The Perfect Exchange

21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV)

This is the verse has become a stumbling block to Religious Christians who are infested by the lies of theology. When they were in their “evangelistic” mode, they had no problem telling the public that Jesus died for their sins. However, after they switched back to their “normal” mode, they still see themselves as sinners.

I can still remember that in my first church, the pastor defined evangelist as a beggar telling other beggars where to find food. This tells me that this pastor has a very low self esteem and he tried to impose this low self esteem to the whole church. I am glad I left this church. I have no intention to sit under a pastor with a loser’s mentality.

I don’t think the above example is isolated. In fact, it is a common practice of religious churches to exalt low self esteem as godly and humility. This is also why they have unashamedly called themselves and all Christians sinners even after we become believers.

What is God’s position on this? The above verse tells us very clearly that the moment we believe in Jesus, we are the righteousness of God. In God’s opinion, we are righteous people, not sinners. Righteousness and sin do not mix.

At this point, I suspect theologically infested Christian will ask, “What if we sin? Are we not sinners then?”

The answer is in the above verse. Jesus had no sin, yet God made him our sin. Therefore, the reverse must also be true. We who sin become the righteousness of God. The righteous becomes a sinner and the sinner become righteous. This is what I call the Perfect Exchange at the Cross of Calvary.

The Perfect Exchange separates true believing Christians from the rest of the theologically infested Religious Christian. It is the truth that sets us free from the lies and manipulations of theology.

Evil Intentions

27 Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, And he who rolls a stone will have it roll back on him.
Proverbs 26:27 (NKJV)

In this blog, I have written a lot of articles on the Law Of Sowing And Reaping. In all of them, I focused mainly on how to make use of this law to get the things we want including the politically incorrect stuff like health and wealth. While this law works in providing positive things in our lives, the truth is it is not limited to positive things only. This law can also work on the negative side.

The Law Of Sowing And Reaping is an automated program. It does not know the difference between good and evil. It has no compassion, no love, no pity and bears no grudges with anyone. All it knows is to create a harvest from the seed that is sown. If you sow bad seeds, you will get a bad harvest. If you sow good seeds, you will get good harvest.

If you have sown bad seeds, there is no use of pleading to the Law Of Sowing And Reaping for good harvest. It does not care. It is not designed to care. This is why it is important to note that if we do not want bad harvest, we must never sow bad seeds. What are bad seeds?

The above verse gives an example of what is a bad seed. It can be an evil intention to harm others. It you dig a pit or roll a stone to harm others, you may eventually harmed by your actions. Therefore, never harm others no matter how disgusting they are.

God’s way of overcoming evil in our lives is to displace them with good. There may be people out there who talk bad things about you or even scheme to harm you. What should you do about it? The answer is to trust in God to protect you. He knows how to watch your back. He knows how to do his job.

When God is for you, who can be against you? Anyone who schemes against you is actually taking a stand against God. Don’t you pity them?

This is how we should deal with the jerks and scums in our lives. Do not sink into bitterness and depression. Fill with hope instead because your God is on your side. He who is in you is greater than he who is in this world.

Never, at any time return evil for evil because if you do, you will be sowing bad seeds. If you sow bad seeds, you will end up reaping bad harvest. The Law Of Sowing And Reaping is only an automated program. It does not care.

Do Not Overwork To Be Rich

4 Do not overwork to be rich; Because of your own understanding, cease!
5 Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; They fly away like an eagle toward heaven.
Proverbs 23:4-5 (NKJV)

For those who have been reading my blog, you will undoubtedly find me to be a very pro-prosperity person. Some people may even find this term to be an understatement. Many people may even use terms like “obsessed with money” or “greedy” to describe me. In this article, I am going to give everyone a surprise. I am going to write on not being too obsessed with getting rich.

Let us look at the above verses. Verse 4 begins by telling us not to overwork to get rich. Please note that it does not say “Do not be rich.” It says, “Do not overwork to be rich.” So the problem here is not about being rich. It is about overworking. Why is this a problem?

We can look at the real world for examples of people who do that. There are many people in the world who got rich by living balanced lives in accordance with the will of God. Unfortunately, there are also many who got rich by being obsessive with money.

These are the people who give “rich” a bad name. They practically sacrificed everything else for money. They neglected their families, friends, morals and personal health for the sake of making another million dollars. As a result, they are only successful in their huge net-worth and failed in everything else. Theologians will love to quote them to prove their heresy that money is evil.

The truth is God wants us to have a lot of money but he does not want us to be so obsessed with it that we overwork and neglect other areas in our lives. This is why the second part of Verse 4 says, “Because of your own understanding, cease!”

