I have noticed something new under the sun. It is a yearning for new truth and love within the circle of my christian friends. The characteristics of it are a remarkable tolerance for others, an acceptance of others in their beliefs and lifestyles, and a general feeling of cant we all just love one another and get along. In theory its a great attitude to encompass. My guess is the hope here is that once we have accepted all and love them, then one can sway the one who is loved to find the truth, which at this point is still up in the air. By that I mean what I am seeing has evolved past basic bible teaching to a higher learning.
Jesus gave us two commands...Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love is patient, kind,does not envy, does not boast,is not proud, is not rude,is not self seeking, is not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs, does not delight in evil, rejoices with the truth, always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres, and never fails.
God also said in the last days men will be lovers of themselves...following different gospels, and forgetting His truths. I have attempted to use the gospel for truth in disagreements, but have been told in response that the gospel, while an interesting book, is flawed, and misinterpreted, and so I can not base my beliefs completely on it, as it is imperfect. The bible cannot be taken literally....so when it says certain people will not get into heaven, well it doesnt really mean that. When it tells us to snatch people from the fire....well how can we know for sure, and after all no one is going to tell us how to interpret scripture and in what way. We will do that for ourselves because that is what people who have evolved to a higher learning do... the old fashioned narrow minded cannot be trusted in this.
My biggest fear is people will go to hell. Because we wont confront in this new found love. We will stop calling sin sin (such a dirty word these days) and people who dont acknowledge Jesus as savoir will be ok with that because they are loved and tolerated right where they are at. Parents who spare the rod.....spoil the child, and the bible says they do so because they love themselves more than their child. While I am all for love...i still believe love is telling the truth, and I still believe truth is found in the bible....and that makes me old fashioned, out of touch, and archaic in my thinking......be honest now....for some of you it does.
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Ok, I'm going to tackle this one. I have to relate it to childbirth because this is where my experience is, sorry about that guys!
ReplyDeleteI have taught childbirth education for a long time. I teach natural birth (as God intended it) without drugs or intervention. I believe the way God designed it needed no improvement. Many people disagree with me. They think I'm out of touch, archaic in my beliefs, old fashioned. Until something goes wrong. With allowing things to deviate from the natural process you invite all kinds of other problems. People say, "why didn't you tell me that could happen?" Well I did, but you weren't listening. I get lots of parents the second or third time around, because they discovered that their way wasn't the best way. As we have learned in our study How people grow, what happened in The Fall is that the result was we tried to take Gods place and in the process have lost ourselves. We depend and exist to ourself, we try to control our world losing control of ourselves, we judge ourself, and live the way we want to. True growth comes from realizing we are "poor in spirit." Unfortunately it often takes something bad happening, that is out of our control to realize that we don't have all the answers, someone else is in control. I know that was what it was for me. I'd love to be able to tell people that I chose God because it was the right thing to do, and because the Bible said so. I'm sorry to say the truth is, I began seeking to have God in my life because I came to the realization that it was out of control. That I didn't have all the answers. That I had ruined many relationships in my life and that I was flat out on a path to destruction.
So in answer to your question, I don't think I'm responsible for other peoples redemption. I think I'm responsible for me, but that perhaps others can learn from (gasp) my example. As we have learned from Cloud and Townsend (2 really smart guys) by returning to our roles we give up trying to contol things, and trust that God is in control. We give up playing judge with ourselves and others which allows us all to be free to be who we truly are. We stop redesigning life and making new rules, and do it Gods way. God did set up a redemtive process and I believe we come to it on individual time tables.
Have I told you lately how glad I am you are in our home group? And how proud I am of you and Ken both for hanging in during those times of growth that arent easy. Well said Beth.
ReplyDeleteThanks Nelson, and by the way. Until recently us money savers were called old fashioned, out of touch, and archaic in our beliefs for maintaining a savings account, not using credit cards, and being good stewards of our money. I think the current recession is perfect proof that the Bible is still relevant, and God still has the best plan.
ReplyDeleteI have a couple of things to ask you. These are the kind of questions I wonder about.
ReplyDelete#1 What if you were born a muslim woman in Afghanistan? You have been taught that to show you love God you must wear a burka, not go to school, board the bus by the back door only, not shake hands with a man, and more. This is all you have ever known about loving this God you have been told about. What do I as a Christian do with that? You as the muslim woman is loving God the only way you know how. What do you think?
#2 Why do you do your blog as anonymous including when you respond to other's blogs?
"As a Christian" means you follow Christ and His teachings. So you love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and you love your neighbor as yourself. Since I..a muslim in afghanistan trapped in a false religion and your neighbor, you would pray for me. You would ask The Holy Spirit what He wants you to do. Whatever Jesus tells you..you would do it. He might tell you to just pray, He might tell you to fly to afghanistan...you do what He tells you to do.As a Christian you believe He is love, and His love is complete. As a Christian you believe He knows what He is doing, and you trust in that even if you dont understand it. You have faith. Jesus quoted many times from the old testament, endorsing its truthfullness, so you believe in that. You believe God was a big enough God to give us His true word, that He was bigger than mans flaws. Just like you believe Christs sacrifice was big enough to take care of your flaws. You entrust yourself to Him, and His ways. You keep His commands because as a "Christian" you love Him.
ReplyDeleteNow since you love me (a spiritually lost woman in afghanistan)..and the most important thing in this short life is that I choose Christ as my savior, then you be willing to do whatever it takes to follow the Holy Spirit to lead me to that truth. You love me enough to risk yourself if need be. You put Christ, His words..all of them, and commands in the forefront and put yourself in the back seat. And you trust that I, a muslim woman will find the true God if I truly want to, because Jesus said I would.
As to the second question..I chose to be anonymous because I noticed alot of bias in the blogs. By that I mean I didnt want them responding by who I am, but by what I was saying....(ass kissing)
My question to you,....you already know the answer to your first question, and im sure my response is very close to what you thought it would be since I sat under your and Brad's teaching for years....so why are you asking about something you already know the answer to?