Today was the Day of Pentecost, but instead of talking about the Holy Spirit or such things, our service was focused on something else. My home church has an elementary school and we celebrated the graduation of the eighth graders there. Instead of a sermon based off the readings for the day he spoke to them like the principle of a school would. I was fine with what most of what he said, although a couple things caught me off guard.
First he mentioned how "God has a plan for all of their lives." I hear this said a lot, but is it true? To an extent God has a general plan for everyone's life. His plan is for us to be obedient and faithful to him. But is there a specific plan laid out like a map before we are born? Now that I am not so sure of. The common Christian probably believes there's this detailed thing made for us that we need to try to find and follow. And maybe for key points in our lives, God wants us to do certain things. I've been called to ministry so I at least know a little bit of God's plan for me. But are there more specific things - like what college I should attend? Whether I'm meant to move to Washington state to work? If I should marry this woman or that woman or remain single? I'm in no position to say either way.
Second he talked about being "in relationship" with God. We need to be very careful with these words. A popular belief among Christians is that we have a relationship with God, not a religion. Formerly I believed this. But I've read things which would indicate it's a relatively new phenomena in Christianity, and perhaps not Biblical. (As you will quickly see, I am very skeptical when it comes to "new" stuff in Christianity. Why would God wait 2,000 years after the time of Jesus to add to our theology?) Sure God interacted directly with the prophets, apostles, and kings, but what about the common Christian? We have no reason to believe people had "personal relationships" with God unless I am missing something.
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