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AM I THROWING OUT LIFE PRESERVERS OR CINDER BLOCKS?

10/13/2014

 
Jesus came to earth to set people free. He did not come to enslave the masses to the innumerable matrices of religious dogma that wear out the soul and ignite contempt among those who claim Christ. The greater offense is found in the hellish construction of walls built upon a fraudulent claim of authentic Christianity. The weary, the broken, the hopeless, and the lost will never find rest, wholeness, hope, or redemption within the yoke of religious burden, toiling outside the wall of legalistic elitism and exclusion. It is not the mere use of The Name in religious pursuit, it is the Character that resides within genuine Christianity that draws souls.

The legalist delights himself in the volume of gnats that he can strain out while swallowing even more camels. May we, as those redeemed by grace through Christ, offer heaven’s antidote and not hell’s poison to the one who suffers. May we, throw out the life preserver to the one drowning and not a cinder block. May we speak the Gospel as inspired by the Holy Spirit and not simply parrot traditional or trendy religious jargon. People need Jesus and not the web of the overwhelming complexity of contrived religion that is often attached as an addendum to the true Gospel of grace. Forgiveness of sin is found through grace and is received in repentance and saving faith. The Gospel of Christ is much clearer and much simpler than man’s matrix of religion

Matthew 11:28-30 28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Matthew 23:15
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.

Galatians 3:1-3 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? 2 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?

Matthew 23:13
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.

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    Pastor Rick Ritenour
    Lead Pastor

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Bethel Assembly of God
1125 Frederick Pike
Littlestown,  PA 17340