What is it about alcohol that makes it so desperately avoided? What is it about swearing that makes you such a despicable person to do so? Or vices in general? The answer is the same to each question: the potential for abuse. So then it's something we can decide to do, then why is it so culturally frowned upon?
In different parts of the world, none of it is wrong. It is all simply a part of the culture. So guess what? We Christians even have a form of moral relativism. Some of us really need to wake up because our inability to have a beer or two at a bar costs us a chance to evangelize. It seems strange to think about, but I have honestly had some of the best philosophical and spiritual conversations at bars, often with people who have no belief in God at all.
Some of us think of people in bars as people who are at the end of their rope and need something to help them cope. Why isn't that the perfect place to evangelize? Jesus often sought out the destitute, the socially unacceptable, and those who were ready to give up to tell them that he had the breath of life. Do we, as Christians, have a superiority complex? Yes, we certainly do. And subconsciously, it has to do with the way we cannot accept our own faults. We reconcile our guilt with our need to feel good and the guilt will vanish. But we have a mission. We have a calling and we know it. And we ignore it, preferring to live safely in our airtight Christian bubbles while there are people who want to drown their guilt by killing themselves. That is not faith, that is religion. And religion has been proven to rot our souls.
In no way am I saying that we all should live the same way. If you feel convicted not to do certain things, then by all means, do not do it. But I have a pretty good idea that some of us avoid those things because it is "right" to do so. But anytime we turn down an invitation to the bar with people who need to know Jesus, we may be turning down a chance to introduce the two of them. And for what? To preserve your idea of right? Make no mistake, some of us will take that as an acceptable loss. It is not, however, acceptable to God to lose an opportunity to talk about your faith. And that's what it comes down to: sharing the story God has given you.
You have faith for a reason. Share it. You have life for a reason. Receive it. You have hope for a reason. Give it.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Top Ten Reasons Why People Don't Believe in God, But Are Woefully Misguided (In No Particular Order)
1. Prayer - God does not answer your prayer because you want to date the hot cheerleader or because you really want a job that will make you a lot of money. God will grant your requests if your requests match up with His will, based on what is written in The Bible. The things the world value are not the things that God values, and therefore, there is no point in granting a request that does not improve your spiritual growth.
2. People - Yes, we all know, people can suck. And more often than not, Christians seem to suck the most. If you don't believe in everything a specific church or group of people believe, often, they will look down on you. This is a huge problem, but I see it being addressed with, what used to be the youth of the church, becoming leadership. Not to be mistaken with how as the years go by, certain things become socially acceptable. There is a fine line between those opposing views.
3. Pain - Pain is a hot topic of a lot of the spiritual dialogue that I've had. If God is merciful, how can He allow tragedy and disaster? Free will, folks. God allows us to make the decisions, and sometimes they hurt. Physically or emotionally.
4. "Divine" Retribution - Or the belief that God commands us to kill someone, in this specific example, anyway. Come on. That's like labeling every Muslim an extremist, which we all know is false and dangerous. For an average guy without a mental incapacity, I'm pretty squared away as to who I'm allowed to kill. No one.
5. Moral Relativity - The worst example of bullcrap ever. With this theory, nothing is ever right or ever wrong for an entire culture. It depends on the individual. Giant pantload of crap. We all know what is right and wrong, we just choose to ignore some things. I am no more innocent of this than anyone else.
6. The "Holier Than Thou" Complex - Those of us who have this complex have a problem identifying our own flaws, or dealing with them. So some of us project our issues onto someone else and deal with it by transferring the guilt. It may pacify you for the moment, but it is seriously wrong.
7. Judgment - This is the other one I hear more often than not. Christians judge people for their faults. Yeah, well we all do it, and we will continue to do it until we die. It is, for the most part, a character trait instilled at an early age. Generally. So let's all grow up and remember that we do the same thing, maybe subconsciously, maybe intentionally.
8. The Evolutionary Theory - Aside from the fact that this is a THEORY, it really cannot meet the scientific requirements to be considered fact. When scientists are up against a wall, they backpedal, like everyone does when they're wrong, and just try to prove Creationism wrong. The whole concept is that evolution is based on natural selection. Sure we adapt to our environments but if we improved ourselves over time based on our mental and physical abilities, then why do we all still make the stupid mistakes over and over again? Because as creatures of limited knowledge and free will, we knowingly or unknowingly set traps for ourselves and fall right in like we didn't know it was there! And that never changes. And, how is it that monkeys and humans are the only creatures to have evolved from one another? You notice how it's never giraffes or platypuses or elephants?
