I tried to change my life for the
better many times. Each time I tried to follow this program or that
one. It was very difficult to just dig through the crud and simply
start. This last time something different happened. God put someone
in my life that had a different starting point. It was humility. This
guy simply asked me to write a paper on what humility meant to me.
I must have started that paper a half a
dozen times, only to crumble them up and throw them away. Finally I
just decided to be completely honest about it. I wrote “I am not
God....”
And that's really where it begins.
Where it all went wrong.
Then another funny thing happened. I
started hearing people left and right say something like “the drugs
and alcohol is just a symptom” or “the sex is just a symptom”
and other similar statements.
Now I'm a weird person. When I hear
things like that the first thing that pops into my mind is: “Then
why are we treating the symptom? What is the disease?”
So I turned my inhuman focus on the
answer to that simple question. And no one could answer me. Least of
all the very ones that were going around saying that it was just the
symptom. So I went broader with it. I started asking people in the
religious business, and teachers, and doctors, and tinkers and
tailors and soldiers and spies. I researched it in books on
philosophy and a dozen different religions.
And I figured out what I think the
answer is. What is the disease?
Pride.
Now let's not get hung up on the
word(s) here. Remember we're talking about a real concept, not
defining words. We are not talking about pride as in taking pride in
one's work or one's family; being proud of something that you love;
or even feeling good and getting satisfaction from praise. These are
good things. What I am talking about here is sometimes called
“hubris”. But even that falls short of giving the whole picture.
This is an immensely huge concept.
In the 12 step programs they call it
the selfish, self-centered thing. It is definitely rooted in the
self... self-will.
Christianity is the only religion that
considers pride a sin. Sure other religions like Buddhism (which is
not a real religion... no higher power) may consider it
un-enlightened, or an abomination, or something like that. But in a
very real way the sin of pride is woven throughout the entire concept
of Christianity. From the first sin ever, when Lucifer wanted to
exalt himself above God; to the first human sin, when he told Eve
that if she ate of the “apple” she would know she was “as God”;
the first murder, over and over.
Sin is more about doing things without
God then it is doing things against God. And that's pride. Pride is
all about thinking we are “God” in ways big and small.
God gets to decide how the world is.
Its His world. When the world doesn't go the way we want it, the pain
and suffering and depression and expectations and anger and all the
stuff we go through is from holding the world to our standard, rather
than the creator of the universe's standard.
See whenever we are measuring
something, we need something to measure it against. Some standard.
And the way the brain works, if there is no standard then we use our
own. So built into our vary brains and how they work is a subtle form
of pride. That's the slavery of sin.
We do it with God. We use something
that is supposed to be a mere vehicle to understanding God, the
bible, and very subtly begin to measure God by the standard. He is
much bigger. Don't get me wrong, I completely agree that the bible is
the Word of God. But that is a very different thing than saying that
it is the “words” of God. Jesus is also the Word of God.
But He is so much more and bigger than
the bible. To say that God can only be what is found in the bible and
nothing more is to make an idol of the bible. Its pride.
The problem is that fear and insecurity
creates a need to control things. Sometimes those “things” are
knowledge. Its the “Are we there yet?” syndrome that kids have.
Like if they don't like the answer they are going to get out of the
car. So its our fear and insecurity that drives us to cling to the
bible at the expense of allowing God to truly reveal himself to us.
And that has to do with acceptance.
Acceptance is a subset of humility. Accepting God for who He is, on
His terms, and with no limits or labels or restrictions or standards
is a very complete understanding.
Let me give you an example. There's
this verse that most Christian's are taught first when they give
their life to Christ. It's John 3:16:
For God so loved the world, that he
gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have everlasting life.
(I like the King James, if it was good
enough for Paul its good enough for you.)
So what we have is the first step in
making a slave out of Christian. You have to say the right prayer, or
THINK the right thing about Jesus being the Son of God, or even
announce it publicly, or something, and then: Poof! You're saved.
Look, every non-Christian in the world
sees this for the nonsense it is. It's about time we Christians do
too.
Do you know how many Christians I have
talked to that have told me this one verse is proof that God's love
is conditional? How many are tortured that God doesn't love them
unless they do this or that, go to church regularly, learn all they
can about the convoluted logic of doctrines or denominations? Does
that really sound like someone loving you so much that they would
sacrifice their Son for you?
The problem is that the people who tell
you this are the ones that want something from you. If its a gift of
grace from God, then its free. There is nothing need to be done to
get it.
The word believe or belief does not
mean the same thing now that it did even 100 yrs ago. Certainly
something different than the old English that the King James was
written in, and definitely something different than the Koinic Greek
that it was translated from. In old English the word is Bea Loef. I
don't need to translate that do I? It means “beloved”.
You are already the beloved of Christ.
He died for you in a very gruesome way. You already have eternal
life.
And so does every Christian, in every
denomination. Yes even the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses.
And so does the Muslim and the
Buddhists.
And the Wiccans and the Athiests.
Everyone is already saved.
Its the sin of Pride that keeps it us
vs. them. So we need to start with humility.
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