The other day I went to the local grocery store to by some food. After unpacking my trolley, I paid for all my goods. On the way to the car I realized I forgot to buy milk. I quickly ran back inside, grabbed a bottle of milk and on may way out I just shouted to the cashier that I have already paid for all my groceries, I just forgot to grab some milk. As I wanted to leave the store, milk in hand, the cashier came after me and stopped me, demanding that I pay for the milk. I tried explaining again that I already paid for my groceries 5 minutes ago; I just forgot to take some milk. It proved to be of no use. She said I either had to pay for my milk or else she would call security. So I was forced to go back and pay again for my milk.

This story is just an illustration. I am not really that dumb. But some people think forgiveness works like this. They believe Jesus paid for all their sin, but only up and until the moment they got saved. After that point, forgiveness is based on I don’t know, their ability to repent, ask forgiveness, live morally and all sorts of other religious behaviour. The problem with this is that Jesus has already paid and He is not going to pay again. (Heb 10:12, Rom 6:10) If He forgot about your post-salvation sin, then you have a ginormous problem. Just like the milk episode above, there would need to be another payment made if something was not included in the original price.

Partial forgiveness is therefore not good news. Especially since Jesus isn’t going to die again. What is going to be your sacrifice for your post salvation sins if Jesus isn’t going to die again? A couple of lambs? Maybe a goat? Your works? Your ability to remember, confess, cry and wail about it? Or does God go into panic mode, quickly turns back time every time somebody confesses, adds that sin in and then lets Jesus die all over again, and then fast-forwards time back to the present so we can all go on again? I highly doubt it. Jesus died 2000 years ago. Your forgiveness was fully provided at the same time. You were forgiven at the cross, not at the point of salvation. At the point of salvation you merely realized you have been forgiven already and then through faith you received His free gift of righteousness which gave you right standing before the Father. For more on this, click here.

Complete forgiveness is therefore good, or rather great, or even better, THE BEST news. One sacrifice for ALL SIN for ALL TIME. How is it that people don’t understand ALL means ALL. Even in Hebrew and Greek all means all. Check it out yourself if you don’t believe me!

Now please read the following passage at least 5 times. Read it slowly, read it out loud. THIS IS GOOD NEWS! Partial forgives is not!

Hbr 10:12-18 But this Man, after He had offered ONE sacrifice for sins FOREVER, sat down at the right hand of God, 13 from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. 14 For by ONE OFFERING He has perfected FOREVER those who are being sanctified. 15 But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, 16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” 17 then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” 18 Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. (NKJV)

So, what then happens to my forgiveness if I sin after being saved? Click here to find out. If you already know, go say thank you to Jesus!

Peace!

Cornel

This is just for fun. Kids are amazing. This makes me laugh every time I read it!

Enjoy

Cornel

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“Dear God, I went to this wedding and they kissed right there in the church. Is that OK?”

Neil

“Dear God, Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don’t you just keep the ones you have now?”

Jane

“Dear God, I think the stapler is one of your greatest inventions.”

Ruth

“Dear God, In Bible times, did they really talk that fancy?”

Jennifer

“Dear God, I think about you sometimes, even when I’m not praying.”

Elliot

“Dear God, I am American. What are you?”

Robert

“Dear God, I bet it is hard for you to love all of everybody in the whole world. There are only 4 people in our family and I can never do it.”

Nan

“Dear God, Please put another holiday between Christmas and Easter. There is nothing good in there now.”

Ginny

“Dear God, If you watch me in church this Sunday I will show you my new shoes.”

Mickey

“Dear God, If we do come back as something, please don’t let me be Jennifer Horton because I hate her.”

Denise

“Dear God, Maybe Cain and Abel would not kill each so much if they had their own rooms. It works for my brother.”

Larry

“Dear God, If you give me a genie lamp like Alladin, I will give you anything you want except my money or my chess set.”

Raphael

“Dear God, We read that Thomas Edison invented light, but in Sunday school they said you did it. So I bet he stoled your idea.”

