{"id":28,"date":"2013-07-16T19:16:42","date_gmt":"2013-07-16T19:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=28"},"modified":"2013-07-16T19:16:42","modified_gmt":"2013-07-16T19:16:42","slug":"is-god-an-aspirin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=28","title":{"rendered":"Is God an Aspirin?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"piggy7-14-13<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0 Wow, you look like you are having a nice walk Prodigal!<\/em><\/p>\n

Prodigal Pig:\u00a0 Yes I am just looking at the flowers and enjoying the weather<\/em><\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0 Well I am on my way to church Prodigal hope you have a nice walk!<\/em><\/p>\n

Prodigal Pig:\u00a0 You are going to church now, on this day, at this time?<\/em><\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0 Yes well let me explain my thoughts Prodigal….<\/em><\/p>\n

Harold Kushner once said, Some people use religion to strengthen their immune systems and help them resist temptation.\u00a0 Some use it as an antibiotic to cleanse their systems of infection and make them feel healthy again.\u00a0 And some use it as an aspirin, to take away the pain of wrongdoing without affecting the cause of that pain.\u00a0 You know I have been at all three points in my life.\u00a0 I feel that there are three different levels of maturity with your walk with God.\u00a0 Some people only experience one.\u00a0 Others go through the levels and drop to different ones depending on different trails.\u00a0 Our goal is to love God and love others, our love depends on that relationship we have with God and how we view it.<\/p>\n

When we go to church and use God as an aspirin then to the outside it may look like the hypocrite.\u00a0 These are the people who cheat on their spouse, are abusive, are addicts and they live all week trying to get more and more of that “thing” that is usually a disobedient act against God.\u00a0 It never helps nor heals.\u00a0 It just cause us to be further from God and to feel “pain”.\u00a0 We go on Sunday to somehow make up for the behavior, to somehow feel right for just one hour.\u00a0 Then the whole process goes on and on for one month, two years or three decades.\u00a0 We look at people and say how can you go to church every week with what you do during the week.\u00a0 Well people God is an aspirin.\u00a0 They just take the aspirin to stop the pain for a short while and never look at what is really causing the pain.<\/p>\n

How about using God as an antibiotic to cleanse you system from an infections?\u00a0 Well this is when your spouse wants to leave you, you loss your job, you may have cancer or it is 9-11-01 and you have to make since of the world.\u00a0 You pray and go to church and find comfort in scripture that says “Trust the Lord with all your heart”\u00a0 You lean on him and start to draw close to him but then your spouse is fine and will not leave you, you get a new job, you made it through cancer and it now has been 12 years since 9-11-01.\u00a0 You don’t forget but life goes on and you seem to be fine.\u00a0 Life gets in the way and you don’t have time for God right now, after all\u00a0does it really matter if I go to church this Sunday or pray tonight or read scripture?\u00a0 So the problem with the antibiotic is that you take it faithfully until there is no sign of infection but then it is not needed anymore and life goes back to normal.\u00a0 You go back to normal and your life really has not changed.<\/p>\n

Then God can be strength to our immune system and helps\u00a0us resist temptation.\u00a0 It is like a vitamin or mineral or herb.\u00a0 We take a vitamin B for energy everyday.\u00a0 When we don’t take it we notice less energy.\u00a0 It becomes part of our life.\u00a0 We feel off if we don’t have it.\u00a0 We noticed that in some way it has improved our lives.\u00a0 God is then part of our everyday lives no matter where we all.\u00a0 We worship him not for others but because we love him and it is part of us more then anything else!\u00a0 People see God through us and we shine with his love.\u00a0 God is no longer separate in our lives anymore but now part of us,\u00a0just like taking that vitamin with our morning coffee.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Me: So Prodigal I am going to church and will take my vitamin after….<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

www.theprodigalpig.com<\/p>\n

www.faithincounseling.com<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Me:\u00a0 Wow, you look like you are having a nice walk Prodigal! Prodigal Pig:\u00a0 Yes I am just looking at the flowers and enjoying the weather Me:\u00a0 Well I am on my way to church Prodigal hope you have a nice walk! Prodigal Pig:\u00a0 You are going to church now, on this day, at … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nIs God an Aspirin? - The Prodigal Pig<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=28\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is God an Aspirin? - The Prodigal Pig\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  Me:\u00a0 Wow, you look like you are having a nice walk Prodigal! 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