I was thinking this morning (yes that is always a very dangerous thing). So I just posted a blog: http://www.allaboutgod.net/profiles/blogs/beating-negativity-to-death
So based on the scripture I've quoted in that blog, is "God won't help you unless you speak positive" a Biblical concept or is this a Pharisitcal teaching?
What about the concept of tithing a tenth? There were those in the OT who were said to have tithed a tenth. Abraham tithed a tenth. The Pharisees were all about tithing a tenth. And notice it's always money. What about tithing your time to help those in need? 2 Corinthians 9:7 tells us that each one must give as he has decided in his heart...not a set percentage. Luke 12:33 tells the rich man to sell his possessions and give to the needy, not the tithe. We're called to give and to be generous, but are we placing a weight on the shoulders of those in poverty when we ourselves are better off by demanding this percentage they may not have?
I wonder if this was a lot of the issue with the Pharisees. They laid heavy burdens and demands on people that they themselves could not always carry out. And these demands can be so discouraging to those growing in Christ. So how do we determine when it's scripturally based? Even for every quote someone can throw out about paying a tenth to tithes or about not getting anything from God if you're negative, I can show scripture that refute it. I think it comes because we don't take scripture as a whole but only cling to individual parts to make a quick point.
There are many others I've heard that I just don't have time to touch on at this time and cannot recall them all, but are there some that you've heard? What do you feel God has shown you on certain issues that have been preached and taught but that you feel you get a different view of when you read the Word?
So to summarize all this rant:
I'm interested in what really is from man and what's from God and do not want to be deceived by anything. There's so much muddying of the Word from what I read in it and just trying to figure out where such concepts come from.
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Hmmm I can't take it. It doesn't play the words. My speaker is up, but nothing.
LOL Ok I wondered about that. I looked it up and found that spelling, but went with it anyhow. ;-)
And cool. I wasn't even thinking in the aspect of unbelievers, but people who feel like nothing good will ever happen or wonder if God cares since all the bad keeps happening. People who have been conditioned to believe they're worthless. They get a mindset of that and yet they believe. But what you posted even goes a step further.
And it also reminds me of the times I've heard people say of how satan would've taken them out at birth if he could've had his way. I think about my heart defects and things I went through from birth and up that could've (and perhaps should've) taken me out and how there was always this "protection". Like God saying satan could do all that to Job but not kill him. Doctors discovered a serious issue with my heart (aside from those I was born with), by sheer "chance"? almost to the last moment. I was 11 at the time and they said I wouldn't live to see 14 had they not found it. And they only found it because I'd pleaded with my mom to let me attend camp...for which I had to have a physical. And I just happened to get a caring enough nurse who thought my pulse was too weak that started the ball rolling.
So I was not saved then and yet God was helping me. And it makes me wonder when they claim God didn't let you die or something, then you get saved and they say God won't help you if you're negative...isn't that a bit like talking out of both sides? :-o
Well said Amanda. Here's another way to look at it: the Good Shepherd doesn't wait until you are untangled from the bush to bring you back to the flock. He pursues you, untangles you, puts you on his shoulders and brings you back to the flock. (Luke 15:4)
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