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I've been reading the Gospel of John again, and a particular got me thinking about some things. Among other things, my thinking has circled around the thought of tolerance. Tolerance has become something of a useless buzzword anymore, having lost some of its real meaning. Tolerance derives from tolerate, which basically means that you can put up with something, to an extent anyway. But tolerance anymore has become used merely as meaning we should let people do whatever the hell they want and shouldn't feel upset or we're "inconsiderate", or "bigoted", or some crap of the sort. Tolerance doesn't mean ignoring the things others do, it doesn't mean we should be going with it, it just means we should be able to bear it to a point.
My thoughts turn also, in the same vein of thought, sort of, to one of my most favorite and memorable lines from the Bible. It is when Jesus says, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." The way, the truth, and the life. Not a way or truth or life. I think as christians we sometimes become so afraid of being nailed by the pc police, or we think we know better than God, so we tend to just go with the flow and say everyone will be cool in the end.
But that's totally not how things work. There is one way. There was something a guy on the radio said this morning. So many times, we see people saying, "well, if I just do enough good things to outway the bad, then I'm in the clear." But, the thing is, we are all born with a sinful nature. Maybe a person here or there can hear their conscience a little better than others, but without God, no amount of "doing good" makes any sort of difference at all. It's the very nature of ourselves that needs fixing. Trying to put some ripe fruit on a dying tree will not fix anything, but fix the tree, and it will grow fruit of its own.
I'm kind of all over the place here, and I want to say more, but I'm tired and have a killer physics test tomorrow. Maybe I shall pick this up at a later time.
My thoughts turn also, in the same vein of thought, sort of, to one of my most favorite and memorable lines from the Bible. It is when Jesus says, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." The way, the truth, and the life. Not a way or truth or life. I think as christians we sometimes become so afraid of being nailed by the pc police, or we think we know better than God, so we tend to just go with the flow and say everyone will be cool in the end.
But that's totally not how things work. There is one way. There was something a guy on the radio said this morning. So many times, we see people saying, "well, if I just do enough good things to outway the bad, then I'm in the clear." But, the thing is, we are all born with a sinful nature. Maybe a person here or there can hear their conscience a little better than others, but without God, no amount of "doing good" makes any sort of difference at all. It's the very nature of ourselves that needs fixing. Trying to put some ripe fruit on a dying tree will not fix anything, but fix the tree, and it will grow fruit of its own.
I'm kind of all over the place here, and I want to say more, but I'm tired and have a killer physics test tomorrow. Maybe I shall pick this up at a later time.
