Mammamel
07-24-2008, 08:33 AM
I have been doing a lot of genealogy reading lately. As usual when I do this I begin thinking of my growing up. Much of it is blocked out, but snippets appear now and then.
My childhood was odd. I lost my mom at 10 sort of. She had a massive stroke that killed her, but the emts (paramedics they were then) brought her back. She was never the same mom I had known afterward. She died again when I was 14, they let her stay dead this time.
I went to live with a guardian. I am grateful to them for showing me God's word in the Bible Other things have become apparent to me as an adult. I think part of the reason my years with them were so hard was because along with my study of the Bible, I saw things differently than they did.
My guardian was a know it all and a better than. They knew exactly what God wanted, even if it was not recorded for us. They were better than, fill in the blank. The lost, the catholic, the lutherans, baptists, all were to them ****ed to hell. Mormons and Jws were cults. Churches that worked together to achieve things were satellite churches and deserved only a sniff and a raising of the nose and eye brows.
Inconsistencies in our beliefs were evident. While in reading the Bible I agreed drunkenness and gluttony were sins, while eating and drinking were not. I could not see dance in the same way. Yes in the old testament David danced. However, no one in the NT danced to worship God. The inconsistency came in, because they said only the NT was to be used as a blue print for the new church, yet said dance was ok. To me dance is wrong, the ONLY dance recorded in the NT, had fatal consequences for God's prophet. I can not reconcile that with David's dancing before the Lord. (please note, if your idea differs, I respect that, this is MY understanding)
However while they were advocating drinking and dancing (both things that easily lead to sin) as ok, they were equally adamant that churches not have buses or kitchens. That all music is to be accapella. All these years later I am still looking for those verses that indicate these things.
I guess this is why my feelings on “religion” are so strong today. I dislike know it alls who declare their words are right, even if the Bible shows otherwise. Better thans are just as bad. “I am more mature” they may say, than you because I do xyz and you do not. Bull feathers. More mature people study with others they do not demand obedience just because they say something.
I have worked very hard all my life to distance myself from the lot of the know it all and the better than, because God does not respect either one. Some folks in my life have thought I was weak because I would not “fight” for MY truth. The fact of the matter is, God does not give me leave to be forceful, even with His word supporting what I say. I may be blunt, I may be direct, I may not yell, shake my fist or name call.
Know it alls or better than folks will leave a church if it will not change its ideas to suit them, they sort of see this as punishment to the church. However I can almost hear the sigh of relief when these trouble makers leave.
Now there is a huge difference between a know it all or better than and a mature Christian who is secure in their Faith. This being that the mature Christian realizes their job is to state the truth, not force anyone else to accept it. If what I say is true, then I have no need to argue over it or try and force others to agree. I can state it and move on.
Abraham Lincoln said: “"If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what's said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference." The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln: Six Months at the White House by Francis B. Carpenter (Lincoln, Nebraska, University of Nebraska Press, 1995), pp. 258-259.
All I can do is the best I know how. Whether folks accept me or not, is not up to me. Where I am right or wrong, only God knows. All I can do is my best.
My childhood was odd. I lost my mom at 10 sort of. She had a massive stroke that killed her, but the emts (paramedics they were then) brought her back. She was never the same mom I had known afterward. She died again when I was 14, they let her stay dead this time.
I went to live with a guardian. I am grateful to them for showing me God's word in the Bible Other things have become apparent to me as an adult. I think part of the reason my years with them were so hard was because along with my study of the Bible, I saw things differently than they did.
My guardian was a know it all and a better than. They knew exactly what God wanted, even if it was not recorded for us. They were better than, fill in the blank. The lost, the catholic, the lutherans, baptists, all were to them ****ed to hell. Mormons and Jws were cults. Churches that worked together to achieve things were satellite churches and deserved only a sniff and a raising of the nose and eye brows.
Inconsistencies in our beliefs were evident. While in reading the Bible I agreed drunkenness and gluttony were sins, while eating and drinking were not. I could not see dance in the same way. Yes in the old testament David danced. However, no one in the NT danced to worship God. The inconsistency came in, because they said only the NT was to be used as a blue print for the new church, yet said dance was ok. To me dance is wrong, the ONLY dance recorded in the NT, had fatal consequences for God's prophet. I can not reconcile that with David's dancing before the Lord. (please note, if your idea differs, I respect that, this is MY understanding)
However while they were advocating drinking and dancing (both things that easily lead to sin) as ok, they were equally adamant that churches not have buses or kitchens. That all music is to be accapella. All these years later I am still looking for those verses that indicate these things.
I guess this is why my feelings on “religion” are so strong today. I dislike know it alls who declare their words are right, even if the Bible shows otherwise. Better thans are just as bad. “I am more mature” they may say, than you because I do xyz and you do not. Bull feathers. More mature people study with others they do not demand obedience just because they say something.
I have worked very hard all my life to distance myself from the lot of the know it all and the better than, because God does not respect either one. Some folks in my life have thought I was weak because I would not “fight” for MY truth. The fact of the matter is, God does not give me leave to be forceful, even with His word supporting what I say. I may be blunt, I may be direct, I may not yell, shake my fist or name call.
Know it alls or better than folks will leave a church if it will not change its ideas to suit them, they sort of see this as punishment to the church. However I can almost hear the sigh of relief when these trouble makers leave.
Now there is a huge difference between a know it all or better than and a mature Christian who is secure in their Faith. This being that the mature Christian realizes their job is to state the truth, not force anyone else to accept it. If what I say is true, then I have no need to argue over it or try and force others to agree. I can state it and move on.
Abraham Lincoln said: “"If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what's said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference." The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln: Six Months at the White House by Francis B. Carpenter (Lincoln, Nebraska, University of Nebraska Press, 1995), pp. 258-259.
All I can do is the best I know how. Whether folks accept me or not, is not up to me. Where I am right or wrong, only God knows. All I can do is my best.