Who ya foolin'

I once read an article titled "Who's fool are you?"  Great article about how we all follow some belief or doctrine.  It started out with the verse I Corinthians 4:10, "We are fools for Christ's sake" and explained that it meant that we might look like fools following Jesus.  And it's true in many ways.  Christian belief is very different from typical culture or human character.  Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you.  If that doesn't make you look foolish, then maybe try expecting the meek to win out in the end. 

Fortunately for many of us, we've grown up in pro-Christian cultures and the concepts of love and humility will now typically inspire honor.  In many cultures it was pride and dominance, power and plenty that inspired honor.  And that still remains even in pro-Christian cultures.  It's hard to get away from that pride.

The article went on to say, that if you weren't a fool for Christ, then the only alternative was to be fooled by the devil.  Since Christ leads us with the truth, to not follow Christ means to not follow the truth.  The devil is the father of lies, so you'd just end up following him, which would be very foolish.  So, who's fool are you?  Obviously the article went into a lot more details about following Jesus and what the alternative means, but that's the gist of it.

But why would we want to follow anything?  Do we need to follow?  Can't we just lead our own lives and be done with it?

I don't think you can get the right answers by asking those questions.  Seems strange but I really believe that some questions just don't lead to real answers.  "Are we there yet?"  "Why does Tommy always get the bigger piece?"  A big part of advanced math is finding the right Questions, the right formulas to get the already known answers.

I think the better questions would be:  What do we want?  What do we want out of life?  What do we want after death?

Trying to answer the questions about "following" probably won't give you the same answers as the questions about our true inner desires.  The questions on "following" will lead you to defend your pride, to compare yourself with others, to judge others.  Ultimately leading to answers that are all about you and your pride versus everyone else.  Not good answers at all!

Asking questions about what you desire in life may also sound selfish.  And it's true, that if you are an extremely proud person, your answers might also maintain a lot of pride.  You can try to fool yourself into believing that you desire certain things.  A very proud person is simply fooled by his or her pride. A very selfish person is simply fooled by their selfishness.  So the trick is to try to answer those questions as honestly and humbly as possible.  What do you really really want from life?

If you are truly honest with yourself I believe your answers will draw very close to just about everyone else that's ever lived on this planet.  We all want to be loved and respected.

You can see where that might be slanted somehow into believing that we all want the world to revolve around ourselves, but that's not the case. Well, okay, yes, that is the case...  Too many people do slant it.  And it is probably the type of answer that many people would give.  That's the problem!  They are so close to the truth, but they've been fooled into believing a slanted view of the truth.  So close, yet so far!  It almost fulfills the desire to be loved and respected.  Almost, but not quite.

So, in the end, what we all really really want is to be loved and respected.  And if we are honest with ourselves we will be able to see that.

And now we have the correct answers to the questions about "following" and "leading our own lives."  How's that? 

Well, why would we ever want to follow anything.  If it just happens to be the only way to be truly loved and respected.  Then of course we would want to follow it.  Why not?

Do we really need to follow?  It depends on what you mean by follow.  The truth is the truth whether you believe it, follow it, or not.  To follow the truth will actually set you free.  Doesn't sound exactly like following. 

It just turns out that where ever you go, your nose will be leading you there.  In other words, you will always and forever be following something! Even if you refuse to follow, you'd just be following some belief that you must refuse to follow!  Now that's really foolish! ha!  So the answer is simple.  Yes, you need to follow.  You have no choice in that matter.  You have to follow something.  You do, however, have a choice about what to follow.

Now, what about leading your own life?  Well that would by definition be the same as following yourself.  Think about it.  Do you really think that you, of all people, know the best way to go?  Maybe you do, maybe you don't.  So let's just for the sake of argument consider that you do just happen to know the best way to go.  Wow!  You're pretty awesome to say the least!  I think it's time now to pat yourself on the back. 

So if you know the best way to go, where did you learn that?  Did you always know that?  Have you ever changed your mind about what you think is the best way to go?  It's beginning to look a little suspicious right now...  It's beginning to look like you are just following something you learned.  Was it all by your own experimentation and experience?  or did you pick up knowledge from other people, too?  And your experience, did it not include other people?

So, in the end, trying to lead our own lives is really just following what we believe.  And so, again, by definition, any following of any doctrine is the same as leading our own lives.  There is no difference.  We always make the choice about what we will follow.

Now, does what you are following provide you with your deepest desire to be loved and respected?  And if people do love and respect you, do you believe they should?

Jesus taught us that He loves and respects each of us.  And that we should love and respect others. 

He didn't say anything about striving to be loved and respected.  I guess I was wrong!  What a fool I am!  So while it may be true that we all desire to be loved and respected, the only way to fulfill that, the only way to be loved and respected is to love and respect others! That's what we should desire the most. To love and respect others. 

Not sure I can understand all that, but if Jesus says it's so, then it's true.  It may seem foolish to follow, but it's still the truth. And the truth will set us free.

So, who's fool are you?

You can Believe without Seeing, but you cannot Believe without Knowing

I've been thinking about how the meaning of words often change with time. Cool, hot, bad, super, dynamite, wicked, groovy (anyone remember groovy?) - those words are the kind that change a lot and we expect that. If you're an adult then you're not supposed to understand teenagers. And if you're a teenager then you must never get caught sounding like an adult. That's pretty basic. We know that. 

