Conversion part 3
We hear a lot about "winning souls" in the religious world. About making sure we save people. And it's usually in regards to saving people from an eternal, fiery afterlife, right? Saving peoples' souls from going to hell when they die. Well, in my theology none of that is anything. In my theology JESUS saves us from anything we could possibly need to be saved from. Not by works, but by grace ye are saved, right? So let's look at Proverbs 11:30, "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life' and he that winneth souls is wise." Seems pretty simple, right? Pretty cut and dried? Well, in the New Living Translation we see it like this, "The seeds of good deeds become a tree of life; a wise person wins friends." I think friends are more important than trying to ensure someone else's afterlife. Jesus came that we might have LIFE and have LIFE more abundantly. Jesus said the greatest love a man can have is to lay his life down for his friends. Jesus didn't tell us to behave so that we could take the "cosmic elevator up instead of down" after we die. He told us to live right now. God made us kings and priests to rule and reign on the earth. To help people in this realm and this dimension. To experience what we have--right now--by giving away what we have--right now. I don't know how "religion" got so consumed with the afterlife. Absent from the body is present with the Lord. And I do want to say that being absent from the body can also be a present reality. When we walk by faith and not by sight. When we judge righteous judgment instead of judging by appearance. When we are led by the Spirit instead of our fleshly desires. Anytime you're operating in the Spirit you're present with the Lord. But lets be real--He lives inside us. We are always in His presence. Even when Adam and Eve tried to hide from the presence of God after eating from the tree of death (the tree of knowledge of good and evil), God knew where they were. He has sworn never to leave us nor forsake us. Wherever you go, there God is. He is an omnipresent God. He's everywhere. And, more importantly, He's inside you. Living in you even as you live in Him. My point it--it's not my job to "keep anybody out of hell." Especially since I don't believe in hell as a cosmic, eternal place of punishment. It's my job to give people what I've got. To win FRIENDS. To destroy my enemies by making them my friends. And that, to me, would be more important anyway. To build those relationships and those connections here and now when we can experience and enjoy them. In all honesty, I don't have that many really good friends. But I'm friendly with just about everybody. I want to leave things--and people--better than how I find tham. I want to show as much love to as much people as I can. Let what's inside come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. By filling myself to overflowing with what I've already been filled with. That's how I experience and enjoy the gift I've been given. That's how I manifest my EPIC (Eternal Purpose In Christ) destiny. That's how this abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life is lived!