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Tackling Tough Issues |  |
| | If you don't think for yourself, others will do your thinking for you. | by Richard W. O'Ffill | There are certainly other people who would be happy to do your thinking for you. But this is no time for you to have a favorite guru. In matters having to do with faith and morals, it is generally not safe to be a disciple of anyone. God hasn't put, as it were, all His eggs in one basket. To be a reflector of one man's thoughts is ultimately to have a narrow view of things. The apostle Paul made this clear when he wrote, "While one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos: are you not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planted anything, neither he that water is; but God has given the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth; are one one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are laborers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building (1Corinthians 3: 4-9)." When I took the college class Education, a large part of the course consisted in learning key quotations from the book Education, by Ellen White. I remember one quotation in particular: "It is the work of true education to train youth to be thinkers, and not mere reflectors of other men's thoughts."” It has been said that when we become followers of people, we tend to follow their weaknesses rather than their strengths. David's life provides a good example. We must be careful that we don't conclude that his story proves that anything goes as long as a person is sorry afterwards. Though there are Bible heroes, the only Hero we can safely copy as Jesus. | |
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