Fear vs Relationship How do we bring people back to God that have had bad “Church” experiences?

Some churches believe that “Fire and Brimstone” along with the fear of God is the only way to create the desired “God-like” change in a person and keep you obedient, I strongly disagree! If this were true then we wouldn’t need the love of Jesus, just enough fear to manipulate/scare us into change through our own efforts while creating a warped view of God as a “angry kid over an ant hill with a magnifying glass” waiting for us to make a mistake so we can be punished. Seems ridiculous right??? Makes no sense to me either because GOD IS LOVE!!! This has been going on way too long but thank God times are-a changing! Guilt, condemnation, and fear taught through legalism is no way to introduce people into the Kingdom, especially if your endgame is “obedience”. Although some churches still view fear as a good way to “keep people in the seats”, which is very sad, they don’t realize that this is creating a generation of people who want nothing to do with God or the church! This is unfortunately solely based on the actions of these misled “legalistic people”, and nothing to do with God or what church should really be about. Please keep in mind these are still Christians that are just people who should be treated with love, after all it’s the only thing that brings about real change. Just like the Pharisees before them they know not what they do, and they think what they’re doing is actually honoring God! Sounds crazy, but this has been going on for a few thousand years. To keep things fear based seems like a real lack of trust in the true message of Jesus Christ. Relying on manipulation of any kind as opposed to walking in Faith with the true message will usually lead to disaster on some level, guaranteed! They don’t realize that obedience, along with all the other fruits of the Spirit(Gal 5:22), are a byproduct of Love, Grace, and Faith through your relationship with Jesus Christ. When you realize at a revelatory level what’s really been done for you on the cross you’ll live more out of love and a grateful spirit, while simultaneously living less and less self-centered. If we just manage to stay focused on Jesus and what he’s done for us we won’t have to live out of so much self-effort because the revelation of that kind of love is fuel enough! Besides, once we learn to truly “rest in Christ” through relationship and surrender we’re no longer living out of our own strength, but we’re relying on his. (Matt 11:28-30) (2 Cor 12:9) We’re actually changing daily from Glory to Glory from the inside-out whether we “feel” like it or not when we keep pressing into relationship which is a great reason to have unshakable Hope! This makes mind renewal (Rom 12:2) something we look forward to as a time to deepen our relationship with God and really line ourselves up with the Truth, as opposed to viewing it as another Christian task. We just need to trust and rely on God and change is inevitable, always from the inside-out. This change won’t be a result solely based on our “own efforts”, but as a byproduct of our “joint efforts” with Him working in us through our relationship with the Holy Spirit. Which when done right, you’d think will eventually seem to be “effortless” on our parts? I’ll let you know when I get there completely…God Bless!!!

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