Yes-hua: Jesus says Yes

Religious people and their churches make God to be the God of No. Everything that they expect and want you to expect is, "no, do not do this, or that," "do not eat, do not get a hair cut, do not enjoy that movie," and so on. This penitentialism puts the Holy Trinity in a terrible light, making is appear God is always dissatisfied with everything we do. The truth is completely the opposite. The Apostle Paul under the Holy Spirit's guidance penned these words,
"4He who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.
6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.
7 And our hope for you is firm..., because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.
10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us,
17 Was I fickle when I intended to do this? Or do I make my plans in a worldly manner so that in the same breath I say both "Yes, yes" and "No, no"?
18 But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not "Yes" and "No."
19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silas and Timothy—was not "Yes" and "No," but in him it has always been "Yes."
20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God.
21 Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, 22 set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come." (1 Corinthians 1:4-10, 17-22, NIV Glo Bible). We see that Christ sends us comfort. We are not merely to endure suffering, but also consolation and comfort of Christ, The Holy Spirit, and The Father, three and One.

I want to focus on how Paul says Jesus is not a God of Yes-No, as if to confuse the believer, making us guess what we ought to do or if He will heal us or help us. Here is the part I want to emphasize, "For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silas and Timothy—was not "Yes" and "No," but in him it has always been "Yes." For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God." (2 Corinthians 1:19-20). There are so many Christian brothers and sisters who act as if they must appeal, and beg to an angry God for healing and help in a moment of crises and need, when clearly Christ is the God of Yes, He is Yes-hua! Yes God wants to heal, yes he wants to help you overcome addiction, yes he loves you, yes He wants to be closer to you, yes He wants youj to fufill your dinvely crafted Calling in this life, yes He wants you free from emotional pain, enabling, and toxic relationships; yes He wants to give you health and partner with you in doing that through exercise and diet, yes He wants you to evangelize and will help you with the Holy Spirit, yes, yes, and yes. The god of No comes from the Norse religions that infected the church during the Middle Ages. People developed a view of the Lord that He was distant, depressed, and ready to deal out judgement on a whim like Zeus and his bolts of lightning. This corruption of Christ as the "no" God, "no you can't enjoy martial bed, no you cannot eat at feast, gluttony, no you cannot make war unless you do penance afterwards, even though your a soldier, no you cannot eat this or that, no you cannot enjoy sex in marriage, its for procreation, no you are unworthy to approach Christ, go to saints instead, no you are wicked and need to cleanse yourself with sacraments and more." The Apostle Paul says of those who teach this no god, rather than Yes-shua, Jesus Christ of the Bible, this, "Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They will say it is wrong to be married and wrong to eat certain foods. But God created those foods to be eaten with thanks by faithful people who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer," (1 Timothy 4:3-5), and "These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh." (Colossians 2:23). As it can be seen, The Trinity is not a God of No, but of Yes to that which is good. He made us to want marriage, sex in wedlock, and to subdue (rule) and put to order things, "God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground." (Genesis 1:28).

God only says no to what harms our relationship with Him and other people (sin). He does not bless or endorse these behaviors, "When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God," (Galatians 5:19-21) and "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars--they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." (Revelation 21:8). Everything in those lists leads to no good, sexual immorality causes STDs and broken hearts, impurity taints the soul, lustful pleasures rule a person and makes them wild, idolatry is to love and serve false gods, sorcery is to practice evil spirituality instead of moving Holy Spirit, hostility towards people hinders the Gospel and creates hate, gurreling draws friends apart, jealousy destroys a person's life from being content to seeking what doesn't belong to them, outbursts of anger causes people to be afraid and raising blood pressure and is bad example of Christ, selfish ambition can lead to narcissim and doing whatever it takes, including murder to get something, dissension is to be rebellious and full of anarchy thus destroying safety in society, division causes churches to split and the body to be weaker, envy is demonic and is full of bitterness, drukeness harms families and makes the person endangered to liver cancer, DUIs and more, orgies creates STDs and demonic entangelments, so on; all of these harms your relationship with God, harms you, and harms other people. We are called instead to "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" (Luke 10:27).

How can you love others if you do not love yourself? I am not speaking of a Narcisim obessesion of self, but loving yourself means taking care of your body, spirit, and soul (mind and emotions) through relationship with Christ Jesus and your friends. The self deprecating, self abasement, self hatred, and penitential attitude that we deserve only "no" and "you aren't good enough yet" instead of  the truth of "yes" (12 Corinthians 1:19-20) and "you are accepted" (Romans 15:7) is a wrong disposition that churches teach, particularly in Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions. Jesus says yes, His Hebrew name even has the word Yes in it Yeshua. He has accepted you through grace and faith, when you believed and confessed Him as your Lord! Think about it like this, if you are a parent, do you want your children to be afraid, feel awful, hate themselves, and believe they deserve only no? Of course not! You love them, and while you may discipline them, you never are mind manipulator "yes no" or "Dr. No." If you are Dr. No, then you need to come out of sadism, your own self hateful feelings, and perhaps a demon or two via deliverance (see Deliverance in Depth). The point is that God wants us to enjoy the Good things, like marriage, sunsets, vacations, work, our art, our engineering, our personality, and more; long as it isn't tainted by the lists in Galatians 5:19-21 and Revelation 21:8.

So stop thinking of the LORD Jesus Christ as Captain No, and instead realize He says Yes to those who believe in Him, seek Him, want to be like Him, and who desire the good things, even marriage beds and producing a family. The point is that it is cruel taskmasters, men of the law who try to convince you that God is Dr. No, "They (Pharisees and religious leaders) tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them," (Matthew 23:4), "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are," (Matthew 23:15) and "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to." (Matthew 23:13). But Jesus  Christ is Dr. Yes, He wants to heal you and bless you. For Jesus said, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full," (John 10:10), and, "Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light." (Matthew 11:29-30). We serve and love a God who does not want us to feel heavy, pushed down, self deprecating, self hatred, self loathing, and penance driven. No, His yoke is easy and not heavy, and He wants us to have life to the full and free of the vices that destroy life (Galatians 5:19-21, Revelation 21:8).