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Blog for Podcast # 19 (Forced Righteousness)

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Intro
Welcome again to another study of the Bible. I am Dreamwalker1960.
Today’s podcast will be longer than usual, but the message that is within it is very important to hear. So let’s get into it.
Discussion
Today I wish to talk about something people have not heard described in this fashion. It is “forced righteousness.”
What is “forced righteousness?”
It is what most people have experienced in going to the buildings called “churches.” Especially those raised in a religious household. Please note I am using wording like “religious.”
This is one of the biggest problems with the relationship between God and humanity that is causing the creation of what is called the “lukewarm church,” or more appropriately the “apostate church.” Which explains why we are in the era of the lukewarm as defined in the letters to the seven churches in Revelation chapters 2 and 3.
Let us define the word “apostate” so we can have a clear understanding of where I am going within today’s Bible study.
Apostate or apostasy is an act of refusing to continue to follow obey or recognize a religious faith per Merriam-Webster.
But what can cause this to take place?
The answer: Forced righteousness.
Forced righteousness occurs most commonly from the children of a religious household as I mentioned before.
Now again I say “religious.”
Why is this?
Being religious is an act of going through the motions and behavior associated with a religion. This religion can be of any type. From Buddhist, to Muslim, to Shinto, to Jewish, to Christian. A prime example can be seen in one of the oldest Christian based sects, the Catholic Church. Here we see ceremonies, rituals and actions that are repeated time and again. Now don’t get me wrong. There have been some great people that are truly Christian that have come from within the Catholic Church. It is the religiousness that is the issue, not the faith.
It is the religiosity of a religion that is causing forced righteousness.
People fall into a routine. Just going through the motions. Then they have children in most cases. These children are taken to church and indoctrinated to the rituals. Yet no one in most cases truly explains to them the reason why this is being done. They assume they will just come to know why they are going to church. Which is the act that Jesus Christ did for all that Passover day just under two thousand years ago. So, they slowly, due to being forced into a righteous existence, rebel against it, because they really don’t truly understand.
This is why it is so important when choosing a religious leader. If their children rebel and misbehave the Bible states this religious leader must be replaced if their rebellion can be traced back to this leader. Yet I hear of stories where this rarely if ever happens in today’s age. Why must they be replaced? Because if they are not teaching their children the true relationship between God and humanity, which in turn causes them to rebel against the religion. Then how can they be a good shepherd to a flock of church goers needing true guidance to God.
But back on the main topic.
Those that live in a religious household see how their parents live and act. They see the weakness of humanity. They see the sin that may enter into their homes, which creates doubt within the minds of these children. As they grow into adulthood, they question religion due to what they have witnessed firsthand from their role models.
The main issue is that a relationship with God through Jesus Christ is not something that can be addressed with religious behavior. It is a personal relationship with the Creator of all. However, how can they establish a relationship if all they have known, in their lives, is the rituals and motions of religiousness? Thus, when they are told that they must live a righteous life without sin. They have no true concept of how to truly live an active vibrant, yet righteous existence.
Why? Because no one truly explained to them about who God is. About who Jesus Christ is, and how He can affect their life and all of humanities lives by His willing sacrifice upon the cross.
All they know is forced righteousness.
They are told they must know this. They must do that. Never having anyone just sit down with them and explain why it is necessary why they are required to do these things.
They are not given the option or even the opportunity to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Yes, they are told of Him. Yes, they are given opportunities to accept Him. But has someone set them down and truly explained to them the torment and anguish Jesus experienced the moment He was arrested till the moment He died upon the cross? Did they describe to them the destruction to His back the whip caused, which was a major reason He was unable to carry His cross out of Jerusalem?
Many don’t even understand that it is not rituals that form the relationship for as the Bible states rituals without faith is death as witnessed in Matthew 6:5-15. However, it also states that faith without works is death, as explained in James 2:14-26. It is a combination of works and faith, not one or the other.
Works done with the true Holy Spirit do not include rituals. They are actions of faith. Like helping those in need. Trying to explain how messed up and unnecessary religious rituals are that causes a forced righteousness is an example of a work in faith.
