Bible Study and Insights

Having Turned Aside

First of all, I am so sorry that it's taken me so long to update. Life's been... going. Pretty crazy, and I've also been helping my mom around the house a lot more, so I haven't really thought about Wattpad much, honestly.

Anyways!

In the back of my Bible, it has a chart for reading the Bible in a year. To be honest, every time I attempt to follow one of these plans, I forget and abandon it pretty quick. However, I do like this chart as it lays it out by chapter rather than my old falling-apart-Bible from my kindergarten years (Seriously, I'm almost afraid to touch it it's so well-worn.), which lays it out in a weird manner by breaking up chapters into ambiguous blocks of verses. In my current Bible, the only chapter that gets broken up is Psalm 119, which I think everyone can tell why, and even then they only split it into halves.

But that's not the point. I'm rabbit trailing. My point was that I've been kind of getting back into it, but really only reading the "Morning" half of it, because that's the New Testament reading for the day. (I'm working through the Old Testament separately, so,,,)

Today's reading was 1 Timothy chapter 1. Two verses in particular struck me:

"From which some having turned aside unto vain jangling. Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm."

I'm about to get into what might be considered controversial ground here, but God was speaking to me, so I'm going to say it anyways.

Last night, my parents and I were watching Glenn Beck's latest episode on his channel on Blaze TV. (For those who don't know, Glenn has been talking about the political trend in America since I don't even remember. Definitely 2008. He's often dismissed as a conspiracy-obsessed chalkboard maker, but I view him more of a critical thinker. He urges everyone to go out and find their own facts about the things he brings up, and he opens the viewer's eyes to things that they may not have thought about, or even encountered before.) Glenn was talking about the trend about the attacks on Christians, especially Catholics, that are occurring in our country right now. One of the things he brought up was a video where a man who's supposed to be a minister was taking Romans 12:2 ("And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.") and perverting it to say what he wanted it to say.

This man stopped at "renewing of your mind" and turned it into how it was saying that we can renew our minds every day and not become stuck in a certain way of thought. Which, in some degree, yes, we can do this. That's not what the verse is saying, however, and especially not in the context of him saying this regarding a drag queen who's also present in the video. This man, who calls himself a minister, was giving his stamp of approval on things that the world has said is okay. He was talking about separating oneself from the world, all the while hosting it in his very congregation.

When I read those verses in Timothy, it struck me that we're dealing with a lot of so-called-churches these days that only exist to make the attendees feel good. I don't like feel-good churches. I'm so blessed to have been raised in a church where every Sunday feels like a family reunion and where the people feel real and everyone knows what and why they believe what they believe. However, I'm aware that our church is in the minority and my heart goes out to everyone who doesn't have a church like mine.

We need to revive the spirit of true church, where preaching the Word of God as He intends it is the focus and priority of the church.

The meaning of Romans 12:2 isn't about re-creating or re-structuring your mind into new categories of "good" and "bad." As my pastor and youth pastor have both said numerous times: you need to look at the verses before and after. In this case, Romans 12:1-2 says "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

What this is saying is that the "renewing of your mind" is the process of rejecting the world and following God's word, which is a daily process, but not one in which your conception of right or wrong can change. The truth is the truth, and the Word is the Word. Therefore, we should strive more towards the mindset of "I messed up yesterday, but today's a clean slate" and basically tuning yourself back into God.

Glenn was pointing out another thing, which I think is very telling. He wrote the following on a chalkboard:

2 + 2 = 4

He then asked who would die defending that. No one would, right? (I mean, maybe there's a dedicated mathematician out there, but......) Then he wrote this:

God

Jesus

Christ

He asked who would die defending those. He said that plenty of people would say they would (myself included), but that it's been predicted that only a third of us if facing that situation actually would. I hope that I never face such a situation, but I hope more that if I do ever find my life on the line in such a manner, that I would go down with the name of the LORD on my lips.

I challenge you to think about this question. Would you defend Him? You don't have to tell me what that answer is; I just want you to think on it in your own heart and mind.

If you guys have any questions about anything, whether it's something from this book or just something you've thought about on your own, feel free to comment and I'll do my best to answer. :) If you have a comment, please feel free. Just please be respectful; I know I've raised some controversial topics in here and while I don't want to spark any wars, I'm not going to shy around the truth and the principles I've been taught to respect and follow.