Just sharing a thought today: As I'm sitting here, thinking of the journey I once had in the buildings they call churches, I was thinking how, in that journey, so many people are left.. so many people "fell away". Well those were the words we were using.
You would hear people say how so-and-so fell away, went back "into the world", "backslid", all these words, that today, I know really don't mean what they were saying. I have a different understanding now, a different view on those words.And I was thinking about the lives of many people.
You
hear, especially in children that are growing up in the church
buildings, how people will say, "Oh, they're going to backslide." "Oh, I see them, they're going the wrong way." "Oh,
they're going to go out in the world and do all kinds of things!" and
sometimes, I think, regarding the minister's children or the
leadership's children, do they really believe that their children aren't
going to make decisions and choices when they grow up? There's so many
things to talk about, why people leave a church building, and most of
the time it's not because they "backslide", you know, using that word,
backslide, it's other reasons.. so many reasons.
It would probably take a whole series to talk on on that subject alone and, when it comes right down to it though, we don't know the hearts of each individual, we don't know what they're thinking and what they're going through. We don't know what they're even believing or not believing so, I was just thinking that, we really don't know what another individual is going through! We don't know what these children that grow up, and leave homes, we don't know what they're thinking but I do know that everyone has a journey in life - They have their own path in life. And when you grow up, you take your journey, you take that path and you live in that path.
You follow the path that you choose - What's right for yourself
And it has nothing to do with backsliding or falling away or turning away from God or wanting to do all these things. I say that because the focus, of the majority of people in the church building, is they think the negative, they think the bad, they spread the rumor, that that person is falling away from God!
But as i sit here and ponder on that, it makes me to believe, their life, their journey, their story, that's how it's supposed to be. They're supposed to have their own path in life. They're supposed to have their own story. Because it's between them and God, in the end, and whatever path they choose to go in.
Sometimes it's even a
path where they will find God - THEY WILL! - Where they will know that
it wasn't all about the church building, and the rules and all that, it
was about an intimate relationship. Knowing how much you're loved and
forgiven and accepted by the almighty Father, by our Jesus, and that you
could be made alive! You know? Born again alive. You become new and alive with Jesus.
So i just want to end my thought and pray, if you are led to - pray, for people. Pray for them.
That they will know the truth, of His Perfect Love and Acceptance, and that the truth will set them free.
In Jesus' name, amen
