My Thoughts By: Collin Weiser
Rights-
If we truly say that we are Christians (trying to be like Christ) then why do we get offended at our brothers (other Christians)? Shouldn’t we die to our rights and not have the right to be offended? Now that is not to say that we don’t have the right to take offense to blasphemy - that is a righteous anger. But I am saying if we are truly acting as brothers, then when someone does not believe what we believe 100% - discuss don’t argue. GOD will defend his own Word. We do not need to or even have the ability to do so with any degree of justice. Doctrine will not keep someone out of heaven but arguing a point could hurt one’s witness, and therefore do more damage to that person.
Motives-
We can always do good things. Even Satan was good at one time and knew right from wrong. But we can do the right thing for the wrong reasons. Like here at SHSUXA we can get caught up in a culture and do and say the right thing at the right time and never have a real relationship with Jesus - basically just playing church but never going deeper. I say that we should not accept Jesus out of fear of going to hell but out of love. We should accept him even if our reward is hell because he is GOD and he deserves it. If we go into it with that understanding, our hearts will be in the right place which in turn would make us a more powerful witness for and servant of the LORD.
Entitlement-
Can you be a Christian and have a sense of entitlement? I say no. Because if we look at Jesus’ life, he was the only perfect man to ever walk the Earth and he came to lead as a servant. I believe that if we ever feel that we are entitled to something, then we are in the wrong. We should live like nothing is beneath us. We should be willing to do anything for the glory of the LORD - no matter if that is washing dishes, picking up sticks, or cleaning toilets. If we have to wade through the sewer for the glory of the LORD, why would we complain? Shouldn’t we just roll up our sleeves, grab our goggles, and dive on in? Jesus was perfect, yet he got down and washed 12 men’s feet – even one he knew would betray him. Those were 24 nasty, dirty feet that Jesus got down and washed by hand. If that was not beneath him when he was perfect, what could we ever say is beneath us?
Doctrine-
The church today seems to be more focused on our differences and what keeps us apart instead of our goal and the one thing that brings us together. Has the church in America become a corporation more worried about numbers in their denomination? The only thing that should really matter is if souls are going to heaven. There is only one church - that is Christ’s church and only different ways to worship Him. Until we, the church, come to that realization, then I say that we are limited. Limited in more than one way - like outside people (non-Christians) could see us as contradicting and in that could walk away entirely. We, the church, should major on the majors like Jesus is the only way to heaven and minor on the minors like the initial physical evidence.
Salvation-
The debate over whether you can loose your salvation is one of those doctrinal debates that is discussed a lot. My question is not whether you can lose it but this: If you have ever really experienced the LORD could you ever truly walk away from him? If you have been a Christian for any amount of time, you probably have known someone that has walked away from the LORD. So did they really ever truly know him or did they get caught up in some type of Christian culture and just had a religious experience that began to touch their life but never really got a hold of them? By getting involved in a Christian culture you can learn when you need to do certain things. I grew up in a home that went to church every Sunday so in that I learned what to do and when. For example if someone laid hands on me to pray, I would stand with my hands raised for a while then I would fall down to the floor because that is what everyone else did. Then after I got up people thought I had a real experience with the LORD, but really I was just planning my day after I got out of church. So if we look at someone that really knew the LORD like Job, no matter what happened to him, he never walked away. I submit that it is because he really knew the LORD. So how do we discern in between those that really know the LORD and those that are just caught up in the culture? You can fool some all the time, you can fool all some of the time, but you can’t fool all, all of the time.
These are just some things that I have been pondering for some time. Maybe you have had similar thoughts. There is only one thing in this life that matters – ETERNITY!