I am, Therefore I Think

I was just thinking today about how unwilling we are to challenge our own thinking. I've determined to stop being so afraid to think things out to their logical conclusion. Why do we do that? Do we even hate admitting to ourselves that we were wrong? Does it make life too inconvenient? Sometimes as Christians I think we even go the other way....almost like it can't be of God if it's not complicated or difficult enough.

An example of the unwillingness we have to grasp the obvious comes frequently in the area of finances. Back when we had car loans and a credit card and no written budget, we obviously were making enough to cover our expenses but it felt like we were broke all the time. We're not big spenders...actually pretty frugal....but somehow I could justify not having a budget and sticking to it. I could still convince myself that I should put something on a credit card and believe that even though I didn't have the money at the time, it would somehow magically appear.

I know this has been true for me, in a large part, with parts of my christian walk. Not with the fundamentals....Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The other stuff. Why Christians do or don't do certain things. Pre-trib, Post-trib, etc. I guess in some way I've always looked to others to do my thinking for me when I didn't want to mess with it. Some of it is not wanting to rock the boat (a personality thing with me). Then I subconsciously hide the truth of a matter from myself so I don't have deal with it. Is this just me or does anybody else do this as well? Does anyone even know what I'm talking about?

Scripture and the Church is another area where I have to really discipline myself to think it out rather than just accept what has been passed down by tradition in different churches, through various leaders, etc. We all want to be like the Bereans and hold up the things we're told against the Word, but actually doing that is very difficult because we tend to read our beliefs(or someone else's) back into the Word, rather than letting the Holy Spirit illuminate it in our own lives.

I don't really ever want to suffer from amnesia, but there are times I wish I could wake up one morning and temporarily not remember anything about the Bible and be able to read it again for the very first time. Without Scofield notes, a concordance, a pastor, preconceived ideas, family bents, or any study aids whatsoever. His Word is living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword. We reduce it to something little more than a textbook that we disect to death. Sometimes I feel like we've gotten so far into our own concepts of concepts of concepts of concepts in the Word that we can't see the simplicity of it anymore. What 'church' has turned into is a perfect example. Many today can't even imagine a church without a pastor in charge, a 'church' building, soloist, worship team or song leader, a service that starts at 11:00, Sunday school, Wednesday night meeting, hymnbooks (or projection screen), dress-up clothes, etc.......and yet none of that is spelled out in the Word.

Behavioral issues are another area we do this....things like, say, smoking (which I can't stand) that we hold up as this huge thing that Christians just don't do. What is the biblical reason we give? Because it's bad for our bodies which are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Okay, then what about being obese? Living a sedentary lifestyle? Eating lots of refined sugars and white flour? Sucking down 8 Mountain Dews every day? I'm not saying any of these things are or are not sin, I'm just pointing out that we treat one of them as this major evil (smoking) while the others get a pass. We determine the level of evil subjectively, by tradition. This is just an example....but we do it in a lot of places...not always having to do with sin, but all areas of our lives.

I'm still in the process of looking at exactly what He did say about His church....again, without adding the 20/21st century mindset back into His words. There wasn't much he told us about form or when, how often, or where to meet. He told us we shouldn't give up meeting together. We know what the early believers committed themselves to (breaking bread, the fellowship, the apostles' teaching, and prayer). We know the body has pastors, teachers, prophets, evangelists, those with the gift of mercy, healing, giving, etc. We know that when they came together they each had a word or a song. What should that look like today? It gets me excited to think about what it could be.....how organic and real it could be. I look forward to the day when I have my believing friends over for dinner and afterwards we break bread and remember the Lord together. I'm excited to get together with the church at Starbucks or Caribou Coffee and others overhear what we're talking about and want to get to know Jesus. I look forward to not worrying about a building fund or new sound equipment, paint, etc. but being able to help missionaries, the sick, and poor with my giving directly. You see, we ARE the house of God. Ephesians 2:19-22. That's pretty exciting. All believers together make up the church. It's not the size or the place of the gathering that labels it as a 'church'. It's not something we go to, it's His people, together.

Thoughts?