Friday, August 10, 2012

"So, what do you think about Mother God?"
Grace, the young Korean woman who had approached me in Barnes and Nobles stared at me in expectation, awaiting my reply. I recognized the look in her eyes. I could attest that I hold the same look in my own eyes after I share with someone the good new of salvation in Jesus alone. A deep longing to be understood; that your message will be heard and embraced.

"I do not believe in a Mother God." I said it so matter-of-factly; no quiver in my voice, no doubt. Only confident in what I know to be true. She looked shocked. Deflated. "Even after this verse, about the Spirit and Bride...?" I countered, "I believe this verse is referring to the Church." I did not blink. Her eyes, however, dodged back and forth between the pages of her Bible, the one she knows with such familiarity. The same Bible, in fact, that I read. Only her study is undermined by a great influence of false teachings.

"What about these verses?" She was growing frantic. I would not budge. "I believe that is an improper interpretation." She looked at me with dismay. She was distraught, even, that after an hour and a half of investigating the Scriptures together, I did not see her "truth". I almost felt for her, recognizing that discouragement, knowing it myself when, after telling someone about Jesus every way I know how to, still they do not believe.

"What about Jesus?" I kept bringing it back to Jesus, realizing that from the very outset that this--He--is of secondary importance to them; to Grace.

I posed another argument:  "You are saying that, since God has to come again to earth, as Mother God, to bring salvation, then Jesus was not enough." Her eyes brightened, as though she had the answer. Another answer to the arguments she was surely scripted to oppose. She was well studied in false doctrines. "Oh yes, Jesus was salvation to those who believed in Him, but only during the "time of Jesus". Now we are in the "time of the Holy Spirit". We must now believe that God is coming to earth again, as Mother God, to bring us salvation."

I looked her square in the eyes, sure to gather her full attention. "So, Jesus was not enough?" She steered the conversation elsewhere.

"So, let me ask you then," I broke her from her mental script and agenda once again. "If Mother God has to come in order to bring salvation, do you, right now, in this moment believe that you are saved?" I had struck a chord. "Yes. Yes I am saved through practicing the Passover." The Passover. Ah, so Jesus is not enough, then.

What is so different between Grace and Myself? In the end, we were both unsuccessful in convincing the other of our message; of "selling our truth". Is it all relative? The difference is that Jesus is sufficient. He is enough. We need not add to His Gospel; not another god, not another way to be saved, not a system of works. We mustn't.

"This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”" Acts 4:11-12

Grayson put it well as we drove home from Barnes and Nobles, and I recounted to him my conversation with Grace. "When you take Jesus out of the picture, you can make the Bible say whatever you want, it doesn't matter. Without Jesus, nothing matters. Satan wins when he can convince someone that Christ is not preeminent. If Satan can convince someone that Christ is unimportant, then he can convince them of anything."

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross." Colossians 1:15-20

Right before my conversation with Grace ended, I asked her if I could pray with her. She sat in shock for a moment. "Pray? Here?" I remained calm. "Yes, if that's alright. If you are comfortable with that." She collected herself. "Well, we pray in the new name of Jesus." I smiled. "Well, would it be alright if I prayed in Jesus' name?" She looked sheepish; uncomfortable. "No...we don't do that."

In Jesus' name, show Grace Your truth.

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