Many people today rely on the global positioning system or GPS in today's cars to get to places. The GPS has probably saved more gasoline than any other recent improvement to cars. The GPS is especially helpful to those who are "directionally-challenged" so that they don't waste gallons of fuel trying to find how to get to their destination. However, we must not overly trust even the handy GPS.
Recently I was doing my usual daydreaming when I missed a highway exit. It took less than a second for the GPS to recalibrate with new instructions. As I got to the ramp where traffic was coming onto the highway my GPS told me to make a sharp right. Had I obeyed the GPS instruction, I would have saved myself ten miles of driving but I also would have been driving the wrong way on a one-way freeway incoming traffic ramp. I wonder if she --- the voice in the GPS --- (it's a she because it has such a nice feminine voice) evidently was wrong. If I obeyed her instructions, I not only most likely would have ended paying for a traffic ticket, but even worse --- I could have caused an accident and possible injury or even death.
We really need to pay attention to whose voice we listen. Many people today speak and act with such confidence and authority that it just seems right to listen to their counsel. Yet they can be as wrong as the GPS in my car.
Just 48 hours before Lehman Brothers went belly-up, a very loud voice from a financial authority on a financial television program advised all to buy Lehman Brothers because "it was solid". So much for that financial authority's "expert advice". Children obey their parents. In school, students obey their teachers. In church, parishioners obey their pastor. Or do we? Should we?
At some point in our lives, we mature and stop checking our brains at the door. In Isaiah, God tells us " ... let us reason together ..." God is not honored by blind obedience. He is best served by thoughtful, intelligent, principle-driven decisions. Be very careful about to whose voice you listen!
by Roger Bothwell
My Insight:
So many of my friends believe the way they do simply because its the way they were taught. They believe because it's convenient. They believe because their spiritual leader tells them to. Not one of them truly believes on their own ... they have never taken the time to truly understand for themselves why they believe the way they do. For them, it's much easier to blindly follow rather than stand on their own before God. How sad is this!?!
Like the article above stats, "God is not honored by blind obedience. He is best served by thoughtful, intelligent, principle-driven decisions" truly say's it best. When we stand before God on judgment day, we will be judged on our own understanding and not of that which we conveniently accepted or blindly followed.
Knowing God is Loving God! Knowing God is no different than loving your partner or your friend. You KNOW your partner and friend ... that's why you love them. Loving God is no different. God invites us to come and reason with him ... to come and GET to KNOW Him. So why not let go of those silly and stupid traditions, including all those just because notions and reason with God ... who knows, you just might truly fall in LOVE with HIM.
:Pj
Recently I was doing my usual daydreaming when I missed a highway exit. It took less than a second for the GPS to recalibrate with new instructions. As I got to the ramp where traffic was coming onto the highway my GPS told me to make a sharp right. Had I obeyed the GPS instruction, I would have saved myself ten miles of driving but I also would have been driving the wrong way on a one-way freeway incoming traffic ramp. I wonder if she --- the voice in the GPS --- (it's a she because it has such a nice feminine voice) evidently was wrong. If I obeyed her instructions, I not only most likely would have ended paying for a traffic ticket, but even worse --- I could have caused an accident and possible injury or even death.
We really need to pay attention to whose voice we listen. Many people today speak and act with such confidence and authority that it just seems right to listen to their counsel. Yet they can be as wrong as the GPS in my car.
Just 48 hours before Lehman Brothers went belly-up, a very loud voice from a financial authority on a financial television program advised all to buy Lehman Brothers because "it was solid". So much for that financial authority's "expert advice". Children obey their parents. In school, students obey their teachers. In church, parishioners obey their pastor. Or do we? Should we?
At some point in our lives, we mature and stop checking our brains at the door. In Isaiah, God tells us " ... let us reason together ..." God is not honored by blind obedience. He is best served by thoughtful, intelligent, principle-driven decisions. Be very careful about to whose voice you listen!
by Roger Bothwell
My Insight:
So many of my friends believe the way they do simply because its the way they were taught. They believe because it's convenient. They believe because their spiritual leader tells them to. Not one of them truly believes on their own ... they have never taken the time to truly understand for themselves why they believe the way they do. For them, it's much easier to blindly follow rather than stand on their own before God. How sad is this!?!
Like the article above stats, "God is not honored by blind obedience. He is best served by thoughtful, intelligent, principle-driven decisions" truly say's it best. When we stand before God on judgment day, we will be judged on our own understanding and not of that which we conveniently accepted or blindly followed.
Knowing God is Loving God! Knowing God is no different than loving your partner or your friend. You KNOW your partner and friend ... that's why you love them. Loving God is no different. God invites us to come and reason with him ... to come and GET to KNOW Him. So why not let go of those silly and stupid traditions, including all those just because notions and reason with God ... who knows, you just might truly fall in LOVE with HIM.
:Pj
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