Karma Say What?

As I said it my insides knew something wasn’t right, although culturally acceptable, so many people use the word, believers and non-alike it didn’t taste right coming out of my mouth … “well you know karma” is what I said, while having a conversation with someone on checking if something was accurately mine or not … which lead me to ask, does the word karma even have a place in a follower of Jesus’ life?

So, it originates from the Buddhist and Hindu religions, and it would be hard pressed to go a day without hearing or reading it, right?

Karma is defined as the following: 

 - action, seen as bringing upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad, either in this life or in a reincarnation: in Hinduism one of the means of reaching Brahman. - the cosmic principle according to which each person is rewarded or punished in one incarnation according to that person's deeds in the previous incarnation. - fate; destiny. - the good or bad emanations felt to be generated by someone or something

So in pursuit of knowledge, I worked the Google, and came upon a few other blurbs and blogs on the topic.

On Crosswalk there is a heartfelt writing, What’s The Difference Between Grace and Karma by Sarah Coleman:

“The Bible does not teach karma. It teaches grace. 
Grace is where you get what you don't deserve. 
Grace is unmerited favour. It is love and mercy 
bestowed upon us by God because He desires us 
to have it. As you can see, very different to karma. 
More like polar opposites.”

On Compelling Truth the question is asked straight forward, What Does The Bible Say About Karma? It concludes that, “It is only through Jesus' sacrifice that our good deeds will produce any real good” (Philippians 2:13). It goes on to share Galatians 6:7-8 that reads, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”

In 2 Corinthians 5:10 we can read that is says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” Being told even prior to that in Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

These all point to what we, as Christians, believers of the One true God, and His Son (our Savior), should focus on .. the bigger picture (the reason we are here), advancing God’s kingdom, as there are only one of two possible outcomes for everyone once this life has concluded. The price of our sins have been paid, yes we may stumble and fall, but glory be, Jesus’s death and resurrection has set us free! So as believers of Jesus, we do not have to live by the fear or trappings of the idea of karma. The Bible is clear that good and bad falls on the just and unjust, but the way to secure your forever is to accept and declare the truth that Jesus IS savior, as by Him alone are we reconciled to the Father. No amount of good deeds or “right” behavior can earn our way to a blissful eternity. “It is a free gift, so that no man can boast.” While we should try (and try again) to do that which is right, and operate out of love, we do not have to live with the fear that karma lends notion to. 

Rejoice, I say, rejoice. Give thanks to the Creator for His wonderful plan, for Jesus’ obedience to the Father, and for the Spirit that guides!

For further reading check out “Reaping What You Sow: Christian Karma” on Crosswalk.com by Whitney Hopler.

What Does The Goodness of God Really Mean?

While doing research for a post that should come within a few days, I stumbled across this one on HuffPost by Sarah Thebarge, who has a resume the brings fireworks to my eyes., and wanted to share it in its entirety. May it bless you, as it did me!  
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(Written: 03/25/2015 06:37 pm ET Updated May 25, 2015)

Whenever a plane goes down, there is inevitably a news story about the people who were supposed to be on the plane but weren’t — either because their alarm didn’t go off or there was a traffic jam or they switched travel plans at the last minute.

Yesterday was no exception. Amidst the horrifying reports of a plane dropping altitude over the Alps and then crashing into the mountain with 150 people on board, there was the story of a soccer team who changed their travel plans because they decided the layover in Dusseldorf was too long.

When we hear stories like that, us Christians tend to say, “Wow! Isn’t God good!?”

We say that a lot — “Isn’t God good!?” — when we hear reports of people who inexplicably avoided doom.

A woman has car trouble and avoids the fatal 12-car pile-up on the interstate that she would’ve been in if her car had started. Isn’t God good?

A man goes to his doctor for pneumonia and the chest x-ray shows a tumor in his lung that is entirely removed and cured because the doctor accidentally discovered it when it was still in its early stages. Isn’t God good?

I survived an aggressive form of breast cancer when I was 28 years old. Isn’t God good?people say a lot when they hear my story of how I almost died, and how God spared my life.

Yes, I always say. God is absolutely good.

But is this WHY God is good? If God hadn’t spared my life, would God still be good?

Because here’s the thing — for as many stories as there are of people who escaped doom, there are just as many (if not more) stories of people who weren’t so “lucky.”

There were people killed in that fatal interstate pile-up who usually take a different way to work, but for some reason thought the interstate would be faster that day.

Isn’t God good? It sounds obscene to say that.

There were people diagnosed with Stage IV cancer and died weeks later because their cancer was discovered too late. Isn’t Good good?

No, my instincts say. It doesn’t make sense to draw attention to God’s goodness in a situation that seems to be the opposite of good.

Two of my friends have died of breast cancer in their 30’s.

Isn’t God good?

I have to honestly answer that I don’t know, and it makes me think hard about what God’s goodness even means.

The thing I can’t walk away from is that the Bible doesn’t just say that God does good things. It says that God IS good. It’s not just what he does; it’s who he is — and who he is never changes.

In Psalm 46, the psalmist says, “God is our refuge and strength, a present help in times of trouble. Therefore, we will not fear...”

In his commentary on Psalm 46, Charles Spurgeon wrote that God is good — not because he causes things that seem or feel “good” to happen in our lives, but because in the midst of the storm, God comes closer to us than the storm could ever be.

And THIS is why we can say with absolute confidence that God is good.

This is why we can say, no matter how bad the storm is, no matter how much pain we experience, no matter how different the outcome is from what we’ve prayed for, that God is good. In the hardest moments of life, God comes close to us and he doesn’t change, he doesn’t falter, he doesn’t quit, he doesn’t leave and he doesn’t let go.

God is just as good to the 150 people who went down on the Germanwings plane as he is to the soccer team who switched flights at the last minute.

God is just as good to the people who died in the car accident as he is to the people who avoided it.

God is just as good to the parents of obedient children as he is to parents of children who have rebelled.

God is just as good to infertile women as he is to women who have as many biological children as they want.

God is just as good to the family who loses their home in a fire as he is to the family whose house doesn’t burn down.

God is just as good to the single person as he is to the person who gets married.

God is just as good to the people who lose their jobs in corporate downsizing as he is to the people who earn a promotion.

God is just as good to the people who drown in a tsunami as he is to the people who are rescued.

God is just as good to the young women who died of breast cancer as he was to me when I survived it.

Isn’t God good?

YES! The answer is always a resounding YES. GOD IS GOOD!

But we have GOT to stop only talking about his goodness when an unexpectedly pleasant thing happens. Because God’s goodness is not dependent on an outcome or an emotion or a barely-missed-doom story.

God is not good because we avoid danger.

God is good because when the storms of life hit, he comes closer to us than the storm ever could.

He holds us in his loving arms.

He doesn’t change.

He doesn’t falter.

He doesn’t quit.

He doesn’t leave.

And no matter what, he never lets go.

Follow Sarah Thebarge on Twitter: www.twitter.com/sarahthebarge