{"id":1557,"date":"2015-04-08T09:26:19","date_gmt":"2015-04-08T16:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/?p=1557"},"modified":"2015-04-08T09:26:19","modified_gmt":"2015-04-08T16:26:19","slug":"not-a-leader-good-god-can-talk-to-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/2015\/04\/not-a-leader-good-god-can-talk-to-you.html","title":{"rendered":"Not a Leader? Good! God Can Talk to You"},"content":{"rendered":"

“The man answered, ‘Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes.”<\/em> (John 9:30)<\/p>\n

A well-meaning Christian once loaned me a book by a highly promoted\u00a0Christian woman leader. (I make a point of gender identification here because, within Christian Evangelical circles, women are limited to teaching women, and they do it in this syrupy, sweet-tea fashion that always made me question if I had too much testosterone running through my system. And then I realized, “No, the problem’s not me, my estrogen, or testosterone. It’s the condescending tone and lack of intellectual voice\u00a0in the ‘teaching.'”<\/p>\n

\"Promenade<\/a>
God delights in His beautiful children, images of His own glory, and we were designed to walk with Him, companionably, in the garden. Promenade, original oil painting by Steve Henderson, sold; licensed prints at Framed Canvas Art, iCanvas, Great Big Canvas, Art. com, Amazon, and AllPosters.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Regardless of our estrogen levels, we all have the capacity for intelligent thought.)<\/p>\n

One statement that jumped from\u00a0the\u00a0book, which was replete with commentary\u00a0that just lay there, passively, and encouraged me to do the same, was along these\u00a0lines:<\/p>\n

“Beware if, when you’re reading the Bible, you interpret a text differently than the general way it has always been taught. Don’t feel as if you are chosen to receive any special teaching of God.”<\/p>\n

Good God, no. How dare we\u00a0feel — unless we\u00a0are part of a small but vocal minority of self-imposed Christian leaders (have you noticed some of the same names, and their kids and grandkids and students\u00a0and acolytes, year after year after year?) \u00a0— that\u00a0we\u00a0have anything to say, or learn, about Christianity that is at variance with traditional, accepted, or promoted thinking! If more Christians were to take this concept to heart — receiving the message with great eagerness and examining the Scriptures every day to see if what they are taught is true, along the lines of the Bereans in Acts 17 — what would happen?<\/p>\n

Rhetorical question. Those who believe, vociferously, in obedience without question and submission to whoever asserts authority over them will say,<\/p>\n

“Correct Doctrine”\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

“People will fall for bad doctrine! The message of Christ will be perverted.”<\/p>\n

Those who question men’s motives and recognize a propensity to seek money and power will muse, “We have a lot of doctrine out there — all of which avers\u00a0that it is correct — that\u00a0is at variance with itself. The experts — whoever they are — don’t tend to agree. And sometimes they say some pretty strange things.”<\/p>\n

\"High<\/a>
Mud, made from dirt on the ground and the spit of Jesus — it wasn’t the mud that healed, it was the man who made it. High Tide on Siletz Bay, original watercolor by Steve Henderson, sold.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The passage at the head of this essay is from John chapter 9, when\u00a0Jesus heals a man born blind. My favorite aspect of the account is when Jesus,<\/p>\n

“. . . spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. ‘Go,” he told him, ‘wash in the Pool of Siloam.’ So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.”<\/em><\/p>\n

It should be no surprise to readers that this happened on the Sabbath,\u00a0thereby incensing\u00a0the Jewish religious leaders. Twice, they brought the healed man before them and demanded that he explain how he received his sight, at\u00a0one point mandating,<\/p>\n

“Give Glory to God — we know this man is a sinner.”<\/em><\/p>\n

In other words, stop giving any implication that this man, Jesus, is good.\u00a0Publicly acknowledge\u00a0that He is bad.<\/p>\n

The healed man replied, “Whether he\u00a0is a sinner\u00a0or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”<\/em><\/p>\n

He Didn’t Back Down<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Despite being an ordinary person, below ordinary, actually, since the man’s blindness (from birth) was culturally thought — in accordance with\u00a0traditional teaching — to stem from his, or his parents’ sinfulness, the healed man stood straight and spoke out, refusing to submit to the “correct doctrine” of the “leadership” of his day. From retrospect, we who are Christians can see easily these leaders’ inability to acknowledge or understand\u00a0the Messiah they purported to seek, but\u00a0for this\u00a0nobody, this\u00a0nothing, to dare to disagree was pretty unthinkable. Much as it is today, actually.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the leaders’ own words sum up their view of those under their aegis: “‘You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!’ And they threw him out.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Right doctrine, enforced.<\/p>\n

So What Did He Say?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

And what did the man say that was so offensive?\u00a0First he challenged — “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes.” <\/em>(You — the ones who are supposed to know because you are the teachers of Israel — cannot explain who this man is and how He can do what He does?) And then he states three truths:<\/p>\n

“We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will.<\/em> (Truth 1) Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind.<\/em> (Truth 2) If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.<\/em> (Truth 3)”<\/p>\n

Truth 1 is a stunning example of right doctrine. Truth 2 is a statement of commonsense fact. Truth 3 looks strongly like more right doctrine. But the response to\u00a0these statements, by\u00a0the leadership of the day, was\u00a0to expel the man making them.<\/p>\n

And What Jesus Said<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

“Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’<\/em><\/p>\n

“‘Who is he, sir?’ the man asked. ‘Tell me so that I may believe in him.’<\/em><\/p>\n

“Jesus said, ‘You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.'”<\/em> (John 9:35-37)<\/p>\n

