I wrote the following in a letter while Reed and I were on a trip to the Oregon coast four years ago:
This is the Oregon I go to in my mind, not the roar of traffic, but the roar of the ocean, of thick, quiet trails between moss covered trees, vines and blossoms and everything green and growing and fragrant. That is the Oregon I came to for the first time, the Oregon I left home for, the place where I fell in love for the first, and last, time.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
High School
I graduated in 1974 and have not attended a single high school reunion. This is not just because all the early ones were glorified keggers, but because I spent all four years of high school feeling like a guppy swimming in a piranha tank. There were a lot of us guppies, but we were hardly in a position to overpower the piranhas. My main goal in high school was to disappear, blend in to the background as if I was just another tile or locker. This worked so well that both times I was called to the front to receive scholarships my senior year, I heard people all around me saying "Who's she?". I was never asked out on a date, which was just as well because that actually meant "Wanna get drunk together?" I had one, very shy, friend my last two years of high school and lost contact with her after my sophomore year of college. I don't feel sorry for myself, this was just the reality for us guppies, but neither do I have any desire to revisit those years, so I don't attend reunions.
My husband is on the board of the Christian school my children attended and where my niece and nephew now attend so we are invited to several functions through the year. While I am enjoying the concerts and programs, I find part of my mind wandering, wondering how my sister and I might have turned out if we had spent those important years in a supportive environment instead of a piranha tank. Would my moderate vocal ability have been accepted in the choir? Would my musical comprehension be better if I had been able to play an instrument? I emerged from high school feeling like something that had been crumpled and squashed in the mud and it took years to shake away the dirt and find my confidence. I spent my freshman year at the University of Montana where the atmosphere of indifference was a relief. No one cared how you dressed or what you did, but they also didn't care when a drugged or drunk coed was screaming in the student union. Indifference was a relief but it was not enough.
My sophomore year I transferred to Bible college. After the barbarism of high school and the indifference of the U of M, the tangible atmosphere of love I felt at Western was healing. It was there, through the influence of Christian friends, that I began to believe in myself, to recognize that my nose was not that big, that I was not entirely unattractive, that I had gifts worth sharing with others, that God does not make junk. God had a plan for me when he put me at Sentinel High, Christian school wasn't even an option back then, but I can't help but wonder what it would have been like to understand and accept myself before I was 19 years old, and to realize that we are not all piranhas or guppies.
My husband is on the board of the Christian school my children attended and where my niece and nephew now attend so we are invited to several functions through the year. While I am enjoying the concerts and programs, I find part of my mind wandering, wondering how my sister and I might have turned out if we had spent those important years in a supportive environment instead of a piranha tank. Would my moderate vocal ability have been accepted in the choir? Would my musical comprehension be better if I had been able to play an instrument? I emerged from high school feeling like something that had been crumpled and squashed in the mud and it took years to shake away the dirt and find my confidence. I spent my freshman year at the University of Montana where the atmosphere of indifference was a relief. No one cared how you dressed or what you did, but they also didn't care when a drugged or drunk coed was screaming in the student union. Indifference was a relief but it was not enough.
My sophomore year I transferred to Bible college. After the barbarism of high school and the indifference of the U of M, the tangible atmosphere of love I felt at Western was healing. It was there, through the influence of Christian friends, that I began to believe in myself, to recognize that my nose was not that big, that I was not entirely unattractive, that I had gifts worth sharing with others, that God does not make junk. God had a plan for me when he put me at Sentinel High, Christian school wasn't even an option back then, but I can't help but wonder what it would have been like to understand and accept myself before I was 19 years old, and to realize that we are not all piranhas or guppies.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Bury Me Not, in a Mason Jar
O bury me not in a mason jar.
I love bargains too, but that goes too far.
Don't turn me to ashes, like a spent cigar.
O bury me not in a mason jar.
