We are punished BY our sins, not FOR them. While grief is love with nowhere to go, sins we committed without feeling forgiveness is love that can't find a way in to ourselves.

@annemurphy8074

21 күн бұрын

There are no Gods, no rewards, no punishments and no judgements in ultimate reality. Rewards, punishments and judgements exist in the human transactional world though. To explain ultimate reality, which can't be explained, they are pretty useless, just man made ideas. We suffer when we don't know who we all really are. The conditioned egoic mind is a hell state of confusion. Heaven is clarity, knowing who we really are and are part of. This knowing is not a conceptual knowing, it has nothing to do with any beliefs or mind identifications. The possibility to know who we really are arises when we no longer identify our sense of self with the mind and it's content. If everyone knew who we all really are there would be no more war, all religions would die out. They would be completely seen to be fiction like the belief in Santa Clause, though some might still like the practices, community or traditions, they would no longer be taken literally.

@almitrahopkins1873

21 күн бұрын

@@annemurphy8074 According to the Gospel of Thomas, you are more Christ-like than most Christians. If you believe there is no punishment for sin, you do it out of belief that there is right and wrong, rather than out of fear of punishment. It’s the atheist paradox that the church struggles with understanding. If there is no punishment for doing the wrong thing, why would you do the right thing? That question comes from the people who only do the right thing out of a fear of punishment. It’s a question of enlightenment or salvation. If your beliefs follow that enlightenment path, God is not necessary, regardless of his/her/its existence.

@belanteomero

20 күн бұрын

​@annemurphy8074 It must be exhausting for you to live existentialy 24/7.

That is so true. There is a statement I like, "What we focus upon we attract", essentially what you just said. Many thanks for your insights and wisdom.

I've always felt that most of the people who focus on the sins of others do so in order to say "See how much worse they are than I am! By comparison, I'm a spotless lamb." If they can point out the sins of others, they can either ignore their own sins, or cover them in the sandbox, like a cat.

My life is complete! An Ed call-out made me tear up.

Hey bud! Thank you so much… I’m gay. I’m a woman. 😂 I left the church so long ago because I’m sure you know why. I suffered a lot man… a lot more than I ever did at the church. so really horrible things happen to me and then I discovered Buddhism. I took the Bodhisattva path. Best thing I ever did for myself. I’m at a point now where I’m beginning to recover my Christian faith. Thank you I can’t say it enough. I can’t say it often enough I mean that from the absolute depth of my heart I thought God hated me. I thought all this bad stuff happened to me because Jesus did not love me because I was gay and bad things happen to gay people, I’m so grateful I was wrong… Thank you for shepherding me home❤

@libbycollins9349

10 күн бұрын

Welcome home!

This was a big help to me. I just recently asked Christ into my heart and I have been going over and over in my head trying to recognize all of my sins so I can face up to them and repent. I end up feeling hopeless and completely unworthy of His love. I need to remember that He already paid the price and try to focus instead on His message to love Him and to do our best to love everyone else and just stop focusing on our own shortcomings.

@sarco64

21 күн бұрын

It's good that you feel unworthy of Christ's love. If He loved us because of our worthiness, He wouldn't love anyone.

Great advice, even for nonchristians. Thank you.

Thank you, good sir!! I truly needed to hear this message!!! I spend so much time worrying about my sin/sins and soooo much less time loving the beautiful people around me. It's so sad though that so many of my brothers and sisters spend much of their time pointing out and even going out of their way to publicly shame people for their sins (LGBTQ) or other things they find offensive. It's so Gosh darn depressing, part of the reason I stopped going to church is all the hypocrisy and outright lies. I often cry during my own worship time in my apartment, because I'm alone and not among my church family, but the alternative isn't an option...I cannot accept the hate, lies and the boldfaced hypocrisy I witness in and out of the church. I'm constantly told I'm not allowed to speak out against it for I would be speaking out against Gods Will...which is BS of course, but here I sit.... silent & sick in the heart for it. Tell me what I should do, I'm so tired of fighting the wind!!!!! PS. I'm none-denominational Christian. I know a sin in its own right!!..lol.