Donna

“Dear God, If you let the dinosaurs not extinct, we would not have a country. You did the right thing.”

Jonathan

“Dear God, Please make Dennis Clark go to a different camp this year.”

Peter

“Dear God, Thank you for the baby brother, but what I prayed for was a puppy.”

Joyce

“Dear God, Are you really invisible or is that just a trick?”

Lucy

“Dear God, I do not think anybody could be a better God. Well I just want you to know, but I am not just saying that because you are God.”

Charles

“Dear God, I want to be just like my dad when I get big, but not with so much hair all over.”

Sam

You would think this would be a straightforward question that most people could answer easily. What is your answer? Why does God love you? Is your answer, ‘because I obey all His commands?’ Popular answer, but wrong. Guess again. Is your answer Jesus? Well, that’s a much better guess, but it’s still not the right answer. Don’t get me wrong, Jesus is amazing and what He did for us is incredible, but Jesus is not the reason why the Father loves you. What Jesus did was a result of the Father’s love FOR you. He sent Jesus BECAUSE He loves you!

Many people think the Father did to Jesus what He actually wanted to do to you. That He actually wanted to crucify you, kill you and make you suffer, but thankfully Jesus jumped in the way and the Father did to Jesus what He really wanted to do to you. That is nonsense.

If the Father wants to punish people and Jesus is jumping through hoops trying to stop that, then the Father and Jesus are not united in their will. That means the Father wants one thing and Jesus another. A kingdom divided cannot stand. Therefore it cannot be true that the Father wants to punish and Jesus wants to save. They both want to save!

2Cr 5:19            that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them

God was in Christ reconciling you back to Him! The Father’s will is your reconciliation, not your punishment. He does not want to punish anybody, and He is not counting ANY PERSON’S SIN against them, saved or not!

He is not judging anybody, and neither is Jesus! They are both for you and not against you. So why does the Father love you? Because He created you to be the outpoured recipient of His love! You have been made to be loved by Him. You have always been the object of His affection. Not because you do good and try not to do too much bad, but because you are His creation, His offspring!

If you are trying to hide in the bushes because you don’t feel worthy of His love, come and see the sacrifice He made to remove your guilt and shame. Come and see Jesus, the result of the Father’s love for you. What happened to Jesus was to show the Father’s love for you, but we have made it all about punishing sin instead of a display of love. The cross is God’s love for you! Come out form the bushes, come out form where you are trying to hide, even those of you trying to hide behind Jesus and run to Him!

You are not hidden in Christ because the Father is trying to find you and punish you, thinking as long as your hidden away He can’t find you and then you’re OK. You were hidden in Christ by the Father! You are hidden away from sin, from death, from corruption, not from the Father. So don’t try to hide from the Father or hide in Jesus, come out into the open shouting ‘ABBA FATHER!’

Col 1:21-22            And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight

You are holy, blameless and ABOVE REPROACH! Repent! Change your mind! You merely thought you were the Father’s enemy, IN YOUR MIND, because of sin. Realize He is not your enemy, change your thinking and your life will be transformed! He never hated you, you were just made to believe He did in your mind. Therefore the good news is merely this: THE FATHER LOVES YOU. ALWAYS HAS, ALWAYS WILL!

Peace-out!

Cornel

This is my dad. In 1 month’s time I get to see him again. (Along with the rest of the family of course.) I haven’t been home in 5 years. My dad is stronger than your dad. Haha. No, seriously. He is.

My Dad has made many extremely huge personal sacrifices in order for me to enjoy life and live out my dream and purpose. Admittedly, I was a typical teenager growing up and I am sure I made him grey before his time, but no matter how big of a mess I made, my Dad always helped me get out of that mess. We have also had our share of fights, arguments and disagreements (99% my fault…) just like any normal father and son do. But one thing that I will never forget about my Dad is that he found it extremely difficult to punish me. I think I can only remember 3 times in my whole life that he gave me a hiding. (And I gave him ample opportunity to improve on that number…) The school principal beat me more in a week than my Dad did his entire life.