One of the useful things I actually remember from history class is the principle of the swing of the pendulum, that trends swing from extreme to extreme before reaching middle ground. Death is a universal constant, not a trend, but burial rituals are. In the days when medical care was limited and death was a near neighbor, the family often built the coffin and prepared the body of their loved one. As a teenager, my great aunt Elsie washed her mother's body after she died in childbirth with her tenth baby. As difficult as that would be, I imagine there was also healing in knowing you were doing what you could for your loved one, even after death. With embalming, the reality of death became muted by the cosmetic imitation of life. Coffins were customized to be comfortable as if they were a bed for the "sleeping" departed. Some even had windows. Grave sites were vaulted and selected for shade or view. Unless embalming is necessary to give time for family members to arrive, I believe there is a degree of unreality in delaying the inevitable decay of the dead.
I also believe that there is a degree of unreality in the current trend of cremation and no funerals. In some cases the body is made to disappear quickly as if the reality of death, and that which comes after it, will disappear too, or become just another box under the bed. Funerals also have become passe. There are several reasons for that: most people do not go to church, even if the deceased did, their survivors don't understand the value of a church family and, of course, cost. The funeral directors, seldom the churches, charge extra. Years before he died, my grandfather had picked out the hymns and verses (though he was unfamiliar with them) for his funeral service, but when the time came, my uncle did not have a funeral for him either in Great Falls, where he was a beloved member of his church, or in Wolf Point, where they had lived and farmed for 58 years.
I am consummate bargain hunter and cremation is cheaper, so if my survivors choose to cremate me, I'm sure I will understand--and there's nothing I could do about it if I didn't--but I would prefer to be buried. This is not because I think God needs pieces of my old body to build my new one, but because I believe burial best represents my hope of the resurrection. I have tried to use my life to speak for God, I would like an opportunity to do that in death also. There is no biblical command regarding disposing of the dead, but the biblical example is burial, not burning, of the body. It would have been much easier and cheaper for Abraham to burn Sarah, after all they were visitors from out of town when she died, than to procure a tomb in a land his descendants wouldn't possess for centuries, but for the hope of the promised land, he did.
My hope is in the promised resurrection of my body and I would like to make that statement my "final answer". With or without a grave site, I would like a tombstone, because there also I can make a final statement of faith. It is my belief that, without a grave stone, all knowledge of an individual can be lost within three generations. I would like my faith to speak longer than that. I was visiting an old graveyard in England when I met a woman who had come all the way from New Zealand to see her great grandfather's grave. The internet can provide information, but it cannot provide tangibility. With cremation there is usually no grave marker, where will future generations go to find their past? A life can be erased, a stone cannot. With that in mind, I wrote the following poem.
Speaking Stone
When I have said my last goodbyes,
at whatever place my body lies,
mark my passing with a stone,
so my memory will go on.
When those I've loved and left behind
long dead, no longer come to mind,
this sturdy stone, which cannot die,
may speak to some, and testify
whatever else I was in life,
a daughter, sister, mother, wife,
who lived and learned and loved and laughed;
the stone can speak on my behalf
and say, I am a child of God
and will not stay beneath this sod.
And through this stone, my voice is heard.
I love to get the final word.
I don't know what the burial trend will be at the time I die, perhaps some sort of flush tube, but I hope that the pendulum swings to something more lasting than a box of dust under the bed. I never did dust under the bed anyway.
I love bargains too, but that goes too far.
Don't turn me to ashes, like a spent cigar.
O bury me not in a mason jar.
One of the useful things I actually remember from history class is the principle of the swing of the pendulum, that trends swing from extreme to extreme before reaching middle ground. Death is a universal constant, not a trend, but burial rituals are. In the days when medical care was limited and death was a near neighbor, the family often built the coffin and prepared the body of their loved one. As a teenager, my great aunt Elsie washed her mother's body after she died in childbirth with her tenth baby. As difficult as that would be, I imagine there was also healing in knowing you were doing what you could for your loved one, even after death. With embalming, the reality of death became muted by the cosmetic imitation of life. Coffins were customized to be comfortable as if they were a bed for the "sleeping" departed. Some even had windows. Grave sites were vaulted and selected for shade or view. Unless embalming is necessary to give time for family members to arrive, I believe there is a degree of unreality in delaying the inevitable decay of the dead.