I don't worry about living a sinless life, I'm not perfect, and I won't pretend that I am......I just give a good life an honest try.

The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory though our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanks Jesus you're really cool.

Well said! While I recognize the impossibility of a sinless life, what really troubles me is my habit of committing the same old, garden variety sins that everyone else does. If I must be a sinner, I'd like to at least be an original sinner!

This is a message I needed to hear. 😊

My thing is the I'm saved by grace belief can be taken to far and become I'm saved I can do whatever I want regardless of what Jesus has said about it.

Amen Amen Thanks for this Sermon Rev Ed....With Mercy and Forgiveness it helps us grow..Love what you said be with Jesus's Grace..Sin is A growing up Process thru grace we get Closer to God. ..love you're message God Bless 🕊️

Once again your words are a balm to my soul.

Ed, thanks for this message today! Sooooo tired of beating myself up and I know this does zero good. Pray for me Lord that I begin to trust this!

@revedtrevors4961

21 күн бұрын

You got this!

I've found that my own 2x4's are remarkably able to limit my vision to OTHER people only. The mirror just doesn't show anything worth considering. That's so comforting, at least until I consider WHY I can't see myself in these circumstances. My thought is that I am often a judgmental jerk, and THAT mind's eye is blind to my own bad decisions, actions, and attitudes. A serious internal renegotiation is in order, isn't it? May our self-knowledge be expanded in our minds and our world. Amen

Talking with coworker today ho ws raised fundy. I'm a sinner by those standards. I'm in good company!

@Rev Ed Trevors you are certainly correct to point out that there is nothing I can do to keep from sinning apart from the atoning Grace that has be given to me & all believers. I am in the words of my Lutheran liturgical confession indeed a "poor, miserable, sinner"... but Christ has forgiven me and made me whole thru Him.

To sin is to INTENTIONALLY choose "Not God." Many people don't live intentionally, so they're claiming things to be sin that isn't.

@russellmiles2861

21 күн бұрын

if I get this writer ... as I know that gods are mythical stories ... I have nothing to worry about?

@UnashamedCaliforniagirl

20 күн бұрын

Interesting perspective That is not how the apostle Paul described sin but it is an interesting perspective

Amen Rev. Ed

The problem with always believing you're a sinner is that those with power can use the associated guilt to control you.

@UnashamedCaliforniagirl

20 күн бұрын

Not if you understand that you are washed and cleaned from your sin and that God doesn't hold your sins against you. This is what it actually means to " have a clear conscience before God".

"Thou art a wretched sinner, utterly unworthy of God's love. A fountain of pollution lies deep within thy nature, and thou livest as a winter tree, unprofitable, fit only to be hewn down and burned." - The Witchfinder General

So true Every time I see someone mess up I say to myself you did worse. So give the guy a break. I saw Caiaphas in heaven and I asked Jesus what is he doing here And Jesus said give the dude a break. He only did what you people do every day. We need to be careful. Not only do we hurt ourselves we hurt our lord. He only loves us. Peace

In 1 Peter 4:8, Peter says that "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." I take this verse as saying that we will not be able to live a sinless life here on Earth (as we are still in a fallen world), but loving others as God loves us would help us to avoid to sin against others. That the heart of why we're doing things is still more important, and yes, that includes the reason WHY we're not sinning. When Jesus was asked what are the most important commandments, he agreed that they were "Love God with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul", and "Love your neighbor as yourself". Which, if you think about it, he did not mention "You shall have no other gods than Me (the Father)". That strikes me as really interesting. I believe Jesus was saying there to have the right heart for the things, and everything else will follow.

Once I realized that sin is "missing the mark of perfect love," not perfection, it opened up a whole new spiritual life for me. My focus and purpose could be learning how to love, and all the nuances of it, instead of a constant inward critique and measurement of my thoughts, actions, theology, behavior, strength of faith, etc. It's been a much richer experience of God...and life, and humanity.

