By now I would be surprised if anyone reading this blog has not heard of Susan Boyle who appeared on Britain's Got Talent. Her angelic voice has shocked the world. My question for all of us including me is should it have, should we be expecting less of people based on appearances, natural talent, education, or the number of their IQ.If you have not seen Susan Boyle and heard her angelic voice you may see and hear her in the following the YouTube video by Clicking Here .
The little bit I know about Susan Boyle is what I've read or heard on television she is a 47-year-old unemployed woman, who has never been married, never had a boyfriend, and never been kissed, and as a child she was made fun of, because of disabilities and appearance and she lives in a small community in Scotland.
One of the things that disturbs me even about myself is we humans even those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ, make judgment based on appearances; what we see with our natural eyes and what think we know from our own appraisals solely based on our preferences and opinions regarding physical appearance and what constitutes normal or exceptional behavior, thinking, talent, gifting and beauty.
More often than not on that basis alone we determine peoples value and who we seek relationship with or whom we follow.
Matter of fact we often, become so enamored by those we deem to be exceptional that we overlook hurtful or are blind to harmful words and actions toward others and toward even ourselves.
Too many times within the institutional "Christian" Church this has led to raising up men and woman with charismatic personalities and impressive gifts and talents into positions of great influence who have not matured in their relationship with God and others. As a result they eventually fall and bring many with them after finding out they have not been who we have assumed them to be.
In many ways we, we meaning those who follow these immature men and women create these narcissistic personalities by demonstrating favoritism based on traits that have nothing to do with the Fruit of the Spirit.
As a result rather then becoming humble servants they become demanding tyrants that rape and pillage the the Body of Christ and the world to build their own kingdoms and to satisfy lust for money and their inflated opinions of themselves.
When I heard Susan Boyle's angelic voice I was immediately brought to tears, because of my lack expectation for such a beautiful gift to come from what I deemed a less then perfect vessel solely based on my opinion of perfection and beauty.
Father forgive us for not recognizing and for marginalizing your gifts in some and celebrating and lifting up others based own outside appearance and our own preferences and opinions. Jesus you came to give sight to the blind please give me/us Spiritual vision that we will stop making judgments based on appearances!
Please Read the Following and Leave Your Thoughts and Opinions via the Comment Link...
Let me make this clear regardless whether or not I ever sell a single thing through ReligionFreeJesus.com / Religion and Institution Free Jesus I will not stop writing until Father directs me to. This is a labor of love that I hope is motivated by Father's heart and the Love of the Son for His bride the Church / Ecclesia and empowered by the Spirit.
I would like to ask for a couple opinions I am considering some changes, one is change to a new blogging platform, specifically WordPress. With that potential change I am also considering changing the feel and function from that of a blog more of a web site with instead of a separate amazon bookstore having a bookstore through Amazon Built right in and possibly even publishing some e-books of my own writings particularly my autobiography of my journey through Institutional Church to where I am now and what I am learning since.
This last part is the part I'd really appreciate your opinions on and that is changing from weekly blog posts to writing the same things, but as a weekly Opt-in subscription based free newsletter sent directly to peoples e-mail in boxes. Would those of you who read my blog still be interested reading the things I'm writing if I did this and do you believe you would subscribe.
The truth is I'm considering this for two reasons. I am looking for ways to increase my income, buy offering for sale books and other resources I have found beneficial to my relationship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and that I believe will be beneficial to others. The e-books that I write will be available free of charge to those who cannot afford to pay for them or who simply ask for a free copy.
The books I offer in hard copy form or from other publishers will not free of charge unless I am able to have a special arrangement with the authors, publishers, or distributors to get them for free copies to give to those who cannot afford or unless Father provides financial resources to do so. I will be using Amazon as my bookstore platform at least in the beginning until I discover something I feel is a better alternative since I do not have the financial resources or space to purchase and store inventory.
The reason for switching to WordPress is simply that it is a much more powerful platform that can I can do more with. It allows for much better and easier search engine optimization which will hopefully allow me to reach larger audience. Plus I am venturing into other areas of legitimate and ethical Internet marketing and e-commerce for which the WordPress platform is in my opinion the best platform.
To leave your opinions and comments Click Here!
Posts
2 comments:
I seen a news clip of Susan Boyle and to me it was sad how everyone looked at her like she had no business being there. They had already made their judgements against her before she even began to sing. It is like that with some in the church too. They make their judgements on what they see. When I first moved into our community five years ago, my kids met this young teen. He dressed differently, which some thought was gothic, and that scared some people. One in particular was a deacon from the church we started attending. He dropped by our house one day and asked why we invited this boy into our home. I was more shocked at his tone and his seemingly indifference to this young teen. I was getting to know this young teen and I knew he was no threat to anyone. He came from a broken home and needed some love and guidance in his life. But this deacon did not believe that we should associate with this teen. He did not even know this boy. He said that he worked in the prison and these are the kind of kids that end up there. And I am thinking, well maybe, just maybe, if someone had reached out to them when they were young then some of them may not have ended up there. Well, five years later, that young teen is now a young adult and doing very well in his life. He was just over to our house last month. He is a hard working young man who does not get into trouble. The message that was being told to us was to seperate from those who the church felt were different from them, and that didn't go over well with me. Those were the people I was drawn to. Those were the people I wanted to love and encourage. To me they weren't different, they were hurting and they needed someone to come along side them and accept them where they were in life.
It is sad all the people who get passed by in life because they didn't measure up to the world or the churches standards.
Jamey:
Thank you for that example of love and acceptance of one whom father loves in spite of modern phariseeism.
I to through developing relationship with a small community of societies marginalized and disenfranchised learned that many many are not what we judge them to be based solely on assumption. That Fathers idea of beauty and value is completely other then our own.
Post a Comment