Something to chew on

 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.