God wants us to cease from overworking. That is a very strong word. It sounds like non-negotiable to me. If you have been overworking to be rich, God wants you to stop immediately. It is interesting to note that while the command is strict, it is not dictatorial in any way. God said, “Because of your own understanding” before he said, “cease!”

God wants us to understand the implications before we obey him. This is another way of saying that God does not want us to behave like mindless drones in obeying him without question. This is good news for me because I can never behave like a mindless drone. I have my own thoughts and desires. Perhaps this is why a theologically infested Christian website, “Christian Post” persecuted me with the term, “self-professed Christian”.

So, if you have also been accused as a “self-professed Christian”, rejoice because it show that you are capable of having independent thoughts and desires. You are not a mindless drone.

The second part of Verse 4 said, “Because of your own understanding, cease!” What is there to understand? The answer is in Verse 5.

5 Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; They fly away like an eagle toward heaven.
Proverbs 23:5 (NKJV)

Let us look at the first part:

“Will you set your eyes on that which is not?”

This means riches is not something solid that we can set our eyes on. Why not?

“For riches certainly make themselves wings; They fly away like an eagle toward heaven.”

The above is full of metaphors. The real meaning is, riches is always attracted toward heaven. It is a spiritual entity. The physical riches that we can see and touch is a projection from spiritual riches that we cannot see and touch. Spiritual riches stay in heaven. As a result, physical riches will also “fly away like an eagle toward heaven.” After all, it is only a projection.

This is why it is futile to chase after physical riches. If you want to be rich, focus on spiritual riches. Once our minds are filled with spiritual riches, we will see their projections (physical riches) in our lives. This is God’s way for us to get rich. We do not get rich by overworking. We get rich by being spiritually rich.

Do Not Despise Plowing

4 The lazy man will not plow because of winter; He will beg during harvest and have nothing.
Proverbs 20:4 (NKJV)

This is another lesson of prosperity from the Bible. It uses the model of the ancient agriculture of Israel. The agricultural processes always begin with plowing and end with harvest. Every farmer loves harvest. They can see their money right in front of them. Harvesting is basically the act of collecting money. So, it is never a problem to get people to collect their harvest.

As mentioned earlier, harvesting is the last stage of the cycle of agricultural process. It will not happen by itself. Before harvest can happen, one must take good care of the plants. Before that, one must sow the right seeds for the right plants. However, one cannot just throw seeds to the hard ground. They will not grow well on hard ground. So, the ground must be softened through plowing.

Plowing is the first step in a series of process that leads to harvesting. It is the hardest work of all. It takes a lot of strength, causes the farmer to get dirty with mud and does not bring in any immediate rewards. Many people may be tempted to see this as a useless job. It is easy to give up in this stage but if the farmer really gives up, he will not have any harvest. This is the message of the above verse.

This model is applicable in every area of our lives. What do you want in your life? There will be a season of harvest where you will receive what you want. Before the harvest can happen, a series of events must take place beginning from the act of plowing. In short, we must start plowing if we want to see our harvest.

What is plowing in our real lives? It refers to works that are very hard to do and do not come with good benefits. They are also known as “thankless jobs”. You may be in this situation yourself where the only job you can get hold on is your current job that requires a lot of hard work, long working hours, bad working conditions, disgusting boss, very little benefits and worst of all, very little pay. You may be wondering on why God does not deliver you from such a bad condition by giving you a big harvest.

Has God forgotten you? Is God too busy to deliver more important people? The answer is no. God loves you and he wants you to have a huge harvest of everything you want. He is currently working behind the scenes to get your harvest ready but you must prepare yourself to receive them when they arrive. You do that by going through all the processes of agriculture that lead to harvest.

You begin by doing the best you can in your current job. It does not matter that the conditions are bad and the pay is low. You are plowing right now. Plowing does not produce immediate rewards. Come to think of it, you are still better off than the farmers. At least you still receive some money. Farmers don’t get paid for plowing. Doing the best we can in our jobs means be attentive, work hard, have a positive working attitude and even willing to go for an extra mile, working above and beyond what we are paid for.

It does not matter if you are not being appreciated for all your efforts. You are plowing, making the first step toward your harvests.

Next, don’t forget to sow. Plowing alone will not cause crops to appear from the farm. We have to sow seeds of the crops we want. You must sow something no matter how little. If you cannot sow $100, sow $10. If you still cannot afford that, sow $1. The emphasis here is, make sure you sow some seeds.

