How do you trust??

I have been very sad lately. Well let's just leave it at very sad. I've realized that I used to implicitly trust people. I trusted them to be ... trying their best. I trusted them to sometimes succeed and sometimes fail. To sometimes do what they are proud of and sometimes do things they are ashamed of. But rarely walking out the door in the morning intending to lie/cheat/steal.

All of my notions have been blown completely out of the water in the last year. I have come to the slow realization that there are indeed people who intend to do evil. They may not admit it to themselves but they actively line their pockets at the expense of others. Here are a short list of things that have happened:

• My debit card was stolen --- twice (apparently once was not enough...I do not use it anymore)
• The lawyers that were representing us, the disabled from Nortel actively worked to get us less money so that their other clients got more.
• Liberal politicians played a couple of disabled people so that the Conservatives looked bad in the press. When the story was over, we were left behind.
• Conservative politicians promised to help us and when the story was over, no help was given.
• When I got sick, no one visited without John requesting them to visit.
  
• The court appointed representative (one of us disabled folk), lied to us, signed an absolutely abysmal deal and frankly hung us out to dry.
• We were offered a free picture over the phone. I grilled the lady on the phone and she told us that we were not going to be asked to buy any. It was a gift. Well when we went to pick up the pics, the sales-guy threw a tantrum because we would not buy a package. It was so fake that even I picked up that he was trying to manipulate us.

What does the bible say about bad people. Well all of Psalms is David crying out to God about how the evil is abounding. At the end of most of the Psalms he admits that he will still follow God and praises the King of the Universe. And that God is in charge. I don't blame God, I just don't want to be around people. I don't want to give them the opportunity to hurt me anymore. Right now I am hurt by very little and every time I interact with people I inevitably get hurt.

My response is to hide and avoid and not go near them that hurt me. This behaviour is probably a good short term response until I feel stronger but it has been 2 months and I'm beginning to doubt I will feel stronger. I am wearing out John and feeling very lonely but I don't know what else to do. John is in the Silly season and out an awful lot and busy working when he is not out. I spend a lot of time in bed avoiding the world. I don't have the energy to open myself up to the casual remarks that people make.

Whatever God has in store for me I will accept gratefully, but I hope that the agony will end soon.

One Interpretation of the Bible

Here is an article from The Gospel Way, in essence the article says that there is only one true way to interpret scripture. And that we on earth, can fully interpret it's meaning. It is a common point of view. The Jehovah witnesses that come to my door from time to time say the same thing. But I respectfully submit that although there is only one truth, we on earth do not have the means to know what it is. The article maintains that we must be able to know the truth because of Galatians 1:8,9

A person is accursed if he preaches doctrine different from the true meaning of Jesus' gospel. So the idea that people can preach and practice things that contradict the gospel, yet still please God, just simply is not so!

Hosea 4:6

God said His people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

and Romans 2:6-10.

At the judgment, those who have not obeyed the truth will receive indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish. So knowing and obeying truth leads to eternal life, but failure to know and obey truth leads to eternal punishment.

Galations 1:8,9 Connie's Interpretation
What is the true meaning of Jesus' Gospel. The true meaning of Jesus' Gospel is that He came, He died for our sins and He rose again. If we ask for forgiveness and believe then we are saved. I agree that anyone preaching against this truth is accursed. But if you extend the true meaning of Jesus' Gospel to the fact that women are not to speak in church (just picking out something that is quite controversial), I would say that neither side of the issue is against the true meaning of Jesus' Gospel.

Hosea 4:6 Connie's Interpretation
I always have to pause before looking at an Old Testament Scripture. I have to pause to remember that these people are not saved by faith. They are trying to follow the rules written in God's Holy Law, knowing that every transgression needs to be addressed with appropriate offerings. They need to understand the Law to such a degree that they know when they break it. Because breaking it by mistake does not excuse them. Pre-Christ, people are indeed destroyed by lack of knowledge. But let us say that this is applied to Christians, the interesting part of the verse is not in the article, the whole of Hosea 4:6 is:

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Because you have rejected knowledge,
I also will reject you from being priest for Me;
Because you have forgotten the law of your God,
I also will forget your children.

They are not destroyed just for the lack of knowledge but because they have rejected it. If you reject knowledge of God then you are destroyed, as Israel was over and over again. But again, this does not apply to Christians because we are saved by faith not by knowledge.

