Who's responsibility is it Anyway??

I guess i'm half asking and half telling. But isn't there some un-written rule about where to draw the line on what is taught in church as 'fact'? Well, this is totally going against the grain to take up issue with my church. But the way that I look at it is, If I just do what they say without question then I would be "Following blindly" And even the apostles didn't do that. Some of them actually left each other due to their disagreements on issues. Well that's getting off the point. I believe we as believers have a big responsibility to make right choices and to be in prayer and decide for ourselves what is right or wrong for us. I know that my church sometime teaches against certain things and they go to the extreme of the exact thing and completely leaving any room for arguement saying this is "WRONG" or "No true believer would even think of doing this" or "Have this" or "Take part in this" etc. etc. I don't mean to be bad mouthing my church I am merely making a point and cannot do so without and example. Now what happens if we have 15 people sitting in church who take part in a certain thing with a completely clear conscience and then we hear over the pulpit that "No true Christian would even think of taking part in that". What does that say about those 15? But on top of that, those 15 are in a pickle. Do they just stop taking part because it was denounced in church? That would be following blindly in my opinion. But what does a person do in that situation? You can't argue the point with the pastor. At that point you would be trying to justify what you do or change his opionion OR worse yet, get his approval.. All which are not noble things to do! You don't need to justify your actions before men, you don't need to argue with your pastor, and you don't need to get your pastor's approval on anything. You are both mature independent minds alike in God's sight. We need God's approval, not mans. Although having man's approval feels good most of the time. If we need to justify our actions to ourselves or others, if we need to convince ourselves its 'ok' then something is fishy there, maybe we better take a closer look at what we believe. Following our pastor's every rule and preached message to a T will not get us to Heaven, neither will pleasing our pastor by going by every rule or denouncement of certain things or activities. We need to evaluate our lives, take spiritual inventory-take a good look at our priorities and then ask God to give us wisdom and teach us the right way. A pastor is like a shepherd watching a flock of sheep. The sheep know what the shepherd wants but does not always do what he says. But the shepherd understands that sheep will do that, they will wander, they will get lost but the shepherd does not give up or say "I might as well never try to save you again, its no use, you wandered off even tho I said stay".. neither can a pastor say that "I may as well not preach another lessson because it's done no good, you fell into sin again". It is not the pastor's fault if a person falls into sin, they are only the shepherd. They have to realize their responsibility and it's limits. I'm not saying it's easy to see a long time member fall into seriuos sin and live the way of the world after that with no time for the Lord. I think that it is the church's responsibility to teach principles and truth from the Bible, but when it comes down to specifics on some ''controversial'' issues, if there are so many different opinions on the matter and each one is revealed somethind different.. Why would God reveal the truth to only one man?? Why not just teach the principles of truth relevant to the issues and leave it up to God and the believer (US) to make the decisions for ourselves! We are mature individuals.. Or is it that the church does not want us to make the wrong one? I really don't know. I think they have gotten too extreme in getting to the nitty gritty details of telling us what we can and cannot do! Where does our power of choice come in. Oh I know we can still choose. But when specific things are taught as factually wrong in church and we are doing them with a clear conscience, what then? Do we stop for the sake of following our pastor's teaching? Do we stop for the sake of not looking 'wrong' in eyes of fellow church-goers? Or was it wrong for it to be taught like that? There is a great amount of resposibility that the believer has to take and pray and search for the answers to the questions. If we are taught to an extreme what is right N wrong and all as fact.. what is left to pray for as far as answers?? We don't need to pray for the answer of 'is it right or wrong' because we were just told in church distinctly that it was "WRONG"!!! There needs to be that great responsibility on every believer to pray and make right decisions on controversial issues instead of the church hand feeding us all the answers we need. The church is no doubt a vital part of every believers life but there has to be a line between the church's responsibility and our personal responsibility.

"A pastor preaching our every move and decision can never get us into Heaven just as attending church cannot. It is our own choices that show who we truly are, not our pastor's"

Pretty? Ugly? or Pretty Ugly?

I was thinking about people and how some of them look pretty to me and some of them look ugly. And thought that someone who I think is beautiful could be considered 'not' in someone elses opinion. Well, then I thought of my self and that I am 27 and not married. (Not that I need to be at 27) not to mention not dating and no prospects either. Well none that I would admit on here. Anyway, I know alot of people from alot of places and some girls who are the most beautiful to our human eyes can be some of the ugliest people i've known. They can be coniving or have ugly motives or just be hateful, annoying or just depressing people. While there are girls I know who most of the world would say "They aint no Britney Spears" and I see them as genuinely beautiful people. When it comes down to it, it all depends on your own motives. I sometime think that it could be a negative attribute to be beautiful in the worlds eyes. What I mean by that is 'most' guys will take them for their surface beauty and never get to know them beyond what they see. And in return it could lead that girl to respond to that and in order to keep that attention will play the game of getting a response from guys. It would obviously make a girl feel nice to have guys always coming up to her and asking her for her number or hitting on her. But coming along with that could lead to vanity and pride. And that would be for the reason that many guys make her out to be more than she is in reality. But on the other side is the girl who those same guys would not go up to as readily or who would fall into the catagory of 'your average girl' or some even fall into the catagory of 'unattractive'. BUT I think that those last two catagories are important and pose the biggest oppurtunity of producing a truly beautiful girl. You see, the girl who isn't necessarily a head turner when she walks into a club, or down the street cannot play off of the vanity that it leads to, they have to work to be beautiful. But the great thing about that is that they become a girl who is beautiful for the rest of her life, and not just until she washes off the make-up or her highlights grow out.. or she gains a little weight that makes her lose her anorexic look she's been honing in for two years. It is something that those inner-beauty girls will retain for the rest of their life. They are the ones who will marry a guy with the same inner-beauty and raise a happy family and grow old together and still be happy and love each other! But those shallow outter beauty girls could end up being bar flys or divorced ... three times.. Just looking for happiness in guys instead of in God. Finding God at a young age and becoming happy and content in Him is a BIG step in having a happy relationship with anyone let alone a happy marriage. I am (i'm not sure the word to use) But I am the kind of person where I could hang out with a girl and think to myself "Lord this is the girl for me, she and I got along great, she is beautiful she loves You and it just has the be right". But then after a few days I will reconsider and think.. well is she really the one for me? And then I'm not sure, and even more glad I waited to say anything more that would lead her to think of us as just buddies?or friends. Granted that I don't know how she feels I could ruin a good friendship over something that may never be. And that is why I do not take other's advice when they say "Ask her on a date, what can it hurt"? Well to start with.. alot of drama if it is not to be.. Anyway, I met a girl the other night who I think about often, and have seen her most of my life, but the questions are still there, "When, God, when?" But I am comforted in the answer I give myself.. "When God sees fit for me to have a friend, that's when it will be". Until then I pray I fulfill my responsibilities on this earth and become a more beautiful person for my future wife, if God blesses me in that way. The beauty that we see if only skin deep, it is what lies behind that deceptive covering that matters the most!!