Upon life's journey many things have
come to light in the mind of this unworthy soul, things that give a
different perspective, a vantage point some may not have. When
reading this some will become angry, may even cease friendship and
some hopefully will take a moment to think, to study and to reflect
on their own heart, mind and soul. Any outcome will be accepted
graciously as doing what the the LORD urges the heart, mind and soul
to do is what one must do. Internally there has been a fight, no one
likes making others angry or uncomfortable, the thought that not a
single person would even bother to read it even crossed the mind, non
the less doing what one feels is the right thing to do is not always
easy or comfortable, yet doing what is right is needed for things to
be set right from time to time.... so onward...
Things taken out of context are really
starting to weigh down on lives, cause dissension and devision
amongst all who share this planet, it happens on all sides,
believers, non believers and even in other religious sects. How does
one take things out of context? There are a few ways, taking a
partial statement that says something completely different when in
the whole paragraph, taking a paragraph out of a book, where the book
asserts differently as a whole, the context of that society, and the
context of time ( what was the time period ). The main focus of this
is a single book, the bible, and that will shut off a few from
continuing but please do finish you may be surprised at what is
stated here.
The context of time Christians
understand to a degree, yet we still fall prey to it when it
seemingly suits us, allow me to explain.
Disrespectful children exodus 21:17
they were put to death, do we do that now? Of course not.
Rape, Deuteronomy 22:28-29, if she is a
virgin and not engaged , he has to pay the father of the girl money
damages and marry her and can never divorce her.
Adultery, Deuteronomy 22:22 both
parties engaged in the act are put to death.
Slavery, there are 2 types, indentured,
contractual, in other words the person enslaved and the 'owner' had
an agreement, usually to pay a debt and the other unwilling or forced
slavery. Let us address the forced slavery issue first exodus 21:16
if you we caught in the act of forced slavery you were put to death.
Indentured slaves were common practice
all through the bible and had strict rules regarding treatment an
example would be exodus 21:20 if a man strikes a slave with a rod the
man is put to death.
On an on we see things through out the
bible that in the context of time are now antiquated and would never
be practiced now. There are definite principles we can learn from,
underlying lessons we can learn. After all if we can not learn from
the past we are sure to repeat it and the Jews of the bible did a lot
of repeating. Free to slaves, to free again they would lose power and
become slaves, work their way back into power and rather than
learning to treat those that abused them better than they were
treated ultimately ended up right back in slavery again.
Some like to say that Christians do
not follow the bible and I can see why they would base that on the
way some of us portray it as the rule book by which we live, it is
not, is has some rules in in it by which any civilized society should
conduct themselves, some say “no way! I could never live by the
bibles rules,” well lets use the older version first,
Exodus 20:3-17 (N.I.V. Used for ease of
reading, I prefer NKJV love the poetry of the writing.)
3 "You
shall have no other gods before me. 4 "You
shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in
heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You
shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your
God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the
fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who
hate me, 6 but
showing love to a thousand [ generations] of those who love me
and keep my commandments.
7 "You
shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not
hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
8 "Remember
the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six
days you shall labor and do all your work, 10but
the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you
shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor
your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien
within your gates. 11 For
in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth,the sea, and all
that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore
the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy
. 12"Honor
your father and your mother, so that you may live long in
the land the LORD your God is giving you . 13 "You
shall not murder . 14 "You
shall not commit adultery . 15 "You
shall not steal.
16 "You
shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. 17 "You
shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your
neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey,
or anything that belongs to your neighbor."
Some of you may say all the stuff about
GOD is what you disagree with, and that is your right and choice, yet
the point was for you to see the idea was mutual respect and when
this was condensed in the new testament then it was simplified even
more,
Mark 12:25-35
25 For when they
shall rise from the dead, they neither marry , nor are
given in marriage ; but
are as the angels which are in heaven. 26 And
as touching the dead, that they rise :
have ye not read in the book of
Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying , I am
the God of
Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? 27 He is not
the God of the dead, but the God of
the living : ye therefore do greatly
. 28 And one of
the scribes came , and having heard them
reasoning together , and perceiving that he
had answered them well,asked him, Which
is the first commandment of all?
29 And Jesus
answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear ,
O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 30 And thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy
strength: this is the first commandment
.
31 And the second is like,namely this ,
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none
other commandment greater than these.
32 And the scribe said unto
him, Well, Master, thou
hast said the truth: for there is one God; and
there is none other but he: 33
And
to love him with all the heart, and
with all the understanding, and with
all the soul, and
with all the strength,and to love his neighbor as himself, is more than all whole
burnt
offerings and sacrifices. 34 And when Jesus saw that he answered
discreetly, he said
unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.
