Eugene Peterson says in the Message translation of (1 Timothy 6:11-12) But you Timothy, man of God: Run for your life from all this. Pursue a righteous life-a life of wonder, faith, love, steadiness, courtesy…seize the eternal life you were called to… He defines a righteous life as pursuing a life of wonder, faith, love, steadiness and courtesy! Now I think I can work on that!
I really can grasp this, ever since I was a child there has been this strong sense of seeing beyond where I am and wanting to explore it, stifled by people but now free in Christ, as well as myself, to go ahead while I’m still able. Great Stuff Cory. That truly is conformation for me.
I live just north of you in the Boise area. We have a large population of Mormons in our citnumomy as well. I grew up with some of my best friends being LDS and went on several mission trips to the Salt Lake area in high school to work in struggling Christian churches. I’m thankful for a youth pastor who encouraged me to get to know the beliefs of the Mormon church. I don’t know that it’s wise to live in a citnumomy where there are so many and not understand what they believe. How else can I share what I believe in a context they’ll understand? I’ve been able to have some good conversations with several of my Mormon friends over the years about the fundamental differences in our beliefs. I’m thankful for that. I would also encourage you to get a copy of their Bible. It’s different from ours as in many, many things have been changed to match up with the rest of their teachings. Right now, I’m building a relationship with 2 women from the Jehovah’s Witness church in our area. They’ve stopped by several times and are always so sweet. I’m enjoying getting to know them and why they believe what they believe.