What Do You Believe, Really?

Deuteronomy 28. Read it.

From yesterday's One Year Chronological Bible reading came the following insight into curses...

“If someone has committed a crime worthy of death and is executed and hung on a tree, the body must not remain hanging from the tree overnight. You must bury the body that same day, for anyone who is hung is cursed in the sight of God. In this way, you will prevent the defilement of the land the LORD your God is giving you as your special possession. [Deuteronomy 21.22-23]

The verse above is undoubtedly the passage referred to in the following popular verse:

But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” [Galatians 3.13] 

So, if a person is TRULY in Christ and redeemed from the curse of the law, how does he explain why he still experiences any or all of the curses described in Deuteronomy 28 (and not the blessings)? What do you believe, really?

What follows the question posed above is always a torrent of confusing and confounding religious nonsense. Few if any are willing to admit that the Bible's clear indicators of blessings or curses are, in fact, indicators of obedience or disobedience respectively in the Old Testament - and indicators of faith or unbelief respectively in the New Testament!

Just holding each others' hands and singing Kumbaya doesn't save anyone. In fact, without faith, it is impossible to please God. Without faith, it is impossible to enter heaven. Without faith, a person is not saved.

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. [Ephesians 2.8]

Faith is not something God gave us to abstractly mitigate trials and tribulations! God gave faith to move mountains, to change circumstances miraculously, OR to dive headlong into circumstances fearlessly accepting death as Jesus did on the Cross (see Hebrews 11). Yes, faith is not always living, but sometimes it is dying in refusal to accept the world's mitigation of circumstances (not my words, read all of Hebrews 11)!

The Church's widespread and abstract view of blessings and curses (mostly its pathetic mitigation of curses coupled with unashamed embrace of the world's solutions of debt, insurance, medicine and technology) renders it "without testimony" in the world today as it pertains to the stark contrast of blessings and curses presented in the Bible.

Is it any wonder Jesus said:

But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it. [Matthew 7.14]

I think most Christians believe Jesus was only kidding when He said this. But He wasn't!

Father, You gave very clear indicators to us to determine our standing with You. Forgive me for ignoring those indicators. Forgive me for feeding my unbelief with worldly solutions instead of feeding my faith with Your Word - even if it costs me my life... So be it.