Yet my Dad’s amazing love for me pales in comparison to my Father’s irrevocable love for me. If my Dad found it hard to punish me, how much more difficult was it for God to punish Jesus? Especially since Jesus was innocent! Far too many people see God as this vengeful angry God who lives for punishing disobedience and Jesus is just the poor punching bag who can take the hit for us. Jeff Turner uses the example to show how some see God almost like an evil step-father who comes home drunk and wants to beat his younger son but big brother Jesus pushes his little brother out of the way and lets drunk dad take out his anger on him. Jesus didn’t save you from the Father! The Father, in Jesus saved you from sin!

I think I need to say that again. Jesus didn’t come to save you from the Father. The Father was never out to get you, kill you or destroy you. The Father, in Jesus came to save you. His wrath and His anger was not kindled against you. It was kindled against that which was harming you, His wrath was against sin. Sin was punished in Jesus’ body. God’s wrath was poured out on sin. When the Bible says Jesus is our only mediator between God and man, we often think of God on one side, we are on the other and Jesus in the middle trying to hide us behind him so God won’t see our mistakes and switch over to kill-mode. That is utter nonsense.

For God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself! When you mess up God is not suddenly angry again and Jesus has to then quickly run and remind Him that you are forgiven.

Jesus: “No Father, don’t kill them, you already killed me in their place!”

The Father: ‘Oh, yes. That’s right. I like you. I don’t like them, but if they are in you I like them too. Thanks for reminding me. Phew! I almost killed them that time!’

Do people honestly think the Father and the Son have such opposing agendas? That God is out for vengeance and Jesus is just trying to hold Him back? No! If that were true there would be an inter-trinitarian breakdown of unimaginable consequence! The Father and Jesus have the same will! One is not reminding the other to not destroy and curse us because we just can’t seem to get it right.

If there is anything the church needs to repent of (change their mind about) it will be in regards to how they view the Father. They see God as the bad-cop out to get us because of His justice and Jesus as the good-cop trying to save us because of His love. Love and justice are not opposing forces! Love and justice work together in your favour! The Father justly punished sin because He loves you! And then He united His Spirit with your spirit to ever testify to that fact and to remind you of His goodness and favour every second of the day!

The goodness of God leads to repentance. That means when you realize how good the Father is you will change your mind about how you see Him, approach Him, interact with Him and live with Him! HE IS ALWAYS GOOD! And not only is He ALWAYS GOOD, HE IS ALWAYS GOOD TO ME!

This is my Father, and I love Him with my entire being! This is my Dad and I love him just as much!

Cornel

‘He Qualifies You‘ is a tiny book that packs an incredible punch! I am blown away by how Chad managed to cover such an immensely large and important subject in so few pages yet still in a very clear and concise way. So what is the subject Chad addresses? The 3 most important covenants found in the Bible as well as the basic conditional which upheld each covenant.

Covenant describes the way God relates to and treats people. If you do not understand these covenants, you might end up relating to God in entirely the wrong way! You might also be very confused as to how Gods acts, what His will for you is and what you think He may or may not do to you. Do you understand the 3 important covenants? Do you know which one is the one through which you relate to God? Do you know and understand the stipulations and conditionals of  your covenant? If not, Chad’s book is the quickest and easiest way to gain a very thorough oversight into all 3 these covenants, although I will give a you little teaser summary here.

Yesterday I got to spend another afternoon with Paul Ellis talking about all sorts. I just want to thank him for everything he has taught me and will continue to teach me! You rock and I will miss you a lot when I leave for Hong Kong! So, to say thank you I thought I would make a Top 10 quotes list for the man who loves making Top 10 quotes lists! If Paul has impacted your life in any way, share this list because sharing is caring!

1. Much of what is sold as “the gospel” is an inferior substitute for the real thing. Don’t be fooled by cheap knock-offs! There is an easy way to distinguish the authentic from the counterfeit. The true gospel is 100% good news. There’s no bad news in the good news. If the gospel you’ve bought into makes you feel insecure, anxious, guilty, and condemned, then it’s no good. Discard it before it kills you!