I also believe that there is a degree of unreality in the current trend of cremation and no funerals. In some cases the body is made to disappear quickly as if the reality of death, and that which comes after it, will disappear too, or become just another box under the bed. Funerals also have become passe. There are several reasons for that: most people do not go to church, even if the deceased did, their survivors don't understand the value of a church family and, of course, cost. The funeral directors, seldom the churches, charge extra. Years before he died, my grandfather had picked out the hymns and verses (though he was unfamiliar with them) for his funeral service, but when the time came, my uncle did not have a funeral for him either in Great Falls, where he was a beloved member of his church, or in Wolf Point, where they had lived and farmed for 58 years.
I am consummate bargain hunter and cremation is cheaper, so if my survivors choose to cremate me, I'm sure I will understand--and there's nothing I could do about it if I didn't--but I would prefer to be buried. This is not because I think God needs pieces of my old body to build my new one, but because I believe burial best represents my hope of the resurrection. I have tried to use my life to speak for God, I would like an opportunity to do that in death also. There is no biblical command regarding disposing of the dead, but the biblical example is burial, not burning, of the body. It would have been much easier and cheaper for Abraham to burn Sarah, after all they were visitors from out of town when she died, than to procure a tomb in a land his descendants wouldn't possess for centuries, but for the hope of the promised land, he did.
My hope is in the promised resurrection of my body and I would like to make that statement my "final answer". With or without a grave site, I would like a tombstone, because there also I can make a final statement of faith. It is my belief that, without a grave stone, all knowledge of an individual can be lost within three generations. I would like my faith to speak longer than that. I was visiting an old graveyard in England when I met a woman who had come all the way from New Zealand to see her great grandfather's grave. The internet can provide information, but it cannot provide tangibility. With cremation there is usually no grave marker, where will future generations go to find their past? A life can be erased, a stone cannot. With that in mind, I wrote the following poem.
Speaking Stone
When I have said my last goodbyes,
at whatever place my body lies,
mark my passing with a stone,
so my memory will go on.
When those I've loved and left behind
long dead, no longer come to mind,
this sturdy stone, which cannot die,
may speak to some, and testify
whatever else I was in life,
a daughter, sister, mother, wife,
who lived and learned and loved and laughed;
the stone can speak on my behalf
and say, I am a child of God
and will not stay beneath this sod.
And through this stone, my voice is heard.
I love to get the final word.
I don't know what the burial trend will be at the time I die, perhaps some sort of flush tube, but I hope that the pendulum swings to something more lasting than a box of dust under the bed. I never did dust under the bed anyway.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Tradition, Tradition
When I was growing up I tried so hard to make some days special, I longed for memorable celebrations and holiday traditions. Ours were memorable, but mostly because my mom's mental illness worsened. That was our tradition. The best way I could think of to erase those memories was to bury them under good ones of special times with my husband and children. So we are one of the few couples in America that use our good china, not good Chinet, for holiday dinners. The first day of the school year was celebrated by letting each child pick out a special breakfast, lunch or dinner. Fortunately, we had the foresight to have only three children so this plan worked. We had cider and doughnuts on pumpkin carving day before Halloween. Christmas, of course, was replete with traditions. I made egg nog for tree decorating day. No gifts were placed under the tree until the week before Christmas so the nativity set would have precedence. And we still have cheese and chocolate fondue for Christmas Eve and watch the movie "Scrooged". On Christmas morning, the kids could open only their stockings before breakfast., but they needed to open those because they contained little boxes of cereal. Valentine's gifts and Easter baskets always had to be hunted for. I decorated a car shaped cake for the day they got their driver's license. We used the "old" china for Sunday breakfast so they would know the Lord's day was something special too. Kids being kids, it wasn't easy to tell if they appreciated the extra effort; Tracy was my only sentimental child, but since my daughter is already building traditions in her home, I know something caught on.
