Salvation 1: Everything is Negotiable, right?

When you talk about recovery or faith the details are everything, when you want to understand why there are issues between secular Recovery and conservative theology you really have to deal with the drop-dead issues. In a strange way, this brings me back to the Holy Spirit series I was working thru. In the life and the Spirit seminars, a crucial step is what they call salvation. This whole business is a drop-dead issue with many. What I am going to do is explain what it is and how it is presented in many conservative churches.

I get this has concepts that are really hard to swallow. But they are basic. And they are Bible-based.

There is a concept that is really hard to get past. The way we want it to be is not often the way it is. You can see this principal at the mall all the time. How often do you see a kid losing it with frustrated parents? The kid wants what parents don’t want to give. Often the kid tries till he is exhausted. Or the parents fold to the embarrassment of on-lookers, We want God to fold. Or do we want God to provide before we lose it? We want God to be as we want Him to be. We want the spiritual world to be the way we want it to be. We solve all problems by sitting down and holding our breath until we turn blue,

There is no need for this salvation thing if God folds when we turn blue.

There is no salvation thing if we are just cute kids. Evidence shows we are not cute kids. People in addiction know this all too well. We are not cute kids. We are weak and selfish. Some are more broken than others, but all in the right circumstances will hurt others. So what we say. All this is ours, right? If we want to break our stuff who cares?

Here is the key! All is not yours! All is HIs and you are breaking it. You say hey if He is God he can deal with it. Cost of doing business. Right! He made it this way. This is His problem, We forget. We are hurting people he cares about. What is his best play? Oops, remove us. Put us permanently where we can’t hurt his people. Then He can work with people who are willing to be changed. The last problem all of us are hurtful. We are up the creek. The guy who owns it all is stuck with us because He loves us. His hope is some will turn back, but we are habitual hurters. He has to solve two problems we need to change and turn away from stupid ways. We need to be changed and repent. Welcome to salvation. Problem solved right?

We all have a problem. It is who He says He is and who He says we are. We don’t fit into His world. We solve this by saying the Bible does not say we don’t fit into His world.

We are smarter and can change it to say what we want it to say. The problem is He is not who we want Him to be. He is who He is!

Now just suppose He is who He says He is. What if the Bible does tell us who He is? Obviously, we delay and argue and procrastinate. If we litigate long enough we will time out and He will be obligated to do as we wish. He is obligated to be fair. Right! We set the rules, right?

He has right by creation! His world His rules! We don’t have a vote! We do have a choice! We can choose justice. Or we can choose grace.

What is salvation? Salvation is choosing grace by His rules.

Here we are! I am good enough to get in on my own! As long as God is as I understand Him. We can work a deal! The problem is the Bible! What does it say? What are His rules? What is good enough for Him?

The real question is Who is God and what are his rules about Us?

I will cover this in my next podcast. Lazarus Recovery Podcast.