{"id":2503,"date":"2015-06-29T13:56:47","date_gmt":"2015-06-29T17:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/?p=2503"},"modified":"2015-06-29T13:56:47","modified_gmt":"2015-06-29T17:56:47","slug":"bubblegum-christianity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/?p=2503","title":{"rendered":"Bubblegum Christianity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Lord; Happy Monday Father!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a good while since I\u2019ve laid our conversations to print Lord\u2026 Quite possibly far too long. Which is why when I once again felt You urging me to pen my thoughts, I nearly dismissed those promptings.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless\u2026 Here we are again.<\/em><\/p>\n

As you well know Lord, I\u2019m nearing completion of yet another full read-through of the Bible, this time following a chronological reading plan I found on YouVersion.com<\/a>. It\u2019s been a wonderful way to absorb Scripture for me Father, helping to add more of something I believe is vitally important to reading and understanding Your Word\u2026<\/p>\n

Context.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Your truths are eternal Lord\u2026 I don\u2019t question that. But I\u2019ve also come to understand through intense study and prayer that those truths and Your intent are very much presented throughout the Bible and in our daily lives in a context<\/em> that gives pronounced and specific meaning to those You\u2019re addressing and guiding. Therefore as we read Your timeless words in an attempt to embed those divine truths upon our hearts, I believe it\u2019s absolutely essential that we seek a sense of the context in which those events occurred to truly draw Your will from those pages.<\/p>\n

And without that contextual perspective Lord\u2026 I\u2019m very much afraid we lose the message for the words.<\/em><\/p>\n

Social media is a double-edged sword Father. On one hand it allows us to stay \u201cconnected\u201d to an amazing number of people and share ideas, inspiration and encouragement. However on the other hand, it also provides an easily accessible platform for distributing misunderstanding, intolerance and hate. Recently, following the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s ruling on same-sex marriages this past week, both edges of that blade have been well sharpened.<\/p>\n

And while through study and prayer I have my own perspective on that subject of which You\u2019re well aware Lord, what\u2019s been especially grieving my heart has actually been the outpouring of sentiment from what I believe to be well-intentioned \u201cChristians\u201d using \u201csoundbites\u201d of Scripture, completely out of context<\/em>, to condemn and attack those with beliefs different than their own.<\/p>\n

Take one verse from Deuteronomy, add a dash of Romans, toss in a line from Revelation and stir gently\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

One serving of Bubblegum Christianity ready to post.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And in many cases Father these Biblical tidbits are also served up with a side helping of pithy catch-phrases such as \u201cHate the sin, but love the sinner\u2026\u201d (Which to be honest I believe only You\u2019re truly capable of Lord\u2026)<\/em> or \u201cGod made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve\u2026\u201d (Which actually isn\u2019t accurate either\u2026 You made Adam, Eve, Steve, Phil, Shannon, etc\u2026)<\/em><\/p>\n

All in all Lord, it\u2019s a meal that\u2019s not exactly prepared or delivered in the warmth of Christian Love\u2026 It\u2019s nearly always served cold.<\/em><\/p>\n

My point here isn\u2019t to debate sin Lord\u2026 We do sin. Every day. All of us. It\u2019s also not for me to decry the beliefs, perspective or choices of anyone\u2026 In the end, only You have that right. What I am speaking of is the need for us, as followers of Christ, to not approach Scripture as a collection of one-liners to be used in making a point, winning an argument or to malign others. Your Word is such a precious gift Father; one that\u2019s worth every effort we can make to prayerfully and studiously gain Your true intent from those pages.<\/p>\n

Therefore Lord, my prayer today is simple.<\/p>\n

Open our hearts Lord\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Open our minds.<\/em><\/p>\n

Guide us to see the true nature of Your Word and to diligently seek Your intent\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

So that Your Love Story serves it\u2019s purpose and draws us closer to You\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

All of Your Children\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Together.<\/em><\/p>\n

For it\u2019s in Your precious name I pray Jesus\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n

~Phather Phil<\/p>\nPin It<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Lord; Happy Monday Father! It\u2019s been a good while since I\u2019ve laid our conversations to print Lord\u2026 Quite possibly far too long. Which is why when I once again felt You urging me to pen my thoughts, I nearly dismissed those promptings. Nonetheless\u2026 Here we are again. As you well know Lord, I\u2019m nearing […]<\/p>\nPin It<\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[359,2987,3187,3186,2820,1300,3190,3191,3185,2821,3188,1358,1513,3189],"class_list":["post-2503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-emails-to-god","tag-bible","tag-bible-reading-plan","tag-bubblegum-christianity","tag-catch-phrases","tag-context","tag-double-edged-sword","tag-facebook","tag-gods-love-story","tag-one-liners","tag-quoting-the-bible-out-of-context","tag-same-sex-marriage","tag-scripture","tag-scripture-reading","tag-social-media"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Gumballs-1-Scaled.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p18mMc-En","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2503"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2505,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2503\/revisions\/2505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}