Embrace the Within no. 31

Let all things their Creator bless, and worship God in humbleness, alleluia!

• St. Francis of Assisi

I don’t know about what your big BUT is, however my big BUT was all about how I approached The Bible and God. I approached everything with the perspective that I was the one that was able to do the judging. I had presupposed that I was the one with impeccable judgment, vast wisdom, and a track record of great decisions. Laughable I assure you, however, how many of us approached God this way? How many of us thought it was our right to pass judgment on the actions of God, the commandments of God, and thought if we were God we would be doing things differently?

I know I wasn’t alone in this perspective and I know I won’t be the last one saved from this perspective. I still see it among the main roots of big Christian BUTs. And when we approach things blamelessly we get a whole different perspective about God’s Word than if we approach the Word like we truly are, flawed, broken, and fallen. Simply switching that perspective allows me to read The Bible with a heart open to learning.

A lot of this comes from treating God and His Word like we treat other people. When we read what others write and hear what others say, we are easy to go to modes of judgment and criticism. Trying to find whether it fits my preconceived and preformed echo chamber of acceptable thought, I rate these words on my merits and not their own.

I read a lot and mostly nonfiction. This has helped my mind work in a more research based mode when reading than a critical lens as I would when looking at fiction whether in verse or prose. And I think that switch of reading nonfiction to learn rather than to condemn or judge has helped when I first started reading The Bible and assorted apocrypha over the past few months in context. I had read scripture before in pieces and standing alone BUT I had never read the entirety of The Bible from cover to cover. It is a process that helps make a lot more sense out of what I was taught as disjointed stories in my youth.

Seeing the whole story as one unified narrative across thousands of years gives so much more depth and understanding to my journey. When I read the scrolls of Torah, I get an understanding of how stubborn and unworthy even the people God chose were. As I continue through, I get to see more and more the failings of humanity and their stubbornness and struggles with God. And I can take those struggles and failings and apply them to my walk. And coming from that perspective now, I get to see the Word as something not for me to fight or judge or evaluate, BUT as instruction and lesson. And shifting that perspective has truly helped my journey become more aligned with God.

Maybe you’re approaching this the wrong way? Maybe your big Christain BUT is that you are enthroned? Maybe your big Christian BUT is that your culture is enthroned? Maybe your big Christian BUT is getting in the way of what God wants?

Peace to your home. Bless your being. The reign of God is now. Be a blessing to God and others.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoGodsNoMasters #MyNepheshMyChoice #MakeYourselfGreatAgain #EmbracetheWithin

Embrace the Within no. 30

In the first century, there were no media at all. If Jesus Christ had not, clearly and without doubt, been raised bodily from the grave, we would have never heard of him.

• Richard Bewes The Resurrection: Fact or Fiction? (Oxford, England: Lion Hudson, 1999).

How much do we talk about things from the past year? past decade? past century? BUT we are still talking about Christ two thousand years later. Praise God. Some of us are talking about Him for good reasons and some of us are talking about Him for bad reasons and that is nothing new. Christ had plenty of problems with folks trying to find fault when He was walking around the Middle East two thousand years ago and He still has folks finding fault today.

And just like the Pharisees, there are plenty of folks that believe they are right. I was there myself not too long ago. If I read enough books and studied enough thought and science, then I would figure this whole existence out and be able to hack it for my own benefit. I was right to a point because all that reading and all that thought and all that science led me back to the Father through Christ. BUT there are so many sources out there, so much data out there, so many interpretations out there, that it can get exhausting mentally and spiritually which then wears you out physically. It wore me out and then I would get defeated. I would be on the verge of a breakthrough and then find that this was just more of the same. And that is what I found over the past few years. A lot of the same pretending to be something new.

BUT, what doesn’t change and is always the same is God. And there is a lot of newness to discover in that unchanging beacon of truth. Folks can pick at it like the Pharisees. Folks can add their BUTs to it. None of that is going to change the Truth. One of those little sayings when I was beginning back into my faith that Matt and I repeated a lot was, “The Truth is the Truth”.

And guess what? I am not the Truth. I like to think that since I was made in God’s image that I can be God. And I can spend all this time criticizing God for my problems with whatever. Maybe I don’t like my situation this week because I have fluid in my knee and I can’t walk and suddenly that is God’s fault. Maybe I have trouble with some coworkers being unreliable and unprofessional and suddenly it’s God’s fault that I hate going to work. Maybe poor economic policies are stressing my finances and suddenly that’s God’s fault for allowing these folks authority. Maybe I don’t like that God’s Truth doesn’t match with the wokeness of my culture and suddenly it’s God’s fault.

The Truth is that it’s my fault. It’s always my fault. I am trying to put myself in the throne. I am trying to take authority over my life. I am trying to make the rules. BUT I change. I am fickle. I am inconsistent. I am fallible. I am broken. And I need God. God doesn’t need me.

So I need to stop thinking that I know better than God. Where do we get the audacity to think we know better than God? Sin. It’s quite simply our broken and fallen nature that the spirits of evil can easily sink their thoughts into and turn me, you, us astray.

The Word has survived for thousands of years as an instruction manual for life. If you want to see colossal failure and why humanity doesn’t deserve to be in charge, then read The Bible. You can also just watch the state-sponsored propaganda outlets as well. No one is hiding how comically tragic people are. Well, no one but ourselves in our own pride and arrogance because we’re different than everyone else. We’re better than everyone else. We’re smarter than everyone else.

Guess what? I am not and you are not either. The moment we get it through our stiff-necks and start living our purpose, the simpler life becomes. BUT giving up control is not our nature. That takes a lot of fighting, a lot of molding, and a lot of work. And the more I remind myself that I need God, the more I align myself with my purpose. And my purpose is not on the throne. My purpose is praising, worshiping, and magnifying the God that is enthroned.

Peace to your home. Bless your being. The reign of God is now. Be a blessing to God and others.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoGodsNoMasters #MyNepheshMyChoice #MakeYourselfGreatAgain #EmbracetheWithin