Whew, what a busy week. School has been pretty crazy lately and I've been stuck in a whirlwind for a while. Hopefully things in my life will eventually slow down.
Anyhoo, God has been teaching me about what really matters. What really matters to him is the heart of his children. He doesn want my actions, he wants my heart. If my heart is with Jesus, then the rest will come out okay. I think sometimes that Christians can get so wrapped up in rules and regulations and debating over what the bible says, but its the heart that matters.
Isaiah 29:11
And so the Lord says, "These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away. And their worship of me of amounts to nothing more than human laws learned by rote."
Our worship of God is completely useless if our hearts are not filled with Christ.
It's not about the technicalities about what exactly what the bible says about controversial issues. It's also not about how much one knows about the Bible, its about what is in our hearts.
It's also about how big God is and how we view him. The biggest question of all is how big is my God? That all depends on the limits I put on Him. He can be as big or as small to me as I let him.
Now this is where I might offend people, because I view the bible differently than some people. The Bible is inspired by God and is a glimpse of who God is, but it is not perfect. There are many translation mistakes because Hebrew and Greek are not easily translated into English. There are many copying mistakes from the old days when they used to copy the Bible by hand. In Judges and other books, there are chronological mistakes. The Bible has human fingerprints all over it, but it still remains as a major glimpse of who God is. It is what we have and we have to use it as imperfect as it is.
I will also dare to say that the Bible does not contain God. This is because God cannot be contained. It is simply impossible. This also means that the Bible is not God. The Bible will not be and I refuse it to be the God of my life. It gives me direction, consolation, convictions and a peace that no other book can give me. But it cannot take the place of God himself. God is bigger than the Bible. I regret to say that I feel like there is a tendency to elevate the Bible to a level that it should not be elevated to, and by doing this we are putting God into a box.
Believe me, God doesn't like boxes.
Now I'm not saying that we need to add to scripture, that's not what I mean. I just think the Bible should not be the God of our lives, that is not its purpose.
Its not about how much scripture you know, its about where your heart is. Not that scripture is a bad thing to know, but its about your heart. God needs to be the God of your heart, not a book that is full of human finger prints and is not perfect. The Bible has awesome truths, and it can help focus your life, but ultimately it has to point to God. Some passages are full of human opinions and fingerprints its hard to know where God fits in. This is why God has to be God, not the Bible.
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2 comments:
Jillian,
The Bible teaches all the way through the connection between loving God and obeying the scripture. The two go hand in hand. Jesus said, They will know you are my disciples if you obey my commands. Here are just a few of the many scriptures that teach the connection.
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 straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. It is God's way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do.
2 Tim 3:16-17
Jesus replied, "Your problem is that you don't know the Scriptures, and you don't know the power of God. Matt 22:29
Make me walk along the path of your commands, for that is where my happiness is found. Ps. 119:35
How I delight in your commands! How I love them! Ps 119:47
I honor and love your commands.I meditate on your principles. Ps. 119:48
As pressure and stress bear down on me, I find joy in your commands. Ps. 119:143
Jesus said, Their worship is a farce, for they replace God's commands with their own man-made teachings. Matt 15:9
So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the Devil. Anyone who does not obey God's commands and does not love other Christians does not belong to God. 1 John 3:10
God Bless
Royal
Thanks Royal for posting. It's great to see that this site is read by people other than college students.
I think the biggest point I was trying to make in this post is summed up in this verse:
John 21:25
And I suppose that if all the other things Jesus did were written down, the whole world could not contain the books.
I do agree with you that the Bible contains commands that we are to follow. These commands are designed for us to be able to see God. But, my biggest gripe was the fact that some Christians make the Bible the God of their lives. This should not be so. These commands that Jesus gives us, the advice of Paul, and the stories of the old Testament are supposed to point to Christ.
Jesus says it best:
John 5:39
"You search the scriptures because you believe they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!"
If we as Christians get so caught up in the technicalities of what the Bible says and trying to be good enough by following the commands of the Bible, we lose sight of who we worship. God wants our hearts, not us to get caught up in the rules and regulations. Its not about what the Bible says, its about who the Bible points to. And that's Jesus Christ. After all, he is the Word of God incarnate.
John 1:14
So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.
If we as Christians make the Bible a stumbling block, by making it holy, then we've lost the point. The Bible cannot be put on the same level as God, because there is nothing that can be on the same level as God. There just isn't.
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