Perspective of Life
Does your image of God, Christ, or creation come from the Bible or how others have convinced you to interpret the Bible? That is a sound question and one that either grows our faith and spirituality or stifles it. There is a Latin term "sola scriptura" that simply means one believes that the Bible is the supreme authority on all matters of doctrine and practice. Another Latin term is "sola fide"which is the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Most people that have had Bible catechesis fall into one or both of these categories. I am not writing to discourage your belief in either or both. I simply write as an objective observer on how we grow in our faith.
Over the years I have studied the historicity of Christian faith and movement throughout the ages. It has gone from a control mechanism, to one of brutal wars, to political hierarchies, to money mongers, and in the last few centuries one of amazing church proliferation of beliefs that could confuse even the greatest theologians. Over the years however there has remained a constancy of love. Even as people have tried in vane to shower their prophetic beliefs on others somehow someway the Christian movement has prevailed to this point. That leads me to believe that there is in fact a wonderful loving higher power that truly desires to be united with us.
I love being an objective observer as much as I do being an active participant. I do not participate in the traditional sense anymore because I found myself questioning everything I was being told to believe. As an objective observer I can be a witness to all the prophecy that has built people's faith only to shatter it when the so called prophets were wrong. As every generation for the last two thousand years has been subjected too we once again find ourselves in "the end times" discussion because Biblical prophecy is being revealed or fulfilled. I am always amused and amazed at such predictions. I guess amused would be the best description. It is almost as if God created this book called the Bible with secret codes that only a few had the wisdom to understand. Here is the amusement for me. All of the so called prophets with their secret wisdom infused by God have all been wrong. I understand that many people struggle in faith, heck I have too. No wonder it is so difficult to believe. Faith in God should not take a degree because it isn't rocket science. Faith in God begins with a belief in who you are. You do not have to go to church to be a wonderful person. You do not have to go to church to believe in God or the Bible. For some the community of Church enhances their overall belief and love for the world and themselves. For those that fall into that category I applaud you. For others that can't seem to find their spot in church do not feel ashamed, be thankful that you are different. It takes us all to make this awesome world a better place. Whether you are Christian, Hindu, Muslim, etc we all have a spot in this place we call earth. I know that to be a fact because God had a hand in creation of which we are a part of.
The Bible was written by mere man yet I totally agree that the hand of God was with them. I love the Bible and I love discovering the gifts of life and love. I believe it is our road map to peace. I, however, do not allow others to impart their skewed belief in exactly what the writers of the Bible meant when they wrote what they wrote. I refrain from being a verse Christian. What I mean is this, the Bible was NOT written with chapters and verses. That came along 1000 years later. The writers intended for their message to be read in it's entirety and when you read it the way it was intended you will discover amazing wisdom that otherwise might have been lost. When someone that is trying to place fear in you they may extract one verse and recite those famous words "the Bible says". Consider any book you have in your personal library. Can you image going to chapter 8 paragraph 2 sentence 3 and reciting that to someone as though that is what the book means.
Now with all that being said I am a HUGE believer in Lectio Divina. That is a Latin term that basically stands for divine lectionary. The ancient teachers of Church and Bible taught people to allow the Bible to come alive in their hearts and minds. This is a practice I still love to do every day. I love reading the Bible and just allow amazing thoughts to come into my presence. There are so many people that have drifted from reading the Bible because of what has been falsely taught. I love to have friendly debates about the history of Christianity, the Bible, the books of the Bible that did not make canon. I also love looking at other Christian writers from the early centuries. They shared wisdom not shared today. Collectively we can learn so much about our faith and spirituality when we simply allow scripture to come alive.
I believe we are entering a renaissance of love the likes of which the world has never seen. I think we are about to embark on amazing inventions that will make our world safer, happier, and healthier. I believe world governments will start to work together to solve problems that have divided us politically for years. I believe we will learn to accept that God created us with love for to love to express love. Churches will learn to tear down the walls of division and build bridges that unite. The time will come when we will no longer see through the eyes of prejudice, we will see through the lense of love. The doom and gloom end time prophets will be replaced with people that believe in the totality of Christ love and forgiveness for us. We will grow in wisdom and knowledge to unite through peace instead of divide through war. Love will end the erroneous belief that faith and spirituality has to be one way or another. Collectively we will unite in our love for fellow man, we will link our lives in such a way that we respect each others quest for God, life, and eternal salvation. We will encourage people to be the best they can be. We will stop the condemnation of others because we see them as different. We will come to believe that the impossible truly is possible. The next generations of Christians and people of faith will pave the way for all to rise to heights only imagined in our dreams. Space exploration will become a reality because people will believe in the power of the future and not the doom of end times. Fifteen years ago the smart phone was nothing more than a dream that when shared others thought was impossible. Through believing we now hold in our hands and power greater than anything we could ever have conceived if our focus was on "the end is near" instead of the "the beginning is here".