Grace, Grace, Grace -we are saved by GRACE! Nothing we have done and will do in the future with regard to sin can unsave a person. This doesn’t mean you have the freedom to sin freely because you’re covered by Grace; it means that you hate your sins so much that you live obedient to Christ because he loves you much. You will still sin but it’s not like when we were unsaved in sin. By grace -by grace -we are saved. Amen

The most common denominator in my life is me. If there's a reoccurring problem I try to look at myself. Also, I think it's better to think of these as learning opportunities.

Thank you Rev. Ed this message came at the correct time, I have been podering on this same problem lately.

True--we can rationalize what we do (or what we think), but what other people do is SO MUCH easier to see as wrong. Still, nobody's perfect. As an agnostic, I'll have to settle for doing as much good as I can, give love to and accept love from others, do what I can, where I can, for the planet, and try to understand people with whom I vehemently disagree, without giving in to loathing them. I don't always succeed, but I have to try.

Former Episcopalian Priest Alan Watts claimes that telling people not to think sinful thoughts, is like telling them not to think of a green elephant, in his video called - Genuine 😜.

Hey Rev. Thanks for another great message! Intentional practice of what we are instructed! I love it! Of course that is what will bring love to the world. Of course that will spread Jesus message. By being the message, even when we are the imperfect messenger. Thanks again, I look forward to your next post.

Great topic, I discovered the power & gift of selfless service & what you point out about the automatic fixing of issues organically shift from being a problem to not affecting me anymore. Thank you for sharing this. Much love & appreciation!❤

I suffer from lifelong major depression, and so the ongoing conversation about sin in the zeitgeist poses an easy trigger, and can ramp up my suicidality. After all, if I exude depravity and offense to the divine like a stack of spent fissile rods, its an easy step to take to assume that my value while I exist is negative, and the right thing to do is to sell or give away my meager belongings to the poor and walk the earth asking not how I shall be clothed or fed until either the elements take me or I can find a convenient hungry apex predator. In these times, there are a lot of places where sheer hot or cold will put me right into the hands of God alone. I only dabble in moral philosophy (which is to say I'm not accredited), but this figures in the set of tools I use to _not_ presume I am a waste of food, air and solid waste processing that I might yet have value that is certainly not recognized by either the religious ministries of the United States, nor our plutocratic masters. In my case, my dad is a staunch let-the-poor-starve-to-death conservative values guy. He values me, but only because I'm related to him by blood. If I were a stranger, he'd be glad that I marched myself off into the desert to desiccate. (I highly suspect that his conservative peers would applaud my disappearance, and ask me to take a dozen others with me.) It's still a curiosity to me that English only has the words _crime_ and _sin_ to talk about wrongdoing. Crime is wrongdoing against the state, and sin is wrongdoing against God. We don't have words for wrongdoing against ourselves, against the community, against the natural ecology, against the public (which differs greatly from the state entity). We just assume (or hope, maybe) that these sets will cover enough of those other sets that victimization is reduced. It might help explain how people get away with war profiteering and getting millions of Americans addicted to Opioids until they're dropping dead from overdoses. I digress. It's also of note that we don't really hear from God what is sin and not, rather from ministries and from scripture. And ministries are _really_ insistent that their way of interpreting the scripture is really, really, what God meant. But then this is how Satan's résumé features Rock & Roll (and before that, Blues, ragtime and classical romanticism), Dungeons and Dragons (TTRPGs in general), bicycles, women's rights, LGBT+ rights, democratic republics, sex positivity and most medicine. God gave us (by the same moral guardian sources) Brett Kavanaugh, Donald J. Trump, the Iraq War and the Peacekeeper ICBM (that's a rocket that flies all the way to the other side of the world loaded with multiple nuclear warheads to kill the enemy. All of them.) It makes for a good argument that I might want to bat for the other team. (At least, if I played competitive games.) So yeah, when it comes to sin, I tend to be bitter and cynical. Morality is about how we team up against those apex predators and harsh elements that endlessly siege our gates. When we betray each other, we stop maintaining the gates and the farms that stave off famine. When corruption and segregation gain purchase, the infrastructure we depend on withers until the gates shatter and the natural world has its way with us. _This,_ I think, is a good cause to love our neighbor (or at least regard them enough to feed them and be polite). This is why we show kindness and compassion as we can. Not because God will be upset, not because the state commands obedience, but because when we don't stand together, the elements and a thousand germs and parasites will overrun us and reduce us to a geological layer to be found by future paleontologists (of another species completely). Cooperation is our superpower, and morality is the contract by which we recognize that our comrades are not going to turn against us when the storms subside. *Edit:* for grammar, clarity, formatting

