Religion Verses Christ.....What is the Difference?

But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. If these are not the motives, all is meaningless. Let us have good stewardship toward one another, bear each other's burdens in love and encouragement. Gal. 6:22

Don't beat and abuse others with your religion. Are you operating in the fruits of the spirit. The Holy Spirit is Love and what ever the motive it must be demonstrated with Love for one another or it is simply not of his Spirit. It has to be God's way that works through our hearts, one towards another. I had to purge all self righteous behavior, this is the worst of evils. It is corrupt and self serving. It is misleading and operates in the high and evil realms of the enemy. The enemy knows the scriptures word for word and he uses them for his advantage to accuse and condemn.

Christ says you will know his by there fruits. When fruits are mentioned in the Bible it is the fruits that the spirit is producing. Love, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. This was a huge eye opener to me several years ago and totally changed my whole perception and brought me to a state of repentance. I discovered even knowing the Bible that is was totally useless without these applications. All vain and no purpose. Religion is nothing but Doctrine and is dead without the working of the spirit in Love. PERIOD

An Innocent Man.........A Valuable Lesson for Me.

I had a truth that hit me so hard today.  I was face to face in a discussion today with a 17 year old boy that claimed to be atheist.  My heart just bleeds for these young kids growing up in such a lost society that is trying to bring them down.  I remember being young once and there was peer pressure and some of this I gave in to. Years later I had my own children and I would simply be at a loss of words sometimes and honestly I could have handled situations so much better if I would have applied some of these results in the messages to my kids with humility instead of anger or accusation.

  Over the past couple of years God has revealed to me that reaching someone you love or even a stranger has to be approached with humility, understanding and love or they will cut themselves off completely and close their ears from what you have to say.

There are ministers that I have been blessed to call my friends and they have helped me with this problem area of weakness. Some of these posts were just to incredible not to share so I hope that you might gain some understanding as I did.  Our kids are a big concern these days.  There have been times I would have loved to grab my children  by the ear and ringed there necks because I could not get through to them.  I think every parent or adult is faced with this at one point or another.  I would like to share a better route, one that I am learning and an example that I have been shown in progress.

Reading this young boys post of how he did not believe in God and how he thought Jesus was an evil spirit I could feel an urgency flowing in my veins and my heart even began to pump faster on how I could approach him and I couldn't so I prayed and then one of my ministers I fellowship with threw so much humility on this young boy I was just struck with so much truth to examine myself.  I felt an urgency with my own kids and how to respond.  This response is so full of testimony and how it was addressed.  This boy turned out to be the minister's nephew.  I posted the comments so you could see God working through this situation.

Minister commenting back to his young 17 year old nephew.  Please take time to read this especially if you have kids that you can't reach at times.

After reading the dialog between my faithbook family and my precious nephew  it both saddens me and encourages me even more to continue this ministry and evoke sensitive topics of discussions such as this one.  Beloved Nephew, I must confess, this is a startling revelation regarding your non belief in God and denouncing of My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, although I don't agree, however I do understand.  I also know that you meant no disrespect by voicing your opposing option  at 17 years old.  You have a rare and yet special gift, which pales among your pier, I bet your a guy most people come to for advice.

In fact I'm glad you stepped up to the plate and jumped into the discussion, your comments confirm many things, that you are insightful, intelligent and outspoken.  You are indeed quite the Lewis Male(lol)a chip off the old block.

Nephew you are not alone, I speak to countless good hearted well intended people like yourself everyday, who feel the same way you do.  Yet I must move past my emotions and even practical thinking and speak to you by my own personal experience.  Let me ask you a theoretical question....How do you know who you are?  Are you sure you weren't among millions of babies switched at birth?  I personally know individuals who discovered they were adopted after believing they were blood family members their entire lives....  Mistaken identification is a crime against Self existing.

Nephew how could you prove your identity without a driver's license, voters registration card, or I.D. card?

Did you know that millions of innocent men and women are currently in prison serving time for crimes they did not commit due to mistaken identification...and a lack of character witness... Too often innocent men and women are even executed for the same reason.  Many were long gone after evidence was later discovered that could have proven their innocence.  How sad is that dude?  How sad is it for an innocent man to die and the only thing that was needed to save him was evidence or just one witness?

Well Nephew, my so called Knight in Shinning Armor Savior that you were referring to is my innocent man, who took my guilt and yours upon himself, and the only thing that stands between you and eternal life is two things.........Evidence and a Witness.  Once you have received the evidence then you will see the case totally different.  The other thing that will confirm the identity of the convicted is an eye witness...

Nephew recently in the states of Florida and Texas new laws have been passed to pay restitution for prisoners who served prison time for crimes they did not commit.  One man was found innocent and he received over two million dollars for his troubles.  He served over 24 years in prison and he was on a life sentence and the testimony of one witness caused an innocent man to be set free.

Son, I don't believe you are really an atheist,  I believe you are Godless....I believe you are suffering from a mistaken identity of God.  You've encountered the wrong witnesses, and false testimonies thus you lack evidence of Him and you have charged an innocent man of being Guilt and Non Existing.  Greg here stands before you both the evidence and a witness to the true existing God our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ......Let me reintroduce myself.....I now realize how the distance of our residency has alienated us as strangers, therefore we need to get reacquainted.  I am a witness which would like to testify on the behalf of my Savior.

You may not know that death should have claimed my life several times and I learned how powerless I was in my own Self Existence.  Ironically when I was 17 years old I tried to commit suicide and failed for reasons beyond my explanation.  Years later when I was 45 years old I was stricken by the deadly flesh eating bacteria over 95% of it's victims die....including Jim Henson Muppets creator....My doctor which claimed to be a steep atheist, converted to Christ due to his witness of my miracle.  Nothing in the history of medical journals could explain why death didn't claim the life of your uncle that is speaking to you now.

