{"id":221,"date":"2011-07-21T13:43:23","date_gmt":"2011-07-21T17:43:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/smalltownamerica\/?p=221"},"modified":"2011-07-19T14:16:09","modified_gmt":"2011-07-19T18:16:09","slug":"believe-it-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2011\/07\/believe-it-or-not.html","title":{"rendered":"Believe It Or Not"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What people believe can cause a lot of controversy.\u00a0 We all believe in something. \u00a0When we meet others who have the opposite belief or at least a different belief, it can spark\u00a0 an\u00a0argument.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There is sometimes a vast difference in what we believe and the truth.\u00a0 We can believe we will win the lottery, but of\u00a0all those who believe, only one or two will actually win.\u00a0 We can believe we will grow up\u00a0and marry a handsome prince, but how many times is that the truth?\u00a0 Some believe the moon is made of green cheese or that anyone can run a marathon if they really want to.\u00a0 We believe our children are perfect.\u00a0 We believe that some day we will be rich.\u00a0 We believe that everyone will go to Heaven.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Just because we believe in it doesn&#8217;t make it truth.\u00a0 And we may choose not to believe in things that are proven facts.\u00a0 It doesn&#8217;t really matter if you believe the sun will come up every morning or not, <em>it will.<\/em>\u00a0 I may think I can jump from a third story window and not get hurt, but that isn&#8217;t true (unless God sends an angel to catch me).\u00a0 I may not think there is electricity in the wire that runs to my house, but if I grab hold of it, I will soon know the truth.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We cannot change the Law of Gravity, no matter what we believe. (Unless you are a space traveler)\u00a0 We cannot prevent time from passing, it just does.\u00a0 We cannot make snow hot or the sun cold just by what we choose to\u00a0 believe.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The same is true of God&#8217;s word.\u00a0 We cannot make a portion of scripture go away just because we want to.\u00a0 We don&#8217;t have to believe that Jesus is God&#8217;s son, <em>but He is.<\/em>\u00a0 He don&#8217;t have to believe that the Bible is God&#8217;s written word, <em>but it is.\u00a0 <\/em>Not everyone believes that Jesus is the only way to Heaven, <em>but He is.<\/em>\u00a0 The truth is the truth whether you believe it or not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What people believe can cause a lot of controversy.\u00a0 We all believe in something. \u00a0When we meet others who have the opposite belief or at least a different belief, it can spark\u00a0 an\u00a0argument. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There is sometimes a vast difference in what we believe and the truth.\u00a0 We can believe we will win the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":420,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[11,19],"class_list":["post-221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration","tag-convictions","tag-faith"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - 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