I am a Christian, and an imperfect one at that. I curse on occasion. I unapologetically drink from time to time. In my humanity I will thoughtlessly say or do something that hurts someone. I've apologized very often and profusely for my failures. But sadly, I haven't mastered walking on water, so it is clear that I am a work in progress. Now a religious person might run up to me and say, "Well Alfonso the Bible says..." Interestingly as much as I talk, I have learned not to debate religious people. Religious people want to control other's lives. By observation and experience I'd have to say the reason is because their own lives are too often out of control. They are constantly waiting for God to fix things and in the meantime blaming the devil for how things are. I understand the phenomenon because I was religious for a very long time.
Sadly so many religious people use their professed faith to assault others - and I'm not talking about terrorism, the Taliban or Islam. I'm talking about Bible thumping, professed Christians. But my thesis is, their assault is often a result of personal turmoil that somehow isn't being solved by all of the scripture they are quoting. Trust me, I understand the frustration.
Like most religious people I was taught to pray, quote scripture day and night, go to church, give tithes and offerings and somehow everything will work out. And like many professed Christians I came to embrace the idea that any good thing that happens to me, much like winning the lottery, is because God got out of his Throne, told an angel to make sure I get all of the right numbers, and voila! I'm a millionaire (I'm not)! Conversely, every bad thing that happens is because Satan himself, the biggest demon of them all, decided to shift all of his focus away from important world events just so he could personally screw up my life.
Out of this mindset has grown a society of people who only know how to blame. A hurricane, for example, is because of the devil and not because of the natural yearly climate fluctuations and rotation of the earth which causes the upper atmosphere to spin and form hurricanes. The BP oil disaster is because of Satan, and not because greedy people shortcut safety protocols. Or worse, the problem is because of the President (who naturally is being used as an agent of the devil), and not the generations of political leaders in both parties who eventually threw away regulations in favor of keeping jobs for their various constituents, and whose political campaigns were given huge sums of money by various oil interests and lobbyists. Religious people know how to blame, but they don't know how to move. And since these religious blamers have out of control lives they will often have only one reason: "It's Satan's fault. It cant' be MY fault because I quote the Bible!"
Well, here's what I believe: Satan is real and active, as are demons and evil spirits. But the condition of the world today isn't Satan's fault per se. It is MAN'S fault. Man sinned in the beginning. Man was told what NOT to do; he was beguiled, and then his own curiosity and lust changed the game for all of mankind thereafter. In fact, scripture says a man is tempted when he is drawn away of HIS OWN lust and enticed. Satan is like a judo master. He knows how to use our own weight against us. And it is exceptionally easy to do when the victim is always unprepared for attack, and after being thrown to the ground only knows how to say, "look what the devil did", rather than get up and be prepared for the next attack.
Religious people are rarely ready for the next attack, and they do not know how to take responsibility. Well, I have a bit of news. There was no Bible in ancient times. There was the Torah, and the New Testament was only in force after Jesus' resurrection. It was many years later that the words and works of Jesus and the apostles were written down. But you'll notice that from the time Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, He was ALWAYS ready for Satan's attacks. Is it because he quoted scripture to the Devil like many preachers point out? Or is it because he DID WHAT HE QUOTED? Clearly it was the latter. It was DOING the Word that gave Him the Victory in over Satan. And if you don't believe it, try imagining what the world would be if Jesus had decided to turn the stones to bread, or worse, jump off of the pinnacle of the Temple when tempted to do so.
Much of scripture was written down long AFTER the writers figured out how spiritual things worked in relation to the natural world. That is exactly the reason I believe Jesus spoke in parables rather than regurgitating the Torah. Jesus knew the Torah inside and out, but the beauty of His words is that everyday people could get what He meant because he related it to their everyday lives. The same was true of Paul. Paul was a religious zealot who had a miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus. Not long after he became THE premier, albeit very humble New Testament Apostle. Today we look at what we religiously call The Pauline Epistles and gain many great truths. But the fact is he was just writing letters to his friends much like I'm writing this blog. I'm certain he had no idea his letters would end up in a book we now call The Bible. Paul also was an expert on the Torah. His letters went into great depth, but they were also practical enough for the reader of the time to understand what he was saying and hopefully put into action.
Sadly, however, many have turned Jesus' Words and Paul's letters into incantations that if quoted enough will make magical things happen! It is time to break out of that mentality and realize that the Word is about ACTION. Do the Word and things will happen, it's that simple. Absolutely we must pray, read and speak the Word. But the Word works best when one actually gets up and does what it says. All quoting scripture does is remind us of the work WE are expected to do to make things happen. I'm not talking about working FOR salvation, but we'd sure better be about WORKING OUT salvation.
Once we start the action it becomes very easy to see where the responsibility has always lain, with us. Why? Because it is then we can tangibly see results of those actions: souls are saved; people prosper more (because we are wiser in our personal and financial dealings), families are strengthened, and interpersonal relationships run a bit smoother, probably because we are too busy doing the word to have any time to tell others what to do! God did not give us His Word for us to tell others what to do or merely to quote. He gave it to us so that we would know what to do in our own daily lives. But we must actually do it!
