The Almighty says he can get me out of this mess, but he's pretty sure your f**ked.

"The Almighty says he can get me out of this mess, but he's pretty sure your f**ked." You might recognize that quote from one of the battle scenes in Braveheart. It is one of my all-time favorite movie quotes. It also happens to describe the attitude many of us evangelicals have toward those who have not been “Born Again”. We have gotten caught up in a regimen of “Sin management”. We are focused on our behavior, we don't swear, we don't lie, we don't watch “R-rated” movies, so we are “IN”. Then, when we think we have our sin managed, we begin to take on everyone else's sin. We make sure that they don't do those wicked things that we used to do and if they do we make sure to try and shame or humiliate them into being just like us. When you see Christian's marching with signs that read “God Hates Fags” it just makes people line up to be just like us. Okay, well maybe not.

This “Sin Management” program is really only effective in one thing, keeping us from doing what Christ called us to do in the beginning. In Matthew 22:37-40 he says:

...‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

If we would concentrate on these commands we would be kept busy for a lifetime. I believe that it is the devil who gets us so caught up in worrying about morality because it makes us worthless. We believe we are saved by grace yet we waste our lives trying earn our salvation instead of loving our neighbor. If we begin to look at the ramifications of what it means to love our neighbor it would blow our minds.

In future updates I will talk more about just what "loving our neighbor" really means. But for now I just want to encourage fellow Christians to try forget about sin management and begin to live a life that Christ would applaud.

I have included a link to a video of the song “Grace” by U2 it defines what Grace is in a beautiful way.