You have to go to chapel twice a week (freshmen go 3 times), there are verses all over campus (which can be refreshing on a rough day), and the professors incorporate scripture into class in some class periods.
One day a professor I had shared Proverbs 6:16-19. It is the six things the Lord hates and 7 that are detestable. They are things like lying, shedding innocent blood, false witnesses, and being arrogant. I really liked the verse but what my professor said right after he read the first shocked me.
He said, "Interesting that gay marriage and abortion are not on the list."
I kind of sat there with my mouth open for a second because I couldn't believe a professor at DBU would say something like that. He went on to say that God does not like those things either but that God is more concerned with what is in a person's heart. Which, I completely agree with but I still shocked that at a very conservative school a would hear someone say that.
It's true though when you think about it. I know homosexuality is a sin and abortion is not necessarily right but that is not my place to judge. As a Christ Follower my job is to try and represent Christ as best was I can. And the way that I am supposed to do that is by loving every person I come into contact with and not judging them no matter what they have done in their lives. I am not God nor will I ever be so I have absolutely no right to judge a person or call a person out or tell someone they are going to Hell because of something they have done. It is not my job it is God's job to judge and thanks be to Him for being more merciful to us than we are to each other. Because if God treated us like we treat each other at times no one would be in Heaven.
16 These are the six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him:
17 haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hand that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,
19 a false witness who pours out lies
and a mand who stirs up
dissension among brothers.
If these are the things that God hates then these are the things that I need to stay away from. I hate violence so murdering someone is going to be easy to steer clear of and I don't really try and hatch evil plans but some of these are harder.
Everyone can be haughty or arrogant at times. When you do something good or someone does something you judge as bad or they don't have what you do. I'm guilty of doing that at times because I'm human. I like nice things and there are times when I start being arrogant and feel above people what don't have the things I have and that's when I have to check myself and get back to reality. I was not given anything freely. Nothing is mine it is all God's. Every peace of clothing, my computer, my phone, my iPod, my car, you get the picture. So when I start feeling about someone I have to remember that everything single thing I have is a gift from God.
It can be so easy to lie. In fact, we all do it all the time and don't really ever think anything about it. Today I was definitely on Facebook and Twitter during class and only half listening. Now my professor never asked me what I was doing but I basically lied to him by not giving my full attention to him. Lying is part of our culture. We see it all the time. Go to the grocery store and look at jut the cover of a magazine. It is ridiculous the things that are printed. Bold faced lies, literally someone just making things up about people. And we think it's okay because we have seen it for years. I know that the people on magazines are celebrities and are in the spot light so they shouldn't be surprised when their picture shows up on a magazine cover with a completely made up headline but they are still people. They are human beings like you and I are and if someone where to do that to us we would be incredibly angry. And people do that to us, it's called the rumor mill OR gossip. No one is perfect so why do we take pleasure in saying false things about them when we wouldn't want them said about us. I'm not out of the clear in this either. As a person (and a female) I do gossip and join in gossip but I need to stop myself from doing it because it is not fair to anyone to be talked about behind their backs.
So I have some work to do. And so does everyone else on the planet because we are not perfect.
"We are all broken people." - Jamie Tworkowski
That is one of my favorite quotes because it is incredibly true. So I need to remember that next time I get arrogant, or judge someone, or start talking behind some one's back. I am broken just like every other person on this planet. And because I am broken I can only try and love everyone despite our differences or whether or not I agree with their lifestyle/decisions.
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