{"id":6883,"date":"2014-05-04T01:39:01","date_gmt":"2014-05-04T05:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/allandouglas.dougbittinger.com\/blog\/?p=6883"},"modified":"2025-04-21T01:56:39","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T05:56:39","slug":"truth-way-seeing-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/truth-way-seeing-things\/","title":{"rendered":"TRUTH: OUR WAY OF SEEING THINGS"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Calvin<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>A fact we often fail to admit is that we do not always see things as they are, but as we are.\u00a0 It is the state of our own inner being which determines our interpretation of life’s happenings.\u00a0 This is not to say we are purposely dishonest about our views.\u00a0 It is a reminder that our objectivity is influenced by many outside factors.\u00a0 We are conditioned to believe what we believe by many circumstances over which we have had little control.\u00a0 We were born into a family of thought patterns and preconceived notions from which we rarely depart.\u00a0 Seldom do we go against the political, educational, racial and religious environment that has birthed us.\u00a0 We are cradled in the arms of a set of precepts we were taught would last forever.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This is not bad as long as we are willing to think for ourselves and make such truths a part of our own value system.\u00a0 We must distinguish, however, between inherited ideas and a personal encounter with God.\u00a0 So often we accept what is handed down with no questions asked.\u00a0 It is not until our faith is tested that we begin to scrutinize the content of our beliefs.\u00a0 There is emotional and spiritual strength in knowing what we believe and why we believe it.\u00a0 At some point along the journey we must stop living like spiritual parasites trying to imitate the faith of our fathers.\u00a0 Only when it becomes our faith do we fully appreciate what it meant to our fathers.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We are wise indeed if we understand the dynamics of a variety of influences that have converged upon us to make us who we are and cause us\u00a0to think our kind of thoughts.\u00a0 Such knowledge frees us from inherited prejudices and enables us to find the truth that can make us free.\u00a0 Such freedom gives us a more objective way of looking at life’s events.\u00a0 We can begin to see things more as they are rather than as we are.\u00a0 We are able to shed our souls of biases which keep us chained to an unquestioned tradition.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jesus came into the world with no preconceived notions.\u00a0 He was not locked into any set of principles He felt compelled to defend.\u00a0 He had no ego need to fulfill and nothing to prove.\u00a0 He came with love and truth as a message from the heavenly Father.\u00a0 The purity of His thoughts was evident in every teaching situation.\u00a0 His enemies were incensed by His departure from rules and regulations they held more holy than God Himself.\u00a0 Yet, Jesus saw things as they really were and made pronouncements on the basis of\u00a0that reality.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He offers us the same spiritual objectivity today if we hunger for His truth and love.\u00a0\u00a0 So, “let this mind be in us which was also in Christ Jesus.”\u00a0 Who knows, we may find the courage to admit some errors of thought as we trust God who alone sees things as they really are.<\/span><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A fact we often fail to admit is that we do not always see things as they are, but as we are.  It is the state of our own inner being which determines our interpretation of life’s happenings.  This is not to say we are purposely dishonest about our views.  It is a reminder … Continue reading “TRUTH: OUR WAY OF SEEING THINGS”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[57],"class_list":["post-6883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-matters-of-faith","tag-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6883"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19157,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6883\/revisions\/19157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}