Focusing on the sins of others, while downplaying or denying one's own sins is, to me, the worst sin. It's the utmost hypocrisy to judge others, while believing oneself to be pure of heart and supposedly free of sin.

@russellmiles2861

21 күн бұрын

oh just hypocrisy ... kinda normal in Christianity

I think of loving oneself as pouring water back into the well in that all love comes from God and God loves me far better than I could ever love myself. Thus, my job is self care out of gratitude for God's unearnable kindness that is the gift of my life. Thus, I prefer the scripture "Love one another as God has loved you."

Amen 🙏

Thank you, I needed to hear this. It gives me a perspective that I need❤

I’m not a Christian, altho I do happen to love Jesus, nor do I practice anything but Taoism. Popping in to say that ‘sin,’ outside of murder and hurting others, is less about what the tenets say, and more about how a person feels inside. If I respect myself, I am not likely to lie, cheat or steal - for example. When we sin, it is against ourselves. We are the ones whose forgiveness we need. We are the ones to improve ourselves. God loves us, exactly as we are.

Very Martin Luther response. Yes take care of neighbors as well as yourself. You can’t take care of other’s if you don’t take care of yourself. I have been a caregiver of more than one person in their last days… burn out can be bad…

We r all sinners and we all fall short no one is perfect all we can do is do our best

It's impossible to take every thought captive, when the very stuff we fill our minds with, wars against the Lordship of Jesus. When the love of Christ matters more than our desires, we focus on Him. Because the few minutes of satisfying our sin, fails in comparison to the love we have for God and the love we receive from God. The shame and guilt we have after we sin, hurts us not because we failed ourselves, but we failed to put God first. How do we get to this point? By disciplining ourselves to prayer, reading His Word and to continually fighting temptation.

So don't worry...be love? Be your Jesus...even though I don't understand it.. Love vs hate..and act? Asking.

@michaelcherry8952

21 күн бұрын

This is an extract from Desiderata, a meditation about leading a peaceful life composed by Max Ehrman in 1927: "Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy." Note that he says "Be cheerful" but "Strive to be happy". Cheerfulness is a matter of a positive attitude. Happiness requires work. It is not automatic and it is certainly not guaranteed. He also says "Beyond a WHOLESOME discipline, be gentle with yourself". Recognize that you need improvement but don't bully yourself about it. All religions and most philosophies have the same core truth: Treat others the way you wish to be treated. That is the essence of "Love your neighbour". Just something to think about...

Amen!❤

Nice ink!

Asking God’s forgiveness all the time.

Thank You I needed this I kind of both hit the mark and missed at the same time Sat. I've been dwelling on how I could have done better and how to defeat the trauma trigger that helped cloud my judgement. Dwelling on it won't fix it and next time I hope I do better I affirmed one group while forgetting the person in front of me. Working on letting the shame and guilt go it serves no purpose.

Thanks for your continued messages!

Set aside your darker emotions of selfish pride, spiteful envy, and vengeful wrath and focus on humility, acceptance, and forgiveness, the darkness that fills your soul with hate will soon fade.

