God is not the author of confusion…

It is important when looking at this verse to look at in context. Paul was trying to impose more order in their worship services and was specifying how and when and how many people should prophesy or speak in tongues at any given time. It was specific to the culture of his time. He was trying to teach the people that God cannot speak amid such chaos.

I think that Christ’s gospel is simple, but like the Corinthians, we make it overly confusing, complex and complicated. There are many voices and lots of them just want to hear themselves talk.

I spent some time this Summer reading hundreds of near-death experiences. There’s a website where data is being gathered. The descriptions are interesting and there are some interesting consistencies. One, is a feeling of joy and love that is beyond description. There is a sense of a supreme being. Many experience a life-review, but it is not judgmental in nature, and that our life’s purpose is to gain experience. People who have these experiences almost never come back seeking religion, ours or any other. What they are left with is the sense that the most important thing is for us to develop and show greater love to each other, show more kindness, understanding, and forgiveness. I tend to think that this simple idea of love one another, which is Christ’s ultimate message, is really all we are here to do. We are her to aspire to be more like Christ and to develop his pure love, which we call charity. So to better love our friends, family, neighbor, and most importantly our enemy, we need to develop charity.

Is a structured religion necessary for this? No. But is it often beneficial in helping us and encouraging us and reminding us to love one another? absolutely!

Why is the

gospel so hard to find?

Because we, as humans, tend to build hedges about it – often in our deep

need for safety and security. Walking the pure Gospel line can be

dangerous, in real ways, so we tend to gravitate away from that danger

and substitute the pure Gospel for a safer model – a good rather than a

best, if you will.

Maybe it’s because each of us must learn it for ourselves and discover it anew.

Question Abound says:

Why is the gospel so hard to find?

I wish I had the answer to that question. I feel much the way you do, and sometimes I wonder why we have to struggle so much to find the right path. This is such a difficult time for me, and all the rules and checklists we are given seem very unimportant most of the time, but then I feel guilty if I don’t feel like I am doing my best at following them. Having more knowledge than I used to is both a burden and a blessing.

Surely the gospel isn’t as complicated as maybe we make it out to be. Surely He wants us to understand what He has authored and is offering. Since we are missing the mark, how must He feel?

I guess when I was a TBM I had the way laid out for me, and now I feel that doesn’t hold true anymore. Since I disagree with some of the doctrine we are taught I feel like I am going through the motions oftentimes at church, but not being there makes me feel bad also, like I’m being a slacker.

Blehhhhhhhh! None of it feels good right now. And since my kids are involved too, I have that added burden that if I do things wrong I can be affecting their lives forever also. I feel I’m dragging my child to church because it is important, but then I get there and I wonder why I am there.

One positive though is having this website to go to, so I know I’m not alone and that other people are struggling with similar issues. I do find much that is positive here.

You ask why we need church, and I don’t have an answer, but I remember sitting in all the churches I went to in Europe and feeling a yearning for them to be filled with parishioners. I didn’t expect it, but I even found myself praying for it. They didn’t need to be LDS, Catholic was just fine.

God may not need churches, but maybe we do. I need some structure, some routine, some reminder and purpose. To long on my own with nothing to nudge me isn’t good for me. I forget.

I agree with everyone’s thoughts on the confusion part – that people add to it.

You asked about love – Maybe our religion needs us to be the love it can’t give right now. Robert Rees writes in the book, Why I Stay, that he see’s himself as the conscience of the church. He knows he ruffles feathers, but he also believes he helps people with his view point, and that his middle way approach has helped friends and family both in and out of the church to understand each other. Maybe that’s true for us.