Christianity is not a religion

[Rick C. Hodgin]

For some, a religion is all Christianity will ever be. They miss it.

Religion says, "If you do this, then you will achieve that." What
Christianity is is this: "You cannot achieve Heaven on your own
because you're riddled with sin. So, I will meet you at the point
of your sin and forgive you, making it then possible for you to
have that which you could not otherwise have."

When you apply this to Christianity it's God's love poured out for
us, despite our guilt, despite our sin, despite us having been rude
and mean and hateful and rejecting Him with everything in our lives
for even decades ... yet does He love us. Yet is He willing to forgive
us.

Christianity is not a religion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azWJ-MtxR2Q

Why TRUE Christianity is NOT a religion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZHKsAgg4Kk

I don't agree with the speakers on everything they write, say, or
do, but on these points they nailed it.

God comes to us while we are STILL sinners, He then cleanses us and
makes us whole, right, restored in God's sight, which then filters
in to the rest of our lives here by the new nature He also gives us.

True Christians do because we have been changed from within and it is
now our natural desire to do, not because of religious rituals.

--
Rick C. Hodgin

[mche...@gmail.com]

this asshole spams again

[mche...@gmail.com]

Is this a spam? god punished your mother, remember this

[mche...@gmail.com]

Rick C. Hodgin於 2017年12月5日星期二 UTC+8下午7時36分08秒寫道：

Why you post the following thing to this technical newsgroup?

Man fell in the garden of Eden, and sin entered into this world and the
world we live in today is the result. Everywhere wars, hate, death, and
destruction, people looking out only for themselves and their personal
interests, and when they do charity it's to say, "Hey look! I do charity."

Jesus Christ came into this world to save man from sin. He teaches a new
way to be. That new way is the way He intended for us before sin entered
in and destroyed everything. He restores that which was lost: our future,
our eternal relationship with Him.

God is spirit. He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. His Son was flesh,
just like us. He came here to live under our laws and save us before God.
He completed His work at the cross after a ~3.5 year ministry, where He
was crucified and died in the flesh with our sin charged to Him. He was
innocent and had no sin of His own, and God allowed Him to receive the
sin of all who would put their faith and trust in Him, so that their sin
could be transferred (literally) from them to Him. Jesus died on the
cross, and went before God to pay the price of that sin. It was a heavy
price and it bruised God, it crushed Jesus. And on the third day, God
raised Him back to life and gave Him all authority in Heaven and on Earth.

What Jesus does for us when we come to Him and ask Him to forgive our sin,
is to restore us to eternal life. We are still here in this world for a
time, but our internal nature completely changes. We receive a new spirit
nature (John 3), and are guided from that day forward by His Holy Spirit.
Our flesh nature (sinful) is still here, and we can listen to that input,
and we can still do sinful things, but God's Holy Spirit is also there,
and our new spirit nature is also there, and everyone who is born of God
will not continue in sin for very long. God comes for us to lead us out
of sin, to even take us by the hand and drag us out of sin.

-----
Jesus didn't come to the Earth to save righteous people. He came to save
sinners.

Are you a sinner? Have you:

Ever stolen anything? Ever?
Used the Lord's name as a cuss word?
Lusted after someone who was not your spouse?
Told a lie? Ever?
Coveted after your neighbor's possessions? Ever?

All of us are guilty of these sins and more. Jesus knows this, which is
why He came here to save us. He does what we cannot do: He makes us
clean and shiny and innocent and new despite our filth and guilt in sin.

-----
You need to Jesus to forgive your sin. Ask Him to forgive you and begin
your new life with Him forever. He enters in the very moment you ask Him
to forgive your sin. It's what the words of the song Amazing Grace
convey:

"How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed..."

God's grace is given to us because He loves us. Jesus loves you and He
wants to forgive your sin and give you eternal life. Ask Him to forgive
you today, and enter in to His eternal Kingdom. He's gone ahead and made
a place for you, a custom place designed just for you, and He is return-
ing soon. The signs are foretold in the Bible and are unfurling before
our very eyes.

John 3:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+3&version=KJV

Jesus prepares a place for you in advance:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+14&version=KJV

Jesus loves you. I love you. I teach you about Him, and He teaches
you the truth. Read the Bible and learn the truth God gave mankind to
protect him from the enemy, to save him from sin. He did this for you,
directly and personally.

