Reminders for Your Spiritual Journey

One of my favorite authors (Robert Fulghum) made a list of common-sense rules for home repair projects that went something like this:

♦ Always work alone. An audience is hardly ever helpful.
♦ Keep your tools clean and your language cleaner.
♦ Pray! If God Himself can’t fix it, what makes you think you can.
♦ If you do something stupid, but it works, it wasn’t stupid.
♦ If it involves technology, buy a new one or consult a child.

Sometimes rules are helpful, even the ones that tend to keep us from starting something before we know where we are headed. That is the principle of, “When all else fails; read the directions.” Some of us even apply a similar attitude to managing our lives.  We take off aimlessly trying to lead a Christian life without bothering to consult the rules Christ laid out for us to follow. To do that we need to:

♦ Get to know and love God though studying His word––the Bible.
♦ Pray for guidance, inviting the Holy Spirit into our lives.
♦ Wait for the answer. Sometimes it’s “yes”, sometimes “no” and sometimes God says: “Wait until I show you the way”.
♦ Do everything out of love for God and your fellow human beings.
♦ Do nothing that will bring dishonor to God or anyone, including yourself.

Of course, there are more specific rules in the ten commandments and there are long lists of values from Jesus’ teachings that we can aspire to.

Living as a Christian generally requires us to be open to God’s will and be ready to follow the sprit’s leading.  It’s when we try to go it alone and make up the rules as we go along, that can get us into trouble. Yes, God expects us to use our creative mind to design the projects He lays before us, but the best laid plans, can go far astray if we think it is up to us to take charge without first considering what God wants us to accomplish.  Following all of the rules in the world will not save us, and all of the beautifully designed projects we can think of will not accomplish God’s will if we don’t ask Him what he wants first.  Worse yet, if we ask, but don’t wait for the answer, our lives will fail and we won’t even understand why.

Galatians 5:22-23 reminds us to be fruitful by following Christ’s example: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”  And Romans 12:1-3 says “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.  For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” 

The word “media” is the plural form of medium. It is usually used to refer to a means of communication such as radio and television, newspapers, magazines, and the internet, that inform or influence large groups of people. The internet ushered in what we call social media including texts, tweets, posts, pod casts and blogs.  Many people look to their phones and computers for most of their information, including news and gossip.  It is handy, readily available and searchable for whatever we want to consume.  The problem is that an open, unregulated internet means that we can’t always tell if what we are seeing and hearing is accurate and truthful. 

We, and our children, are bombarded with messages that are meant to influence us to think in certain ways that may not be honest or wholesome.  Most print media are held to certain standards that are meant to make them more reliable and less biased.  It is incumbent upon all of us to fact check whatever we read and hear. Most of us are in a hurry and do not always take the time to even think critically, let alone check the facts and apply our own common sense to what we consume.  Now, with AI that can produce deep fakes, it is even more critical that we have a skeptical attitude toward all media.

The Bible has stood the test of time, because it is the word of God, but even there we need to account for the fact that the Bible is interpreted by men. We need to be careful to watch out for people who twist Biblical truths to suit their own biases. The Bible has been used to justify such things as slavery, adultery, despicable treatment of women, and a long list of other perversions of the Word of God. In the Bible, people who use the words in its pages for evil are called “false prophets.”

A false prophet is a person who spreads false teachings or messages while claiming to speak the Word of God.  False prophets functioned for the purpose of deception. The Bible denounces false prophets for leading people astray.  In Jeremiah 14:14 we read: “Then the LORD said to me, ‘The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them.'". In the New Testament, Jesus taught about false prophets in His Sermon on the Mount: “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.  By their fruit you will recognize them.”  We all need to learn to recognize falsehoods wherever we encounter them.

My first real encounter with the word “hate”, and its meaning, happened when I was just a small child of about six-or-seven-years of age.  I was playing with my two younger cousins, on their farm, and the boy cousin started to climb over a gate into a cow pasture.  Just then, his teen-aged brother came around the corner of the barn and told him to get down off the gate, saying that he was not allowed to go into the pasture when the bull was in there.  My cousin started to defy his brother and continued to climb the gate.  His brother quickly came and grabbed him before he could get to the other side.  My young cousin turned on his brother and started hitting him and saying, “I hate you! I hate you! You never let me do anything!”  To our surprise, the older brother simply held his little brother and explained, not why he couldn’t go into the bull pen, but why he shouldn’t use the word “hate”.

He sat down with us and calmly explained that when you say you hate someone, you are actually saying that you wish that person was dead, that they didn’t exist anymore.  We were shocked!  I had heard young friends on the playground and even grownups say they hated someone or something and had no real concept of what it actually meant.  I was sure none of them really meant that they wanted the person they said it to or about to die, be killed or to no longer exist.  People I knew would never have meant to inflict real harm on anyone and certainly would not have wished them dead or to disappear.  The word hate is all too often used casually.  What’s worse, is that it is becoming more common to actually mean exactly what my older cousin said it means. Though he might not have known the exact reference, his definition is based on the bible verse found in 1 John 3:15 “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer and does not have eternal life abiding in them.”

The Bible generally condemns hating people, urging love and forgiveness for enemies.  It encourages us to pray for those who hate us.  It also encourages "hating" evil and sin, which is seen as a righteous stance against wrongdoing.  The concept of hate directed at fellow humans is presented as darkness and a betrayal of God's law, while hating what God hates—violence, and lies—is presented as a sign of being right with Him.  The following verses help explain the nature of and reasons for love.  John 3:16 says: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life". 1 John 4:19 says: "We love because he first loved us.”  Romans 5:8 says: "But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us".  Romans 8:38-39 says: "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord". 

Hate is a strong word, but love is stronger!  Love, whether loving others or being loved, makes us feel connected, safe, secure complete, nurtured, serene, alive, creative, empowered and whole.  May we all use the power of love to help stamp out hate.