Lots of hard hitting random
Please read my Intro found in Feb. if you are new to reading my blog.
Trust is the key in any relationship. If we claim we have a relationship with God, then why do we continue to not trust Him in all circumstances? I see more being written on this soon. I have ideas of where to go with it, but have many random thoughts right now as well.
Why do Christians deny Hell is a very painful reality when someone close to them dies? Obviously the death hurts a ton, because you loved the person. However, if we never faced a loved one dying who ended up in Hell, it would seem we would have no reason to try and win as many people, strangers or close loved ones to the relationship we know with the end we are promised. The fact is that many Christians never open their mouths to tell anyone they love Jesus because they might offend someone. However, Jesus and God have been offensive for 2000 years, and yet many still did as they knew to be right without fear. We have a promise of protection, and a guaranteed end if we do give of ourselves no matter the cost. So yes even Christians have to face the bitter reality in hopes of God waking them up again, to have even more passion for everyone around us. The cashier you have to deal with, the strangers you have brief small talk with in the stores, the people you get mad at for driving different than you want them to, etc are all placed by God in your life at the exact moment they should be. If the last gesture, word, or action you did would be your last; would it be the way you wanted to be remembered? God has a plan. We will definitely offend people if we talk about our truth, but I would rather do my best to offend those people who God placed in my life that day, then to know I might have missed a huge opportunity to save one more person from Hell. God loves all of us the same. We should try our best to change our current human nature (obviously we will still slip, but we can grow with that) to love EVERY person, pleasant or not that God brings into our life each day, as He would love them.
I will leave you with a very powerful quote, from a very well known Atheist Penn Gillette: "How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? I mean if I believed beyond a shadow of doubt that a truck was going to hit you and you didn't believe it; that truck was bearing down on you. There is a certain point where I tackle you, and this is more important than that. "
OK on top of this being on my mind, I have a fun new random thought that has been on my mind to add. I am keeping these all together, as I feel their individual length and substance lacks some with how scattered I am myself in life right now. This one is “When is a duck a penguin?”
The thought itself is amusing, but with deeper thinking also quite true. As Christians we are to become “a new creation” in God, through him helping us grow with Him to leave behind everything wrong before we had Him. We used to “quack like a duck, waddle like a duck, and look like a duck” so every other duck around us knew we were a duck. Now there are some Christians who still are ducks, but have “bettered” themselves by now also having a belief in God and attending church, but nothing more. And then there are others where the random silly thought I had the other day comes in here. The thought was “if it quacks like a duck waddles like a duck……and looks like a penguin?” Here is the explanation. So often we don’t want to trust people beyond what we have always known f them, even if they really are moving forward in positive changes involving their Christian walk and lifestyle. Yes they were a duck, but now they are like a baby penguin cracking small pieces of its shell away to emerge as a new creature. Now I will say, any stage is honorable, if you are in that stage to learn and grow more into the new creature. Sometimes getting to the egg takes a while. Other times, being in the egg takes the longest. It is difficult to give up the comforts we have known in order to figure out how much more potential we have to discover still. There are some Christians who have emerged as a penguin, and might still seem small or like a baby to us, but to God the fact that they survived the transition into a new creature is one of the most praiseworthy things they could have done. Taking a step back to gain more awareness of the changes God has made in so many around us is incredible.
Now the question that was also running through my head was “why a penguin and a duck?” The answer was as a non Christian we tend to run away (fly) from any problem we face to get to the next point where we feel free or high enough that it won’t bother us. Penguins can’t fly, so they are consistently grounded. Also, penguins don’t migrate, they stay put. God takes care of them despite them staying put. In our past we relied on migrating or flying away as much as we could to deal with things. As we grow in God we don’t have as much desire to run, hide, or escape the situation because we have learned that the trust we place in God is very justified; He will never let us down in any circumstance, no matter how hard. That being explained, let’s work hard to find more ways to encourage our fellow Christians who are making great strides in their walk, even if before they seemed small to us.
