Post by
Michelle Dowell, Co-Contributor
To truly be able to lead and live well, it's important to truly understand what you believe. A lot of people say that they are a Christian and assume that means they know what they believe, but may not live or think much differently than the culture around them that is not Christian these days. We live in a postmodern culture, where this is acceptable to the culture: it's viewed as good to not strongly believe anything because postmodernism is more okay and fine with everyone's beliefs.
If someone were to ask you why you're a Christian, do you know what you'd say? If they asked you what is different abut your religion compared to other religions, would you be able to answer? Does your religion cause you to live differently than people of different religions or those who don't have a religion?
A major difference in the Christian religion compared to others is that it's not our works that get us to Heaven. It's Christ's perfection and faith that does.
Some people think that feeling/emotion is most important in religion and that thinking hinders religion. For instance, feeling that God is for them in that moment, or they made God happy is what they aim for. They feel like that's all they need. But not working to truly understand their beliefs of God and what God wants--that may cause them to feel things to be true that are not true: A person may feel happy and in some sense that makes them feel like God is happy with what they're doing--but really they could be happy in that moment because the sun is shining that day or they had a great meal the day before.
The way for them to truly know that God is happy or accepting of a choice is to truly understand the Bible as much as they can. To think about it. Some people may live in the thought that they can never please God because they feel crappy and nothing seems to go as right as they envisioned it, but really understanding God's true acceptance of us would help them feel like God is still okay with them. Our feelings don't always match the reality of the situation. We are fallen and there are so many factors to what makes us feel certain ways (the weather, how much we eat or sleep, what's going on in the world and in our lives).
Showing posts with label believe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label believe. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Mankind, Culture, and Progress
Often in our world we are convinced by the uniqueness of the current age. Technology has created a world which is so different it has created a fundamental disconnect from the past.
Really we just need to study history to see our folly. At many points the world said "ah yes this has fundamentally changed the world forever" and yet nothing really changed.
We often over estimate the uniqueness of our day. The problems of today are not much different than those one hundred years ago or one thousand years ago. The fundamental problem is always the heart of mankind which is similar in every age.
Certain issues are more prevalent in certain ages than others, but the heart manifests its wickedness in every age. Often there is progress on certain issues in certain cultures but often on other issues there is regress.
This is why the bible insists that there is nothing new under the sun. Many things changes but the fundamental problem of man's alienation from God because of his sin is always the same.
Some people often tend to go the opposite direction of seeing progress and instead focus on regress, thinking that the past was better than the present. It is really a similar failure in which the past is not understood.
It is not to say that a culture might be better or worse in a given age, but fundamentally every culture has severe issues to work through if the culture wishes to believe the fact or not. Some issues are worse than others, but the fundamental issue of the human heart remains if it is acknowledged or not acknowledged.
Post: Historical Progress or Lack There of
Really we just need to study history to see our folly. At many points the world said "ah yes this has fundamentally changed the world forever" and yet nothing really changed.
We often over estimate the uniqueness of our day. The problems of today are not much different than those one hundred years ago or one thousand years ago. The fundamental problem is always the heart of mankind which is similar in every age.
Certain issues are more prevalent in certain ages than others, but the heart manifests its wickedness in every age. Often there is progress on certain issues in certain cultures but often on other issues there is regress.
This is why the bible insists that there is nothing new under the sun. Many things changes but the fundamental problem of man's alienation from God because of his sin is always the same.
Some people often tend to go the opposite direction of seeing progress and instead focus on regress, thinking that the past was better than the present. It is really a similar failure in which the past is not understood.
It is not to say that a culture might be better or worse in a given age, but fundamentally every culture has severe issues to work through if the culture wishes to believe the fact or not. Some issues are worse than others, but the fundamental issue of the human heart remains if it is acknowledged or not acknowledged.
Post: Historical Progress or Lack There of
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Evangelism
Evangelism gets a bad name at times even among members of churches. It is as if we feel we might impose on someone who doesn't know the gospel.
I suppose it is an imposition and sometimes not a welcome one but often it is not as much as we might think. Some people are not as unwilling to listen as we might assume.
Of course others will also wish to speak. So if we share we should be willing to listen. I always find listening to other vantage points interesting.
Sometimes we can learn from those we disagree with. It is not the same as learning ultimate saving knowledge but the perspective of others is always helpful. Sometimes we can see errors in our own thinking when we share with others.
It is sometimes the case that we can only see our thought in conversation. When we share our heart with others we sometimes notice this or that is a bit odd about ourselves. We had everything mostly right but we seem to be missing something.
And then we can go back to the bible and figure out how we were a bit off. Sometimes we don't know an answer at all and now when we go back to the bible we know have a question which the bible has an answer for.
The reality is that evangelism is love. If we believe the message of the bible about the joy of knowing and being known by God sharing that Joy with others is a natural response.
Of course sin and fear often gets in the way. God is always a God of grace. We are saved by grace, live by grace, and never get past grace until we are with God in heaven.
I suppose it is an imposition and sometimes not a welcome one but often it is not as much as we might think. Some people are not as unwilling to listen as we might assume.
Of course others will also wish to speak. So if we share we should be willing to listen. I always find listening to other vantage points interesting.
Sometimes we can learn from those we disagree with. It is not the same as learning ultimate saving knowledge but the perspective of others is always helpful. Sometimes we can see errors in our own thinking when we share with others.
It is sometimes the case that we can only see our thought in conversation. When we share our heart with others we sometimes notice this or that is a bit odd about ourselves. We had everything mostly right but we seem to be missing something.
And then we can go back to the bible and figure out how we were a bit off. Sometimes we don't know an answer at all and now when we go back to the bible we know have a question which the bible has an answer for.
The reality is that evangelism is love. If we believe the message of the bible about the joy of knowing and being known by God sharing that Joy with others is a natural response.
Of course sin and fear often gets in the way. God is always a God of grace. We are saved by grace, live by grace, and never get past grace until we are with God in heaven.
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