Wings Above
At one time we had an independent older widow at church. Her name was Miz Belle.
She would have been what the scriptures refer to as a widow indeed.
A preacher friend used this allegory to explain our relationship to God: One day Miz Belle approached the men here for help in painting her house. She had the white paint all paid for, all we had to do was go pick it up, and do the painting.
So Brother Ike went to the lumber and paint store to get the paint. Although Miz Belle had chosen a good old reliable white paint, guaranteed to last five years, Brother Ike really liked the cobalt blue. He found if he chose a cobalt blue that was only good for a year and a half he could make up the price difference...
When Old Fuzzy and I visited my sister a couple years ago, we had to throw ourselves on her mercy for transportation to a local congregation. Several blocks away. This was California, so distance didn't indicate how long it would take us to get there.
"Well," she said, "there's a Christian church around the corner, and a Presbyterian church over there. Why do you need to go twenty minutes away?"
She was what most would call unchurched—knowing nothing about the Bible or God.
Why indeed. There are many religions and many 'churches' that claim to be christian churches...
Like those Brothers who were going to help Miz Belle paint her house, my sister thought it made no difference what you did or believed.
If we are practicing our religion so we can be happy then that is our criteria, and it only matters what makes us happy. The 'have it your way' motto works.
If for some reason we want to please God then we ought to be seeking to do that. If for some reason we want to please God AND enter heaven with His blessing, we ought seek to do that.
Read and study the instruction manual (Bible) because that's where it tells us how to please God. If it's not in the Bible it oughten to be in our practice.
Just as with Brother Ike, Miz Belle, and the cobalt blue house, somethings aren't about us. Don't be smoke in God's eyes and nose. Pleasing God isn't about us...
Isaiah 65:5 "Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day. 6) Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom, 7) Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the LORD, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom."
