‘Doing “The Right Thing” – According to Whom?’
According to me! Who else!
Well, at least that’s where we all start. But let’s be truly spiritual (or religious, or secular, I’m not going to be pedantically exclusive) and say “according to God”. This assumes of course that we all have some knowledge of or about God, know God personally, or have made some person or thing very important to us, our God.
“Not good enough”, shout out the fundamentalists of religion.
“It must be according to the Bible”, say the Christians.
“It must be according to the Quran”, say the Muslims.
“It must be according to the Tanakh, with the Talmud interpreting the Oral Torah”, say the Jews.
The Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) is also called "the Written Torah”, which is called the “Old Testament” in the Bible of the Christians, and it also, makes up a large part of the Quran which also has large portions of the Talmud, although both are reinterpreted by Muhammad from Allah for Islam.
“Not good enough”, shout out the fundamentalists of secularism.
It must be according to science, evidence based and not a belief.
Is doing the right thing then a matter of godly conscience, scriptural obedience, or the discovery of science – or perhaps two of, or all three?
Where do you at this very moment place your worth, or which is more worthy and valuable to you in your life to the present:
Conscience toward a Holy God and others?
Obedience to the Holy Scriptures?
Science and its Holy Discoveries?
Worth and value are the root words from which “worship” is derived (worth-ship old school).
Worship, incidentally, has nothing to do with belief. Hence it is easy to worship science, scripture, or anything else we value, idolise or deitise. We all usually worship what/who we value, whether it is a “Prophetical Star”, “Entertainment Star” or a “Pastoral/Papal/Leadership Star”, or the pursuit of “Scientific” or “Academic” or some other “Stardom”, whether it is Western or Eastern, or Other.
The Wise Men saw the Jesus star in the East and set off to worship their new star and pay homage with expensive gifts – not because they were believers in Jesus (they did not yet know his name), but because they were following their science and its value in revealing future major events, of which they desired to participate or they would not have brought such expensive deposits, nor travelled such distances. The boy Jesus became an object of worship due to the subjective manner the worth and value of the Wise Men played out, owing to what the Wise Men placed on their science and skill. This does not mean in any way I am/they were ignoring the “God Factor”! They may have believed it was God – others not!
It was not a matter of belief. It was a matter of discovery!
Should
discovery take precedence over belief?
Absolutely! Discovery always comes first – only then have you something/someone to believe.
I discovered God because he uncovered (revealed) himself to me – that’s why I believe in God. Now when I come to God, I believe that he is, not by faith, but by revelation, and when he speaks to me his faith and love inspires me to believe him and now his faith and love are mine. It is called “Evidence based living”! Now I believe Him and what He says, and I am also learning to understand much about what is written of Him compiled by others in what is called the “Holy Scriptures”, by using the “Holy Spirit’s Anointing” known to most in its untranslated form as “Christ”.
By discovery the boy Jesus became the evidence of what/who the Wise Men found because they were willing to put their science (or religion, or secularism) to the test and follow the star. If the star had not been revealed to them the discovery of the boy Jesus would also have remained hidden from them at that time.
So, did they do the right thing according to...............................................................? You figure it out! Stop looking for other Wise Men to discover everything for you.
We
learn because God and Nature, Spirit and Life, uncover (reveal) themselves to
us.
The fullness of God is given to the emptiness of men and women, whether
they be seekers of science or not,
the light to the darkness of those who research
or not,
the knowledge to the ignorant who desire the knowing or not,
the love
to the unlovely, unloving and unloved,
the truth to the untruthed and its
prisoners of the lie,
the life to the dead and the dying,
the way to fulfilment to
those who have no way,
the glory of God to the vilified and tormented,
family acceptance
and restoration to the rejected,
respect, dignity and honour to the despised
and discarded both of men and their gods,
plus the fullness of the Father to
the fatherless and orphans of this world.
But not because any of us believed,
or were obedient, or had a clean clear conscience, or searched with scientific double
blind studies with peer researchers until we could prove God existed, but because
He loved us and gave Himself for us and to us, in order to reveal everything in
us and to us, His empty ones (children).
Now, of His fullness have we all
received and grace upon grace.
Amazing grace how sweet the spirit and power of astounding love, who can fill up someone like me by always doing the right thing for me! What a loving mentor – I think I’m beginning to become like Him without having to think about it – at least a little bit!
John R Fergusson