Our culture is vexed with the notion of "Choice." We're encouraged to Have It Your Way in every respect ... even if that means being disrespectful. Go ahead, express yourself!
Who can say you're wrong? Everybody's personal opinion is as worthwhile and valid as anyone else's.
After all, since everything's relative it's your right to chose anything ... from choosing whether to add bacon to your burger, to use profanity in public, to lie if it's convenient, to have sex outside of marriage, to kill an unborn child, on down to whether or not God exists: It's Your Choice.
Folks therefore feel empowered to choose what God said, and often take this approach: "I already know what I like, and since I'm basically a smart, hard-to-fool Good Person, that gives me a pretty good handle on what God's like."
Their reasoning goes like this:
- I don't see anything wrong about being gay, so God must not either.
- I don't think people go to hell if they don't accept Christ, so God must not either.
- I don't think tithing applies to the New Covenant, so God must not either.
- I don't like organized religion, so God must not either.
- I don't think my private sins are a big deal, so God must not either.
- I don't know what happens when you die, so God must not either.
- I'm not sure Jesus is the only way to Heaven, so God must not be either.
But here's the kick in the gut:
- I don't like people acting like they've got all the answers; arguing with me about salvation, about what's right and wrong, and about what to believe ... so God must not either.
Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker,
to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground.
Does the clay say to the potter,
'What are you making?'
Does your work say,
'He has no hands'?
to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground.
Does the clay say to the potter,
'What are you making?'
Does your work say,
'He has no hands'?
- Isaiah 45:9