It takes a certain amount of stubbornness to pursue traditions in a culture that thinks eating dinner together is hopelessly old fashioned. To get even the adults (aka men) to shut off the television, computer etc. long enough to pray and eat together is a struggle, not to mention the teenagers who nearly dislocate their eyeballs rolling them at Mom's corny suggestions. However, younger kids love tradition. If you have entertained children, you know that accidentally doing the same thing twice can establish a rock hard tradition in their minds and you will have to repeat it until they are teenagers and no longer remember you, much less the tradition. By that time you are looking forward to the ice cream after swimming, etc. and they smile at you indulgently for thinking that ever happened.
There are few religious holidays in our country and most of the patriotic ones have been relegated to days off work and sale shopping, and there are far too many hours devoted to television, facebook and texting. We will not look back with fond memories of the football game we watched that holiday, we will remember and miss the people, the conversations, even the frenzied excitement of the children. But as long as we maintain the tradition, those memories will always be a part of us. Holidays are not only focal points for memories, but opportunities to teach about God and share values, that is why there are so many feasts in the Old Testament. The planning and preparation required to form a tradition pays dividends in a wealth of memories for yourself and future generations. That's especially important when you won't be bequeathing wealth of the other kind--and it is exempt from the IRS, who have their own traditions. In "Fiddler on the Roof", Tevye said "Tradition helps us know who we are and what God wants us to do". Tevye was right.
It takes a certain amount of stubbornness to pursue traditions in a culture that thinks eating dinner together is hopelessly old fashioned. To get even the adults (aka men) to shut off the television, computer etc. long enough to pray and eat together is a struggle, not to mention the teenagers who nearly dislocate their eyeballs rolling them at Mom's corny suggestions. However, younger kids love tradition. If you have entertained children, you know that accidentally doing the same thing twice can establish a rock hard tradition in their minds and you will have to repeat it until they are teenagers and no longer remember you, much less the tradition. By that time you are looking forward to the ice cream after swimming, etc. and they smile at you indulgently for thinking that ever happened.
There are few religious holidays in our country and most of the patriotic ones have been relegated to days off work and sale shopping, and there are far too many hours devoted to television, facebook and texting. We will not look back with fond memories of the football game we watched that holiday, we will remember and miss the people, the conversations, even the frenzied excitement of the children. But as long as we maintain the tradition, those memories will always be a part of us. Holidays are not only focal points for memories, but opportunities to teach about God and share values, that is why there are so many feasts in the Old Testament. The planning and preparation required to form a tradition pays dividends in a wealth of memories for yourself and future generations. That's especially important when you won't be bequeathing wealth of the other kind--and it is exempt from the IRS, who have their own traditions. In "Fiddler on the Roof", Tevye said "Tradition helps us know who we are and what God wants us to do". Tevye was right.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Cooperation Optional
Many Christians today are very disturbed about the leaders of our country and the nations of the world. One of the reasons I am not is from my study of Isaiah at BSF this year, specifically from learning about Cyrus. 150 years before he was born, Cyrus was named by God as the ruler who would allow the Jews to leave Babylonian captivity and to rebuild Jerusalem. The accuracy of this fulfillment is so disturbing to skeptics that they claim it had to have been written after the fact. People who don't believe in prophecy are so predictable.
Although the wording of his edict for the Jews to return shows that he believed the prophecy, by historical accounts Cyrus' inclusive, multicultural approach to the religions of his conquered subjects would have fit in well with today's "all roads lead to heaven" philosophy. I have come to believe that the reason the name was given so specifically was not to convince Cyrus to fulfill the prophecy, but to convince the Israelites to obey him. I'm sure they were wondering "Why Cyrus, why not some nice Jewish boy?". As humiliating as it was for Israel to be punished by Gentile nations more sinful than themselves, it was worse to be sent on God's business by an idolatrous heathen. But for me this is an encouragement that God uses leaders to fulfill His purposes whether they believe in Him or not.
