i never thought i would see in my lifetime an african american president. It's so amazing. But it seems a lot of christians aren't happy with his stand on alot of things like abortion. Yet my husband said he's a christian. It made me wonder what we as christians consider fundamental beliefs...because we are all different and we belong to different denominations. I've heard many a pastor say things like ' at least we're not baptists' or 'we're not as strange as pentacostals' - all jokingly of course:)
But there must be some values, some base/foundation beliefs which we all must have in common. The 1st one that comes to mind of course is that each of us believes and has accepted Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. We accept that he was God in human form who suffered and died to pay the price for our sins. And he was resurrected so that all who believed in him would have eternal life. He left us the Holy Spirit who lives in each of us to be our Counsellor. We believe in an omnipotent God who is our Creator.
We may differ in who the trinity is in character and each of their roles in our lives. And we may differ in how we practice these beliefs.
But what else makes us the same? Are we expected to have the same views on abortion, homosexuality, who should be in charge of our country, marriage, children, sex?? Or does the LORD give us free will to decide these things for ourselves, based on our own personal experiences in these areas, our own knowledge on these areas?
Because if he made us this way with our own personal life experiences which help form our knowledge base, then we are all going to have different things that we believe strongly and different areas that we pour our lives into. And what i believed as a 21 yr old is not the same as what i believe now as a 40 yr old. Each of us is a work in progress with some areas that we are more set free in then others.
For me personally, the God I believe in, expects me to make judgement calls for myself alone, and now for my children, until they are old enough to do the same. I can only answer for myself when I stand before the LORD. I can't force anyone to believe what i believe because i haven't walked in their shoes. I don't know what makes them who they are.
So yes, I believe for myself abortion is wrong, but for someone who has been through sexual abuse or rape. How can I answer for them? Only God can work that out with them. For me there is no blanket answer to these bigger issues. By this i mean I can't just throw a blanket over these areas and say this one answer covers it all.
I hope I don't offend anyone by this. But sometimes it feels like we as christians have 'pet' sins that we like to stand up against or judge others on. Meanwhile in our lives the sins we should be worrying about don't get enough attention.
I pray the president of the united states not only answers to the people of america but also to the God who created him.
3 comments:
As born again Christians (remember: Christian means "little Christ") we must be like Jesus. And we must call sin, "sin". Abortion, homosexuality, premarital sex, adultery, coveteousness (i'm guilty of this one!!), stealing, lying, etc etc are all sins. Period. Sin.
We're not perfect. Jesus wants us to repent of our sin and LOVE the sinner. We don't have to love their sin. In fact, we need to abhor it. The USA is going to reap what it sows eventually, in one way or another.
yip, i agree sin is sin, and one sin is no greater than another in the LORD's eyes. but often the sin some of us abhor is not the sin the LORD is pointing out in our own lives. It's easy to hate other people's sins but meanwhile your own sins are locked away for no one to see...and the sins that are so obvious and in people's faces get alot more attention while others go unnoticed.
An example would be telling the world how much you hate homosexuality and how God hates this. But meanwhile lying to your boss and pulling a sickie when it suits you to stay home. When you stand before the LORD he's not going to congratulate you for speaking up against homosexuality when Satan the father of lies ruled your mouth whenever it suited. The LORD is working on each of us as individuals.
Or the bible example of the woman who everyone wanted to stone because they all knew her sin and abhorred it, but the Lord showed them they should be looking at their own sin, their own lives. No one stoned her.
Oh yeah....I see now what you mean!
I just wish more Americans would treat others the way they want to be treated....the GOlden Rule, you know?
COme on over to pick up the award I just awarded you!!
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