HOW CAN PEOPLE READING THE SAME BIBLE COME UP WITH SUCH WIDELY DIFFERENT VIEWS?

When we are born, our minds are very much like a new computer that has never been programmed. In the first six or seven years of life we inherit a belief system. Our families, social environment and religious culture impresses upon us the notions they embrace in regards to God, life and other people, etc. There is not a group of people or any main religion that resides in the absolute truth therefore there are many different perceptions about the “meaning” of things, some of which are in great contrast with others. So it is with the Bible. Two people from widely different backgrounds can read the same verse from the Bible and have two completely different interpretations. I believe we are students of life, not graduates of life. We don’t know what life is ALL about but rather in the process of learning all about life. We should always be open to a higher truth and divine insight.

Three Simple Steps

There are three simple steps each of us can take when interpreting the Bible. Whatever interpretation you hold ask yourself, does this viewpoint move me closer to God; does it move me closer to accepting and honoring the great diversity of humankind; and does it guide me to being a beneficial presence to this wonderful world of ours. No matter what belief system you choose, if these three questions can be answered with a yes. .you are on the right path, heading in the right direction towards the right destination.

"If God Is Love"

From A Poetic Search for God Within by Warren Molten 

Marcene Borthwick passed along this beautiful poem:

 

If God is love,

there is no place where love it not;

and although this seems like a double negative, 

sounds like a plot, a Gordian knot;

  and easier said than believed,

  it rings true, feels good, 

even theological as in "word of God" --

  all of that, and that's a lot.

Still, there is no place where love is not.

Yet, we live like fish

swimming about in search of water,

or a blind mole pressing on to find soil,

or the olive its oil--absurd, like a bird

flying around without a care, looking for air.

No, Love is everywhere. Yet, such a paradox!

For still, we must look for love: around the bend,

over the rainbow, across this room or that street,

on the other side of an argument.

Near or far, we must search for love,

knowing that it is hard to find,

but hardest of all when love is finally found.

For then we must cherish is,

we must nurture it and help it grow,

then let it go.

So, if we are born, bathed and buried

in love, you and I have no excuse

not to be God's lovers in the world,

all of us all of the time, starting here and now

by loving ourselves,

and taking loving steps towards others,

and holy others, and on to every living creature,

all the way to God.

For it is with the eye of love

that we find God,

and the eye of love that God finds us.

What a lovely way to live,

and of course, the only way to die.