over the last week i have had the great opportunity to share memories of my grandmother with my family members. the amazing thing about it was that all of us had the same perception of my grandmother. you knew where she stood, what she believed and how she applied that to her life. the greatest characteristic of her was that she put GOD first and everything else after no matter what others thought of that. that is her legacy and what a powerful legacy it is to those that knew her.
words from an individual can be very powerful when you hear them, but you have to wonder what they are basing those beliefs on and why they are saying those words. in our journey not to offend others with "political correctness" we have forgotten to ask what shapes this individual's beliefs. we should be asking if this individual's beliefs are from GOD, or from the world?
i have just learned that men and women are not equal (crazy i know). as much as the world has tried to teach us the perception that we are we have forgotten that GOD said something different. HE didn't say that women should be "doormats" don't misinterpret what i am saying. GOD said man was to love a woman as he would CHRIST and the church. the simple misinterpretation of "women should submit to their husbands" created an entire movement of women that turned from CHRIST.
i am going to give you two events from our world's history that have many different perceptions. the first is from a book that i read and it had a profound effect on me, because i knew the history of this individual but never knew how they came into such great power. the second is about two men and their political parties, but they chose to go against that.
"there was once a strange small man. he decided three important details about his life: he would part his hair from the opposite side as everyone else, he would make himself a small strange mustache, and he would one day rule the world. the young man wandered around for quite sometime, thinking, planning, and figuring out exactly how to make the world his. then one day out of nowhere, it struck him the perfect plan. he'd seen a mother walking with her child. at one point, she admonished the small boy, until finally he began to cry. within a few minutes, she spoke very softly to him, after which she soothed and even smiled. the young man rushed to the woman and embraced her "WORDS!" he grinned. "WHAT?" but there was no reply. he was already gone."
the above man was adolf hitler. the book is "the book theif" by marcus zusak. hitler's hatred of jews stemmed from just one jewish family alone. their poor treatment of his mother created his perception that all jews were the same, so he killed 6 million.
lyndon b johnson and martin luther king jr had the same passion. they strived to create the civil rights movement in this country. they strived to make all men equal, because GOD had made them that way. the misconception would be that these two men were apart of the same political party. johnson was a democrat and king was a republican. both men put GOD first in this great piece of legislation. we can only pray and hope that our current government would put GOD first.
i often wonder if hitler had put CHRIST first he wouldn't have created such evil. i feel great pride knowing that two men in this country went against so many individuals to put CHRIST first and do what was right. we have lost our way. we have allowed our beliefs and morality to be shaped by the world and not CHRIST. if we took time to actually apply what JESUS was trying to teach us maybe the world would be a better place. history repeats itself. when will we learn what HE was trying to tell us?
9What shall we conclude then? Are we any better[b]? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. 10As it is written:
"There is no one righteous, not even one;
11there is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God.
12All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one."[c]
13"Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit."[d]
"The poison of vipers is on their lips."[e]
14"Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness."[f]
15"Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16ruin and misery mark their ways,
17and the way of peace they do not know."[g]
18"There is no fear of God before their eyes." romans 3:9-18
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