1. After your ideas are firmly in place, find scripture to back it up.The older I get, the more churches I work with, the more I believe that this is the greatest problem among Christians. We work hard to make the Bible say what we want it to say, rather than allowing the Word to work on us. We need to depend upon the Word of God to tells us how to live and not pull out "proof texts" to defend how we want to live.
2. If scripture contradicts your ideas, ignore it.
3. When in doubt, use Christian jargon.
Dr. W.O. Carver, had a famous sermon that he called, "My Bible." The thrust of the sermon was that my Bible is not necessarily the entire Book. My Bible is the part of the Bible that I live and take into my heart and actions. The goal of every Christian is to gradually make my bible (the part I really live) grow to become the entire Bible. I think everyone is guilty of selecting the little parts that we want while omitting the rest. Is the passage on tithing a part of your Bible? Do you live it or do you simply select your way around it? Is the passage on loving your enemies a part of your bible, or do you just choose to ignore it? What about the passage on turning the other cheek? Is that a part of your Bible?
You get the idea. We all too often choose to use "our Bible" rather than to use the entire Book. So, what do you say? Isn't about time we started reading, believing, and basing our actions on the entire Bible? Yep, I think so too!
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2 comments:
You're a pesky little fella, aren't you?
Tim - you mean you don't have a "selective" Bible? I'll have to get you one ;-)
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