We must not lose that child-like mind, we must continue
to question the information that is given to us, and not just allow others to spoon
feed it to us with our eyes tightly closed, which in turn leaves our minds vulnerable
to attacks and misguidance.
This is ever so important when you are dealing with
people of faith, and not because they are all bad and/or looking to cause
problems in your life, but because you don’t want to be fooled by false
prophets and led astray.
We are not to take the whole ”sheep” metaphor literally,
God wants us to learn and evolve in our faith, he doesn’t want us to be
mindless sheep who just take everything that is told to them as gospel and
create their lives around it.
He wouldn’t have blessed us with a brain if he didn’t
want us to use it, to think for ourselves, to research and investigate what is
being told to us and not just accept it as fact.
I know it’s scary to question authority, especially if
it comes in the form of your pastor with a whole congregation backing them up,
but for your spiritual health and well-being it is something that totally needs
to be done, it is a necessity.
Don’t be afraid to ask why, to question what is being
told to you, because no matter who is preaching it or what book it’s written in
nothing is completely foolproof, especially when man is involved.
Your goal should not to be a spiritual zombie, someone who walks around without a thought in their head and a mentality only to blindly feed on the flesh that everyone else is eating.
You should strive to be much more, an individual who
thinks for themselves and truly understands what they are eating and more
importantly, why they are eating it.
Break free from the flock, educate yourself properly so
that you can better understand why things are the way they are and what it
means to truly be a man/woman of faith.
There’s nothing wrong with being a follower of one
religion or another, or not following any at all, just make sure that you are
doing so with open eyes and because of a decision that was made with an
educated mindset and not because someone else told you to.
I am not trying to get you to debunk your faith, to make
you doubt everything you’ve been taught and to make you cynical, but rather to
help you become stronger spiritually and to see things how they truly are and
not just as you were told to view them.
Be who you are, live your life as you feel fit, just
make sure you’re aware of why it is you’re taking the steps you’re taking,
because if you walk blindly through life you run the risk you seriously hurting
yourself and/or others around you.
Know why you’re doing it, don’t be afraid to speak up
and go against the grain, because even if man shuns you, God never will.
MJM
As a person who questions things even more as I get older, I think you make a valid point. There's a difference between accepting things that you cannot change as the Serenity Prayer tells us and blindly accepting what your told as fact. Many people combine those concepts and end up as a member of a flock rather than a leader and inspiration to the flock. Nice piece.
ReplyDeleteVery well said my friend, nicely put.
DeleteWell-said, Michael. Authority is as authority does. It does not mean that we have to comply with anything that we clearly know is not right with God.....to thine ownself be true.
ReplyDeleteExactly, don't go into the battle blindly, because if you do the end result won't be a good one.
DeleteI am not a "religious" person, per se, but I definitely like your view on this. thanks for the post.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much my friend, I really do appreciate that. Also, these words aren't only true for the religious, we should all follow these rules and not let others led us into slaughter.
DeleteA valid point, well made. Credit to you, good sir!
ReplyDeleteThank you my friend.
Deletefor the most part I'm in agreement.with that in mind we must consider who is the final authority.It's dangerous to fall into the mindset of relativity(no such thing as truth).there is objective truth and subjective truth.Jesus said that He is the truth,the way and the life.I belive that because of His long before predictions by the jewish profits that He would die on the cross,be buried,and rise from the dead He has proven that any way will lead to destruction of the individuals soul.As you mentioned we can be led astray by false profits.So for you to say that there is nothing wrong with following another "religion"can be very dangerous at best and eternal devastation at worst. Jesus is the one that told us to "watch for"false profits".Paul wrote to the Galatians that if any man preach any other gospel let him be accursed.There are so many different religions that one could easily be overwhelmed by which is the right way.well the short answer is to trust in the death.burial,and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the payment of your soul.No other way.This I pray does not come across as extremism but wanted to in love make the point that not all roads will lead to salvation.
DeleteMy friend I truly do appreciate your input, and respect what you have to say, but all in all it is between God and the individual not the church, regardless of what denomination they fall under.
DeleteMJM, The great part about questioning is that, eventually, our faith becomes stronger. It's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day oneupmanship of religion. the fact that my faith in God comes from a personal experience and not a personal decision provides the comfort of truth to my faith. That said, I am constantly studying the Bible - and yes, that means having to delve into Hebrew and Greek from time to time, just to be sure I'm getting it 'right' - and working on being more like Jesus.
ReplyDeleteDo I always get it right? Heck no! I'm human and fallible and I make terrible mistakes from time to time, but again, because of the foundation I have, I can get back up and keep going.
I watched a fantastic message from Alistair Begg last night. In it, he pointed out that the definition of tolerance is: The ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with (Oxford).
Where our problems begin is when one truth bumps up against another truth. I firmly believe that Jesus is who He says He is, and that the Bible lays out God's redemptive plan for mankind. To me, that is an unalterable truth.
That does not mean that I cannot be tolerant, in an Oxford English way, of other religions and belief systems. My goal is to be a kind and loving person. I have friends of all different faiths - and some who have only a faith in themselves. Their beliefs do not change my truth, but Begg's distinction here is key, not everything can be true.
As I believe your anonymous respondent attempted to convey, Christians can be tolerant, and loving and kind, while all the while believing that other religions that try to capture a path to God are completely false.
That's not being intolerant. How important - how truthful - is my faith if I will lay it down, and for all intents and purposes refute it, in order to make someone else feel good?
Keep questioning, my friend.
X
Thank you so much my friend for taking the time to read and respond to my blog, I really appreciate it.
DeleteI do agree with you, one must truly believe their faith to the fullest, otherwise it would be completely foolish and a total waste of time on their behalf. We must all keep questioning, regardless of our faith, or lack thereof, because that is really the only way to grow.