Have you ever seen a CBD (Christian Book Distributors) catalog? It boasts "more than 5,000 products inside". I think it would be safe to say that at least seventy-five percent of those products are books. That would be 3,750 books. THREE THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED FIFTY BOOKS!!! Are you thinking what I'm thinking? With that many resources the American Christian should be the best discerning, happiest, healthiest, prayingest, wisest, culturally relevant Christians in the world. Our society should have strong Christian values and our churches should be packed. Right? We have all the answers, right?
We hear about the latest ideas for church growth. It worked well for one church, it should work in all churches. Write a book! House church, cell church, emergent church, mega church, the possibilities are endless. Pre-trib, post-trib, mid-trib,
pre-wrath, how's it going to end? Read the book! Are you Calvinist or Arminian? Not many have heard of this, are you a preterist? How did the early church grow without all this information?
All these books can give us things to think about. They can also lead us to over complicate God's Word. We start looking between the lines and pages of the Bible, taking it out of context, in order to find some hidden message.
Can we learn from other books? Sure we can. I would be a liar if I said I wasn't influenced by other writers. However, I'm tired. I'm taking a vacation from other books. Right now I'm going to focus on one book, the Bible.
Remember when you first became a believer? If you are like me, you devoured the Scriptures. I couldn't get enough. Each session with the Word brought fresh meaning to my life. It was a wonderful time.
Maybe I've spent a lot of time in other books so I could get to the place where I am now. I want to return to the simple pleasure of loving Jesus, reflecting His love to others, and living my life in a way that would please God. I want to be a good disciple that disciples others.
2 Timothy 3:16,17 says, "All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work."
Maybe if we all would return to our roots, things could be different. Study the Scriptures to find out what is from God and what is from man. Let the Bible be the ultimate authority. Then each day the Lord can add to our fellowship those who are being saved.(Acts 2:47) God bless y'all real good.
5 comments:
Amen, Another voice I am hearing (by so called Christians)is that we really can't know what the Bible says, and we are arrogant if we claim to. This is a lie propagated by the Father of lies 4000 years ago, (Gen 3:4)in the Garden of Eden. Our enemy continues to use this today.
God has given us to books so that we can know Him - The Bible and Creation. In bother we find all we need, the finger prints of God are all over them. The Bible is very clear, God is not the God of confusion, satan is. I also stand on 2 Tim. 3:16. Anyone who claims different is a heretic and we should pray for them, but as Charles Spurgeon said once, to the knife with their doctrine to the knife.
The Bible say that the Gospel will be a stumbling block to the Jew and foolishness to the Gentiles.
I pray that we will not be fools.
Awsome post, thanks.
Very well put, I agree with you that there are so many Christian publications out there that are so busy trying to heal all of our ailments that they neglact the real "first aid kit" itself, that scriptures.
I too am on a crusade to read the Bible everyday, or as often as I can and really try and understand what really happened. I don't mean from someone elses perspective, but from my own perspective, the way God orionallly indended me to understand His Word all the way back from the begining of time when I was thought of. I think people tend to want to know everybody else's take on things yet do not even try to understand it for themself first. It's one thing if people read, read, and read a certain passage and don't get it. It is something entirely different if they want others to interperet for them.
We have talked about this before. There is a desire in man for everything to be easy. Give me the easy way - the formula that I can follow to make things turn out the way I want them to. We can control God that way, right? "Don't teach me about government and politics, just tell me who to vote for. Don't teach me about moderation and liberty, just give me a shot of grape juice." We want that "new law". If it works for one church, it works for all, right? It's hard to listen to the Holy Spirit. It's much easier to follow a formula. It's hard to be still and quiet and read the Word with an open mind and heart. We have no idea just how blessed we are. There are many who laid their life down so that we could have the Word of God readily at our finger tips. Now we not only have it in our own language, but in any translation that suits us. Isn't it you that taught me "with privilege comes responsibility"? I think it would become more of a priority if we lived somewhere like China wouldn't it? Thanks for your thoughts.