Communion and the baptism in the name of Jesus Christ are the only ceremonies given to us by Jesus Christ. So they are all that is required in the realm of rituals.
Due to a forced righteousness many go through life saying they are Christian. Living a life, they believe is righteous, and in some cases this may be so. Yet when you look into their lives you see it rampant with sin, or lacking a crucial element, a relationship with Jesus Christ. They believe they are saved when they have not even genuinely sought out their Savior. They are living in an apostate life without even knowing they are.
Living in religion doesn’t make you holy. None can make this boast even those that know their Savior and do strive to have a righteous life. For all mess up and sin at some point in their life. It is this element that makes it hard to establish if you are living a life formed from forced righteousness or a true relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
Being indoctrinated into a religion, thus making someone go through the motions of a religious lifestyle does not a Christian make. It makes them religious but not truly righteous. For true righteousness comes from faith and faith comes from knowing the existence of God and the belief there in. For living a religious life is like living in the Law of Moses, which we no longer need to do.
Romans 3:21-26 – But now God has shown us a way to be made right with Him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. 22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. 23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in His grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding His blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when He held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, 26 for He was looking ahead and including them in what He would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate His righteousness, for He, Himself is fair and just, and He makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in and accept Jesus as their Savior.
It is this faith that is key to our ability to identify ourselves as “Christian.” Without this faith and in turn relationship with Jesus Christ and His Father our Creator a person cannot truly call themselves this title. Yet millions do call themselves this, yet they do not truly qualify for this designation. Because they lived their lives in a forced righteousness, thinking they are “Christian” when they are not truly so.
Is this fully their fault?
That is the dilemma. Each person has a different experience with their relationship or lack thereof with Jesus and His Father, God. For many that don’t have a relationship it goes back to having grown up in a household that professed to be religious. They grew to hate what they were seeing and being forced to do. So, they rebelled against this. Why? Because they perceived it to be authoritarian to some degree. In a religious environment that is very possible. However, that is not what is offered by Jesus Christ through believe in Him and His Father.
We are offered freedom. A freedom that was so crucial to people that a few hundred years ago hundreds then thousands fled the countries of their origin. To seek out a new world free of the doctrines and demands laid upon them by the churches and governments they left behind that were filled with forced righteousness. A freedom that was so important to them that when the parent nation they fled tried to impose restrictions upon them they revolted and started a new nation. A new nation with God’s ideals at the forefront. Ideals for this freedom, though not fully attainable for all at first, was their ultimate goal. For through their belief in God, again for the most part, is what inspired these people. Why?
Because they knew that for freedom to be achieved. There must be individual freedom to seek out God or not to seek out God, and not to be locked into a ridged system of rules and rituals. Which in time would become mandates and then laws.
However, due to forced righteousness this nation lost its way. Once causing a Civil War to occur to help return it to a course of freedom for all. Nevertheless, they never removed the forced righteousness, blinded by their own views and in some cases lusts and desire as well as greed. As a result, this mentality of not teaching their youth to seek a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and through Him His Father. This nation faulted and pulled further and further away from whom they sought to honor and worship in the first place. Now due to not setting down with their children and causing them to come to understand the truth and reality of what took place upon the cross, they are in turmoil.
Due to forced righteousness they allowed people to come to a place of power that did not seek it out of duty but out of lust. For the Bible states that those that wish to lead must have a servant’s heart. (Matthew 20:25-28) Instead many in places of responsibility are there to control and dominate. Their hearts and souls never truly seeking to have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ His Son and our Savior for they are of the world and not of God.
Because of forced righteousness “they will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly…….. (2 Timothy 3:5)

