Looking Ahead

I just read a post from a dear friend of mine, Christopher. We are the same age – grew up together – and have been in what seems to be parallel mental universes for the past year or so. Anyway…I am so proud of him – he is following his dream and taking the steps to make it a reality in his life. Go read the post and find out what is going on in his world…

He challenges me to take my dreams seriously – to stop letting them just hang out on the shelf where they’ve been for so many years. What would the world be like if we all truly went for it? Hmmmmm…

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“Mistakes”?

So, I’ve started digging. First of all let me say that I am “pondering these things in my heart” just as Mary did when the angel of the Lord told her something that seemed absolutely ridiculous. I make no quick judgements or theology shifts here, but I just feel the need to dig.

We all know that there is great debate surrounding the accuracy of the scriptures. We have been taught that the Bible was verbally inspired – down to its very words. But, we don’t actually have the original writings of the New Testament. What we have are copies of these writings, made years later – in most cases, many years later. What if the scribes inadvertently and/or intentionally changed them in places? For instance, Mark says that Jesus was crucified the day after the Passover meal was eaten (Mark 14:12; 15:25) and John says He died the day before it was eaten. (John 19:14) Or what about Paul saying that after he converted on the way to Damascus he did not go to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before Him (Gal. 1:16-17), whereas the book of Acts says that was the first thing he did after leaving Damascus (Acts 9:26).  Now, these differences are not such that would bring about a major shift in my theology but, what other differences are there?

Even with all the questions, I am commited to the truth of the cross. I believe that before the foundations of the earth were laid, God had a plan for the redemption of man. We have proven the fact that we can never earn our salvation, we can never be good enough to deserve God’s grace and mercy – that is a supernatural gift that is given to us despite our sinful nature. I believe the work of the cross was finished with the death and resurrection of Christ – finished! God put an end to our struggle to be righteous on our own! He made us righteous with the shed blood of His son. How, then, do we live in that freedom? Do we beat ourselves up and live in the fear of eternal hell fire every time we think a bad thought or mess up? No! That attitude would discount the plan of salvation – we are essentially saying that what Christ did on the cross was not enough!

It is enough. We live in true freedom today – we just have to start acting like it!

Random Musings From a Frustrated Christian

What if we really got down and dirty with our study of the Bible? I wonder if what we have been taught from scripture is really the truth or just propaganda from early Bible translators to instill fear in us so that we would cling to the law instead of God’s unconditional grace and love? You know, when I was in college a few years ago, I took some philosophy and religion classes that really messed with my theology. But I was fearful of admitting that some of their questions about the validaty of scripture actually made sense to me. We aren’t supposed to question the Bible, are we? I wonder if King James stayed true to the pure form of the scriptures or did he sprinkle in some religious garbage just to keep us strangled in fear and bondage. The truth is, I haven’t taken enough time to really find out the truth for myself.

I believe that many Christ followers have failed when it comes to personal exploration of the scriptures and other historical texts – some have been lulled into accepting whatever comes from the pulpit and are blindly following whatever is fed to us. I have commited to God that I would not continue to be one of them. I want to be a true follower of Christ – one who knows for herself what is in the heart of the Father. The journey before me literally scares the hell out of me – but I believe that it is a journey that I must take.

Why don’t we take the journey together?