Challenge Accepted
At the beginning of January, in fact, on January 1st, I heard about K-Love' 30 Day Challenge to listen only to Christian music. I took that challenge.
I failed that challenge. Several times. But I think I've got it now. It's what comes on automatically in my car (unless my sister was driving). It's the station that plays up on Pandora. Most of the music on my phone is Christian. I started listening to this music because I felt I wasn't getting enough God in Sunday morning service to last me through the week. I get so excited during church, but most of that dissipates before Tuesday has begun. Life takes its tolls. The music kept me a little fired up. I love the positive messages in all of the songs. I like how encouraging and hopeful it is. And, unlike the radio stations I was listening to before, I genuinely like all of the songs that play. Okay, there is one I'm not a huge fan of. (The editor in me changes that sentence to "of which I'm not a huge fan.")
I think now that this isn't enough. I always knew we're supposed to read the Bible every day. That's just something we do to be closer to God, to get to understand and love Him. Well, I don't do that. It's a combination of not having (not finding) the time and not wanting to. Reading the Bible isn't painful. It's not even the most boring thing I've had to read. And reading isn't the most boring thing I've had to do.
Everyone has a natural moral compass. Some of us are just more adept at ignoring it than others. I am somewhat good at ignoring mine. If I read in the Bible that something is wrong, I can't ignore it anymore. It's already happened, after reading that homosexuality is a sin. (Although, I was comparing versions, and that word isn't used in most of them. They just say sexual immorality. That's not to say it's not used in other forms, as in man to man relations or whatever. It does, if it in fact does, equate homosexuality with fornication. Think on that, intolerant fools.) I can't say that if I discover certain things are forbidden in the Bible, the ultimate say in right and wrong, I won't justify it and do it anyway. So I guess I'd rather not discover anything.
In Sunday school we had a guest speaker (or what they're actually called in church) who put it to us this way, using 1 John 2:12-14. Christians (true Christians, because I'm really starting to believe that there are many fake ones) can be put into categories: children, young (wo)men, and fathers. There was another one, but I don't know the name of it. Basically, the first level consists of whose who know just that they have been saved by Jesus Christ, and that they don't deserve it. The second, the little children, have rudimentary knowledge of the Bible and its principles. Young (wo)men have a relationship with God by praying and reading the Bible regularly. Fathers have a deep relationship with Christ; they know Him. I may have some of the specifics mixed up, but that was the general idea.
I think I'm a little child. Which isn't very helpful to me or to God or anyone around me. I need to invest in my spiritual life, just as much as my earthly one. I just need the motivation.
I have written a lot about God lately, and I hope that's not alienating anyone. I can't say that I'll stop so that whoever that includes will come back. I've been thinking a lot about God lately. I almost can't stop thinking about Him and all that that involves. I distract myself with movies and other people and work. But He's always there. Would He want me to think this? What would He say to me about my treating this person this way? This is another post, I think, but I'm always confusing my conscience, my thoughts, and words from God. Are any of the things I think from God? Are they always me? Does He talk to me at all? Does He want to?
I'll write about pop culture next time. What does Frozen, Josh Duhamel, and Friends have in common?
I failed that challenge. Several times. But I think I've got it now. It's what comes on automatically in my car (unless my sister was driving). It's the station that plays up on Pandora. Most of the music on my phone is Christian. I started listening to this music because I felt I wasn't getting enough God in Sunday morning service to last me through the week. I get so excited during church, but most of that dissipates before Tuesday has begun. Life takes its tolls. The music kept me a little fired up. I love the positive messages in all of the songs. I like how encouraging and hopeful it is. And, unlike the radio stations I was listening to before, I genuinely like all of the songs that play. Okay, there is one I'm not a huge fan of. (The editor in me changes that sentence to "of which I'm not a huge fan.")
I think now that this isn't enough. I always knew we're supposed to read the Bible every day. That's just something we do to be closer to God, to get to understand and love Him. Well, I don't do that. It's a combination of not having (not finding) the time and not wanting to. Reading the Bible isn't painful. It's not even the most boring thing I've had to read. And reading isn't the most boring thing I've had to do.
Everyone has a natural moral compass. Some of us are just more adept at ignoring it than others. I am somewhat good at ignoring mine. If I read in the Bible that something is wrong, I can't ignore it anymore. It's already happened, after reading that homosexuality is a sin. (Although, I was comparing versions, and that word isn't used in most of them. They just say sexual immorality. That's not to say it's not used in other forms, as in man to man relations or whatever. It does, if it in fact does, equate homosexuality with fornication. Think on that, intolerant fools.) I can't say that if I discover certain things are forbidden in the Bible, the ultimate say in right and wrong, I won't justify it and do it anyway. So I guess I'd rather not discover anything.
In Sunday school we had a guest speaker (or what they're actually called in church) who put it to us this way, using 1 John 2:12-14. Christians (true Christians, because I'm really starting to believe that there are many fake ones) can be put into categories: children, young (wo)men, and fathers. There was another one, but I don't know the name of it. Basically, the first level consists of whose who know just that they have been saved by Jesus Christ, and that they don't deserve it. The second, the little children, have rudimentary knowledge of the Bible and its principles. Young (wo)men have a relationship with God by praying and reading the Bible regularly. Fathers have a deep relationship with Christ; they know Him. I may have some of the specifics mixed up, but that was the general idea.
I think I'm a little child. Which isn't very helpful to me or to God or anyone around me. I need to invest in my spiritual life, just as much as my earthly one. I just need the motivation.
I have written a lot about God lately, and I hope that's not alienating anyone. I can't say that I'll stop so that whoever that includes will come back. I've been thinking a lot about God lately. I almost can't stop thinking about Him and all that that involves. I distract myself with movies and other people and work. But He's always there. Would He want me to think this? What would He say to me about my treating this person this way? This is another post, I think, but I'm always confusing my conscience, my thoughts, and words from God. Are any of the things I think from God? Are they always me? Does He talk to me at all? Does He want to?
I'll write about pop culture next time. What does Frozen, Josh Duhamel, and Friends have in common?
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