It would be wonderful to have godly men at the helm of our country again and we should help to get those people elected, but God's purposes will be accomplished no matter who our leaders are. Great blessing comes to those who cooperate with God and great pain to those who stand in His way; it is usually better to be standing on the rock than under it. But ultimately cooperation is optional, God's will is not. I used to tell my children, "You can do God's will the easy way or you can do it the hard way, but you WILL do God's will. Pharoah was an example of doing God's will the hard way, hence the plagues. Xerxes, in the book of Esther, was clueless about God, God's will and just about everything thing else, although that might be true of anyone after a year long toga party. But a godless man pursuing his own godless purposes, wound up serving God's purposes in taking care of God's people.
We are God's people and I believe God can take care of us in spite of clueless, godless and downright evil rulers. I pray for them to know God and to cooperate with His will and I pray for me to be a part of doing God's will, but I don't worry that God's will is being thwarted by puny humans. Psalm two says such roaring of rebellious rulers makes God laugh, it should not make me cry.
Although the wording of his edict for the Jews to return shows that he believed the prophecy, by historical accounts Cyrus' inclusive, multicultural approach to the religions of his conquered subjects would have fit in well with today's "all roads lead to heaven" philosophy. I have come to believe that the reason the name was given so specifically was not to convince Cyrus to fulfill the prophecy, but to convince the Israelites to obey him. I'm sure they were wondering "Why Cyrus, why not some nice Jewish boy?". As humiliating as it was for Israel to be punished by Gentile nations more sinful than themselves, it was worse to be sent on God's business by an idolatrous heathen. But for me this is an encouragement that God uses leaders to fulfill His purposes whether they believe in Him or not.
It would be wonderful to have godly men at the helm of our country again and we should help to get those people elected, but God's purposes will be accomplished no matter who our leaders are. Great blessing comes to those who cooperate with God and great pain to those who stand in His way; it is usually better to be standing on the rock than under it. But ultimately cooperation is optional, God's will is not. I used to tell my children, "You can do God's will the easy way or you can do it the hard way, but you WILL do God's will. Pharoah was an example of doing God's will the hard way, hence the plagues. Xerxes, in the book of Esther, was clueless about God, God's will and just about everything thing else, although that might be true of anyone after a year long toga party. But a godless man pursuing his own godless purposes, wound up serving God's purposes in taking care of God's people.
We are God's people and I believe God can take care of us in spite of clueless, godless and downright evil rulers. I pray for them to know God and to cooperate with His will and I pray for me to be a part of doing God's will, but I don't worry that God's will is being thwarted by puny humans. Psalm two says such roaring of rebellious rulers makes God laugh, it should not make me cry.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Connie'spiracy Theory
There are many conspiracy theories circulating on television and the internet. I have my own theory on conspiracies which I have put in mathematical terms. Conspiracy = Agenda + Enforcement. There are many groups that have an agenda: radical environmentalists, rabid animal rights activists, even right wingers have some bizarre agendas, but these do not constitute a conspiracy. In order for a conspiracy to work, someone must be able to enforce punishment on those who defy their agenda. For instance, an animal rights group may want to stop all consumption of meat, but they have no power to enforce penalties on all the people who do. Even if they hired a squad of carnivore killers, there are just too many meat eaters.
The N.E.A., on the other hand, has both an agenda and the power to enforce it. They approve the textbooks that are used in public schools. Through the threat of removal of federal funding, they influence staffing and curriculum on a state and local level. Noncompliant teachers might not have their contract renewed, but probably won't get hired in the first place. If someone is on national television announcing the existence of a serious, secret conspiracy and still has his job and life the next day, it's probably a false alarm. All groups have an agenda, although these days we call them "mission statements", but very few have the power to force them on others. Isaiah 8:12 says "Do not call conspiracy everything this people call conspiracy, nor be afraid of their threats nor be troubled." Do the math. Trust the Lord. Save your passion for Christ. The main difference between the passionate televised conspiracists and the paranoid street corner nuts is the smell of their clothes.