9. "Forcible Religion" - I once belonged to this group. Church and God was forced upon me by my parents. At one point in my life, I hated God, hated religion, hated church. Guess what? God is not a Christian. The term, "religion", is made for religions. If you agree with the statement that God is not a Christian, then Christianity cannot be a religion. I'm sure most of you would agree that L. Ron Hubbard was not a Scientologist. He was the founder. Can a founder of a religion follow it? As the figure head, I would say no. Can you even create a religion that has legitimacy? I don't believe that truth can be created. I think that if you try to create religion, then what is the basis? It has no legitimacy. And what of Christianity? If you believe like I do, then it has been since the beginning of life. It had no name when life began because there was nothing else. We create these things as distractions. We will pick and choose what we want from anything and everything and call it truth. Well, truth must be proven for it to be true. If we worship what is not proven, it is not true. If we worship what is not true, then we worship a lie.
10. Sex - The existence of pleasure and the usual religious condemnation of it are a huge thing for a lot of people. It is one of our base instincts. Then again, so is murder. Then again, so is selfishness. Then again, so are a lot of things that we generally consider morally incorrect. Yes, God limits its appropriateness and guess what? We piss all over that, say there's nothing wrong, and now we have a birthrate of 41% of children born to single parents. We have an ever growing demographic of broken homes or no real discipline. Growing divorce rate, growing crime rate. Somehow I don't think that God is the problem. Quite the opposite.
2. People - Yes, we all know, people can suck. And more often than not, Christians seem to suck the most. If you don't believe in everything a specific church or group of people believe, often, they will look down on you. This is a huge problem, but I see it being addressed with, what used to be the youth of the church, becoming leadership. Not to be mistaken with how as the years go by, certain things become socially acceptable. There is a fine line between those opposing views.
3. Pain - Pain is a hot topic of a lot of the spiritual dialogue that I've had. If God is merciful, how can He allow tragedy and disaster? Free will, folks. God allows us to make the decisions, and sometimes they hurt. Physically or emotionally.
4. "Divine" Retribution - Or the belief that God commands us to kill someone, in this specific example, anyway. Come on. That's like labeling every Muslim an extremist, which we all know is false and dangerous. For an average guy without a mental incapacity, I'm pretty squared away as to who I'm allowed to kill. No one.
5. Moral Relativity - The worst example of bullcrap ever. With this theory, nothing is ever right or ever wrong for an entire culture. It depends on the individual. Giant pantload of crap. We all know what is right and wrong, we just choose to ignore some things. I am no more innocent of this than anyone else.
6. The "Holier Than Thou" Complex - Those of us who have this complex have a problem identifying our own flaws, or dealing with them. So some of us project our issues onto someone else and deal with it by transferring the guilt. It may pacify you for the moment, but it is seriously wrong.
7. Judgment - This is the other one I hear more often than not. Christians judge people for their faults. Yeah, well we all do it, and we will continue to do it until we die. It is, for the most part, a character trait instilled at an early age. Generally. So let's all grow up and remember that we do the same thing, maybe subconsciously, maybe intentionally.
8. The Evolutionary Theory - Aside from the fact that this is a THEORY, it really cannot meet the scientific requirements to be considered fact. When scientists are up against a wall, they backpedal, like everyone does when they're wrong, and just try to prove Creationism wrong. The whole concept is that evolution is based on natural selection. Sure we adapt to our environments but if we improved ourselves over time based on our mental and physical abilities, then why do we all still make the stupid mistakes over and over again? Because as creatures of limited knowledge and free will, we knowingly or unknowingly set traps for ourselves and fall right in like we didn't know it was there! And that never changes. And, how is it that monkeys and humans are the only creatures to have evolved from one another? You notice how it's never giraffes or platypuses or elephants?
9. "Forcible Religion" - I once belonged to this group. Church and God was forced upon me by my parents. At one point in my life, I hated God, hated religion, hated church. Guess what? God is not a Christian. The term, "religion", is made for religions. If you agree with the statement that God is not a Christian, then Christianity cannot be a religion. I'm sure most of you would agree that L. Ron Hubbard was not a Scientologist. He was the founder. Can a founder of a religion follow it? As the figure head, I would say no. Can you even create a religion that has legitimacy? I don't believe that truth can be created. I think that if you try to create religion, then what is the basis? It has no legitimacy. And what of Christianity? If you believe like I do, then it has been since the beginning of life. It had no name when life began because there was nothing else. We create these things as distractions. We will pick and choose what we want from anything and everything and call it truth. Well, truth must be proven for it to be true. If we worship what is not proven, it is not true. If we worship what is not true, then we worship a lie.
10. Sex - The existence of pleasure and the usual religious condemnation of it are a huge thing for a lot of people. It is one of our base instincts. Then again, so is murder. Then again, so is selfishness. Then again, so are a lot of things that we generally consider morally incorrect. Yes, God limits its appropriateness and guess what? We piss all over that, say there's nothing wrong, and now we have a birthrate of 41% of children born to single parents. We have an ever growing demographic of broken homes or no real discipline. Growing divorce rate, growing crime rate. Somehow I don't think that God is the problem. Quite the opposite.
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