I may be wrong how about this I was sitting here thinking as I was listening to the message. I think that maybe we need to look at what Saint Paul said. He said that we should pray without ceasing now who Among Us can do that? I know that I cannot do that. The same way that we because we are not perfect individuals cannot live a life totally free of sin. We need only to remember that to do the best we can to pray as often as we can and to ask for forgiveness.😊

So true 👍 👌

Thank you Rev Ed for your words today! I praise God every day for the sacrifice of of his most beloved and precious son, so that pitiful and unworthy sinners such as myself have a chance to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

😊

To consider that imperfection is part of our perfection, that Beauty itself limps. To consider the pressure it takes to create a diamond, yes? The Japanese have an expression that true beauty is in the flawed, the perfection in the imperfection. "Wabi sabi" literally means to find beauty in imperfection, as does a lotus flower, blooming from the deep mud below the surface. I like to think - even to feel - that within the Light of God's Love we are seen as sinless; that the Innocence within which we were born is still with us. To that, if to do unto others as we would have others do unto us means that what we do to others, we do to ourselves, does the case of our sinning rest with us to either arrest or free our state depending upon our compassion. What I mean by that is one cannot show kindness to another without first being kind to one's self, unless I am mistaken. And what is a mistake if only a "missed take ..." Blessings Rev. Ed!

Oh my God- I needed this teaching today - thanks you!!🇨🇦❤️🇨🇦❤️

i am a visual thinker so when it comes to things like evil, sin, good, godly, ungodly, etc, the way i see it is this: imagine a sphere. the absolute northern point is God. the absolute southern point is satan. we all are somewhere on the sphere. none of us are good enough to be on the spot that God is. none of us are bad enough to be where satan is (although some of us give it a good try). the point of religion is to guide us towards God. the only real purpose of us being here in this material world is to exerciser our capacities so we can attain nearness to God. it does not matter where each of us is on the sphere, it only matters which way we are going, ie our vector. this is why the manifestations of God have always encouraged the vilest and lowliest amongst us to elevate ourselves. we are free to strive any location on the sphere as long as we have time. so every day we must strive to be nearer to God as if this was our last day. because it very well could be. much love to you all 🙂

Jesus knew that we cannot live sinless lives. Thus it was necessary that he die for the forgiveness of our sins. Which doesn’t mean that we are unequivocally forgiven. We still have to try to not sin. It means that if occasionally you drop the ball, you acknowledge the failure, and move forward trying to not drop it again.

We think our sin is not as bad as others. Jesus was down on the self-righteous hypocrites who would go to all measures to keep a gnat out of ceremonial water but ignored the poor, needy, and widowed. Sin is a disease, and we all have it, and death is the final result for all of us. What really matters if we love one another and rely on the blood of the Christ for redemption.

In 2 Corinthians Paul says that anything that is not faith is sin. So if you can live a completely faithful life in God, you could be sinless.

@russellmiles2861

21 күн бұрын

well, paul said a lot of weird things ... not as strange as the author of John. But up there

Not if you are busier looking for your own sins rather than the sins of others 🤷‍♀️

Indeed. Indeed. Truly I say to you Jesus would say, truly truly, I say to you. We. Are Embedded. With or about. Sin every form. The lord say we are sinners Repentance Is well. We do or. We. Won’t. That is the conundrum.

If you had the name of Jesus in your mind every minute of every day, when would you have the time to think you were sinning, or even know that you had sinned, or even cared that you might have sinned?

Do you know lucky as an atheist? I never have to worry about my sin Nor do I care about other people sin But I do care about the humanity and morality

Jesus kissed boys and wore a dress he made a good point in Mark 10:18 lol

Gal. 5:16

i know a lot of people who use that excuse to continue sinning

Read Exodus 34:7 the bible says the children shall be punished for the parents sin to the third and fourth generation. Yeah, maybe we better worry about other people Sin

How do you forgive your self for mistakes you made in your life

@revedtrevors4961

21 күн бұрын

Going to talk about that today on LIVE!