Trust is the key in any relationship. If we claim we have a relationship with God, then why do we continue to not trust Him in all circumstances? I see more being written on this soon. I have ideas of where to go with it, but have many random thoughts right now as well.
Why do Christians deny Hell is a very painful reality when someone close to them dies? Obviously the death hurts a ton, because you loved the person. However, if we never faced a loved one dying who ended up in Hell, it would seem we would have no reason to try and win as many people, strangers or close loved ones to the relationship we know with the end we are promised. The fact is that many Christians never open their mouths to tell anyone they love Jesus because they might offend someone. However, Jesus and God have been offensive for 2000 years, and yet many still did as they knew to be right without fear. We have a promise of protection, and a guaranteed end if we do give of ourselves no matter the cost. So yes even Christians have to face the bitter reality in hopes of God waking them up again, to have even more passion for everyone around us. The cashier you have to deal with, the strangers you have brief small talk with in the stores, the people you get mad at for driving different than you want them to, etc are all placed by God in your life at the exact moment they should be. If the last gesture, word, or action you did would be your last; would it be the way you wanted to be remembered? God has a plan. We will definitely offend people if we talk about our truth, but I would rather do my best to offend those people who God placed in my life that day, then to know I might have missed a huge opportunity to save one more person from Hell. God loves all of us the same. We should try our best to change our current human nature (obviously we will still slip, but we can grow with that) to love EVERY person, pleasant or not that God brings into our life each day, as He would love them.
I will leave you with a very powerful quote, from a very well known Atheist Penn Gillette: "How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? I mean if I believed beyond a shadow of doubt that a truck was going to hit you and you didn't believe it; that truck was bearing down on you. There is a certain point where I tackle you, and this is more important than that. "
OK on top of this being on my mind, I have a fun new random thought that has been on my mind to add. I am keeping these all together, as I feel their individual length and substance lacks some with how scattered I am myself in life right now. This one is “When is a duck a penguin?”
The thought itself is amusing, but with deeper thinking also quite true. As Christians we are to become “a new creation” in God, through him helping us grow with Him to leave behind everything wrong before we had Him. We used to “quack like a duck, waddle like a duck, and look like a duck” so every other duck around us knew we were a duck. Now there are some Christians who still are ducks, but have “bettered” themselves by now also having a belief in God and attending church, but nothing more. And then there are others where the random silly thought I had the other day comes in here. The thought was “if it quacks like a duck waddles like a duck……and looks like a penguin?” Here is the explanation. So often we don’t want to trust people beyond what we have always known f them, even if they really are moving forward in positive changes involving their Christian walk and lifestyle. Yes they were a duck, but now they are like a baby penguin cracking small pieces of its shell away to emerge as a new creature. Now I will say, any stage is honorable, if you are in that stage to learn and grow more into the new creature. Sometimes getting to the egg takes a while. Other times, being in the egg takes the longest. It is difficult to give up the comforts we have known in order to figure out how much more potential we have to discover still. There are some Christians who have emerged as a penguin, and might still seem small or like a baby to us, but to God the fact that they survived the transition into a new creature is one of the most praiseworthy things they could have done. Taking a step back to gain more awareness of the changes God has made in so many around us is incredible.
Now the question that was also running through my head was “why a penguin and a duck?” The answer was as a non Christian we tend to run away (fly) from any problem we face to get to the next point where we feel free or high enough that it won’t bother us. Penguins can’t fly, so they are consistently grounded. Also, penguins don’t migrate, they stay put. God takes care of them despite them staying put. In our past we relied on migrating or flying away as much as we could to deal with things. As we grow in God we don’t have as much desire to run, hide, or escape the situation because we have learned that the trust we place in God is very justified; He will never let us down in any circumstance, no matter how hard. That being explained, let’s work hard to find more ways to encourage our fellow Christians who are making great strides in their walk, even if before they seemed small to us.
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