God Bless

The “me” culture.. the destroyer of nations

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There are several cultures at work within the world, as there are several cultures at work within the church. Now I say “church” as a whole of all that say they are believers in God. In fact, in Revelation there are seven churches a.k.a. cultures listed.

The most dominate culture for all the cultures within the world and the church is the one that says, “Everything revolves around ‘me”.”

Yes, the “me” culture is everywhere. It reminds me of the age of Galileo Galilei, in which the culture of the time was also self-centered to the point of stating that the earth was the center of the universe and everything revolved about it.

It is also in this time that written material was available, but mainly to those of great wealth. My point in mentioning this is what I have been witnessing more and more in today’s schools in the United States. That being to teach the basics and to do that poorly and not teach knowledge. The “histories” being taught today are not complete or changed to no longer teach of freedom, but on reliance upon the state; simply socialism, which is a step below communism. Communism, which has been shown to be corrupt, self-serving to those in power and ultimately destructive to the very nation that practices it.

I have seen the news broadcast (when news was worth watching) of long lines for the ordinary citizens of the former U.S.S.R. just to get the basic foods to survive till the next week at which time they would have to stand in line once again. While those in powers or of import to the nation lived in luxury. This is what the citizens of the United States are now be led to do, by those that are in power at this time. Daily we hear of corruption in various departments of the government. All by those that have been in office for their entire live. That is not how this nation was designed to work. Those that go to the government were meant to stay a few years then leave. That is what it needs to be returned to.

The “me” culture is not what is taught within the Bible. Self-sacrifice is what is taught. Jesus completed the ultimate self-sacrifice, upon the cross. Another example is that of Job. A man who was rich and was reduced to a sick beggar in the streets homeless. He kept his faith in God and all was restored to him. Job always placed God first. Yes, he lamented about his suffering, but once he placed God first things improved.

Right now, the U.S. is suffering and many are lamenting, but recently there are some signs that people are starting to place God first again. Once most do this and return God to the core of this nation you will see this nation rebound.

We need to strive to remove those in powers that are so blinded by their “me” mentality that they do not see that they are doing anything wrong. When in reality they are. They feel they have broken no laws. What is worse the corruption has spread so far that is affecting those that in the past exposed this corruption to the world. Now they sing hand in hand that the world is better to have corruption rule the land rather than God rule the land.

This nation was founded upon religious freedom. People moved here to get away from a government that was the church. Now you have those that say there is too much God in the government and are forcing the true God out only to replace Him with the god of “me”

Which, to me is the ultimate form of corruption. As the statement says, “ultimate power corrupts ultimately.”

Conceptions of reality

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It is interesting when you think upon how others have come to a completely different understanding of something then you came to on the same topic. It all boils down to how they were taught and their personal experiences. It is also interesting on how the total opposite can occur even with these different influences throughout someone’s life.
One of the main such occurrences happens when someone turns to Christ.
In this one moment all are equal. In this one second a person can totally change into someone different and yet in some aspects the same. Yet once this moment is past then new branches begin to grow from each person, once again influenced by different elements. The one thing that does not change is their believe is Jesus and God are real.
Yet still due to events and the words of those about them they can suffer setback or experience spurts of growth in their faith.
One thing that is needed in Christendom is those that wish to teach the Bible. I don’t mean preachers I mean teachers. Those that have a fairly solid foundation in the Bible and the concepts within it that teach humans to go beyond being human into something that God finds pleasing to His eyes.
I know I am one of these. I try to cause people to think. I try to get them to stop and ponder where and if they stand with Jesus or are they merely acting a part filling a pew but not wanting to be there at all.
This is why true servants of God need to step up to the plate and try and pass on God’s knowledge. For is not God worth it?

Are you going to cause World War III?

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I was just watching “Battleground” (1949). The first movie to be made about the Battle of the Bulge. In part of it they had pastor talking to the troops and he asked the question was it necessary for them to be there. He said that when ever someone with the believe of a super-race or a super-believe threaten the rest of society then yes it was necessary.
Now we have ISIS. Men who act exactly like the followers of Hitler if not worse. It is something that needs to be stopped before it causes 13 million to die horrible deaths in concentration camps in addition to 22 to 25 million military death. It is said that nearly 80 million dies in total in World War II.
In that time many saw how Germany changed, and they tried again and again to talk the Germans into not pursing what they ended up doing. Now we have an identical if not worse threat to the freedom of the world before us.
Today though we live in different world. A world that easier to travel within and also more dangerous. More dangerous due to weapons that can be made these days. Weapons we are allowing people to make that would willingly and gladly use upon us due to their super-believe that only they are the children of God when in reality their very actions and behavior say the opposite.
They are a threat to the world. They are a threat to all those that call themselves civilized. ISIS has made it clear that all that do not fanatically do as they do will be put to death. These men cannot be treated with. They will only answer to the same exact violence that they give out. They will grow like a cancer that can only be cut out of the human race so the human race can return to growing.
But it can only grow with God at the head. Part of the reason it has become so virulent is because people are turn away from God. People have forgotten or never really taught what it is to be Christian. That is the total opposite of how these men within ISIS are being taught. They are the true meaning of the word fanatic. While many if not most of those that call themselves Christian are the antithesis of these men. If people do not awake quickly than 80 million will be a drop in the hat compared to all those that will die in the war to come.
The lines are already being drawn. The radical countries are teaming up already while those are the other side are fragmenting. The fanatics smell weakness, and the weakest is the USA, due to poor leadership and lack of proper education. It is time to turn to God and realize that all human life is important and stop those that think they only they should exist.

