Friday, December 02, 2005

Why is conservative a bad word to the world?

Something has been bothering me for awhile now. The media with all of its liberal ways and supporters has negatively added connotations to the desire for a person to live a conservative life. My question to those who would label conservatives as "far right", "extremists", "fundamentalists" (as if that is suppose to be a dirty word), "fanatics", you get the picture, anyway, how do Christian people think that they can live any other way but conservative? In Matthew 7:14, the Bible tells us: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. The preceding verse tells where liberality leads. So how can a Christian look at life and say, I am not going to take that path, it's too narrow? I will follow the broad (liberal) path. The Bible tells us that path leadeth to destruction.
While I was thinking on this subject, I was thinking about political hot topics, that we are being fed propaganda on everyday. Homosexuality, abortion, individuality, absence of God in everything, and other liberal topics come to mind. Well, I got to thinking about abortion, looking down through this strait gate. And I ask myself, What would Jesus say to a woman, who would come to him seeking an abortion? Now I would never attempt to speak for Jesus, or pretend that I am smart enough to know what he would say. But while I was thinking on this very subject, a verse which was spoken by Jesus came to mind. Matthew 19:6 says: Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder. Now, I know what your going to say; that has nothing to do with abortion that is about marriage. Well, when it came to my mind, I wasn’t thinking about divorce or adultery, I was thinking about how a Christian could justify killing an unborn child. And if you think about the verse, yes it is talking about marriage, but it doesn’t say, A man and a woman that God hath joined together. It says what therefore God has joined together. To me that is saying that anything God joins together, man is not suppose to mess with. He made man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into him the breathe of life, and then told man "Thou shalt not kill". Whatever he creates, he doesn’t want man to destroy.
If you still want to argue that the verse just pertains to marriage, lets look at marriage. In what way is a marriage consummated? And what is the process that leads to conception? There is a part of a man that joins with a part of woman to create a new life. Who is in control of those two parts that are joined together? If you say man, woman, or doctor, there will be a lot on infertile couples who will take exception to your response. Only God can join the two together to make a life. And no man whether he be the President, a Supreme Court Justice, a doctor, or some liberal editorialist can spin that around to say that abortion is a woman’s right to put asunder what God has joined together.

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Finding the right Church can be Challenging

For some time now I have flirted with the idea of church, not thinking it very important what a church believed or stood for. I just thought it was important to go to church. I knew there were some out there that were extreme in very dangerous ways, and some that called themselves churches that were nothing more than social clubs. But when I became a dad, I started to feel the responsibility to raise my son up in a church that taught truth, brotherly love, and praising God. I never realized how hard it would be to find a church.

Humility

A little bit about me. When I was a teenager growing up, the church that my dad and mom chose for us to attend, stressed humility. They stressed it in a way that in order to have salvation you had to be humble, (which I agree with). But their references to humility confused me. They implied that a humble man put himself below others, that he was nothing. At the same time they were teaching this, most of the members seemed to have a lot of pride. In the years that were most impressionable to my development, I was trying to be this humble man, below others, and it caused my self esteem to bottom out as well.
Over the years, as I have searched for meaning, God has shown me that humility is not the way it was told to me. Humility is realizing that none of us are any better or worse than any other person, and that we all are nothing without God. We can do nothing without God, and realizing that, we should seek him in everything that we do.
Another confusing aspect that I contemplated was; How can there be so many different religions and beliefs if everyone is seeking to follow God? With what God has shown me about humility, this one became a little clearer. I myself have been guilty of reading the Bible, thinking that I could figure out doctrinal principles. We are nothing and can do nothing without God. No man, no matter how intelligent, can decipher the scriptures, unless he is lead by God. He must allow God to reveal the true meaning to him. Go into it thinking that I am going to figure it out, and your past experiences and teachings will cloud what you read. Open the Bible, praying that God will lead you to the truth, with an open mind, and there you will find the one truth that unifies all God's people.