Here is genuinely\u00a0true,\u00a0right teaching, from the mouth of our Savior Himself. And He gave it to an ordinary person who had been kicked out of the system.<\/p>\n

So the next time someone — in a book or from the pulpit or on TV — tells you to not feel, ever, that you could be worthy to receive teaching from God, teaching which is at variance from the common message of the day, remember the blind man whose eyes were covered with mud, made from Jesus’s spit.<\/p>\n

The blind received his sight. And those who thought they were sighted, were blind.<\/p>\n

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

Thank you for joining me at Commonsense Christianity, where I encourage individual believers to, always, question what they are told, and seek the answer at the source: God Himself, who speaks through His Scripture as well as through the created universe of His hands. A little commonsense goes a long way.<\/p>\n

Posts complementing this one are<\/p>\n

Modern Day Apostles<\/a><\/p>\n

Christian Leadership and Ordinary People<\/a><\/p>\n

Why Do We Follow These Leaders?<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

“The man answered, ‘Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes.” (John 9:30) A well-meaning Christian once loaned me a book by a highly promoted\u00a0Christian woman leader. (I make a point of gender identification here because, within Christian Evangelical circles, women are limited to teaching women, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":561,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,88,5,1026,13,2,10,11,58,3,15,7,8,6,1],"tags":[841,1644,1239,19,1506,1505,378,26,62,110,183,135,96,887,113],"class_list":["post-1557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-bible","category-christianity","category-church-2","category-encouragement","category-faith","category-family","category-home","category-hope-2","category-inspiration","category-lifestyle","category-personal-growth","category-spiritual-growth","category-spirituality","category-uncategorized","tag-berean","tag-bible","tag-blind","tag-christian","tag-correct-doctrine","tag-estrogen","tag-evangelical","tag-god","tag-jesus","tag-leader","tag-money","tag-ordinary","tag-power","tag-sabbath","tag-teaching"],"yoast_head":"\nNot a Leader? Good! God Can Talk to You - Commonsense Christianity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Not a Leader? Good! God Can Talk to You - Commonsense Christianity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"“The man answered, ‘Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes.” (John 9:30) A well-meaning Christian once loaned me a book by a highly promoted\u00a0Christian woman leader. (I make a point of gender identification here because, within Christian Evangelical circles, women are limited to teaching women, and…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/2015\/04\/not-a-leader-good-god-can-talk-to-you.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commonsense Christianity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-04-08T16:26:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/files\/2015\/04\/Promenade_SteveHenderson_watermark-Copy-248x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carolyn Henderson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Not a Leader? Good! God Can Talk to You - Commonsense Christianity","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Not a Leader? Good! God Can Talk to You - Commonsense Christianity","og_description":"“The man answered, ‘Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes.” (John 9:30) A well-meaning Christian once loaned me a book by a highly promoted\u00a0Christian woman leader. (I make a point of gender identification here because, within Christian Evangelical circles, women are limited to teaching women, and…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/2015\/04\/not-a-leader-good-god-can-talk-to-you.html","og_site_name":"Commonsense Christianity","article_published_time":"2015-04-08T16:26:19+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/files\/2015\/04\/Promenade_SteveHenderson_watermark-Copy-248x300.jpg"}],"author":"Carolyn Henderson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/2015\/04\/not-a-leader-good-god-can-talk-to-you.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/2015\/04\/not-a-leader-good-god-can-talk-to-you.html","name":"Not a Leader? Good! God Can Talk to You - Commonsense Christianity","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/2015\/04\/not-a-leader-good-god-can-talk-to-you.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/2015\/04\/not-a-leader-good-god-can-talk-to-you.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/files\/2015\/04\/Promenade_SteveHenderson_watermark-Copy-248x300.jpg","datePublished":"2015-04-08T16:26:19+00:00","dateModified":"2015-04-08T16:26:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/#\/schema\/person\/9fc7691cd5954d024fa9f6c17b756fde"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/2015\/04\/not-a-leader-good-god-can-talk-to-you.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/2015\/04\/not-a-leader-good-god-can-talk-to-you.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/2015\/04\/not-a-leader-good-god-can-talk-to-you.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/files\/2015\/04\/Promenade_SteveHenderson_watermark-Copy-248x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/files\/2015\/04\/Promenade_SteveHenderson_watermark-Copy-248x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/2015\/04\/not-a-leader-good-god-can-talk-to-you.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Not a Leader? Good! God Can Talk to You"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/","name":"Commonsense Christianity","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Carolyn Henderson","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/#\/schema\/person\/9fc7691cd5954d024fa9f6c17b756fde","name":"Carolyn Henderson","description":"Carolyn Henderson is an author, home educator, and business owner who integrates Christianity with real life, and common sense with Christianity, in her writings. Her lifestyle blog, This Woman Writes (www.ThisWomanWrites.areavoices.com) addresses contemporary Christianity, family finances, homeschooling, food, and encouragement, from the perspective of a normal person who is passionate about the value and power of ordinary people. Featured within Carolyn's posts are artwork by her husband, Steve Henderson (www.SteveHendersonFineArt.com) who focuses on the beauty of God's landscapes and people. Carolyn is the author of Live Happily on Less -- 52 Ideas to Renovate Your Life and Lifestyle and Grammar Despair: Quick simple solutions to problems like, \"Do I say Him and Me or Me and Him?\" Both books are available through Amazon.","sameAs":["http:\/\/thiswomanwrites.areavoices.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/author\/chenderson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/561"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1557"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1563,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557\/revisions\/1563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonsensechristianity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}