Of course, people are sometimes
clueless... I know I was. I had to begin by sitting down and shutting
up and listening to others. I mean really listen. Its harder to do
than one might think. I know this because once I started doing it I
found that EVERYBODY talks about themselves. Wow, is that what I was
doing.
Its a small step... but an important
one. Its kinda like looking in the mirror when you shave or put on
makeup. Kinda hard to do without the mirror. And it may take weeks
for some to realize that they are looking in a mirror, because its
the pride that keeps us focused on ourselves, and using our own
standard to measure others. So it takes a while of listening to
others before we realize that we are actually looking at ourselves.
The thing about pride is that its the
anti-God. There's a real easy trick to seeing if you have some. Just
ask how other people's pride makes you feel. If you're like most,
seeing other's pride infuriates you. That's how it works. Pride is
competition. Its me me me.... so anyone else displaying their pride
is going to make your pride jump up in animosity.
Pride separates.
God unites.?
Simple, huh?
That's why the “shutting up” part
is important in this first step. It does not good to argue pride
against pride. All it does is make the pride stronger in both of you.
That's how this stuff spreads.
Go to just about any community, online
or off, that argue about the bible. Does it make you feel warm and
fuzzy? Is there a weight and significance of God?
Or when its over do people go to their
isolation corners and lick their wounds? Alone? Even if they are
surrounded by people that say, “You were right,” they still feel
alone.
That's what pride does. It isolates us.
Because its very nature is enmity. It exalts itself at the expense of
others. And that's the real sin... the people that “win” those
kind of arguments feel just as hollow.
So how does this whole concept make you
feel? Seriously... Do you feel angry? Like you just want to stay away
from those “idiots”? You want them to leave you alone?
Or as they are railing at you and
spitting on you and trying to hurt you to get you to accept God and
the bible their way and jump through their hoops and calling it
God... do you want to hug them and cry with them?
In Matthew 9:36 it says that Jesus saw
the multitudes and felt compassion for them. In his guts, like a
punch in the solar plexus. These are the people that were going to
kill him for his “heresies”. And he knew it. But it changes
nothing, the compassion and tears is what it looks like when we
realize that these people are hurting themselves worshipping their
pride.
Eventually I found out what kind of
person I really was. A piece of crud. This is also an important step
in humility, but its just a step to something better. Some people do
confuse this step with the destination. Its easy to get stuck here,
especially if the people that are supposed to be helping you
encourage it.
Nowhere in the bible does Jesus teach
us to say “I am a sinner.” Its important to realize the exact
nature of our coming short, but we don't live there.
This also is an important concept about
Christianity that many followers of churchianity use to oppress. Its
actually very effective to keep people dependent on you if you want
them in your church on Sunday. Then you can give them feel good
messages that get them to focus on the feeling and call it God. And
if they feel down you can just tell them its their fault and they
have to pray more or read the bible more or be more holy.
We are already holy. The problem is
that we equate God with warm fuzzies.
This is something that we have been
warned against for centuries. The weight and significance of God is
not a feeling. We have to move beyond judging the effectiveness of
our prayer based upon our feelings. Do you really want a God that you
can't communicate with if you had a bad night's sleep?
But we measure things by the “message”,
meaning if the message or sermon or whatever makes us feel good then
its of God. I'm sure it is, but that's not the sum total of it. To
just treat it as though that is the goal or the result we seek makes
us junkies. We use God to run from pain.
The way God set things up is that the
Law creates sin. He wants us to know that there is no Law that will
save us, there is nothing that we can do better or less or in any
greater quantity for salvation.
I like the book of Romans. If all I had
was the book of Romans I could make it. The others are good too, but
Paul was really talking to the Gentile church (which I am a part) for
God when he wrote this one.
Romans 1:16- ...For it is the power of
God unto salvation to every one that beloved...
This theme is repeated again and again.
It means that God alone gives us salvation. He gave us Jesus.
The law doesn't give us salvation,
following the laws do not give us salvation, following doctrines or
churches or pastors or events or food drives or planting churches or
nothing... God alone.
And he's already done it.
Keep reading the beginning of Romans
and you get to several parts where Paul says exactly this... Down
around 1:21 he starts talking about how the Law was made to have
weight and significance instead of God, and it was foolish and sin.
He spends the next few chapters driving the point home. The Law
creates sin...
We need someone to fulfill the law for
us. Someone that would do it in such a way that every single person
on the planet would have the Law that gives eternal life fulfilled
once and for all.
Everyone.
So... he goes on about how we are no
better than they, that no one is righteous.... churchianity has been
using this stuff for years to make people slaves to their doctrine
with fear and guilt. Give them laws no one can keep then when they
feel guilty, tell them to be churchimaniacs more, which will make it
even worse as they keep trying to hold onto some standard that's
impossible... this is the story of the Old testament in real life...
In our churches every day.
Don't believe me. Read it yourself,
investigate, be honest.
Jesus came to free us from this stuff.
So it is important to realize that we
fall short, but not to stay there. Its part of the plan, why we need
Jesus, but its just a way-station. Its there for us to realize that
we are not better than anyone else... humility, remember?
The trick then is to come to the point
where we can honestly not think of ourselves first....
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