The problem arises when words that "are not supposed to change meaning" do. Words like Faith, Believe, Love.

Love is way too complex for me to deal with right now, and faith is another really deep word. Let's try "believe" - that seems simple enough. I believe this and you believe that and they believe whatever... That should be pretty clear what we mean. But in reality it isn't. You just believe it's clear - ha!

The problem is that often in today's world the word "believe" means something like: "I consider that it may be true, and most likely it is, at least as far as I understand the various facts and proofs that I have available. (but I think I could be wrong... maybe...)" - And for some it's more like: "I heard it on the news and everyone else believes it, so it must be true." ah - yeah - hmmm.

But believing should really run along the lines of "Knowing" - of being positive and basing your life and actions on the "fact" of what you believe. You may be wrong, but as far as you are concerned, you "know the facts" and you accept the belief as not requiring proof.

Ouch! Did I just say that believing could involve not requiring proof! That's unheard of in this scientific age. Everything has to be proven true or else it's a lie! (Except, of course, evolution - that's absolutely impossible to prove true and yet it's taught as a fact - a very strange situation...) Only children would ever believe without evidence!

Well - that's my point. Children believe. Adults often just consider the possibility of the veracity of some doctrine. Big difference.

Now don't get me wrong. Evidence and facts have real value. In fact, it's human nature to accept as true the first side of any argument that one learns and then defend it against all odds and evidence to the contrary. That can have disastrous results like believing that the world is flat or that low-fat food is healthy and dietetic even if it's loaded with sugars and preservatives. So there is a time to consider the evidence. Just be sure it's real evidence and not some contrived facts and figures. And that it's enough evidence to support or maybe counter what you believe.

Actually, the most important thing is to find the evidence of what you do believe. Is there any? You should be able to find some. If not, then maybe it's time to consider the alternatives.

Well all that to say that believing is knowing. It's not just a consideration of the facts or even just hoping something's true. That's the point - don't say you believe if you just "think" it's true. Say you believe if you "know" it's true. Children believe.

Now why is that important to distinguish between considering the truth and believing the truth? Well if you just consider something true it will never really change you! You will always have some part of your mind and heart in reserve, just in case you were wrong. You need to believe to be changed by the truth! To truly know. Then you start living your life based on that knowledge.

So search for the truth and study it until you truly believe it as unquestionable fact. The truth will then set you free from all the other alternatives.

The Apostle Paul once wrote to a young Christian named Timothy and told him, "Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

And Jesus, Himself, said, "You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." That's a promise.

Let's get started

There's always so much to talk about, but since I don't really have any idea who might be reading this, I figure I ought to talk about something worthwhile. I know I hate to read through posts that just ramble... uhh... okay then.

I hope you've "got promise" since for me I can't imagine living without it. What promise? I'm talking about the promise of Heaven and eternal life through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I know almost everyone has some concept of Heaven and the 'other place' and some concept of eternal life (or not). Most of the different ideas and beliefs about the 'afterlife' and the spirit world are really hard to deal with and even accept unless you believe that somehow you will win out in the end. The alternative is just way too scary to even think about, never mind believe in.

The greatest thing you could ever discover is that you don't even need to worry about Hell, Hades, (New York?) or any other place. (Okay, New Yorkers, I've lived in New York, and, no, it was not really all that much like Hell - I just thought it was a cute joke - please forgive me...)

If you've "got Promise" then a promise is a promise, especially if it's someone as faithful and honest as God making the promise to you! I couldn't possibly list all the verses and other references to God's promise in just one blog post, so I'm not going to bother. The fact is that you really don't need to know them all - but they do help to make the promise more 'alive' as you study them.

And how do you, personally, your own self, get this promise? - "For God so loved the world (that includes you!) that He gave His only Son, Jesus, (to pay for our sins and mistakes) that whoever believes in Him (Jesus) would not perish but have everlasting life." - There now you have it - well sort of. The promise is conditional on believing in Jesus, but that's the easy part. Even atheists believe that Jesus was a real person. You just need to believe that He is the Savior of the world, sent by God.

Now most Christians believe that you need to say a prayer of salvation to get the promise and I won't really argue against that in any way. But I believe that if you really "admit to yourself" that you believe that Jesus is the Savior and that you want that salvation then you have already prayed! That personal admission is heard by God - He knows all your thoughts! How could He not hear that? I mean if you really do believe in Him, then you realize that He can hear your thoughts, so that admission of belief was also to Him. For your own faith, though, I do recommend that everyone say a prayer of Salvation. That way you never have to worry whether or not you did what you were supposed to do or not. So here's one you can pray right now:

Dear Jesus, I believe that You are the Son of God, and that You took my punishment and died for me. Please forgive me for all of my sins. I now invite you into my heart. Jesus, I know that I can never be good enough to save myself, so I ask You to please come in and give me Your free gift of Eternal Live! In Jesus name I ask, amen.

Wow! That was it! If you prayed that prayer then you've "got Promise" - you've got eternal life and have a guaranteed ticket to Heaven. Better start thinking about the trip and your new life - there's so much to look forward to. The best person to ask about it is Jesus Himself. He can tell you exactly what to expect and what to pack, ha! Just ask Him - He does answer! He would never ever let you down. That's a promise.