{"id":1151,"date":"2014-09-24T20:01:27","date_gmt":"2014-09-24T20:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/?p=1151"},"modified":"2014-09-24T20:01:27","modified_gmt":"2014-09-24T20:01:27","slug":"the-purposeless-driven-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/2014\/09\/the-purposeless-driven-life.html","title":{"rendered":"The Purposeless, Driven Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christians come in all shapes, sizes, and maturity levels, and the more honest we are, the more fun we are to be with, even if what we’re saying or working through is painful. The other day, someone\u00a0told me:<\/p>\n

\"For<\/a>
For all that many Christians read books ABOUT the Bible, they spend very little time with the Bible itself. This leads to spiritual immaturity, and a stunting of growth. Photo credit Steve Henderson Fine Art.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so afraid that Jesus is impatient with me. I don\u2019t read the Bible much, and I don\u2019t know what it says. I don\u2019t think that Jesus can use someone like me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sentences like that always make me ache inside.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that there\u2019s a problem with the sentiment, it\u2019s that the person mentioning it has been a Christian for many, many years, and attending church, and Bible studies, and small group meetings, for just about that long. If this stuff worked, I thought, then why isn\u2019t it, well, working?<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s easy to blame the individual (that\u2019s what businesses and corporations and organizations and governments \u00a0and establishments always do), perhaps it\u2019s time to look at what we\u2019re telling that individual to do, specifically, when it comes to advancing his or her spiritual life.<\/p>\n

Read This<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cRead this book,\u201d we say, handing them the latest in Celebrity Christian Cr –, um,\u00a0 pap. \u201cWe\u2019re having a small group study on it, and we\u2019re going through one chapter each week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gracious. The whole process sounds mind numbingly boring. The last several times I\u2019ve been in the Christian books section of a store I\u2019ve paged through the multi-million-copy best seller that just about every evangelical church in the country has done manifold weekly studies on, one agonizing chapter at a time, and I just can\u2019t manage a paragraph before I feel like getting an egg salad sandwich, something I\u2019ve never actually eaten because the very sight of one makes me nauseous.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
Growth as a Christian requires good spiritual food, and the best source of that is directly at the Source — God Himself, through His word. The Fruit Vendor, original oil painting by Steve Henderson, sold.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fare such as this (the book, not the sandwich), however, is what we regularly feed the minds, and spirits, of believers \u2013 even \u201cseasoned\u201d ones who should be mature by now — in the name of \u201cgrowing as a Christian.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing as a Christian is something that Jesus wants us to do,\u201d we read in our weekly gatherings. \u201cHe wants us to be strong in our faith as believers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul’s Not Impossible to Understand<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Well yes, that\u2019s true, but Paul said it better when he commented, in Colossians 3:1-2:<\/p>\n

\u201cSince, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>earthly\u00a0things.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Further reading of the passage encourages us to put away a fairly complete list of inappropriate, but highly human behaviors, and exchange them, instead, for Godly ones, not a task we are up to on our own, but then again, God doesn\u2019t expect us to do these things without His help.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet the word of Christ dwell in you richly\u00a0as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing gratitude in your hearts to God,”<\/em>\u00a0Paul concludes at the end of the passage.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cLet the word of Christ dwell in you richly\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 that\u2019s the secret, you know, one that doesn\u2019t require years of specialized training before we can start, nor one that\u00a0devours\u00a018 or so weeks of our lives, one chapter at a time.<\/p>\n

Celebrity Teaching versus Truth<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

If as many people who have read \u201cstudy\u201d books would invest as much time and effort into reading the Book that the other books give the illusion of talking about, perhaps there would be less guilt, less insecurity, less spiritual agony by people who are well taught in the teachings of Celebrity Christians, but not the Bible.<\/p>\n

Read the Bible. Just the Bible, which, ironically, in many \u201cBible\u201d studies is not the central focus. While it\u2019s tempting to think that you can\u2019t understand it all, that\u2019s okay \u2013 because nobody, not even the people who write books about how to study it, understand it all, nor does everyone agree on what every verse means. If you trust yourself enough to read the Book that is written in your own language, and do so regularly, you may find insight into passages that you never knew you could have.<\/p>\n

You, yes, you, can make discoveries from this rich, relevant resource.<\/p>\n

Afraid that you\u2019ll misinterpret or get something wrong? Well, if that doesn\u2019t bother the Celebrity Christians, don\u2019t let it bother you.\u00a0 When you enter into study diligently, with a humble heart willing to be taught by the Master, He\u2019ll find ways to guide and correct you.<\/p>\n

At the very least, when you read God\u2019s words, you read His promises, many of which have to do with His being there, His being merciful and kind and patient, His love for His children, and you won\u2019t have to live, chronically, with the doubts of the woman I mentioned earlier in this essay, because when you make a regular point of reading sentences like this:<\/p>\n

\u201cHe who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0(Philippians 1:6)<\/p>\n

And this,<\/p>\n

“I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand,”<\/em>\u00a0(Isaiah 41: 10)<\/p>\n

You encounter and appreciate the nature of\u00a0our Father, a nature so oppositional to anything we are accustomed to dealing with on this earth, that we can\u2019t fathom it, at all, unless we learn about it from its primary source, God.<\/p>\n

So . . . read His book. It\u2019s a best seller.<\/p>\n

Thank You<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank you for joining me at Commonsense Christianity. You know, there are a lot of people who call themselves Christian in this world, but they’re satisfied with serving a substitute Christ, as opposed to getting to know the real one. So they read books that talk ABOUT the Bible, but never the Bible itself.<\/p>\n

Or, if they do read the Bible, they never do so on their own, relying, always, on another human being to interpret it for them. This is not the path to becoming a strong Christian, which may explain why\u00a0— while a lot of people call themselves Christians — very few are mature ones.<\/p>\n

That doesn’t have to be you, or me.<\/p>\n

Posts similar to this one are<\/p>\n

Are We Dumbing Ourselves Down?<\/a><\/p>\n

Feeding Marshmallows to Our Minds<\/a><\/p>\n

The Misfit Christian<\/a>\u00a0(the more you study the Bible, on your own, and absorbing its truth into your daily life, the less you will fit into the world around you. This includes the world of the establishment church.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christians come in all shapes, sizes, and maturity levels, and the more honest we are, the more fun we are to be with, even if what we’re saying or working through is painful. The other day, someone\u00a0told me: \u201cI\u2019m so afraid that Jesus is impatient with me. 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