And no man after that durst ask him any
question. 35 And Jesus
answered and said , while
he taught in the temple, How say the scribes
that Christ is the Son of David?
Verses 29-31 summed up the previous in
a tidy bundle. So once we come to realization that the bible is a
guide book, full of truths that we can use to live better lives as a
people sharing one planet, it is easier to look at other issues that
some take with it, and those issues most times seem to be those taken
out of context in other ways. For the sake of time I will not post
the entire passages yet shall give reference to those sections of
scripture. I see on the Internet all the time how Christians do not
follow the bible and the way they get put forth could make a valid
case as it does seem we like to pick and choose and what is real
annoying is those folks calling themselves Christians that are out
there spreading more hate than anyone else on the planet ( the
Westborough Baptist church group comes to mind) That is not what
Jesus taught us, He taught us love and forgiveness, humility and
gratitude. One of the issues I am hitting today is Homosexuality,
Christians put such an effort into condemning a group of people and
it is really sad, Would JESUS have condemned them? Lets look at a
passage where HE was put in a spot to bring judgment and see what we
as Christians should do, (John
8:2-12)
In this passage a woman caught in the
act of adultery, at that time an offense punishable by death, and
that was done by stoning, was brought forth to JESUS to pass judgment
on and what did HE do? He ignored the accusers and doodled in the
dirt, He also said to the accusers, to let the one who is without sin
to cast the first stone. To me that is huge, how can we who are full
of sin? Lets face it we ain't perfect, how can we sit around and
make those judgments when even JESUS, who by the Christian beliefs
was sinless, would not even condemn the woman and what happened next,
The accusers left, and JESUS asked her where they went She said they
left and JESUS said that HE did not accuse her either and to go and
sin no more … Love... Forgiveness
John 3:17 a very under utilized verse
and should always go with the famous John 3:16, 3:17 says that Jesus
did not come to condemn the world, but that the world through HIM
might be saved.
If JESUS would not condemn then what
gives us the right to? Mutual respect, love, forgiveness,
understanding. Our lives are to be a model of JESUS, you know a model
right? An imperfect replica of the real thing, we strive toward being
better than we are no matter where we start.
We Christians are so divided over the
most trivial things like baptism, sprinkle or dunk, is it required?
Alcohol, was it real wine? Should the minister be married? Speaking
in tongues, or any of the gifts of the spirit for that matter. My
perspective is that no I do not believe Baptism is required, I
believe it is an outward sign of an inward change and I do not
believe a loving GOD would allow a person who is allergic to water to
go to hell because they could not get wet, I believe that JESUS and
the folks back then drank real wine with alcohol in it, otherwise it
would have simply said fruit of the vine, I believe in the gifts of
the spirit and that some of them come with rules that tend to get
bent.
I believe in dancing and music and that
there is a time and place for them.
And most of all I believe in
forgiveness, love and accepting who someone is, it is not our job to
change anyone, it is the Holy Spirit who changes from within all that
is in need of changing.
I believe that we give unto GOD that
which is GOD's and to Caesar ( man, government) that which is theirs,
so Yes I believe Gay marriage should be allowed by law, it is a
contract between 2 people, contracts and the benefits associated with
belong to man, I believe that freedom of choice by mans law, while I
find it distasteful to kill another human at any stage, should be
allowed as long as
my right to choose not have my tax dollars used for it is respected,
you want it use your own money, I also firmly believe that if one
religious group can not have a group, pray or carry their religious
symbols in a public school then none should be allowed to. What is
right for one should be right for all.
To
my Christian friends if I have upset you so be it, to my Gay friends
I hope you understand more of where I come from, to my atheistic,
wiccan and other religious group friends I hope you also see there is
something more in the bible than you once thought.
To keep this short I didn't even touch where I stand on the HOLY
SPIRIT, male or female, feel free to write me and we can discuss it.
As
with all things do not believe everything you hear from a
podium,pulpit or my writings, study and reason with in your own heart
and soul, and remember this is my statement not one of any organized
religion or group, rather one of a lowly servant who has struggled
with this for some time and finally surrendered to what I believe the
HOLY SPIRIT was leading me to do. There is more in my heart, and it
shall be written eventually, this is a large chunk for some to chew,
meditate and study on, again message me and we can discuss it.
With
the love of GOD I pass this on, I realize I will not be well received
by some and yet I find solace in the fact my Lord and Savior JESUS
was not well received either.
