The Number One Source Of Argument On The Face Of The Planet

Oh my goodness!

There are days when I just don't get it!

It's like this horrible joke has been played on all of us and we fell for it.

Since we live in a world where blow dryers have tags on them telling you not to take a bath with them, it is necessary for me to say right off the rip: don't get twisted up in what I'm about to say.

I love my bible(s).  They are my most prized possessions.  There's the tried and true New King James I've been carrying for the past fourteen years, the 400th anniversary King James I've had for seven years, that's just as confusing as it ever was, but as gorgeous as any hundred dollar bible would be. A new American Standard I just purchased as my groovy little black preacher bible with the cross on the front of it.  There are several more scattered about the house, one a 1958 family bible, not my family of course, but its one of my bibles nevertheless.

If I read, I read the bible.

It's an amazing book, full of death and horror and love and amazing stories of deliverance.

It's also full of stubborn people who just can't seem to get it together and a God who loves them but somehow seems to want to destroy them at the same time.

It's full of people no one else likes or thinks much of, but those are the people God chooses to be His great examples.

It's full of Jews, Greeks, Romans, Hebrews and Gentiles, whatever those are.

Some people actually think it's a baseball bat to beat everyone over the head with.  Those are the people who really do need to be beat over the head with it, literally..  Geez.

It's a book taken from oral teachings.  It's full of history, poetry, metaphors, types, pictures and a whole bunch of stuff that already happened but they didn't write "The End" on the last page.

What's up with that?

Social media is covered up with discussions, debates and arguments over this book.

There are those who will tell you it's the only way to Jesus.  Ummm excuse me God doesn't need a book to reveal himself to people, He's God remember?

I read the book Tortured for Christ and Richard Wurmburg talked about a Russian soldier he met who loved Jesus.  Later at the woman's house he discovered they had never even heard anything about Jesus, they just knew they loved Him.

Without the bible we wouldn't know who Jesus is.

I just don't whole heartedly buy into all of that.

I wasn't reading a bible when Jesus revealed Himself to me, I was smoking crack and jumping in and out of cars to get money.

Lately I've seen a lot of idolatry where it's concerned.  The book is more valuable to people than the God being revealed in the book.  They love the book more than the message and they hate anyone who disagrees with them.

Jesus is the word of God, not the bible.

There's no way God can live in a book, but there are those who will tell you that very thing.

Their every breath is hung on the words written in that book, not even understanding even a quarter of it.

People have tampered with it and let's be for real, they didn't talk that way during the period of King James, they played upon the colorful language of Shakespeare somewhere along the way.  Atleast that's what I think they did.

It started out 80 chapters now its only 66.

Tell me no one has tampered with it again.

I know what the curse in it says, but Jesus destroyed all the curses at the cross right?

Men have tampered with it let's just be honest with ourselves about that one.

There are those who are so smart they've taken it apart, compared it with the history of that time and figured out it already happened.  They can tell you things you never would have imagined because you've been sitting in a church pew eating up everything the pastor said, taking every word as truth, even if he was actually teaching it to you wrong.

Christians.  I still think it was meant to sound derogatory, like a racial slur.

Their symbol is a torture device, the cross.

Christians eat their wounded, call everything good sin, accuse people of being witches, tell you "No no no that's not right, you can't do that you have to do this."  They've hurt so many people there are those who want nothing to do with their god.

Their god is this small, bipolar, pissed off ogre sitting in the sky planning who he is going to smite next.

Their god is such a ego maniac he's going to burn you in eternal conscious torment in a place called hell that is not mentioned in the creation story and also appears as the home of the Greek and Roman god Hades in that people's mythology.

Do good go to heaven, do bad go to hell.

And if you don't agree with them you can go to hell too.

Madmen's logic.

The bible says......

The bible says.....

I've read it, I know what it says.

But Jesus talked about hell.

Jesus talked about a garbage dump outside the gates of Jerusalem where they threw the bodies of criminals and poor people, into the fires that were already burning, where worms ate everything they could.

If hell really existed, why isn't it in the creation story?  It's all right there in the bible right?

They've also thrown in these dumb sayings that aren't in there, taking it upon themselves to speak for God.

God loves the sinner but hates the sin.

So dumb!

Jesus became sin on the cross, so we could become the righteousness of God and you want me to believe God hates Jesus?

Get a grip!

Why don't you be quiet and let God speak for Himself, because you're totally blowing it!

It's like they wrote it with a maze in mind.  Hey let's throw this in there just so everyone will behave!

Lately I've had many conversations with God about it.

I'm like God, what's the point?  It's almost like its tainted!

He never really says anything back about it, but I know He's not worried.

I read or I don't, doesn't matter to Him, because I talk to Him the rest of the time anyway.

I've been in the middle of reading and asked myself, "Why am I doing this?  It's not about me, it never was."

For real, what's the point?

Some people can't even have a normal conversation with you about things, they have to make it all weird copying and pasting scripture in response to everything you are talking about.

I don't have all the answers and neither does anyone else.

All I do know is the gospel is good news, God is love, He remembers our sins no more, yet there's a parade of people all over screaming what He hates, how He's going to destroy their enemies, how you're going to hell if you don't love Him.

As far as I'm concerned it's all turned into total nonsense and a free for all for the haters.

There's so much beauty in it, a love story to top all love stories, but you wouldn't know that paying attention to social media and people who claim to know and love Him..  There are men and women in it who do amazing things, who are shown great love and forgiveness.

There's so much good that can be taken and applied to our lives, yet people's theology and doctrine is so dogmatic you'd never change their minds about it and what they believe about it.

Hell fire and brimstone preachers are still financially raping their congregations and teaching them fear based theology.

Scare the hell out of them rather than love the hell out of them.

Jesus is in there, there's no doubt about it, but men have been so ignorant for so long, passing down the same boogy man stories generation to generation that my heart has come to believe if they were all gone tomorrow we're left with love God and love others.  That alone would change the world overnight!

What if its all wrong?

What if we've all chosen to believe a lie?

I have questions people.

I don't just buy into everything people tell me, I'm from the streets, people can tell you anything they just can't tell you much.

I don't ride the amen train like the other religious zombies.

What if?

Right?

I love my quiet time when I'm reading but that moment comes along when I realize Jesus is in the room heavier than He was when I started and there's no reason to keep going.

We all love our own stories, but it's not our story, so what do you do with that?

Heard a lady tonight say God will destroy your enemies and then turned around in the same sentence and said He loves you.

I was like wait a minute.  First of all I don't have any enemies for God to destroy because Jesus tells me to love them.  And second I thought He was a creator  not a destroyer and third listening to you He sounds like a bipolar psychopath serial killer!  But He loves me right?

Seriously?

Why would I want anything to do with Him?

Why oh why can't we get on the same page?

Who is responsible for this?

Were they all hallucinating only believing they were hearing from God?

I mean let's get for real here!

We're talking about men and haven't they been messing it up since the garden?

God is love and love cannot exist with hate.

Jesus taught love and didn't condemn anyone.

The bible is not the end all be all concerning your relationship with Jesus, because Jesus is the word of God.

I'm in a place where I have lots of questions and there are days when I walk past it with no intention of picking it up because I'm totally exhausted from being beat to hell with it all day long.

There's so much more I wish I had answers for but it is what it is and I find it totally amusing not one single person on the face of the planet really knows.

One thing is for sure it's the number one source of argument and misunderstanding.

The bible.

God help us all.