Life is all about perspective. The way we see the world creates the world we see. Well I for one see the world as full of amazing potential yet to be tapped. I see the world as a place God put me to use my mind, heart, and soul to further the future of mankind in new and beautiful ways. My perspective is different than yours and that is GREAT. It takes us all thinking that we are filled to the brim with possibilities. That is what I get out of the Bible when I read it. I do not see the end at all I see only the beginning. I see a present and future that gives us the ability to be and do whatever we dream of. Yes I believe with all my heart that the None's (people that have left main stream religion) will build a bridge to the hearts of the faithful and collectively we will build a world even greater than the one's we have. It is a honor and a privilege to be alive today. I look forward to becoming the best version of myself possible because I am worth it and so are you.
peace and love
Dale
Over the years I have studied the historicity of Christian faith and movement throughout the ages. It has gone from a control mechanism, to one of brutal wars, to political hierarchies, to money mongers, and in the last few centuries one of amazing church proliferation of beliefs that could confuse even the greatest theologians. Over the years however there has remained a constancy of love. Even as people have tried in vane to shower their prophetic beliefs on others somehow someway the Christian movement has prevailed to this point. That leads me to believe that there is in fact a wonderful loving higher power that truly desires to be united with us.
I love being an objective observer as much as I do being an active participant. I do not participate in the traditional sense anymore because I found myself questioning everything I was being told to believe. As an objective observer I can be a witness to all the prophecy that has built people's faith only to shatter it when the so called prophets were wrong. As every generation for the last two thousand years has been subjected too we once again find ourselves in "the end times" discussion because Biblical prophecy is being revealed or fulfilled. I am always amused and amazed at such predictions. I guess amused would be the best description. It is almost as if God created this book called the Bible with secret codes that only a few had the wisdom to understand. Here is the amusement for me. All of the so called prophets with their secret wisdom infused by God have all been wrong. I understand that many people struggle in faith, heck I have too. No wonder it is so difficult to believe. Faith in God should not take a degree because it isn't rocket science. Faith in God begins with a belief in who you are. You do not have to go to church to be a wonderful person. You do not have to go to church to believe in God or the Bible. For some the community of Church enhances their overall belief and love for the world and themselves. For those that fall into that category I applaud you. For others that can't seem to find their spot in church do not feel ashamed, be thankful that you are different. It takes us all to make this awesome world a better place. Whether you are Christian, Hindu, Muslim, etc we all have a spot in this place we call earth. I know that to be a fact because God had a hand in creation of which we are a part of.
The Bible was written by mere man yet I totally agree that the hand of God was with them. I love the Bible and I love discovering the gifts of life and love. I believe it is our road map to peace. I, however, do not allow others to impart their skewed belief in exactly what the writers of the Bible meant when they wrote what they wrote. I refrain from being a verse Christian. What I mean is this, the Bible was NOT written with chapters and verses. That came along 1000 years later. The writers intended for their message to be read in it's entirety and when you read it the way it was intended you will discover amazing wisdom that otherwise might have been lost. When someone that is trying to place fear in you they may extract one verse and recite those famous words "the Bible says". Consider any book you have in your personal library. Can you image going to chapter 8 paragraph 2 sentence 3 and reciting that to someone as though that is what the book means.
Now with all that being said I am a HUGE believer in Lectio Divina. That is a Latin term that basically stands for divine lectionary. The ancient teachers of Church and Bible taught people to allow the Bible to come alive in their hearts and minds. This is a practice I still love to do every day. I love reading the Bible and just allow amazing thoughts to come into my presence. There are so many people that have drifted from reading the Bible because of what has been falsely taught. I love to have friendly debates about the history of Christianity, the Bible, the books of the Bible that did not make canon. I also love looking at other Christian writers from the early centuries. They shared wisdom not shared today. Collectively we can learn so much about our faith and spirituality when we simply allow scripture to come alive.
I believe we are entering a renaissance of love the likes of which the world has never seen. I think we are about to embark on amazing inventions that will make our world safer, happier, and healthier. I believe world governments will start to work together to solve problems that have divided us politically for years. I believe we will learn to accept that God created us with love for to love to express love. Churches will learn to tear down the walls of division and build bridges that unite. The time will come when we will no longer see through the eyes of prejudice, we will see through the lense of love. The doom and gloom end time prophets will be replaced with people that believe in the totality of Christ love and forgiveness for us. We will grow in wisdom and knowledge to unite through peace instead of divide through war. Love will end the erroneous belief that faith and spirituality has to be one way or another. Collectively we will unite in our love for fellow man, we will link our lives in such a way that we respect each others quest for God, life, and eternal salvation. We will encourage people to be the best they can be. We will stop the condemnation of others because we see them as different. We will come to believe that the impossible truly is possible. The next generations of Christians and people of faith will pave the way for all to rise to heights only imagined in our dreams. Space exploration will become a reality because people will believe in the power of the future and not the doom of end times. Fifteen years ago the smart phone was nothing more than a dream that when shared others thought was impossible. Through believing we now hold in our hands and power greater than anything we could ever have conceived if our focus was on "the end is near" instead of the "the beginning is here".
Life is all about perspective. The way we see the world creates the world we see. Well I for one see the world as full of amazing potential yet to be tapped. I see the world as a place God put me to use my mind, heart, and soul to further the future of mankind in new and beautiful ways. My perspective is different than yours and that is GREAT. It takes us all thinking that we are filled to the brim with possibilities. That is what I get out of the Bible when I read it. I do not see the end at all I see only the beginning. I see a present and future that gives us the ability to be and do whatever we dream of. Yes I believe with all my heart that the None's (people that have left main stream religion) will build a bridge to the hearts of the faithful and collectively we will build a world even greater than the one's we have. It is a honor and a privilege to be alive today. I look forward to becoming the best version of myself possible because I am worth it and so are you.
peace and love
Dale
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