True Gospel

I remember the time I gave my life to the Lord, the pastor was preaching hell and brimstone. I was barely 12 yrs old and hell as described by the pastor was a place I didn't want to spend the rest of eternity. The zeal in the pastors words and the way he so eloquently spoke were enough to captivate my attention fully. "God will send to hell all those that deny Him and live a worldly life" he so meticulously spoke, "God will not always show grace to foolishness and will get you for your actions." Me being merely a 12 yr old feared ghosts and monsters so why wouldn't I fear the devil, his demons and his home? When the altar call was made I was one of the first ones us there. I feared hell and God. I feared that I would live a naughty life and be sentenced to hell. Throughout much of my years in the gospel I lived in fear of God, I'm not talking about the reverant fear that Proverbs 1:7 speaks about. I feared him like the ghosts and monsters I so feared in my childhood. The image of God that the church gave me was an omipotent God holding people over hell with this septor waiting for us to fail so He could happily let us fall. 
Then I decided to do what many Christians fail to do, picked up my bible and read it. For so long I was living under a spoken word of a man that fed me what he thought the scripture meant, and because he was my leader I believed him without reservation. Now don't get my wrong, we should submit to our leaders and their teachings, IF they are biblically correct. Sadly many leaders also go by what they are taught and told to teach rather than open up their bibles themselves and study. Did we forget that the people of God perish for lack of knowledge Hosea 4:6.  

As I began to study scripture I found verses in their right context that were NOT what I was taught. See, God NEVER made hell for us. Hell was made for the devil and his angels Matthew 25:41. God gave Jesus so that I might have life and have it more abundantly John 10:10. The message of the cross is that through it we have unlimited access to the father. I remember one day I wore a chain with a cross to my old church and my pastor asked me "If your brother was stabbed, would you wear the knife he was stabbed with around your neck?" Are you serious, the lack of knowledge. The power of the cross is a reminder of what God did for us. A reminder of what He saved us from. A reminder that Jesus went to the cross, finish everything, died and was resurrected on the third day. And that while He be lifted up He would draw all men into him John 12:32. 

I learned that God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God Ephisians 2:8. And that every gift from God is perfect and CAN NOT be taken back. That I can do all things through Christ who strengthens and empowers me to accomplish an impossible task. I learned that by studying I could break the bondages of the old wine and that I can receive the new wine through Him.