makers for good should be accomplished by any means necessary and the end justifies the means.
Blessed are those who persecute for righteousness sake for the wicked will never know God unless they know He hates them and their actions.
We are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Pour yourselves onto people and blind them with your light. They don't know what is good for them so we must force them to taste and see the truth.

You have heard that it was said "Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you."
But I say, "Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth"
You have heard that it was said "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" but I tell you keep, "Loving your neighbor and hating your enemy."
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. If you aren't perfect just keep pretending.
Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, without being seen. Others will be impressed by your Godliness.

And when you pray, pray standing in the churches and the sanctuaries to be seen by men. Do not go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, for no one will know you are righteous unless they see you. And when you pray, ramble on and on for God doesn't hear you unless you repeat yourselves.

This, then, is how you should pray:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed is our name,
our kingdom come,
our will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us forever our daily bread, as well as enough to be among the richest in the world.
Forgive us our debts,
for we have many
and forgive us for falling into temptation over and over,
and deliver us from the evil one, even though we keep following him around.

If you do not forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.
Store up for yourselves treasures on earth, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money but you can pretend God has blessed you with money so you can justifiably live whatever lifestyle you wish.
Worry about your life, what you will eat or drink and about your body, and what you will wear. God wants to give you your plan for your life. God wants you to live the best life now so enjoy the things on earth and show off your Sunday best at your services.

Judge others because they are judging you. Judging is natural and normal and a way to exclude those different than you.
If you see something in your brothers eye attack him and rip it out. For this is the job of the righteous.
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. If you do not get what you want take it anyways for God helps those who help themselves.
Do to others what they do to you, for what goes around comes around.
Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it. If those who don?t deserve to find the road do find it be sure to get them off as quickly as possible for only those who deserve life should receive it.
Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. Good fruit comes in the form of large congregations?, successful programs and many earthly riches. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
"Not everyone who says to the Lord, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who follows all the rules and goes to church and pays their tithes.
"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."

Pullin' Threads

I really HATE sweaters. Not really. I'm just a guy who hates religion. To add to the confusion: I love Jesus. To the outsider that seems like a contradiction, but to the formerly religious it makes perfect sense. To the currently religious it makes no sense. I grew up in church and I have recently come to the fact that all the dressings we add to Christianity are just religion. The relationships we have in life is true Christianity. Modern Institutional Christianity has cheapened everything. They have taken something pure and true and beautiful and turned it into a formula. They turned it into a performance. It's all an act. Granted it was probably all out of pure motives, but the end result is still a bastard. Bastard. Interesting imagery. Where is Institutional Christianity father? Is it Christ? Read Christs words. Read the sermon on the mount. Read the Beatitudes. Tell me if modern Christianity is there. I don't see it. To clarify I am not attacking the people in the institutions but the institutions themselves. I love the people but they've been lied to. This is my way of trying to tell them the truth. Not that I have it all right. I know I'm still on the journey. I'm still learning. I know I am wrong about some things, i just can't tell you about what. But that is the point. You are on a journey as well and you are not all right or wrong. Ask questions. Think about what you believe. Learn things. The more information you have the more of an informed decision you can make. I used to have opinions on things and the only information I had was from one person. If a person wanted me to have an opinion like his they would only give me information they wanted me to have. I want people to have the other side. Make your own decisions. Don't be afraid to be wrong. You can change later. You can grow. Not making decisions for fear of being wrong stunts your growth. The most mature people have made the most mistakes.
To those who think I am just bitter or that I have been hurt by the church let me assure you that that is only partially true. I didn't leave the institutional Church because someone let me down or hurt me or lied to me. I left because I found out it was a lie. Things held so dearly were made up traditions. We were all playing make believe. I always thought that something was wrong. I never thought I would find out that it actually was! In hindsight I am a little bitter. People did let me down and hurt me. They did lie. I didn't know it at the time but looking back i see them. After learning things for myself I see now that there were lies. They may have been unintentional or even with the best of intentions but a lie is a lie is a lie.
That leads me to now. I still have people I love on the inside. I still have people I love leading the inside. They probably think I am out to get them but I just want them free. Too many people are burdened with obligations or sacrifices or to be a good little boy or girl to make God love them. Wouldn't life be so much more free if they actually believed that God already loved them? That they didn't have to try so hard? That the sweater of religion they are wearing is suffocating them? It is a beautiful sunshiny day and some are wearing a sweater. Some sweaters are thick and some are thin but it is still unbearably hot in that thing.
In the Old Testament it was cold and lonely and we had to dress warm to get to God. God was around us but not inside of us. In the New Testament we have God in us. Everything is more beautiful. We are made warm by God. Some of us still want to get warm on our own. We want to get to Gods warmth by our own power. With our own sweater. Even though we can be perfectly fine without it. Are you still trying to get to God on your own? Are you still trying to perform to get God to notice you? To get others to notice you? It's OK. God sees you. God loves you. God wants you to take off the sweater. It probably won't come off all at once though. A sweater like religion is knitted right on your body and often wrapped too tightly. It has to be taken apart one thread at a time. And if it did come right off it would be too easy to put it back on. It's a little harder when its a mess of thread piled on the floor. Darin Hufford gets the thanks for starting me out with this analogy. After messing with some religious minds I had a conversation with him. I was struggling with whether or not to keep asking religious people questions or just leave them where they are.
He told me, "this stuff kind of reminds me of a loose thread on a sweater. When you start pulling at it, the entire sweater comes unraveled. One question leads to another and another and another. Before you know it, your entire religion is laying on the floor in a pile.

I've found two kinds of people in this world. Thread pullers like you and me, and nonthread pullers."
So say goodbye to your sweaters. I'm comin' for them...