2. The entire Bible is good for you, but you won’t get much out of it unless you know Jesus Christ.

3. People waste years studying different religions trying to figure out which one is best. But when you strip away all the packaging it’s actually a fairly simple choice: it’s either your works or his blood.

4. I’d like to think that if I’d been Adam, the first thing I would’ve built was a fence around that tree. Then I would’ve put warning signs all over that fence. It’s too late for that now, but it’s not too late to put warning signs all around the law.

5. Is your name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life? If so, are you worried that Jesus may blot out your name? It seems that many Christians are. They are afraid that they might do something that will cause Jesus to blot out their names from His Book of Life. It’s like Jesus is sitting in heaven with a pen in one hand and a bottle of correction fluid in the other. Get saved, name goes in. Fail a test, name goes out. Re-commit your life to God, name goes back in. Phew! With all the re-commitments going on, you’d think Jesus was in danger of repetitive stress injury!

6. Walking after the flesh is when you attempt to get your needs met independently of God. It’s trusting in yourself (your abilities, your understanding) and living solely from the basis of your earthly experience (what you see, hear, touch, etc.). Now here’s the important bit: You can walk after the flesh in the pursuit of both good things and bad things.

7. The gospel is simple and it takes theologians to complicate it.

8. If you were the devil and you wanted to keep Christians barren, sick and ineffective, there is one simple thing that you could do: you would hide or distort the revelation that we have been totally and eternally forgiven.

9. Did Jesus sneak out of heaven against His Father’s wishes to come and die for our sins? Did He distract the Holy Spirit then slip away on His own initiative to shed His blood for our forgiveness? Of course not! Yet judging by some of the comments I get on this site, it’s clear that some think that God the Son and God the Father are playing a good cop-bad cop routine with humanity. God the Father is angry with us on account of our sin, but Jesus stands between us protecting us from His Father’s wrath. What’s wrong with this picture? Everything! It suggests that God the Son and God the Father have different natures, that One loves us unconditionally, but the other can’t see past our sin. Even if you don’t know your Bible you can probably see how ridiculous this is.

10. There’s a teaching going around that says that God has only half-forgiven us. If it sounds wacky, that’s because it is.

For more great nuggets of wisdom like these visit Paul’s website, escapetoreality.org!

Grace & Peace!

Cornel

Is God wearing Jesus-glasses? Is God looking at you through these glasses that block out your sin and shortcomings so He only sees Jesus instead of you? I highly doubt it. I myself have said this and believed this in the past but thankfully now I know God does not wear Jesus-glasses, and He is also not playing Jesus-dress-up. When He looks at you He looks at you. He sees you as perfect, holy, righteous, sanctified and just. Yes, you. He is looking straight at you. Not through Jesus, not with Jesus ‘covering’ all your bad spots. Straight at you!

If God were wearing Jesus-glasses and these glasses were hiding your shortcomings so God couldn’t see them and then treat you like He would Jesus, it means you still have shortcomings. It would mean you are merely living under the illusion of being perfected while underneath it all you are still imperfect. God is not playing make-believe. Jesus didn’t create blind spots in God’s vision on the cross so He wouldn’t see your imperfections and sins. No! He took them all away! That means you can stand in front of God in full assurance of faith that you are accepted, righteous, beloved, holy and perfect because you don’t need Him to wear Jesus-glasses.

What Jesus did perfected you. It didn’t place a perfect image of Christ over you to make God not see your imperfections. It perfected you. You are perfected through Christ! When God looks at you He doesn’t see Jesus in your place, He sees you as you. The unique redeemed individual being He created you to be. He doesn’t need Jesus-glasses to look at you because you were created in His righteousness and true holiness.

In the same way you don’t need to wear a Jesus-mask before God. He is not interested in you wearing a Jesus-mask. He is interested in you. Trying to wear a Jesus-mask is just being religious all over again, trying to hide your apparent shortcomings behind a mask. You don’t have shortcoming to hide! You are fully accepted! Believe it!

