Sunday, July 22, 2012

Practice By Not Preaching

I heard an interesting term this morning. "Practical Atheist".
If you think that each of those words is a synonym for the other-if being an atheist seems practical to you, reasonable...then this post might just be your cup of Java.
I'm back on the bean, by the way-after six months of no coffee, I decided to go back, though I drink much
less now, which has nothing to do with this post.
From our Bible study this morning:
"A 'practical atheist is someone who professes to believe in God but lives as if God does not exist."
Boy, I've been there-that used to be me. I was a Christian, having been saved for a decade or so, and I stopped going to church, hardly cracked open a Bible, went weeks, months without praying, was just floating-going about the business (busy-ness) of my daily life. I was practically an atheist trapped in a Christian's body.
Real atheists don't bother going to church for more than weddings and funerals.
Real atheists may love their family, friends, loved ones...but they don't worry about their eternal damnation, as they don't believe that Judgement is coming for any of us. They worry about how good their lives are NOW, as NOW is all that they have.
If you know Christians, isn't that the one thing that really separates them from You? Christians are always nattering on about Judgement and eternal consequences and hell and stuff. Aren't the Christians that you are most comfortable with the ones who talk about their golf score rather than God keeping score?
Back to "ME"!
God loved me too much to allow me to remain a practical atheist. He is a jealous God who keeps His children safe from the world, sometimes even when they would prefer the world. He brought this lost sheep back into the fold, and during the seven or so years that I ignored God, He was still taking care of me.
What a Wonderful God!

2 comments:

Doug said...

During my seven or so years in the desert, if asked, I would have admitted to being a Christian.
Nobody asked. Nobody would have ever assumed that I WAS a Christian, as I 'fit in' so well in Sodom/Gomorrah/Las Vegas.
It's been so hot lately here that it reminds me of Vegas. I am too cheap to run an air conditioner all of the time, but I hooked mine up the other day. In Vegas we needed A/C to survive.

Lucia said...

You are certainly on about judgment all the time. Some other Christians I know, not so much.