Greetings
Dear Reader,
So much of
what we learn about God comes from the understanding of others. I must never be satisfied to simply follow
what others say about God. I must seek
him with my heart. I must desire to know
God as deeply and purely as possible. I
have read thousands of pages about what it means to know God and pursue
him.
What it
really comes down to is the choice to progressively abandon my “self” and take
on Christ. The more I obey the commands
to love God and my neighbor the more it seems that reams of “doctrine” are
unnecessary. What I do believe matters
but very little of it is worth causing strife or division.
The winds of
odd doctrine blow constantly across the face of Christ’s followers. What matters is that we follow Christ in
humility and honesty. If that is the
focus then the other differences are minor.
Majoring on those minors has pushed people away from following altogether. I must assure that anything I make prominent in
my communication about Christ is sound truth.
That is a very narrow path.
Since God
chooses for us to follow him by faith there are few things that I can point to
as absolute in terms of doctrine. Trying
to systemize my theology seems like an exercise in setting aside faith. I am not saying that faith should be
blind. I do think there is a balance
between walking in faith demanding proof.
I want to be sound in my theology.
More I want to be sound in my following.
I pray that
my children see that without the following it does not matter how much theology
we have or how little we embrace. I pray
that I never put doctrine over following.
Wishing you
joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So
Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of
Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new
and old things from his great treasure store”
Posts
Black/White/Gray
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to doctrines they seem to fall into catergories, and fit into our lives depending on what we've been told, or what we have studied out, or a combination of both. From there we move it into the correct box. Things tend to be black or white. However it is the gray areas of our lives that need the clarification. These are the areas that may in someway be areas we do not want to change or we truely don't know. But then these are the areas that we should be studying out to place them into their proper light within our lives, and not continuing down a path unless we are assured with out biblical data on how they actually fit within Gods plan.
There was a women once who bought a ham to make for dinner, in preparing it she cut off the ends to put into a smaller pan that she had. Her daughter watching her as she grow-up and became a wife, prepared the ham for the family, following her mothers footprints cutting off the ends placing into the pan, her daughter also watched. Keeping with the tradition of the family the grand-daughter followed.
One evening after the family gathering sat for a fantastic dinner at the grand daughters home, the question came up, why do you cut off the ends, she replied that is the way my mom taught me. Eyes turned to her Mother and she responded that was the tradition her mother showed her. Grandma sitting at the end of the table with a impish smile on her face. Looked up from her meal, and explain she cut off the ends because it didn't fit into the pan she had.
There is an abundance of doctrine out in our world. I don't believe that God expects us to know "everything" but i think He expects that when He opens the doorway of understand that we drink the words and they become part of how we respond. And that if there is something we don't fully comprehend that we pause in action until we know what the direction should be. This requires, searching the scriptures and reading.
I pray that we don't live that status quo that is past down generation to generation but that we seek out His will for our lives and live accordingly within His desires.
Thank you for the comment and wisdom in this. Inherited practice without true faith leads to dead orthodoxy.
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