In Other News, I Don't Know Everything

I don't have answers for everything. I'm not going to make dogmatic stances when I don't have a reason to. I'm not going to try and convince someone else I am more right than them. I am not going to act out of pride. I will continue to hold to the Bible because I believe it to be the truth, I know it is alive and active in my life, and I know that it is through Jesus Christ that I live and thrive. Because I align myself with Jesus, I know that puts me with odds with others who don't share my faith, who oppose my faith, and even people that "share my faith" but have very distinct views. This does put me at opposition with people, but it's not about me being against you, it's about me being for Jesus. I shared last week "‎"Christians" are supposed to be known by their love, not by the things they hate. So many "people of faith" put so much more time into the things they are against, than loving people that actually need love. If we are to be known by our love, and all we show is hate, then what we are showing the world is not Jesus, and that we are not his disciples, but disciples of our own piety". My goal is to follow the 2 greatest commands in God's Word, Love God, and Love others (I believe if you set that as priority, the rest falls into place). The rest is a work in progress, just because I believe life is in Christ, doesn't mean I know everything. Just as it's phrased in Philippians 2, I "continue to work out my salvation with fear and trembling". The more I study, the more I learn, the more I realize I know less and less. But I hold fast to the truth found in Jesus Christ. People expect since I’m a pastor that I know everything, but if you meet a pastor who knows everything, it's because he's stopped trying to find the truth, and is comfortable with thinking he knows it all. Pride and self sufficiency are like recliner, with your favorite jammas, and drink. You settle into it, and you can stay a long time, but you won't get much done. So if you want to go off on how my faith is silly, or think it's hateful, niece or foolish, that's your perspective, and if you want to talk about it, I’ll be glad to. If you think where I stand is in a place of bitterness, prejudice or hate, then I think you have a misguided view of where I stand, and would be glad to discuss with you. Keep in mind I’m saying discuss, not debate.  For all the other crazy things going on out there, I have no clue. Do I think the world will end on the 21st, nope, and in fact I hope it doesn’t? I want to see my girls grow up, I want to hike the Grand Canyon at Easter 2012, and I want to see the next batman movie in summer 2012. More importantly there are a lot of people I love that I think would be in a bad situation, should that occur. Then again I don't know everything."If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves" Galatians 6:3. I know this is less "Fluid" than my normal writings, but as I look at the world so polarized in opposition, I felt like I needed to say this to breathe. People are taking sides against things like 4th graders with Carolina and duke. They have no clue what they are fighting over, but they know they are against the other guy. I think we develop that mentality as children and just run with it through our adult lives. I think because we spend so much time focusing on what we oppose, it consumes us and we lose the joy of actually living life.