Look, we live in a world which has numerous aspects of growing darker. God is the dispenser of light. He offers light, draws us into light, and has a disposition to provide more light than we can handle.
So why is our world growing dimmer? Why such continuous struggle? Why is He not able to have more impact on the very people He created?
One of the reasons may be churches have robbed the communities of the freeing power of the Bible. For years the Catholics have been criticized by the denominations for taking the Bibles from the hands of their members and placing the priests as the (go-between) God-representative to all.
But we've missed our own tactical scheme to remove the Word from our own members. We allow them to hold their own Bibles and encourage them to read them. Yet, in many areas of the church life is snuffed from the Power Source because we have programmed our members to view the Word with biased slant while reading with jaundiced eyes.
We, of all people, love to have our ears tickled. I don't know about other brands of churches but II Tim. 4:1-4 is a favorite of the Churches of Christ. Furthermore this passage is quite accurate in its claim. Yet, we have applied it to others and not ourselves. We have mocked other churches for putting on their blinders to the read the Word of God; getting out of it what they want. Yet we put on our C of C glasses in just as many areas to bend the Bible to fit our preferences.
Getting back to the Bible is not only a respectable call, it is essential. Of all places, all churches would do well to heed this concern. Our world is in desperate need of help. We've hidden the Bible out in the open by burying it with our religious whims and peeves to the point no one can find God anymore. This is most tragic and we are to blame.
No longer can we roll our eyes and wonder why society has turned its back on God. It hasn't. It has gone deaf to a whining and irritating sound rising from churches which covers the reverent message of God with trinkets and bobbles of distracting tradition. We are to blame; not them.
May we make concerted effort to be faithful to the Bible more than faithful to the herd who interprets and misinterprets His writings.
4 comments:
Terry,
Thank you for your partnership with Lindbergh Elementary. You might be interested in reading what the superintendent of Tulsa Public Schools had to say about the school/church connection in his bulletin this morning.
http://www.tulsaschools.org/pi/super/bulletin_040609.pdf
Terry,
I believe you have made it plain that the Holy Spirit is basic to church revival. So is meditating on the word to develop one's personal relationship with Jesus. In the new covenant it is not wired through anyone else, elders, preachers etc. "I will write my word in their hearts."
Amen to you.
Larry in Denver
I just finished doing some work on this mindset. Those who claim a simple reading often do not realize how much they have been previously influenced.
This is an encouraging post. Just yesterday, a co-worker told me that she had been attending her Catholic church all of her life but did not feel like she knew the Bible at all. She has expressed a desire to know God better, but she is a little afraid of the process.
When I told my wife, she went to a local Christian bookstore and bought my co-worker a copy of the Life Application Study Bible (NIV). I will be taking it to work with me in a few minutes to give to my searching friend so that she can begin to understand the Bible and God a little better.
You are right. People are wanting to know God and the Bible. We need to be sensitive to them.
By the way, thank you for your work in running the Tulsa Workshop. We enjoyed it, and were encouraged by it.
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