If I would listen
If i would listen- what would God say to me? Well i have spent a lot of recent time listening and fully plan to devote more time to this listening thing- cause i have questions that need answers- fairly simple q's but they are so very important to me- that if God is the friend i know he is, The father i love him for being, and the intamite lover he wants to be- then he has got an answer that will bring peace to my heart...
I have a good frind- probably one of the best friends ever (cause shes totally amazing). She is having a rough time cause she is going to a christian school where the dominant philosophy is that "people are useless wastes that our sin is all we are, that we are wretched to a point of disgust to God, nothing good in you, you worthless piece of shit-" need i go on? See there is a couple things i see wrong with this- and its basic weslean theology- (she said this to me and it grabbed me like a clinging earwig and just hasnt left my mind) If we TRULY have free will and our God is good and has made himself a choice for us- then we choose him; there must be something good in us that we would choose a good God.
God loves us- and true we are only able to enter into his courts by his grace because we do sin and skrew up and remove ourselves from his presence, will, and holyness... but that dosnt mean that were worthliss and so desparaging that we couldnt see Gods beauty and that he didnt create us "Good". Read genesis- Adam and Eve didnt cease to be the beautiful people God made them- and it probably broke his heart in a way we will never understand when they chose to sin, but he then spent the rest of the HUGE bible and on until now ages upon ages persuing and desireing and maddly chasing us back to his heart.
Another friend of mine asked me some hard questions- well im always up to a theological challange- not that i know anything about anything really- but he asked questions to the effect of "do we desearve salvation?"
i dont think its about desearving so much- essentially well we were created for a forever that didnt need salvation- then we skrew it up- then God sent a savior because he loved us. no technically i dont think we "desearve" if God is holy and we are evil- i just dont think man is evil- we do evil things and are decieved by an evil being who we let rule us- but man is something God loves and out of his love he desires a relationship- and has done everything he can to give us that relationship. Am I desearving of Christ dying for me- NO! But i dont buy into the ideology that there wasnt something he saw in me that made him want to do it. (most of the time i dont know what... but then there is something isnt there... and thats encouraging...)
And these college age students at my friend's school- they are being ripped apart by a self defeating mindset that why in the world would they love and persue a God who "Only saved your wretched skin out of mercy, not that you are or could be any good ever."
one last thought- not saying being basically good stopps us from leaning toward a wickid person we can be, but we are not made of our uglyness- the native americans have an old idea that there are two wolfs inside a man's soul- one evil, and one good- constantly at war over who rules the man- eventually one winns- the one you choose to feed.
posted by o-likewoah @ 7:37 AM
2 Comments:
Hey kid!
How're ya' doin'???
I'll be coming to see you in a few weeks, but that is beside the point for now.
There is a certain school of thought/study/theology that says that all of us were once holy, heavenly creatures and that once Satan staged his attempted coup of Heaven that we were all forced to make a choice and in order to be able to give us the freedom to make that choice, every person had to be "born of a woman" and given the chance to choose God or Satan.
Aside- You do know don't you that there is no in-between...although most people do not think that they have chosen to follow Satan, if they have not chosen the Heavenly Father, they have rejected Him. Nothing more, nothing less.
Anyway, this school of theology has a fundamental concept that we once had the knowledge of all of things Heavenly but because we must all choose we must forget those things until we have fully realized our spiritual selves.
In any case, the short answer is, we are not completely evil, no one is (even serial killers) and we do choose which part "to feed" but it is more than that. We have a penchant for choosing sin due to the fact that we were born in the world, not Heavenly creatures, and we cannot be until we are reunited with our Heavenly Father. When we accept Christ, choose HIM, the Holy Spirit comes to live in us to help us make the right choices. Do we always listen? Of course not, we are in fact still human.
Remember a very long time ago when I was a little younger than you, I first attended a private "Baptist" college. What you are describing is the same theology taught at the school I attended. I do not believe that this is a theology that is either good or right and I do not think that it belongs with any one religion. I believe that is the "religious" college's way of controlling students. In fact, statistics show that 88% of children raised in the faith will leave the faith by the time they are 20 years old. As a result, many faith-based colleges and universities are dying to figure out a way to keep this from happening. The statistic that is not known is the percentage that return to the faith once God has convicted them of sin and called them back.
If I were you, I would tell your friend to reconsider her choice of college, let her know that while her college may have good intentions, it is possible it is immature Chrisitianity causing this behavior.
God does not hate us, He does not despise us, He is not disgusted by us. He loves us and wants us to love Him, He treasures us as individuals because He created us. He cannot disdain us any more than a new parent who waits for their newborn child can disdain that child once it is born. Will the child make mistakes? Of course! Will the child scream "I hate you!" at some point? Probably. But that does not change the love of a parent, nor does that type of behavior change God's love for us. Make sure your friend knows that, and if she is being taught to hate herself, encourage her to find another option for her higher education.
Well you know what I have to say....I don't even have to say it.....but I will say it anyway.
Romans 8:37-39
Nay in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that LOVED us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the LOVE of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
....not even colleges...not even poor choices....not even poor behavior......not even sin....not even guilt.....not even false teaching......not even misunderstanding
whatever it is....
not even that
chefnele
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