Tag Archives: believers

Led Into Temptation – Again

cnn

I confess, I was weak. I saw the story on CNN about “Famous Atheists and Their Beliefs” and after ignoring it for several days I peeked.

Look, I also confess that we believers make fools of ourselves and one another. Christians despised Jews for centuries, conveniently forgetting that the early Church met in the synagogues. That before Paul got knocked off his horse on the road to Damascus Christian membership was limited to Jews. That the Apostles were all Jews, and, oh by the way, Jesus was a Jew, of the House of David and He was the Messiah promised to the Jews.

After the schism, Protestants aired their grievances (and very legitimate grievances they were) about the Catholics. As time went on, the various flavors of Protestant began to differentiate from one another and rejected each other for reasons real and imagined.

And then there are the Muslims; sons of Ibraham, whom we call our ancestor  Abraham. They suffer as much infighting as Christians, and suffer lunatics who have successfully hijacked the title if not their beliefs.

The Atheists seem to have a solidarity with all not believing in the same thing and supporting each other’s disbelief. The believers, on the other hand, are not nearly as supportive of one another.

Maybe we believers should agree on a few things:

  • We are all seeking God.
  • As much as we’d like to believe otherwise, we humans don’t have the answers.
  • God seems to open doors, paths and ways to reach Him.

Most importantly

  • God loves us.

We won’t see an article about “Famous Believers and What They Believe.” But as believers, we don’t need to.

Not Understanding God

I periodically get comments or notes from readers that point out how God, particularly in the Old Testament ordered the death and destruction of people. Everyone on Earth not on Noah’s ark. Lot’s wife. The Egyptians. Anyone in the way of the Israelites when they entered the Promised Land. To them, this seems to be a most unfeeling and unloving God. I can understand their frustration. I can’t explain God. None of us can.

So what are the things that distract us, besides the Old Testament?

bible

 

We humans condemned, tortured and killed God’s only Son.

Early Christians were persecuted and martyred.

The human frailties of the Christian Church from its earliest days to the present.

Wars.

Sandy Hook Elementary.

It’s tough to understand from the human perspective why god permits these things to happen. If we had our way, we’d all be healthy, wealthy and wise – and live forever.

That is not the way that it is – at least not in this life.

So we toil and try in this life. We screw up. We pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and try again.

I wish I had a good explanation that would be compelling for others, but unfortunately I do not.

The best I can do is to try to live an example that at least piques others’ curiosity.