Walk the Walk
Whether you are a new believer, a long-time believer or a pre-believer this podcast is for you! Walk the Walk will help answer some questions you may have. I will talk about the Bible...and what it means to me. Not only will I share, but guests will be invited to share their own stories on how God is moving in their lives. You will be encouraged, uplifted and hopefully you will want to seek God to be a part of your life. You are welcome here.
Walk the Walk
Can we all get along? Or are we too far gone???? Seeing eye to eye on God's Word
When a simple piece of artwork I created sparked a firestorm of reactions, it became clear that the waters within the Christian community run deeper and more tumultuous than I ever imagined. This episode peels back the layers of division that have crept into the church, particularly visible in the Methodist denomination's struggle with the concept of sin. As followers of Christ, are we standing on the bedrock of Scripture, or are we shifting our beliefs to align with the ebb and flow of societal trends? It's a moment of reckoning, as I call upon my fellow believers to evaluate our adherence to the Word and to consider the impact that caving to secular pressures might have on our collective witness.
Navigating the rich tapestry of the Bible as a cohesive narrative reveals a divine message that has withstood the test of time, from Genesis to Revelation. Yet, many have fallen into the pitfall of treating this sacred text as a random selection of spiritual one-liners. This episode challenges that approach, advocating for a disciplined study and understanding of Scripture in its full historical context. Join me as I dissect the repercussions of cherry-picking verses and distorting God's unchanging message—because to alter the instructions of the Divine is to risk the very essence of our Christian testimony in an already fragmented world.
Hello and welcome to Walk the Walk. So I did this little. I thought it was an experiment. Maybe it wasn't. I was looking for an opinion on a piece of artwork that I created for a bookmark that I made, and when I sent it out, I thought this is going to be great. Everybody's going to love this piece of artwork. They're going to think it's so good and so even comical.
Speaker 1:It wasn't meant to be serious by any means, but what I got was a mix of responses, and some people were really offended by the picture and did not think it was funny and somehow took it down a path of you know, this is, we should not be afraid of God Took the picture itself and made it look like I was not. I I'll take responsibility, though, that maybe the picture itself looked like I was trying to make people be afraid of God. By no means was I trying to do that. I was just hoping that everybody felt the same way I did. I mean, I saw it as being comical, but some people took it very seriously and said, no, I don't even like that, I hate that picture. And I was like, wow, wow, this is not what I was expecting at all. And then I started thinking about this and I thought that's what the Christian world looks like. We can't even agree with each other. And by no means again am I trying to say those people who commented on my Facebook page were wrong. They have the right, they are entitled to their opinion. After all, I asked right. But then I started thinking about the world, the Christian world that we live in, and I was thinking, oh my gosh, we can't even agree on scripture, we, we don't agree on scripture. As a matter of fact, right now we're taking a look at the world, or the Christian world.
Speaker 1:One particular denomination is redefining sin. Now, don't think that's only that denomination. Why do you think we have so many churches? Why, because some man somewhere has decided God gave him the ability, the right to change Scripture, the right to redefine sin, and thinks that, well, if you don't follow my way, you're on your way. And that's exactly what's happening right now in the Methodist church. There's a split going on because sin is being redefined.
Speaker 1:I cannot imagine what we look like to the non-Christian world. They have to be looking at us and saying I wouldn't want any part of that. Those people can't even agree with each other, let alone stand on what they believe is to be true and they're so wishy-washy. Why would I want to be a part of that? And I understand why they would say that. But Satan says I've got them right where I want them. This is exactly where Satan wanted us. He says you know, he is dividing us as a world and dividing us as Christians. But even more so, let's take a look at what Jesus is saying. I would imagine that Jesus is dropping his head into his hands and saying I cannot believe it, but I know these people.
Speaker 1:This is not a new thing. This has been ongoing from day one. But it's sad to me. It's very sad, but for those who are listening and posted onto that page, I'm not. This is not really all about that.
Speaker 1:It just made me start to think about our differing views and I thought wow, I know we all read from the same. Well, maybe not. I better not say that. I know most of us have to read from the same Bible, but I also know this there's a lot of us that don't read the Bible. Know this, there's a lot of us that don't read the Bible. We may get what we know from attending a church or listening to other Christians or attending Bible studies, but how many people really sit down and study their Bible and understand it? I would venture to say, of all the, let's say there's a million Christians, maybe 5,000, maybe, I don't know, I'm guessing. Maybe, if you know, let me know. But I'm just saying, do we really read our Bibles? And I don't mean read, I mean read and understand and take it apart and try to understand the era, try to understand what was going on during that time.
Speaker 1:But it's a disheartening thing to me to see the world of Christianity falling apart. There are so many people that are cheering that on, who are excited at the fact that we as Christians are not united. We're so divided and it appears that Christianity is falling apart. That's so scary and it's so heartbreaking that it makes me sad to think that we would be willing to redefine the word of God. Never in my mind have I thought I'm going to recall this word something else. I don't think that's what God really meant. I don't think so. He doesn't know. This is the 2000s. I mean come on, god, get it together. I would never have the audacity to do that. But there are people who do and I say woe to them and I say woe to them.
Speaker 1:In Revelation, it says woe to those who try to change one word of God's word. You know, we look at the world through our own eyes. We look at what's going on through our own experiences. We look at what is going on in the world through our children, through what they are doing. We don't want to be separated from our children, so what we do is we try to fit in with their world, thinking I'm going to try to keep my foot over here in this Christian world. In the same time, I'm going to be the cool mom, cool dad and accept the things that they are accepting. That's a bad mix. That is a horrible mix. We have to stand strong as a Christian community. We have to stand strong, and if we don't, the very thing that's already happening is going to worsen. We have to stand strong and believe in Jesus Christ and believe in his word.
Speaker 1:For those who commented on my Facebook page, this is really not about your comments. This was about me seeing things that people saw differently than I did, and it made me think that's exactly how we all interpret the Bible, or God's word, or what we believe to be is true when it comes to sin, we can't have it both ways. It cannot be both ways. It can only be the way God intended. Read your Bible, Understand it, take it apart, don't drop your Bible down, and wherever the page falls to is where God wants you to read.
Speaker 1:I'm not a big fan of that and I don't particularly believe that's what God wants. My opinion and again that's what we're talking about here, my opinion is you start with Genesis and you work all the way through to Revelation, because it's one big story, one big real story that talks about the Israelites and the Hebrews, the Gentiles, and it brings us all the way through to the end, and we all know how the end ends. No matter what you or I do to try to change it, it's not going to change Because that is how God wanted it to start and it's how he wants it to end. Have a blessed week.