There is a reason God designed us with pinky toes!!!

There is something that really bothers me-- people who are great talkers and not so great listeners that tend to tag those they do not understand with catch phrases. Then they assume those people fit the category of whatever they have associated with the phrase. Oh yeah, is this prejudice? Or maybe judging a book by its cover? Or maybe religious profiling? I recently was sitting in a... well to protect anyone involved I'll just put it this way... I was in a listening position and the other person was in a leader/speaking position and this person was explaining scripture. As he did he used one of these "catch phrases" to describe what the author of the scripture was talking about. He stated that the "once saved always saved" belief is the perversion of God's grace which is written about in a couple of places in the Bible.


I am telling you what, I got so mad, and I got up and left. I know I have blogged about this before, but really, how is this even logically an issue? I have never, NEVER actually heard anyone say this in order to do whatever their body desires. Have you? Now Paul preached about the perversion of grace and what he said is that the people of that time were using their sin to increase grace... well he preached against this so I read between the lines that it must have been an issue, or it could be as he was explaining grace he was just clarifying his meaning not that it was going on but that it had the potential if someone twisted his words. (You know the twisting of words that has created the "once saved always saved" phrase in the first place?)

Romans 5:20-6:4 The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

I belive there are Christians who love God so much they believe they are the only ones who have a relationship with Him because it is such a personal and amazing thing, and there could be no one else who has this unless they do it just like they do... Do it is the operative phrase here. They think that their relationship with Christ is because of something they have done or are doing right? Then they start pointing out what everyone else has to be doing wrong because, "how could they have this relationship too, they don't look like me?"

So one person who loves Christ will assume that this other person believes in something completely different and in comparing ways, they pull phrases out of a conversation and cling to them without ever listening and trying to understand the other person. At least this is what I believe. I have blogged here on what I believe about the "once saved always saved" debate-- no I don't think there is any discussion so it couldn't be a debate-- category.

Here is what the problem was at this "function" I was attending. The man was teaching against false teachers and then goes on to teach that "once saved always saved" is one of the false teachings that the Bible was talking about. Well, I for one have never read that phrase in the Bible neither pro nor con, and for two if you are preaching something not in the Bible then wouldn't that be considered false teaching? Especially when your intention is to poke a finger at the person across from you who you assume believes in the all-covering umbrella of salvation (which is totally what it is) and uses that umbrella to purposefully play in the rain (who does this but children?) I really truly wonder if there are Christians out there who actually believe that with God's grace you can do whatever you want. Now, I can see this in my own past behavior as a teenager, but like I said only kids like to play in the rain. I was just that, a kid. My thoughts were, "I'll straighten up later and have fun now". Even in the infancy of my faith I never believed it was "ok", I just "knew" I had time to repent (I heard God calling me), and God would forgive me (which He has and only because of Him did I live through my abandon to repent and heed His calling me away from that belief). This is not right; I am not advocating this, but I am making a drastic point.

Why get up and teach to a group of believers that "once saved always saved" is a false teaching and beware unless someone is dealing with this in their lives (maybe I am naive and some of these Christians really are dealing with this false belief in their lives and are teaching it to others) and teaching it to the Church unless you are trying to cause divisiveness within the Church, or unless the ultimate goal is to subtly place the "false teachers" title on those who are already plugged in under the "once saved always saved" title.

Really, why use the podium to push divineness when Christ calls us to unity? Not cloning ourselves to each other, but allowing Christ to live in us as different parts of His body. Man if we were all the same part of the body we would only frighten others away. What a scary thought and sight. A body with all Heads (one true head-- Christ-- and a bunch of cloned fake heads. The body would be much more effective if we embraced our differences (within scriptural contexts) as Christians and worked as a body of believers not competing for the best role or ripping off the limbs with different gifts and ideas on how to do things (as long as they are following the Bible).

I see myself as so far from being like Christ that maybe I am the pinky toe. I don't even consider myself strong enough to be the big toe which balances out the body as it moves. I am sure that even I, the pinky toe of Christs Body-- the Church, have a major place in His plan. There is a reason God designed us with pinky toes!!!


FYI: I googled what is the function of the pinky toe and here is the answer I found on WikiAnswers.com.
The fifth, or pinkie, toe functions as part of a group of five toes. They help you walk. Though some might say there is no (important) biological function, it still has a function, otherwise we would not have one.