--
Rick C. Hodgin

[mche...@gmail.com]

mche...@gmail.com於 2018年1月1日星期一 UTC+8上午11時14分43秒寫道：

Rick c. Hodgin's mother is died by cancer, god did a good job

[Kenny McCormack]

In article <dd6cd508-fe36-4aef...@googlegroups.com>,

Rick C. Hodgin <rick.c...@gmail.com> wrote:
>For some, a religion is all Christianity will ever be. They miss it.
>
>Religion says, "If you do this, then you will achieve that." What
>Christianity is is this: "You cannot achieve Heaven on your own

Shouldn't you really be calling this thing "Rickianity" ?

Since what you are selling here bears no resemblance to what just about
every other person on the planet means (i.e., refers to) then they use the
word "Christianity".

I.e., you're just redefining words. It is as if I told you that a cat
barks, and then went on to explain that what I mean by "cat" maps to what
every other person on the planet refers to as a "dog".

So, from here on in, please refer to your product as "Rickianity", and
everyone (yes, even you!) will be a lot happier.

--
No puppet.
No puppet.
You're a puppet.

[Rick C. Hodgin]

Have you ever read these verses:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+7%3A21-23&version=KJV

21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter
into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of
my Father which is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils?
and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart
from me, ye that work iniquity.

In scripture, they didn't have bold font type, so they use repetition
to indicate significance or emphasis. They say that God is "holy,
holy, holy," for example. It's repeated three times to stress just
how holy God is. If it were in our modern writing, it would not only
be bold, but probably italicized, underlined, and in a font size that
is two or three up from the rest of the nearby text. It may even have
a different color background for highlighting.

Here we see Jesus saying, "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord..."
This is Jesus effectively saying, "Not everyone who emphatically said
I was their Lord and Savior will be saved. Not everyone who lived
their life purportedly for me will be saved, but only those who do
the will of my Father who is in Heaven."

What is the Father's will? To lead people to His Son so they can be
saved. To live a holy life so that we can be servants of God in this
world, pursuing Him in spirit and in truth, denying our fleshly lusts,
and being at the constant, ready position to move when His spirit calls
us from within.

The reason you see an impotent church affecting NOTHING in this world,
being just like the world, doing the same things the world does, is
because they are not following Jesus Christ. They have a weak religion
and they are yet dead in their sin.

My message is simple, Kenny:

You have sin.
Your sin will condemn your eternal soul to Hell.
You need to be forgiven to be saved.
Jesus went to the cross so you could be forgiven.
He wants to forgive you. He asks you to ask Him to forgive
you so He can forgive you. He sends out people like me all
over this world to point you to Him.

Only those people who hear His call and answer it by repenting of
their sin and asking forgiveness from Jesus personally will be
saved.

And once again, Christianity is not a religion. It is a personal,
ongoing, daily, unending relationship with Jesus Christ. It's from
the inside out and it changes everything about you. That's the born
again nature. Religion is merely learned lessons from the outside
in. It has no saving power, even though it has the outward appearance
of being similar to the true saved state.

--
Rick C. Hodgin

[Rick C. Hodgin]

Kenny, do you even care about the truth? If you do, you'd listen
to men like this and hear what He has to teach about being alive
in this world, what it means to have a real focus and purpose upon
Christ as we're supposed to be:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP6cc2aBecE

If you wanted to the pursue the truth, you'd learn about the
invisible spiritual war we're all facing (yourself included).
You'd learn about how the forces the Bible teaches us about
really are working against us interpersonally, in our society,
in and about everything we're a part of as living, breathing
creations of God:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDVWvOQvlK8

If you want to know the truth ... then seek it. It won't be
me who teaches it to you. It can't be taught. It can only be
identified, and that's something only the spirit nature that
comes when you come to Jesus repenting and asking forgiveness,
and when He takes your sin away you are born again in that self-
same instant. Only then can you know the truth.

But God is faithful, Kenny, even when we are not. If you seek
the truth, He will know you are seeking it, and He will make
it possible for you to find it.

I LOVE YOU, KENNY! It's why I teach you the truth. Please do
not think it's anything other than what I'm telling you. It
does yourself a tremendous disservice when you summarily gloss
over things without investigating them. The Bible says it this
way:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+18%3A13&version=KJV

13 He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is
folly and shame unto him.

Do not live in shame. Search this matter out for yourself. See
for yourself if what I teach is true. Do not compare the teachings
to the impotent teachings of the worldly Christian religion. Seek
to know Jesus Christ Himself and become a true born again Christian.

Then you'll know why I say it's not religion.

--
Rick C. Hodgin