Monday, September 26, 2022

The Christians I Don't Hang Out With


"But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless."   ---Titus 3:9


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Awhile ago I returned to Twitter after Elon Musk said he'd buy it and make it fair. (Hope springs eternal. heh.)

I only signed up with Christians, strangers who mentioned God in their profile. "It'll be peaceful," I said. "We'll strengthen each other," I said.
It'll be all Truth and Light," I said.

Ha!  シ

Ok, some of the Christians were a delight. They shared verses and biblical perspectives and also prayer requests. Some are emboldened to speak out against Today's tyranny. All those are wonderful.

But many others? They concentrated upon these, below, which all my life I've never liked, stuff which appears like Christianity, but I wonder--


The Bible says it's ok to drink alcohol. How much do you think is ok?
Calvanism vs. Armenianism. Pick a side.
Mega churches. Ever godly?
Exactly what was the Apostle Paul's thorn?
Birth control. Does God ever allow it?
Hymns or modern worship songs? Which does God prefer?
Women in churches. They shouldn't speak, right?
Some one-piece bathing suits are more revealing than bikinis so bikinis are ok, right?


Oh, for Pete's sake!




To me, anyway, that is not true Christianity. Sorry.

Then today they argued about there being too many black people in commercials. When I said I'd witnessed a new broader spectrum of all races, the crowd chewed me up and spat me out.

Darn ol' Twitter anyway.

Well, a girl needs to go where God can use her most efficiently. Where He can best use her time, her gifts. So I'm moving forward. Oh, I helped some folks there, but mostly I spied people who made excuses to stagnate remain the same.

What would I rather talk about?

Loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
Loving our neighbors as ourselves.
The Holy Spirit's place in our lives. And Grace.
Expressing gratitude daily.
The presence of God.
Revival. Repentance.
Art and Nature.
Heaven.
Spreading hope. And joy. And encouragement.


Frankly, I love how God nudges us to change, especially when it sets us a whole level more free. 







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Speaking of Truth... by the time we finished attempting to declutter our basement, we discovered it was a bigger, badder secret than we'd imagined. Never again. Oh my, never again will we collect that much stuff.


Oh, and for the record--I'll be returning to Gab. It's similar to Twitter, but there's a whole different spirit about it; a friendlier one. And the inspiring, emboldened folks from Twitter often post at Gab, as well.


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Oh my! Kindred Spirit City. (My fellow lovers of autumn may enjoy this young woman's ideas, as well.)


And this weekend Tom and I watched an older documentary on Prime about Babe Ruth. Bittersweet, but inspiring.










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2 comments:

Pam said...

When I read your list under "...stuff which appears like Christianity," I couldn't help but think of all the time and energy some folks have spent trying to create rules. When I was younger, my mom told me about the rules of her church. She and her sisters were not allowed to wear slacks, makeup, and jewelry. They couldn't swim if there were boys and men around. They couldn't dance. Lots of rules. By the time I came along, my mother had decided she did not need any of those rules and she pretty much walked away from them, while embracing the positive lessons she had learned. She knew that those rules for controlling peoples' appearance simply didn't hold up. Swimming and dancing were not the enemy. She was a good role model for me--not perfect, but headed in the right direction.

Most of us have the freedom to live our lives as we see fit. It's not always easy to be true to ourselves and our Creator, but that's my goal. I don't have time for dress codes and rule books. Nope. Nuff said.

Debra, I am so happy that you and Tom tackled your basement. It was probably lots of hard work, but it must feel so wonderful to have it behind you. Ever since we went through our stuff, I haven't been nearly as tempted to buy things (other than groceries and the stuff we actually use). I got rid of so much decorative stuff--chotchkes galore--and lots of duplicate stuff like linens. I sure hope someone else will enjoy all the things we've all been donating lately.

As always, thank you for sharing truth, my friend.

Debra said...

So true, Pam! And yes, much of what I was seeing did come across sounding more like rules. I just reworded them a bit, made them sound no so dire or something. :) And truly, yes, it does feel great to have gotten rid of so much basement junk! As always, thank-you for reading here and commenting so faithfully! Blessings, Debra