Friday, November 11, 2005

Be Original



Last night, I talked to some good friends of mine and we had a wonderful conversation about being original, about being active in your Christian faith, not just hearing what one person says, agreeing with it, and then applying it to your life without even having researched it and looked it up.

The problem with the movement that is happening right now in the church is that so many people are hearing ideas that people are saying and they are clinging to the ideas. Don't get me wrong... a lot of the ideas that I hear out there are pretty awesome and amazing, but my point is that we should be grappling with and digging deeper into the word. We need to go back to the basics: bread and water. Bread= Bible, Water=prayer (Holy Spirit)

So often we hear someone say something that really resonates with us and then we try to regurgitate that and if we can't convey the message the way the original speaker did we get frustrated. This happens because we don't see all of the work and research that goes into that person's development of the idea that we are so eager to cling to.



It's very easy to read a book, in this case, I'm meaning any book other than the Bible, and walk away saying, "Yes, this is what I believe. This is what I need to do. This is how I need to live out my life." While that is great and all, we really should be figuring out how we need to live our life by the things we read in the bible. We should be getting excited about the things we find in the Bible, not jump up and down about something that someone says, especially if we don't ever take the time to go back and research it for ourselves.

The important thing in this world, for us as Christians, and I know I keep repeating this, but it's true, We Need To Be About Loving Everyone!!! That is what it's all about. It's what Jesus did here on Earth. It's spread throughout the Bible. It's why Jesus came and died on the cross.

Now hear me clearly, I'm not saying you can't or that you shouldn't agree with things you have heard or read. All I am saying is that we need to be careful not just to regurgitate and hold onto ideas that didn't come from us. We can like what we hear
or read, but then we need to take those nuggets of information and continue doing our own research and reading of the Bible to help form what we personally believe. If all you're doing is telling people ideas about what someone else believes and claiming they are your own thoughts, how do you defend your beliefs when they are questioned.



Be Original!! Think for Yourself!!! Be Original!!! Think for Yourself!!!