If you’ve already taken care of, Things You Don’t Have Time NOT to Do: 4) Figure Out the God Thing, you’ve investigated God, and you’re sure you’ve discovered the truth, you and God may still have some business to take care of.
According to a recent survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life
- 57 percent of evangelical Christians said they believe many religions can lead to eternal life, even though the bible records Jesus having said “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except by me.”
- Only six in 10 Catholics described God as “a person with whom people can have a relationship” — which the church teaches .
- 21 percent of self-identified atheists said they believe in God or a universal spirit,
- Another survey found 52% of Jews don’t believe in God.
A lot of people either don’t understand the teaching of their faith or they choose to disregard the parts they don’t like.
Congrats, you’ve been given a Bugatti Veyron
Let’s say out of the blue, someone decided to give you a Bugatti Veyron. At $1.7M, it’s the most expensive car in the world. Which of the following options do you think would enable you to get the most out of this amazing gift.
A) Ignore the owner’s manual. Just drive the car and care for it based on what you’ve heard others say and your own intuition. What you don’t know can’t hurt you, right?
B) Read the manual and then decide for yourself which maintenance guidelines you want to follow. You’re on board with the oil changes, but changing the tires every 2,500 miles at a cost of $30,000 seems extreme, so you disregard that.
C) Live by the owner’s manual. You read it regularly, you have parts of it memorized, and you try to follow it as closely as possible. What’s more, you get together with other Bugatti owners to learn from their experiences and see what they’re doing with their cars. And since the manual doesn’t touch on every possible scenario, you call the company and get their advice regularly.
All or Nothing
Most faiths have a “holy book,” scripture which its followers believe is the word of God.
This is a huge claim.
Think about it.
If a “holy book” contains errors and inconsistencies, then it’s not God’s word. And if it’s not God’s word, then that entire faith is a lie and you should run the other way as fast as you can. But if the “holy book” is the word of God, then every word of it is true and the degree to which you experience God’s blessing in your life is going to parallel the degree to which you align your life with it. There is no third option.
I realize that nobody is perfect. If you’re diligently but imperfectly following your faith, I commend you.
I’m challenging those of you who claim a faith but are taking it half-heartedly, those of you who like some passages of scripture but dismiss and ignore the ones that don’t fit your lifestyle. You are wasting time and limiting your own potential by not fully aligning your life with the truth. It’s called integrity.
- Are you going to love your spouse God’s way or some other way?
- Are you going to raise your kids God’s way or some other way?
- Are you going to manage your finances God’s way or some other way?
- Are you going to do your job God’s way or some other way?
- Are you going to manage relationships God’s way or some other way?
You don’t have time NOT to figure this out.
So, where are you on the God question? Do you see the need to understand and align your life with what you believe to be God’s word? Can you think of a time where you wasted time and created unnecessary hardship for yourself because you chose to follow your own way instead of God’s?
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