As my first graders were coloring pictures of Moses this week, one child started to color Moses brown. The little boy sitting next to him factually stated, "That is not what color he was. You can't color him brown."
The little boy stopped, and selected a different color. When I call this precious boy over to where I was, I asked him how he knew Moses was not brown.
He looked at me, quite unsure why I, the Bible teacher, did not know this answer. "Because I saw him, and he wasn't brown."
With great skeptism I asked, "Where did you see him?"
With confidence he replied, "I have seen him in the movies."
DUH!
As I tried to explain it was okay to color Moses whatever color you wanted because we aren't sure what color he really was, he looked at me like he was sad I didn't know what color Moses was but he was QUITE sure he was NOT brown.
Its funny, actually its quite depressing, how confident we can become of things that are not truth. In his mind, there was no way in heck Moses was brown. It couldn't be possible. He had "seen" Moses, and he was NOT brown. How often do we do the same thing?
Sadly, I see those who attach the name of Christ to theirs, do this exact same thing. They believe something to be true, not because of Scripture or even because of divine revelation or prompting from the Holy Spirit, they believe it to be true because they KNOW. It just is, just as my first grader knew Moses was not brown.
How do we combat this as fellow Christ-followers?
Why do we allow others to stand on shifting sand, all the while claiming it is solid rock?
When will we stop labeling good ideas, nice standards, high morals, strong convictions, and Godly ideals as Truth?
The saddest part of all this, at least to me, is that I don't see anyone standing up calling shifting sand, shifting sand. We allow others to tell us Moses was not brown. We stop and change colors. We tell others that Moses was not brown. We write books about it and hold conferences to tell others that Moses was not brown.
All the while, we turn our backs to what we have truly been called to do; love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Questions to ponder...
Posted by Ashlee Liddell at 7:44 PM
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2 comments:
i have thought sorta about that before. how people kinda humanize religion in way, with their own human convictions, rather than letting the real truth come from God.
and then, of course, it's back to the only real safety, back to the basics.
It is so true Lindsay, and the thing that breaks my heart is how complicated we have made faith and God and Christianity, when He made it so simple. It breaks my heart because we rob others of true joy and freedom. Freedom from pain, suffering, loneliness, condemnation and feelings of self-worthliness, you name it.
He came to free us from all of that, and give us abundant life.
Oh how I wish we would grasp hold of the life He offers, not the life we see so many Christians "living".......
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