After that, we have to keep our crops healthy. We do that by keeping our thoughts and speech pure. We have to make sure that we fill our minds with positive thoughts and allow only positive speech to come out from our mouths. We do that by exposing ourselves with positive messages. Go to churches that preach the positive Word of God. Listen to CDs with positive messages. Read positive books or websites. You can use this blog as well.

When you do the above, your crops will grow. One day your harvest will come. At that time, you will look back and be glad that you have done all these things. This is God’s way of getting rich. Do not despise plowing.

Making God Your Debtor

17 He who has pity on the poor lends to the LORD, And He will pay back what he has given.
Proverbs 19:17 (NKJV)

I have written on this verse before. I used the title “How To Make God Your Debtor”. One reader wrote in to register his displeasure this. He attracted a few supporters. Together, they came up with theories like God is just trying to encourage us to give and I should not take advantage of loopholes.

No matter what opinions they have, the truth remains in the above verse. God himself has declared that when we have pity on the poor, we are effectively lending to the God. God is our debtor. Debtors must repay his loan to their creditors. They do not have the right to change the repayment terms without permission from the creditors.

So, the act of being merciful to the poor can make us God’s creditors. God owes us money and he has to pay up what he owed us with the interest we want.

Is anyone going to accuse me of being blasphemous for writing the above? No one can accuse me of anything without implicating God because I am merely quoting God in Proverbs 19:17. If I am a heretic for quoting this verse, then God must be a bigger heretic because he put it there in the Bible. God and I are on the same side.

The purpose I write these is to show you, my readers that we can afford to be politically incorrect as long as we are doing God’s will. As Christians, we worship God, not politically correctness.

In the above verse, God has openly stated that he is not ashamed to be our debtor and he had even taught us how to make him our debtor. Since, God himself is not ashamed of this verse, why should you be? Are you greater than God?

As long as we are Christians and we want to enjoy the benefits of being Christians (like having a lot of money), we must be willing to go against the flow. We must be willing to pay the price of being politically incorrect. We must be prepared to face the persecutions from theologians and doctrine worshippers. We must commit ourselves to believe only in God’s truth and not swayed by the lies of theology.

This is the modern day’s version of bearing the cross.

Look at the above verse again. Why did God put it there? Theologically infested Christians will tell us that God only wants to encourage us to help the poor. The truth is they are right except the “only” part. God wants to encourage us to help the poor AND he is willing to commit himself to be our debtor and pay us back. This is the full meaning of the verse. We do not sin by believing the second part.

Theologically infested Christians will also tell us that we should not take advantage of this loophole. My question is, what loophole? If God dares to make such promise to me, I dare to take it. If he fails to fulfil his promises, I dare to hold him accountable. However, I don’t think I will ever have to hold God accountable for anything because he always keep his promises. This is the God we serve.

The bottom line is, do not be ashamed to believe in God’s word. Our prosperity comes from God, not political correctness.

Established Thoughts

3 Commit your works to the LORD, And your thoughts will be established.
Proverbs 16:3 (NKJV)

The theme here is thoughts. When our thoughts are in order and established, our lives will be the same. When our thoughts are not established, our lives will be in a mess. If you find people who have messed up their lives, you can be sure that their thoughts must have been messed up first. It is totally impossible to mess up your life and have established thoughts at the same time. They are both mutually exclusive.

In the above verse, God is teaching us how to established our thoughts. The answer is in committing our works to the Lord. What does this mean? In short, it means we have to believe that God is in full control over our works. I shall explain in detail.

I have written another article entitled “Greater Is He That Is In You That Is In The World” where I presented my case that God is not in full control over the world. Yet, here in this article, I declare God is in control. Why such a contradiction?

The answer is in the context. First, God was the one who put the law of physics in place that governs our universe. Once it is installed, it can act on its own without God’s intervention. For example, if you pick up a pen and drop it, the pen will fall by itself without asking for God’s permission. The same applies for every physical phenomenon around us. They operate in accordance with the law of physics. Earthquakes happen due to the movement of tectonic plates, not because of governments allowing abortions. God does not control earthquakes. The law of physics does.

Secondly, it is important for us to understand that God did not design us humans as mindless drones who are only capable of obeying all his instructions without question. He gave us something call “free will”. Having free will means we can decide what we want even if what we want is not in accordance with God’s will. We have the ability not to obey God.

The above cases set the context that God does not exercise full control over the events in this world. God does not micro-manage us. God is not in control over how we choose to live our lives.

However, this does not mean he cannot intervene under specific circumstances. The Bible has many stories of God’s direct intervention into people’s lives resulting in supposedly “impossible” things taking place. Such events are often labeled as “miracles”. Miracles are the proof that God can be in control. However, they can only happen under specific conditions.

