This world is full of conflict; chaos and confusion are now the new ‘norm.’ It just occurred to me why I still hear so many believers spouting off about all the ills of society and the Church. It is because we see in-part and know in-part, mistakenly assuming that we are in possession of understanding the whole purpose of God, when in reality we still have only bits and pieces. It is one thing to have ‘come-out’ of the organized religions of men. Conformity and peer-pressure being what they are today, that in itself is no small accomplishment. But just because we ‘come-out’… let us not assume that we have now made it. We are on the path, but we still have a long way to go. We have not ‘arrived’ yet. It usually takes as many years to get the ‘church’ out of us, as we spent being indoctrinated in it. By that I mean, that even though we may physically separate ourselves from organized religion we cannot help but take an incredible amount of baggage with us in our exodus. This becomes evident as time goes by, revealed by our speech, our attitudes, and our conduct. Judging others is one prime example. Just because the Spirit moved you to come out, does not mean that He has placed the same desire and longing in everyone else. We are all in varying stages of spiritual development, and we err when we mistakenly project our ‘vision’ on others in a critical, judgmental way, condemning them for not seeing what we see, or believing the way we believe. How many of us are actually walking in what we see and believe we know? We are trying to… which either results in our developing self-righteousness, where we succeed in convincing ourselves that we are doing all that God requires; or brings us to the full realization that we are incapable of keeping the commandments in our own strength.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Inevitable Conflict
Inevitable Conflict…
This world is full of conflict; chaos and confusion are now the new ‘norm.’ It just occurred to me why I still hear so many believers spouting off about all the ills of society and the Church. It is because we see in-part and know in-part, mistakenly assuming that we are in possession of understanding the whole purpose of God, when in reality we still have only bits and pieces. It is one thing to have ‘come-out’ of the organized religions of men. Conformity and peer-pressure being what they are today, that in itself is no small accomplishment. But just because we ‘come-out’… let us not assume that we have now made it. We are on the path, but we still have a long way to go. We have not ‘arrived’ yet. It usually takes as many years to get the ‘church’ out of us, as we spent being indoctrinated in it. By that I mean, that even though we may physically separate ourselves from organized religion we cannot help but take an incredible amount of baggage with us in our exodus. This becomes evident as time goes by, revealed by our speech, our attitudes, and our conduct. Judging others is one prime example. Just because the Spirit moved you to come out, does not mean that He has placed the same desire and longing in everyone else. We are all in varying stages of spiritual development, and we err when we mistakenly project our ‘vision’ on others in a critical, judgmental way, condemning them for not seeing what we see, or believing the way we believe. How many of us are actually walking in what we see and believe we know? We are trying to… which either results in our developing self-righteousness, where we succeed in convincing ourselves that we are doing all that God requires; or brings us to the full realization that we are incapable of keeping the commandments in our own strength.
This world is full of conflict; chaos and confusion are now the new ‘norm.’ It just occurred to me why I still hear so many believers spouting off about all the ills of society and the Church. It is because we see in-part and know in-part, mistakenly assuming that we are in possession of understanding the whole purpose of God, when in reality we still have only bits and pieces. It is one thing to have ‘come-out’ of the organized religions of men. Conformity and peer-pressure being what they are today, that in itself is no small accomplishment. But just because we ‘come-out’… let us not assume that we have now made it. We are on the path, but we still have a long way to go. We have not ‘arrived’ yet. It usually takes as many years to get the ‘church’ out of us, as we spent being indoctrinated in it. By that I mean, that even though we may physically separate ourselves from organized religion we cannot help but take an incredible amount of baggage with us in our exodus. This becomes evident as time goes by, revealed by our speech, our attitudes, and our conduct. Judging others is one prime example. Just because the Spirit moved you to come out, does not mean that He has placed the same desire and longing in everyone else. We are all in varying stages of spiritual development, and we err when we mistakenly project our ‘vision’ on others in a critical, judgmental way, condemning them for not seeing what we see, or believing the way we believe. How many of us are actually walking in what we see and believe we know? We are trying to… which either results in our developing self-righteousness, where we succeed in convincing ourselves that we are doing all that God requires; or brings us to the full realization that we are incapable of keeping the commandments in our own strength.
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