“But Cornel, I still mess up.” I know. Me too. And guess what, you will also mess up tomorrow, and the day after and the day after that. And not for one inkling of a second does that change anything about how God sees you, thinks about you, feels towards you, acts towards you or desires things for you. Because of Jesus your messes are no longer an issue between you and God. But as long as you try to cover up something that isn’t even there, you are denying what Jesus did and missing out on a deeper intimacy with your ever-loving Father!

Get intimate with your Dad because you are worthy and qualified and your messes will disappear as a result. Don’t try to qualify yourself or make yourself worthy. Jesus did that already! If you think God has to wear Jesus-glasses to relate to you, you still don’t see who He created you to be.

YOU ARE HIS BELOVED!

Cornel

Many proponents of tithing for believers use Abraham as their reason. Their main argument is that since Abraham tithed before the law, that tithing supersedes the law and is therefore still a required practice for believers. Here are my own reasons why I don’t consider Abraham to be good reason for arguing that believers should still tithe. (Apart from the fact that there is not one single New Testament verse that instructs us to do so…)

1.            Abraham never tithed.

If you read Gen 14 where this original instance of tithing occurs, you will see that it was ABRAM who tithed, not Abraham. What is the difference? Well, God did not make the covenant with Abram yet. A covenant is not in effect without blood (Heb 9:16-22). The covenant was only made in Gen 15, and then Abram changed to Abraham. (There is a lot to say about that name change. I might write about that sometime in the future.)

2.            The Abrahamic covenant was not cut with Abraham.

We refer to the covenant as Abrahamic but the covenant was not with Abraham. God made Abraham sleep deeply and Jesus walked through the split-in-half animal. That means Abraham had no requirements to keep but that Jesus kept all the requirements on Abraham’s behalf.

3.            He didn’t tithe with his own money.

Abram tithed with the spoils of war he took from killing 7 kings and their armies. He didn’t tithe a single coin, animal or grain from his own possessions. If you want to follow this example, you should go fight, kill and take 7 unbeliever’s money and give 10% of that away as your tithe.

4.            He gave the other 90% away too.

Abram gave 90% to the King of Sodom. If you want to use this as your example, you have to keep this part too, or else you aren’t following Abram’s example anyway. To keep with Abram’s example you should find a local drug dealer or adult video store and give them the other 90% of your money.

5.            He did it only once.

There is no scriptural evidence that Abraham practiced tithing, did it often, or that he did it ever again. There is evidence that he tithed only once. Not every month. Preaching monthly tithing is no longer keeping with this example.

6.            Promise vs. Conditional Benefit.

God gave Abram a promise to bless him. He didn’t give a conditional which Abram needed to meet in order to qualify and benefit. Faith alone. Tithing doesn’t qualify you for a thing. Jesus qualifies you.

7.            Animal sacrifices also predated the law.

If people use the pre-law argument to justify the religious practice of tithing, then why don’t those same people preach animal sacrifices? They predated the law too. You could then also justify polygamy…

8.            Melchizedek was a shadow of Jesus.

Some say that since Melchizedek was a shadow of Jesus that it shows Abram tithing to Jesus. Well, if he was a shadow, then Abram tithed to a shadow, not the real Jesus. The law was also a shadow and tithing is required under that shadow. So to me this is closer to tithing under law than tithing to Jesus.

In closing, I do not for one second think tithing is a requirement for any believer. But if you do, go study it out for yourself.  I do not need a rule or obligation to govern my giving or my generosity. I am generous because I see My Father being generous. Generosity is just another fruit of the Spirit. I was created to be generous. It is contrary to my nature to not be generous.  If a person needs a rule, obligation or law in order to give, it shows they are still immature in regards to this characteristic of Christ. Immature people also tend to not give when they find out there aren’t any rules because they still think God relates to us based on rules and regulations. Go read Galatians 3 and 4 again.

If you want to read more about this topic, click here.

Yours in grace,

Cornel

Here is a video taken of the message and Q&A session I did in San Jose, CA during our recent trip to the USA.

Enjoy!

Cornel