Increasing is the number of people who don't "believe" in organized religion. They may believe that organizations limit their freedom to practice religion according to their individual interpretation, or that religion should be a private practice and not a public one.
I have some sentiment with this approach; I too believe that religion is intensely personal because at the most basic level, it is about an individual's relationship with God. Salvation is an individual thing. However, limiting the scope of our own religiosity to only our private life is like living two separate lives. It means putting on a secular face in public and a religious one in private as if shamed by our own feelings of piety. Furthermore, we may feel that keeping our religion to ourselves is best because then we don't "infringe" upon the rights of others, as if talking about your beliefs limits the other person's freedom in some way.??? Or maybe we fear being judged. There are a lot of reasons I suppose.
The first great commandment is to love God with all our heart might mind and strength. This means to stand as a witness at all times and in all places, ... in public and in private.
If we believe in God, we need to act like it. No more of this living two separate lives. If someone asks you what you did over the weekend, tell 'em - I prayed, I read my bible, I went to church, and I liked it. If its who you are, then don't hide it. There's One person paying particular attention and he is always keeping score.
No comments:
Post a Comment