The ongoing rebirth of the church

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Since Jesus made Paul his thirteen disciple, we have witnessed more than once the rebirth of the church. Sometime it changed by the simple posting of doctrines on a door. Other times with blood being shed.
This was not the promise to Israel though. They have been promised to be the first children of God and so they have not had to go through a true rebirth. Have they been through trials? Yes, and many would say they still are.
Since we Christians have been given the blessing of becoming the thirteen tribe of God. The true essence of free-will has been reinstated.
Within Revelation in the second and third chapters are letters to seven churches. Each reflects the acts of free-will and their results. Be they good or bad.
This is why the Christian church as a whole has gone through these rebirths. Now we can learn from the trials of Israel. Within this nation, there have been intercession. Usually by their leader or prophet. We within the Christian church have those that have intervened. For example Martin Luther. He intervened due to the corruption within the Catholic Church and as a result, the church was reborn. Once again focused on God and His Word. This rebirth is seen in Israel as well, but it is not manifested as highly as it has been for those of the Christian faith.
It is now once again time for rebirth with in the Christian church on whole. We have pedophiles hidden and protected within the Catholic Church. We have churches that support same sex marriage, abortion and greed. Many teach that we are too seek reward from God now. That God is our servant not the other way around. Many just sit by waiting for someone to say something. Mostly though when someone does say something they are ignored and called troublemakers. Seems I have heard many in the Old Testament called the same.
It is now that there is a need for a rebirth of the church. Once again, we need to return our focus unto God and His Word. Stop burying your heads in the sand as the world falls to the minions of Satan. It is now that we must shout our faith and stand for the teachings within the Bible.

Your mission if you should choose to accept it………… this message will never destruct especially not in 5 seconds

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One thing that gets to me is this mentality within religions is that if you are not of this certain religion or come dressed into their place of worship a certain way you are something to be looked down upon. Jesus faced this same problem when he walked upon this earth in ancient Israel. It is something that I see everywhere and in every religion.

It is also wrong.

Jesus challenged the Pharisees over this behavior. Their reaction was to have Him hung upon a cross. They did not know that was his plan all along. Nor did they know He would rise from the dead three days later.

One of the main things Jesus taught and showed was that those of the faith should not sit in their little groups and hide from the world. They should not be looking down upon the world, thinking themselves better than others. That is not how it is meant to go.

Yes, there is a time when you need to stay within the church. This time is when you first come into your faith. Most have no idea what the Bible says. Therefore, they need to read it and be taught by those that have more knowledge then they do at that moment of the teaching of God and His Son.

We are not meant to stay there forever though. We are meant to become strong in the Word and our faith and then we are meant to go into the world and show the love of Jesus to others.

Too many times, I see titles to other blogs that are exclusionary. There are Bible verse; they say things like how to separate yourself from the world and other things that turn those not fully aware of God away. They see these posts and run away from God instead of toward Him.

Jesus walked amongst the sinners. He dined with them. Talked to them and taught them of the love of His Father. He was ridiculed for doing so. His reply was that they needed Him more than those that had already found God did.

If your feet are shod in the Word and you show your faith through kindness and caring. If you desire to walk among those of the world; then do it. We are the body of Jesus here on earth. If we do not share our faith by example; then many of these will have never seen what true believe and faith in something that is intangible to them, in most cases.

There is evidence that many have never even read the Bible. Especially in today’s world with the removal of God from the schools and from other places that were once available for all to see.

Don’t be a member of the religious clicks, be the Christian you were meant to be the day you knelt down and asked God into your heart and mind.

Dreams

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Are dreams just dreams?
Or are they something more?
I have had many dreams in my over fifty years. Many I remember.
I have watched a city I have never been to grow and change throughout my five decades of life. So how can I see the same place, know it is the same place, and yet see it change?
Could it be real somewhere else?
It is thoughts like this and many others that I will be posting.
Some will be like this. Some will be about my believes and faith since I am a Christian. Some may even be about politics. Depends on my mood at the time. Let us just see where it goes together.