I Pour Out My Soul Deep Within Me.

~
Throughout this year, Superman and I have been reading The Daily Bible.  And if you recall what I posted in January... this "reading the Bible every day" is something I was mucho excited about.  The primary reason for my excitement was the increased level of discipline I would be forced to develop by forming this daily habit.  (Though rather unfortunately, that discipline actually hasn't been all that awesome... we've done a lot of full-day reading marathons trying to get caught up on missed weeks.)

But I've been surprised by another, more unexpected, result of this undertaking.  I have been hugely challenged in my faith.  Challenged to confront my understanding of stories I wish weren't in there (like Ezekiel's wife.)  Challenged to form an opinion in areas I'd rather just distance myself from.  Certainly challenged in my understanding of prayer.  So many things.

I feel the STRONG need to say something to you all.  And it is this.

If I choose to accept that God is Creator of this universe and everything in it... that in a mere nine months he multiplied a little cell into millions and billions of skin, ear, heart, & brain cells... and breathed life into me... If I believe that this is true (and I absolutely DO) then... what He says goes.  I don't get to take something He created and live as though its something else.  I don't get to choose to do whatever I want to do, and call it right.  HE gets to choose what is right, whether it makes sense to me or not.

If He has spoken plainly on the subject of divorce... what he says goes.  If he has given me parameters for how I act out my sexuality... what he says goes.

There are so many things God has created in a certain way, and yet we decide "He must not have known what he was doing."  Oh, He knew!  It is WE who are lost, lied to, and without a clue.

The preacher at our church, we'll call him C, is someone I haven't always had much respect for.  I often feel he comes across arrogant.  But this week... I wanted to shout AMEN from the balcony of the auditorium during his sermon.  He was saying exactly what I've been feeling!  That we live in a time where people want the Bible to mean whatever they say it means.  That almost any issue where God speaks and we aren't comfortable with it... can just be stepped around if we choose to call it "culturally behind-the-times" or "judgmental."  I know that I deserve heaps of judgement for my own wrongdoing... so I don't mean we should be judgmental.  But darnit!  WE DON'T GET TO DECIDE WHAT'S RIGHT AND WRONG.  He does.  Case closed.  End of story.   If you don't like what He says... obey anyway.  You don't get to just "change it."  Not if you believe He is who He says He is.

Am I bit emotional about this?  Haha... why do you ask?

But seriously.  I'm almost sick when I look around and see just how many Christians are refusing to take a stand for the unfortunate, unpopular, hard-to-swallow, but oh-so-absolute TRUTH.  We may not like it... but if He-Who-Has-Set-This-World-In-Motion has made it so, then  SO  IT  IS.

My heart has been heavily burdened lately as I've read, talked with friends (both religious and non-religious) and attended a worship service that has felt as dry and lifeless as dead bones.  Who IS this God I serve?  And if he is who He says He is... what must I do?  I conclude I must submit to The Almighty.