Currently reading two books right now that I highly recommend, Uprising by Erwin McManus and The Last Word and The Word After That by Brian McLaren which is the last part of a ficticious trilogy regarding postmodern ministry. Through reading these as well as the Scriptures have streched me lately on issues such as Arminian vs. Calvinist and free will vs. predestination. For whatever reason these issue have been popping up within the past few months and I have certainly been fired up by everything until recently. The main issue here is "God is in complete control and I am His 'chosen' puppet and everyone else is going to burn in hell," and "I choose completely and decide my own fate but God is my resource." The framing of these two issue makes it so one cannot be emmersed in both ideas, but rather on one side of the fence and not the other. Arguments on both sides say the other is heresy. I have come to believe this.....WHO CARES!!! The point here is not who is chosen yada yada, who gets to choose and whatnot, but rather who is following Christ. Whether or not you are either side of this argument should not effect your walk with God and how you love other people. Even if you believe that you are chosen and there are those out there who are not and will burn, you are still called to be fishers of men! Even if you believe that you have the ability to choose your own path, you are still called to be fishers of men! Sometimes we need to quite overthinking ourselves into our own ideologies, and start living as little children(thank you Kyle for your recent blog concerning this!) "Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19.14
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Hey Bryan, it's Kevin. I heard you had a blog and thought I'd write. Nice choice on the Mazda by the way :)
Your point to ponder is something similar that has come up recently in my mind and with things I have heard from others. What I've heard some people say recently is that "God has a plan for everyone and if you make the right choices to follow him you will prosper," and the other side of the arguement, and the one I'm more inclined to think is, "God lets you live and choose as you please to have the life you want, but wants you to live a Christian life and follow His words and teachings." What you say fits this situation as well. It really doesn't matter which way you believe, plan or no definitive plan, but that you do what you think is right and follow Him.
It also reminds me of why I am religious but dislike the institution of church: even when churches believe in the same fundamentals (God, Jesus as savior, the Holy Bible, etc.) they fight over the stupid small things, and in this respect tend to push people away when they should be banding together and bringing people in. Why do we fight over small, meaningless differences when the similarities are what should bring us together for a single, good cause?
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