What Do You Hear?
Then they understood that he was not
telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching
of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
– Matthew 16:12
What do you believe? If you only believe what lines up
with your opinions, then maybe you need to step back and reconsider what the
Bible really says.
We are a people who pull out Scripture verses to align
with what we think, with what benefits us, with what feels comfortable. So, we
demand that God give us everything we ask for in faith, while we refuse to
associate with people we don’t deem worthy.
We’re missing the point. We don’t seem to understand
the lessons directed at us. We demand that the government save the unborn
babies (a good thing!) all the while condemning the poor as lazy and beneath
us. We don’t know their stories but that doesn’t stop us from judging.
The Bible tells us to care for widows and orphans but
we shake our heads no. That’s something families should do. And if the families
don’t do as they should, well, that’s someone else’s problem. It’s what we
believe except that’s not what the Bible says.
The Bible tells us to share so we demand things from
others and condemn them if they don’t turn over whatever it is we want. Then we
guard closely our money and our time, refusing to share either. We expect much
from others but so very little from ourselves.
We pray as we feel led. We urge God to change hearts
to align with our expectations. We tell God what He needs to do to make us
happy and successful and, thus, better servants of His. We expect God to line
up before us to bestow favors we don’t deserve because, after all, we belong to
Him.
We believe that talking about hard work means we
really do work hard. We expect that those who have less material things must be
too lazy to acquire them. Or, maybe, they just make bad financial decisions. We
don’t consider what an illness can do to a family budget. We don’t think about
the privileges we have through no effort of our own.
We believe everything we hear on television if it
lines up with what we want to believe. We get angry with anyone who disagrees
with us. We are defensive when someone questions our opinions and points out
that what we’re saying really isn’t from the Bible.
My grandmother swore the Bible said people of other
races were inferior to whites. She never could find that passage in the Bible
though I asked her to show me. The reason she couldn’t find it? It’s not there.
That’s true of many things we believe. When we’re questioned about it, we either
can’t find it in the Bible or we realize we’ve taken the words out of context.
We Christians are imploding because of our hatred and
judgment of those whom we share faith in Jesus but not much else. We don’t want
to work together, to love, to learn how to get along and have civilized
conversations when we disagree. We’re too busy pointing fingers to realize we
need to get the plank out of our own eye before we go after the splinter in the
eye of someone else.
Be wary of those who preach the gospel with selfish
intent. Be careful to study the Scriptures for yourself and ask God to open
your heart to hear His voice. Not everyone who says they’re of God actually
preaches His Word. If someone always tells you exactly what you want to hear,
speaking words that line up always with your views, maybe you’re listening to
the wrong person.
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