The N.E.A., on the other hand, has both an agenda and the power to enforce it. They approve the textbooks that are used in public schools. Through the threat of removal of federal funding, they influence staffing and curriculum on a state and local level. Noncompliant teachers might not have their contract renewed, but probably won't get hired in the first place. If someone is on national television announcing the existence of a serious, secret conspiracy and still has his job and life the next day, it's probably a false alarm. All groups have an agenda, although these days we call them "mission statements", but very few have the power to force them on others. Isaiah 8:12 says "Do not call conspiracy everything this people call conspiracy, nor be afraid of their threats nor be troubled." Do the math. Trust the Lord. Save your passion for Christ. The main difference between the passionate televised conspiracists and the paranoid street corner nuts is the smell of their clothes.
GPS Lost
Of all the things it's possible to lose, it is ironic that Reed and I lost our GPS, global positioning system, our traveling companion whom we had affectionately named "Carmen". Sadly, this ties in with an article in today's paper, the Supreme Court has ruled that the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas has the right to protest homosexuality at military funerals. I have often wondered how an entire church could have lost it's way so badly. The church is to be a Gospel Proclaiming Servant, not cruelty in choir robes. How could those individual members, in any meaningful study of the word, conclude that their ministry is to abuse grieving families?
I have often been frightened by how easy it is for Christians to wander from the truth. At a church we attended when we were first married, an evangelist came who caused Christians to doubt their salvation by saying if you didn't recall all the details of your salvation experience, it probably wasn't genuine. Causing saved people to doubt their salvation is actually Satan's ministry. He doesn't need any help from us. The evangelist was elevating man's role in his own salvation to saying the right words in prayer, but in reality the words merely cement in our minds what God has done in exchanging our heart of stone for a heart of flesh. He was playing for the enemy team.
Another speaker, who came to our church in Denver, taught that people could be saved only through the King James Bible. He was proud that his vilification of other translations had caused one woman to believe that there was no true word of God. Instead of serving God, he had become Satan's little helper. At another church we heard a music minister who claimed to have figured out what God didn't say about what kind of music pleases Him. And sadly, we had to leave a church whose pastor felt his main ministry was to protect us from other Christians who didn't follow our distinctive practices.
The danger comes from "going beyond what is written", essentially ignoring the warning not to add to or take away from the word of God. In BSF I learned that there are some things you must agree on in order to be a Christian, all the rest are disputable matters, and God has told us how to handle those. During Christ's time on earth the only people he was verbally abusive to were the Jewish religious leaders who had added their regulations to God's commands. It is mortally presumptuous to imply God's standards are not high enough, that what is acceptable to Him is not good enough for us.
We should know what we believe the Bible says, even in disputable matters, but be gracious enough to allow others to believe differently. The Bible is explicit in a few areas like sexual sin or Jewish dietary laws, but for the most part the Bible contains commands which we must apply to the specifics of our lives. Humans are natural born listmakers, we would rather have a list of rules to check off than have to think for ourselves.
One of the areas where it's easy to stray is prophecy. Many Christians believe prophecy is being fulfilled by events happening in the U.S.A. I do not, for the simple reason that, except in the most obscure reference, America isn't mentioned. Neither is Islam. It is a dangerous thing to assert that some particular event in an individual or nation's life is a judgment for sin unless it is clearly taught in scripture. For instance 20 years ago a "Christian" book was circulating which claimed that the Holocaust was God's righteous judgment for Israel's unbelief, however, the Holocaust is never mentioned in scripture and we have no right to assume God's motives. This was simply anti-Semitism in Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes.