One last thing about religious people: they argue too much and are too ready to defend their position - often at the tops of their lungs. The funny thing about a position is this: one has to be still and in one place to be in a position, and thus, there is clearly no action taking place. But if one was actively doing God's Word perhaps he or she would be too out of breath to argue. They certainly wouldn't care about their position.
Sadly so many religious people use their professed faith to assault others - and I'm not talking about terrorism, the Taliban or Islam. I'm talking about Bible thumping, professed Christians. But my thesis is, their assault is often a result of personal turmoil that somehow isn't being solved by all of the scripture they are quoting. Trust me, I understand the frustration.
Like most religious people I was taught to pray, quote scripture day and night, go to church, give tithes and offerings and somehow everything will work out. And like many professed Christians I came to embrace the idea that any good thing that happens to me, much like winning the lottery, is because God got out of his Throne, told an angel to make sure I get all of the right numbers, and voila! I'm a millionaire (I'm not)! Conversely, every bad thing that happens is because Satan himself, the biggest demon of them all, decided to shift all of his focus away from important world events just so he could personally screw up my life.
Out of this mindset has grown a society of people who only know how to blame. A hurricane, for example, is because of the devil and not because of the natural yearly climate fluctuations and rotation of the earth which causes the upper atmosphere to spin and form hurricanes. The BP oil disaster is because of Satan, and not because greedy people shortcut safety protocols. Or worse, the problem is because of the President (who naturally is being used as an agent of the devil), and not the generations of political leaders in both parties who eventually threw away regulations in favor of keeping jobs for their various constituents, and whose political campaigns were given huge sums of money by various oil interests and lobbyists. Religious people know how to blame, but they don't know how to move. And since these religious blamers have out of control lives they will often have only one reason: "It's Satan's fault. It cant' be MY fault because I quote the Bible!"
Well, here's what I believe: Satan is real and active, as are demons and evil spirits. But the condition of the world today isn't Satan's fault per se. It is MAN'S fault. Man sinned in the beginning. Man was told what NOT to do; he was beguiled, and then his own curiosity and lust changed the game for all of mankind thereafter. In fact, scripture says a man is tempted when he is drawn away of HIS OWN lust and enticed. Satan is like a judo master. He knows how to use our own weight against us. And it is exceptionally easy to do when the victim is always unprepared for attack, and after being thrown to the ground only knows how to say, "look what the devil did", rather than get up and be prepared for the next attack.
Religious people are rarely ready for the next attack, and they do not know how to take responsibility. Well, I have a bit of news. There was no Bible in ancient times. There was the Torah, and the New Testament was only in force after Jesus' resurrection. It was many years later that the words and works of Jesus and the apostles were written down. But you'll notice that from the time Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, He was ALWAYS ready for Satan's attacks. Is it because he quoted scripture to the Devil like many preachers point out? Or is it because he DID WHAT HE QUOTED? Clearly it was the latter. It was DOING the Word that gave Him the Victory in over Satan. And if you don't believe it, try imagining what the world would be if Jesus had decided to turn the stones to bread, or worse, jump off of the pinnacle of the Temple when tempted to do so.
Much of scripture was written down long AFTER the writers figured out how spiritual things worked in relation to the natural world. That is exactly the reason I believe Jesus spoke in parables rather than regurgitating the Torah. Jesus knew the Torah inside and out, but the beauty of His words is that everyday people could get what He meant because he related it to their everyday lives. The same was true of Paul. Paul was a religious zealot who had a miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus. Not long after he became THE premier, albeit very humble New Testament Apostle. Today we look at what we religiously call The Pauline Epistles and gain many great truths. But the fact is he was just writing letters to his friends much like I'm writing this blog. I'm certain he had no idea his letters would end up in a book we now call The Bible. Paul also was an expert on the Torah. His letters went into great depth, but they were also practical enough for the reader of the time to understand what he was saying and hopefully put into action.
Sadly, however, many have turned Jesus' Words and Paul's letters into incantations that if quoted enough will make magical things happen! It is time to break out of that mentality and realize that the Word is about ACTION. Do the Word and things will happen, it's that simple. Absolutely we must pray, read and speak the Word. But the Word works best when one actually gets up and does what it says. All quoting scripture does is remind us of the work WE are expected to do to make things happen. I'm not talking about working FOR salvation, but we'd sure better be about WORKING OUT salvation.
Once we start the action it becomes very easy to see where the responsibility has always lain, with us. Why? Because it is then we can tangibly see results of those actions: souls are saved; people prosper more (because we are wiser in our personal and financial dealings), families are strengthened, and interpersonal relationships run a bit smoother, probably because we are too busy doing the word to have any time to tell others what to do! God did not give us His Word for us to tell others what to do or merely to quote. He gave it to us so that we would know what to do in our own daily lives. But we must actually do it!
One last thing about religious people: they argue too much and are too ready to defend their position - often at the tops of their lungs. The funny thing about a position is this: one has to be still and in one place to be in a position, and thus, there is clearly no action taking place. But if one was actively doing God's Word perhaps he or she would be too out of breath to argue. They certainly wouldn't care about their position.
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