To The Head of the Knuckles: I am responding here to Kez, I realized this became a short story , so I added a disclaimer. Sorry!
Kez-
Bravo! I am begining to learn that there is no place for softness in the Word. I have many a translation, were you aware?, and they all say it slightly differntly. I believe you have to go on understadability. For me the KJV is awkward, outdated, and archaic. Now, I am not rejecting its authenticity mind you, but more or less stating that I can't get a handle on it and it leaves me more and more confused in the end. For me, I like the NIV, NKJV, New Jeruselum Bible, NASB, NAB, and The Message. There are others we own but, for the most part I use these translations. For everyday reading it's the NIV, or NKJV. I do a sort of comparision, using the KJV for a more poetic insight and The Message: Remix when I am coming up cluless.
Sorry, got off track. Where was I? Oh yes, softness. I took a new approach for me this week by engaging in an all out Scripture war. I am committing myself to own the Word. It may not be stored word for word in the cobweb infested casim in my skull, but it will be engraved on my soul. No more books on self help crap, and getting my esteem back in order, or some pastor that says in 6 weeks you can understand why God has called us where He has for whatever reason He has. No, from now on I'll be committing my time to Scripture, there are exceptions like C.S. Lewis, or John C. Maxwell, and others. But if I do read outside the Word, I'll make sure I compare it to God's Sacred Script.
You know we live in a culture that makes it almost impossible to to completly rely on "the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spicket, sorry Spirit (4 Weddings and a Funeral)" We don't always have that place of reflection like in the olden days. Sometimes I find it hard to find a place. Even if I do find a quiet place at home, there are so many distractions that it is almost worthless to try. I am forced to shoot up a quick prayer or two durring the course of my day.
Churches have created this monster of "the formula to a better Christianity" I believe we have lost too many sheep from the fold due to churches trying to create a uniform plan. I don't know of too many places of worship that tell us to let the Spirit move in our lives, pray when prayer is called for and overcome and adapt based on what the Lord is doing at that moment. Whether there is a time limit to the service for some unavoidable event, or there is a litergy and they have to make way for the next service and if they don't people start to get angry, or whatever the case may be. I don't want to be taught anything but the Bible period. I don;t mean the version of the Bible that suits me I mean word for word broken down. Praying, when do we get teachings on prayer? When do elders disciple people on why to, and how to pray? I for example am almost scared to pray, especially outloud because I feel stupid. It seems Mr. Evangelical Christian Formula is at work again. Have you ever noticed that almost everybody in prayer group or Bible study prays exactly the same way? It's intimidating. Now when I say more mature believers should disciple I am saying teach them the nuts and bolt. The why's of prayer, not a crafted by men formula.
Let mortal man learn how to think, how to discern, and how to conclude the ideas which come to them. We so heavily rely on outside sources. God gave us this wonderful organ called the brain to use deductive logic skills. He also gave us two ears and one mouth so we can listen twice as much as we speak. It's far to important to learn how to reason than it is to figure out whether or not to dip your little piece of bread in the dinky shot glass of grape juice.
Kez, I want to follow the Lord. I want to do His will and serve Him. I know I probably went way out there, but you and I are so much alike so I think you will understand why
I did. When a thought comes into the brain I must act on it. So this was longer that expected but it was on my heart so I just went with it.
Hey Knucklehead – Good thoughts.
I hope you are going to read the 1599 Geneva Bible, “The Bible of the Pilgrims and the Reformers – Rediscovered After 400 Years!” And as D. James Kennedy says, “…the 1599 Geneva Bible will help restore America’s rich Christian heritage and reclaim the culture for Christ.”
So I guess it is important to read the correct version. And here I thought the King James was the only inspired version. I guess I’ll have to buy a book from CBD about which version of the Bible to read!?
I Corinthians 2:11-16
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