Nuclear holocaust is not mentioned either. The Bible makes it clear that destroying the earth is the perogative of it's maker, not man. Despite past pandemics, nuclear bombs and chemical warfare, it is also clear that the Tribulation will be the worst event the world will ever suffer. Matthew is full of warnings to flee the destruction of Jerusalem, but there are no warnings to believers either to flee or to stockpile food for a time of anarchy. Much to my husband's disappointment, there are also no warnings to accumulate weapons to protect your supplies. If a time of lawlessness should occur, Christians would still be responsible to share what they have with those in need, both believers and unbelievers.
In short, though this is anything but short, there are dozens of harmless paths down which believers can go too far and lose their GPS, Godly Pursuit of Service, and wind up LOST, Losing Our Spiritual Treasure, or worse yet, scoring points for Satan's team.
I have often been frightened by how easy it is for Christians to wander from the truth. At a church we attended when we were first married, an evangelist came who caused Christians to doubt their salvation by saying if you didn't recall all the details of your salvation experience, it probably wasn't genuine. Causing saved people to doubt their salvation is actually Satan's ministry. He doesn't need any help from us. The evangelist was elevating man's role in his own salvation to saying the right words in prayer, but in reality the words merely cement in our minds what God has done in exchanging our heart of stone for a heart of flesh. He was playing for the enemy team.
Another speaker, who came to our church in Denver, taught that people could be saved only through the King James Bible. He was proud that his vilification of other translations had caused one woman to believe that there was no true word of God. Instead of serving God, he had become Satan's little helper. At another church we heard a music minister who claimed to have figured out what God didn't say about what kind of music pleases Him. And sadly, we had to leave a church whose pastor felt his main ministry was to protect us from other Christians who didn't follow our distinctive practices.
The danger comes from "going beyond what is written", essentially ignoring the warning not to add to or take away from the word of God. In BSF I learned that there are some things you must agree on in order to be a Christian, all the rest are disputable matters, and God has told us how to handle those. During Christ's time on earth the only people he was verbally abusive to were the Jewish religious leaders who had added their regulations to God's commands. It is mortally presumptuous to imply God's standards are not high enough, that what is acceptable to Him is not good enough for us.
We should know what we believe the Bible says, even in disputable matters, but be gracious enough to allow others to believe differently. The Bible is explicit in a few areas like sexual sin or Jewish dietary laws, but for the most part the Bible contains commands which we must apply to the specifics of our lives. Humans are natural born listmakers, we would rather have a list of rules to check off than have to think for ourselves.
One of the areas where it's easy to stray is prophecy. Many Christians believe prophecy is being fulfilled by events happening in the U.S.A. I do not, for the simple reason that, except in the most obscure reference, America isn't mentioned. Neither is Islam. It is a dangerous thing to assert that some particular event in an individual or nation's life is a judgment for sin unless it is clearly taught in scripture. For instance 20 years ago a "Christian" book was circulating which claimed that the Holocaust was God's righteous judgment for Israel's unbelief, however, the Holocaust is never mentioned in scripture and we have no right to assume God's motives. This was simply anti-Semitism in Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes.
Nuclear holocaust is not mentioned either. The Bible makes it clear that destroying the earth is the perogative of it's maker, not man. Despite past pandemics, nuclear bombs and chemical warfare, it is also clear that the Tribulation will be the worst event the world will ever suffer. Matthew is full of warnings to flee the destruction of Jerusalem, but there are no warnings to believers either to flee or to stockpile food for a time of anarchy. Much to my husband's disappointment, there are also no warnings to accumulate weapons to protect your supplies. If a time of lawlessness should occur, Christians would still be responsible to share what they have with those in need, both believers and unbelievers.
In short, though this is anything but short, there are dozens of harmless paths down which believers can go too far and lose their GPS, Godly Pursuit of Service, and wind up LOST, Losing Our Spiritual Treasure, or worse yet, scoring points for Satan's team.
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