Some Christians believe that absolutely everything that happens in your life was totally planned by God and is His will. They cite a verse here and a verse there to back up their claim. I am one who is a firm believer in free will so I am not going to put all the mistakes I have made in this life on God’s back. If God is totally responsible for everything that has happened in my life then I really don’t have any choice in the matter. That seems a strange way to rationalize life to me.

I am just not one to believe that serial killers are the way they are because God planned it that way. Or as one firmly defeated candidate for the Senate from my State said that children born from rape is God’s will. Blaming God for all our troubles both personal and corporate is an easy way to shirk our responsibilities in matters. We can always say “it is God’s will so I can’t do anything about it”.

Don’t put it all on God. That and the belief that we have no responsibilities relative to being a Christian are the two major pitfalls of some versions of His church today. Those who say Christianity is a something for nothing religion are seriously missing the messages of Jesus and in the process are seriously polluting His words.  Another very damaging belief is that since I am a sinner God doesn’t expect anything from me. He thinks of me as a worthless piece of snot but loves me anyway.  The more I heard this message the more nauseated I became. God did not put us here simply to sit back and let grace flow over us. He intends us to live a Godly life as he showed us through Jesus.

Being a follower of Jesus Christ is definitely not a something for nothing proposition! In fact it is really a fundamentally  life changing process when we actually take it to heart. Putting all our problems and all our bad decisions on God’s back is a giant cop-out….