Pondering what is Sensible
I hadn’t even begun to ponder the topic for this week’s article when I was directed to the word “sensible” in the following scripture during Bible Study last night:
Titus 2:12 – instructing us to deny godlessness and worldly lusts and to live in a sensible, righteous, and godly way in the present age,
I hadn’t ever really stopped to think about the word sensible, as it appears in the scriptures, but I do know that every single word written in the scriptures has significance. So, I stopped to think about it a bit and also look into what other scriptures contained the word “sensible”.
As it turned out there were more than I expected to find. A search using BibleGateway.com of the HCSB revealed 22 separate scriptures containing the word “sensible”.
Further investigation into the meaning of the word sensible revealed these results from Dictionary.com:
sen si ble
- adjective
1. having, using, or showing good sense or sound judgment: a sensible young woman.
2. cognizant; keenly aware: sensible of his fault
3. significant in quantity, magnitude, etc.; considerable, appreciable: a sensible reduction in price
4. capable of being perceived by the senses; material: the sensible universe
5. perceptible to the mind
6. conscious: the patient was speechless but still sensible.
I have always maintained, from the very beginning of this journey I find myself on that started in the year 2005, that what I have been taught via the nourishment that has been received has always made SENSE.
In thinking back, I specifically remember even saying to others that in all the years I attended church and in all the years that I searched elsewhere for what made sense, this was the very first time that everything I was learning really and TRULY made sense. I compared it at the time to the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle being fit together – and then I found out soon afterwards that a jigsaw puzzle is exactly what the Word is.
Now I consider myself to be a logical person. And I would say that I’m a realist. While I have my moments, I don’t spend my time with my head up in the clouds. I was also gifted with a good amount of common sense. In the time that I spent (which was literally years) searching for truth, I found bits and pieces of what at the time seemed to make sense in many different religious belief systems but nothing that I could say, “This is IT!” until Father found me and began revealing truth to me via the scriptures.
It started off with small things like the Trinity. Which, I could never understand. People had attempted to explain it using the “egg theory” or the “water, ice and steam theory”. But still it didn’t make sense.
And then there was the idea of Aliens. It didn’t say in the scriptures that Father and the Word created man, woman and a multitude of other beings on other planets. Just man and woman on earth.
And baptism. It didn’t make sense to me that a tiny child would be punished and sent to purgatory because his or her parents neglected or didn’t have a chance to baptize them before they passed over.
And then there was confession, tithing and communion… These are just a few things that didn’t make sense, but there are more. But no matter how it was explained to me, how it was twisted, or what theories or analogies were used to explain it, it still didn’t make sense because in some way shape or form it didn’t match up with what the scriptures actually say. (I should also probably stop and mention that the TRUTH to all of the subjects above and more can be found via these newsletters as well as my personal web site, www.onetruth.weebly.com)
But above and beyond all of that, what I found is that Father’s way and the way that Christ served to example for us all, makes total and complete sense. It is in short, a sensible way of living one’s life. Point in case, Father is TRUTH and the TRUTH makes sense!
Titus 1:7-9 For an overseer, as God’s manager, must be blameless, not arrogant, not quick tempered, not addicted to wine, not a bully, not greedy for money, but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, righteous, holy, self-controlled, holding to the faithful message as taught, so that he will be able both to encourage with sound teaching and to refute those who contradict it.
Some non-believers may argue that all God wants to do is “control us” but that couldn’t be further from the truth because we are all given free-will. What we are asked to do is nothing out-of-the-ordinary. It’s not hard, but it is a learning process and a process of shedding one’s sinful nature and moving forward in truth and righteousness. Yes, there are rules and guidelines to live by, which we do every day anyway. Only these rules and guidelines are for a greater purpose. They are for not only our own good, but also the good of others and for the good of all of creation. Not only is it the only way to obtain peace and harmony, it just…. makes sense.
If you take the time to ponder it, you’ll see.
I’ve met many people who have said about themselves, “I’m a very spiritual person but I’m not religious at all.” I suppose these people might believe me to be a very “religious” person; being that I am a minister who spends much of my free time ministering via the internet, constructing weekly ministry newsletters and attending twice-weekly Bible Study. But I truly do not consider myself to be a “religious” person at all, BUT, that is only because of the connotation it gives when I think of the word and how others perceive a religious person. When someone says the word “religious”, for me and for many others, what automatically pops to mind are visions of those extremes that exist in modern society. Like people who speak in tongues, make pilgrimages to shrines or the “Church Lady” from Saturday Night Live.
There was once a little girl named Anne and all her life she felt different from all the other people around her. While she was only eight years old, she would walk down the busy streets of the city she lived near and peek in through the windows, her little hands leaving prints as she pressed her nose to the glass. The people inside never noticed her. They were always too busy talking amongst themselves, drinking, eating or spending money on designer clothes, jewelry and cars to notice the small girl with dirty blonde hair and green eyes.
2 Timothy 4:3 “For a time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will accumulate teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear something new.”