@tone569

21 күн бұрын

@@revedtrevors4961 awesome 😊

@russellmiles2861

21 күн бұрын

That is the saddest thing ... we all know folk are burdened with guilt over matters we think nothing off ... I find Christianity wicked with the guilt trip it imposes on folks ... I'd be considered an irredeemable sinner in the faith, but to my family and friends I am just a common or garden person If only we'd all sing I am what I am kzread.info/dash/bejne/o355p8ummJqsqKg.htmlsi=C6_t3c7jijoxpnqp

You've had what on your mind a lot‽‽ 🧐😉

Doesn’t the Bible say something about not judging others let you be judged

Jehovah God nor his son Jesus Christ doesn't expect us to be perfect. We are all dust living in an imperfect world and born into sin. With that said, it would be improper for Jehovah or Jesus to expect perfection from us. What they do expect, however, is that we sincerely repent and learn from our sins, so we don't keep repeating them. I'm reminded of John 8:1-11 where a woman is caught committing adultery and the Pharisees want to stone her but hey ask Jesus what he says and Jesus said, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” John 8:7 (NASB)Jesus also goes on and says, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on do not sin any longer." John 8:10-11 (NASB) So please do not condemn yourself for any past sins you may have committed. Simply and sincerely ask Jehovah God for forgiveness and do not sin any longer meaning committing the same sin. May Jehovah God be with you.

Matthew 19 - 12 People born as eunuch ( gay ) give yourself to the kingdom of heaven. Jesus did not say to give yourself over to sexual immorality.

@russellmiles2861

21 күн бұрын

That's the problem

This topic drifts dangerously close to a Luciferian belief. There is no hell in Jewish theology. There is only a distance from god. There is only the sin of hiding away out of a fear of judgement. The Luciferian belief is that the Light-bringer was sent far from god to take the light of creation to those who hide from the light out of a fear of God’s judgement. Lucifer is the one in the afterlife who does what Jesus preached in life. He is the lantern-bearer who draws all souls back to heaven. It’s a wonderful belief that no sin is unforgivable. If you read your Bible, it is the same thing Jesus preached. I could cite the passages for you, but there would be someone arguing that I am interpreting them too liberally. If you are a god-fearing Christian, you are no Christian. If only the threat of punishment keeps you from sin, you are a sinner as well. This is that enlightenment Christianity that I often speak of at length. It takes greater devotion to not sin when you know there is no punishment for it. If god didn’t want you to sin, it wouldn’t be possible for you to sin. You wouldn’t even know what sin was. God put the Tree where the fruit of the knowledge of Good & Evil could be reached. God made the serpent to tempt Eve. That was the other gift to go along with Free Will. It’s the Pandora’s Box of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This is a dangerous theology, Rev. This will make parts of your core beliefs utterly irrelevant and antithetical to your new understanding of the nature of god. This is why Jesus said, as recorded in the Gospel of Thomas, “let those with the eyes to see it see.” This takes off the training wheels of salvation. This is what lets the son stand next to the father as an equal. This is why you revere Jesus in the same way you revere God. “As you have it on Earth, so shall it be in heaven” takes on a whole new meaning in this regard, doesn’t it?

You seem to be serving Jesus. I hope you don’t screw it up.

@revedtrevors4961

21 күн бұрын

Me too!

There is absolutely no reason to believe anything you say, especially when it's based purely on faith or a corrupt concept like the first commandment.

@russellmiles2861

21 күн бұрын

what is asserted as the 10th is the funniest ... no wonder Christians can't say the actual text out aloud and abbreviate it.

Well put; do be a hypocrite But the worrying about sins things; isn't your religion about deeming everyone sinful based on what their mothers did back to Eve. Now Jesus supposedly forgave your sins; you don't owe anything anymore. While Paul had the universal blood atonement idea ... that God torching his son/self to death paid our price in sins. Honestly, I find that a bit weird. If ones hasn't accepted Jesus and Lord and Saviour... well, you might be a tad worried about sin. Then again, if like most folk you take responsibility for your own behaviour and attitudes ... That is your private business if you are worried. If I'd burnt to death every man woman and infant at Sodem like God did; I'd be worried what Budj Bim might have to say - a far older deity than the comparatively modern Abrahamic one. I'd be very worried indeed.

Yes focus on Jesus christ more is the answer cause we not perfect

Always say u better worry about ur own sins cause God already knows about mine and Jesus said look at the beam In ur own eye before u say something about someone else