I am not saying we can reason it out, as you may think I'm trying to do.
God says to reason it out together.
And the way I see it, I can only do that by including Him. That is to say what? Should I really give much of my input at all ...because why should I talk about things that I can imagine to be true when I know that God knows the truth.
So, foremost I go to the Bible because I believe God gave the Bible to us as a record of His dealing with us, and the rich history that is involved in it.
To understand the Bible, I need the Holy Spirit to guide my understanding of His Word.
And when we both believe we have the Holy Spirit guiding us, and we disagree ---that may create some confusion, especially if one of us claims to be filled with the Holy Spirit more than the other and therefore claiming a bit more understanding ---or significantly more authority. That would be similar to saying that there is still some confusion in the minds of some of our fellow believers because they are as of yet not filled with the Holy Spirit.
And this is where I feel we must reason together also.
I don't view sin as a virus. And I don't view the Holy Spirit as a vaccination.
I don't believe we have sin within our DNA because Adam & Eve sinned. I believe we sin because we are not robots programmed with only the choice of what we were programmed to choose. Sin is separation from God, or choosing something that God would not want us to choose. And we all come short of the glory of God.
So, though I believe we all sin, I don't believe we sin because Adam & Eve passed on the sin ...as 'original sin'. The origin of sin came before Adam & Eve. There was the separation from God with one third of the angels. And it was that serpent disguise of one of the angels, coming to Eve, to tempt her to sin.
Who would argue against the fact that deliberately trying to get someone to go against God is not also sin??
And I don't think sin is a virus and the only way to rid ourselves of it is by taking a small round wafer as if to act as an antibody to counteract the sin. And yes, you may recognize that as 'communion' and say Jesus told us to do that. I think taking communion is good, and if you take it every single day, perhaps you will be focusing on Him more for an hour before partaking in communion ...and perhaps even an hour afterwards, and that's a good thing. Focusing on Him is a good thing, and perhaps instead of committing seven other sins, the only sin during that time may be the sin of pride. Yet, that is only if we feel we are better, more holy than, or more in-tuned with Him than someone else.
I am all for breaking bread together in His Name, and we should do it because He said to. We go about our busy days, and often don't slow down ...but when we get hungry, do we just get fast food ---and continue on with our busy day?
I believe we need fellow believers. We need each other to remain focused, to encourage each other ---we are not supposed to be just about our day. And family is important too. Most of the time I feel it is important to eat with family ...and when we do, I feel we should also be with Him, including Him.
I was raised having communion in church every Sunday, and that is good. Then we came home from church and had our Sunday dinner together. (I'm a 'Yooper' ...from the UP, or Upper Peninsula of Michigan ---so we don't call the noon meal after church 'lunch'. It is called 'dinner' and the evening meal is called 'supper'.)
So, when we had dinner together ...did we leave Him behind in church? The most significant influence to me would seem to be whether He was included in the family meal ...the family life ...and hopefully family discussions ---as we broke bread, sharing together.
This is not the end of the conversation ...it is just signing off here for now. It is Thanksgiving morning, and it is my turn to get ready. My entire family (except our oldest daughter who lives in West Virginia ---soon moving to South Carolina with her husband and their 4 kids) is getting together with other believers. We will pray before the meal, break bread together ...and break into conversations, many of which will include Him.
God bless!!!
And now that Thanksgiving has been celebrated, it seems so busy. It seems Christmas comes so quickly ---and besides people shopping for gifts, there are also those who collect gifts at this time, like winter taxes besides all the other bills. And then we have our own personal taxes that have to be done soon into the new year. I may not relax until the last day of March (2024), which is Resurrection Day ...commonly referred to as Easter.
Again ...God bless!!!
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