Therefore, if we want God to be in control in our lives we must create the same conditions for that to happen. The condition is faith. We have to believe. Believe in what? We need to believe that God cares for our work. He wants us to achieve the best we can and receive the best rewards. We need to believe that our God is so obsessed with our welfare and success that he is willing to intervene on our behalf.

In doing so, we are effectively releasing God’s power in our lives. We will not be worried or stressed anymore. We can do our work with joy and confidence that everything will turn out fine. This is what it means by committing our works to the Lord. Our thoughts will be established.

When our thoughts are established, we can come up with great ideas that can make us rich. Our commitment to God can make us rich.

A Soft Answer Turns Away Wrath

1 A soft answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.
Proverbs 15:1 (NKJV)

I find this verse very useful when it comes with dealing with people. Like it or not, all of us have to deal with people when we work. Even if you are working with a computer on internet connection, there are still people at the other end of your internet.

Most of the time, we cannot choose what type of people we want to deal with. There are nasty people in this world. Let me give you an example. Suppose you are a cashier in a supermarket and 1% of your customers are jerks. If you serve 1,000 customers a day, then you would have faced the wrath of 10 jerks everyday. What are you going to do? Quit your job and starve? No, you move on.

This is what we must do when we face angry people who just want to be jerks. Move on. We must not allow ourselves to sink into hatred. Hate is bad for its practitioner but it has no effect on the target. In other words, when you hate someone, you will only harm yourself and not the person you hate.

There is one fact about jerks. They are looking for a fight. They shout at you in hope that you will shout back. They are feeding on your anger. This means the only way to overcome them is to starve them of the energy they need. Do not shout back. Do not repay evil for evil. Do good to those who did evil.

This is what the above verse means. Soft answers turn away wrath. When you give soft answers instead of harsh words, you are effectively weakening the position of the jerks. They need to feed your anger to keep sustain theirs. As long as you refuse to co-operate, they will find it very tiring to maintain their anger. Soon, they will have to give way. You will win.

This is God’s formula to deal with jerks.

Lie #5: Thorns In The Flesh

(From the 10 LIES OF RELIGIOUS CHRISTIANITY)

This is the lie that scares me a lot. The phase “thorns in the flesh” comes from the part of the Bible where Apostle Paul wrote where he said something with that name as shown below.

Religious churches use that to tell their members that sometimes God do bad things to them to show them his sufficient grace.

7To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.
8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
9But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
10That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NIV)

Based on this passage alone without the full context of the entire message, the theologians concluded that God can give people a thorn in their flesh to keep them from becoming conceited and show them his sufficient grace.

What is the thorn of the flesh in the first place? Religious Christians will tell you that it is some sort of disease. They will use this part to fight against any teachings on healing. The irony here is, the last part of Verse 7 has already explained its meaning. The thorn of the flesh is actually a messenger of Satan.

Let me ask you this question. Do you want to know God’s sufficient grace? Unless you are a masochist, I am sure you will run away from this God. In fact this is what I have been doing when I was in my first church.

When I was in my first church, I was under such a heavy bondage that I could only see God as a pervert. Why? When you do bad, he will do bad things to you to punish you. However, when you do good, like the Apostle Paul, he can also give you bad things to you to show you his sufficient grace. This means God will make sure bad things will happen to you regardless of whether you are good or bad.

If this “truth” is revealed during the First Layer Gospel, I don’t think any one except the psychos will want to be Christians.

What is the common response of Religious Christians on this issue? They are proud of it. It is a status symbol among the Religious Christians to tell others that they are willing to go through sufferings in the name of sufficient grace. This is a crucial part that I cannot fit in. I can never accept a two-faced God. He was good before I became a Christian but turned evil after I became one. So, I concluded that I am better off if I have never believed in him.

Another favorite reference to justify a sadistic God is the book of Job. Religious churches like to use this book to fight for the right to have a sadistic God but they conveniently ignore its ending.

10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before.
11 All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the LORD had brought upon him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.
12 The LORD blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys.
13 And he also had seven sons and three daughters.
14 The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch.
15 Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.
16 After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation.
17 And so he died, old and full of years.
Job 42:12-17 (NIV)

You can never hear the above passage being preached in a religious church because it is too positive. Religious churches do not like positive endings.

In short, religious churches believe that the Christian life on earth must be a life of sufferings. We must live like the beginning and the middle part of the book of Job but we must never live like its end. Sufferings have become some sort of a status symbol in the religious churches. If you want to rise high in their eyes, you will have to make sure you suffer a lot.

The fifth clue to identify a religious church is they look upon sufferings as something to be proud of. They are the ultimate masochists.