Brother Daniel

Let us make a little comparison between paganism and christianity. Just for fun.

A typical (ancient style) pagan lives in a world with capricious gods. Your crops might not grow one year. A foreign army might invade. Shit, in short, might happen. The gods have a lot to do with it. What can you do about it? Make sacrifices. Do whatever it takes to make the gods happy. It'll cost you, of course. You only have so many animals, but the gods want their share. You don't have to like the gods, but you have to keep up the sacrifices. You never know what awful things might happen if you don't.

A typical christian doesn't have any of those problems. You don't have to make sacrifices or indulge in weird rituals. God is perfectly beneficent and loving (as well as all-powerful). Oh yes, shit still happens to you sometimes, but that doesn't have any impact how you view God, right? Well, it better not. If you start to imagine that God might be anything less than all-powerful or anything less than all-loving, or if you start to resent the way God treats you, then you're probably not a real christian, are you? And in that case the shit that might happen to you tomorrow is nothing compared to the eternity of ... NO! Don't let your mind go there. If shit happens to you, it must be because you're bad, or because God, in his great love, is teaching you lessons or strengthening your character or refining the badness out of you or ... I don't know, but it's all for the best, and if there's a problem, then the problem is YOU, not God. Better make sure you set aside time each day for prayer and bible-reading so that your mind doesn't go in dangerous directions. Believe believe believe believe believe. Good thing you don't need any sacrifices or weird rituals.

End of sermon.

Let us pray ... oops, gotta kick that habit.