Son I pray that you will never be faced with a life threatening ordeal like either of mine, in order for you to come to the realization of Who God truly is.........  I hope that you would take in serious consideration your Uncle's testimony as God's evidence of His Sovereign Power and his Undying Love..... What have you got to lose?  Even if you doubt being who you are and die you die with a questionable doubt.  Death is death and there is no doubt about it.  Dying without Christ is to die a certain death.

He already died so that when you do, you can live eternally.  When you die alone, sadly you are wrapped in your own arms, decomposing alone in your own crypt or tomb waiting for eternal judgement.  And how tragic it will be for you to die, and have eternal witnesses and evidence that you were wrong.  Whether you believe it or not your soul(spirit)will race the reality of the existence of...........in judgement.

Greg  what if this is your last witness to testify on Christ behalf for your own good....Jesus died and rose for us to do the same and all you simply have to do is accept it....  That is all and nothing else...What evidence do you have to prove him wrong and how can you prove his non-existence.  Without a witness nor evidence you are convicting an Innocent Man, and please the gravity of the eternal judgement sentence for such a crime....Besides you have nothing to lose knowing He is who He is....But everything to gain...........Lord please listen and understand this testimony and listen with an open heart.

Perfect answer for the unbelieving young and old.  I needed this.  I hope it blesses you and you share it with others that may need to hear it.  God bless and prayers out to you.  If God has done something special in your life I think Christ sincerely meant for us to share it.  How else with the unbelieving, believe.

Testimonies are our proof.

The Guitar Man lives Within Me-In Memory of my Father Robert Nelson

Before I left my mother's womb I knew the sound of beautiful strings. They lulled me into a quiet and peaceful sleep. There was nothing that was soothing and calming not even the heart beat of my mother before birth. It was the quietness and stillness of the gentle strings in that crowded spot before I breathed my first breath of air. My father spent endless hours playing his guitar and I knew it and recognized it before my time of birth. Intimate times with my father were guitar sessions when I would set at his feet and hear him play for hours on end. I never cared about anything more than the sounds of those acoustic strings from my father's finger tips. It calmed my spirit like no other. 

My parents divorced when I was 4 and I was also divorced from the guitar. My memories of my father were all about music. Years passed and I guess his love for those strings faded and became less important in the world around him. I searched for it in music and found that still calming effect and would play my radio at night and fall into a deep and peaceful sleep. I missed my daddy. Always searching for that guitar to return it was a sadness and a incomplete feeling that I was longing for. As my younger brothers grew up they loved to sing and would boldly express there beautiful voices but they didn't have the strings to support them. Alas...........my father was moved and encouraged my brothers to play the guitar so there was accompaniment for there voices.  

The older and shaky hands now were not as steady as before but I still loved to here my father play and every chance I could get I would say play something for me Daddy. He would kindly smile and say well I'm really no good at it anymore Beck. He was very proud of my brothers although they weren't lovers of there guitars, it was the voices and the music. My dad had encouraged them to play. They did this to please my father and he was very proud of them falling in line but they didn't have the love of those strings the way that he had. 

Years later my son brought an old cheap guitar into the house and he never really tried to play it but it rested in the closet and that is where it stayed. I tried to encourage him to play but it just wasn't a part of him. My kids moved off and grew up and the guitar stayed in the closet. HHHMMMM I would think should I and I would shrug it off and say to myself I could never learn to play this. I have no one to teach me and I don't know music. It is just not possible. My daddy was always my music man. Music that we shared before I breathed my first breathe. It just lived inside of me. Of course I had always supported my brothers to play but never thought it would be me. 

It happened as a miracle and through a very painful experience but also a healing time and a mourning time. I got a call on the 18th of August of 2006. It was my sister calling me to tell me she was at the hospital and that my father had been diagnosed with Lung Cancer and it was in operable. My dad was only 59, to young to leave me now. I wasn't prepared for it but I guess that God helped me prepare for it. I got off of the phone and realized my guitar man that I looked at in all the music I loved was fading away and I would never hear his music again. I had a hard time accepting that my dad gave up his music because music was his first love. 

Never could a woman fulfill that or could anything he had ever encountered in his life replace it. He could hear the music and play it. He did not learn music. I set in my chair and I guess I was shocked because he was my hero and my long lonesome guitar player. A few weeks had passed and I opened the Closet Door and there was that old out of tune guitar. I knew my dad did not have long. I picked it up and held it ever since. My fingers bled on those worn strings and my fingers cramped as I reached across the fret board to make a chord. 

My Dad told the boys as I stood idle watching him teach them, I could here him say boys all you need to learn is 3 basic chords and you can play loads of material. So I learned to finger 20 or 30 chords. Then 50 and before long I was playing those tunes from my childhood and preparing myself for my father's death. You see my father never taught me to play the guitar. God did. God knew that if he could teach and guide me with that guitar that my father would always be with me. Also he showed me a thing or two about his love for me. 

As my dad grew sicker I would take my guitar and want to play for him but he was to sick most of the time. During his sleeping periods I would go off in the other room and play and one day I was thinking of him and played Wind beneath my Wings. I was playing my heart out and did not see the shallow and thin shadow standing behind me. I could feel the presence of someone standing behind me watching and as I gazed over my shoulder it was my long lost guitar player with tears strolling down his cheeks. No one saw the tears but me. He was proud and knew I was playing for him just as I had set below him when I was a child. I carry the guitar man with me now every where I go. He is in my spirit and will never ever leave me again.