Romans 2:6-10 Connie's Interpretation
I think this verse is included because it shows God turning His Holy face away from a group of people. Here is the Romans 2:5-10

But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God “will repay each person according to what they have done.” To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

I just want to point out the one word that I have bolded in the above scripture. You must reject the truth and be self-seeking and follow evil. For me this means that you must do more than disobey the truth you must actively reject it.

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Here is the one paragraph I disagree with the most:

God Is the Author, Not of Confusion, but of Peace - 1 Corinthians 14:33.

Is the existence of many conflicting doctrines a source of confusion? Of course. Yet if proper Bible interpretation leads to all these contradictions, then who would be to blame for the confusion? God would!

But the Scripture says we should not blame God for the existence of confusion. He is the source of peace. So God is not responsible for conflicting Bible interpretations. He never wanted it this way.

It necessarily follows that God's word has a true and correct meaning. Since the Bible does not contradict itself, then when we interpret it correctly, we will not contradict one another. Conflicting explanations are not correct, not true. And since contradictory views are not from God, they must be from men. But in religion, doctrines from men make our service to God vain (Matt. 15:9).

[See also John 17:17; Psa. 119:128,137-144,151,160; 19:7-11; James 1:25.]

My belief is that the fault lies with no one, but if you must find a reason for so many seeming contradictions it might be that the human mind is incapable of following the logic of God. This is in the bible so many times that I am not going to look up references. But the one reference that occurs to me is the one where God says to Job: “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand." (Job 38:4).

God is certainly not the author of our confusion. To me, our lack of knowledge just indicate that we cannot comprehend God fully because we are not Him. There will never be complete knowledge and certainty about the meanings of the Bible. This does not mean that we stop searching and it does not mean that there is not one truth, it just means that we are not always able to discern that one truth. It means that no matter how long and how diligently we seek to understand the bible, God's truths are not for us to understand on this earth. Maybe it will be different in heaven, maybe not.

But for sure we should continue to seek His truth. I for one have been on a quest to seek His truth in my heart. Change my behaviours, change my views, change my insecurities at His urging and His timing. This has been a year of unprecedented growth but very little Bible Study. I am preparing my heart in order to receive God's will and follow it as best as possible. I am praying to see if God's will for my future is to attend Bible College at my age. I am hoping that it is His will because I love God's word and I want to spend as much time as I can studying it.

Good stuff all over.

God has been so generous with me lately. I have been praying for years for more grace and more gentleness. It doesn't come naturally to me to keep information under my hat just because it may not help the other person. I know that I do this very often and yet I can't seem to stop. When someone is doing something that results in them hurting themselves and/or others I feel a burning need to help them see it. Note the irony.

So God has given me two people (not even real people) that give me a view on how I can take my personality type and serve God and love people. The first is a book by Cathy Marie Hake and it is titled "Last Chance". The heroine is a woman named LoveJoy and she is a bit of a bossyboots (like yours truly) but she keeps everyone's hearts in mind when she serves up the truth. I think it would be great if I could just stop telling people what I feel that they should know until I can tell them in a way that is supportive and kind. So I've started on this journey of kindness. I gotta tell ya it isn't as hard as I thought. I believe God is doing all the heavy lifting. If he can help a vocal woman like me it is indeed proof that to Him all things are possible.

The second character is the main character from The Blind Side (played by Sandra Bullock). She is a bossy boots as well. Watching the movie was a bit like watching myself in action. What occured to me was that I liked the character. So seeing my behaviours in someone else that I considered great, gave me a bit of love of myself.

All this is very closely tied to the fact that in january I decided not to rejoin my bible group. The reason I had done this is because I knew when I do a bible study, I use the material to beat myself up. If the chapter is on greed, I find a hundred sins in my life that show how greedy I am. Ditto every other sin. I decided to lay off any book that had a workbook or questions or apply this to your life type of format. In essence no bible studies. It was AMAZING. All I read was the Christian Romances and the bible reading from mass on Sunday. You know I think I started loving myself about March/April. And that love of myself has allowed me to give the same grace I learned to give myself to others. God has led me down this path that no bible teacher, no mature Christian, no pastor would ever recommend. He knew I needed to lay off on the I oughtas and get to the Thank You Lords.

The second greatest command is to "Love others as yourself", implied in the statement is that you must love yourself.