Face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire Jehovah spoke with you (I stood between Jehovah and you at that time, to declare to you the word of Jehovah; for ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up to the mountain). |
We are not alone in avoiding God, in wanting someone else to stand between us and God. The FIRE is HOT. Going 'up' the mountain can be treacherous!
It is a common mis-step, from my perspective, but it is lethal to our spiritual growth. We must allow ourselves and others to risk relying upon the living God.
It is important to know the bible – some of God’s interactions and revelations to God’s servants are very instructive to us! But I believe that the bible points us to God, and the so-called word of God (the bible) is not the *Word of God*... The Word of God is the Living God speaking to us directly here and now.
The bible is not the Word of God. I did a bible study on all the instances of Word of God in the New Testament (rather easy in the computer age) and I became convinced this is true. Go ahead and do it yourself. Notice what you read in context, and keep in mind the only 'bible' they had at the time, Christians now call the Old Testament.
I believe modern Christianity has made an idol of a book, and this trips us in our deepening in God. Instead of SPIRITUALLY looking unto God, instead of fixing our spiritual "eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” we are told to PHYSICALLY use our intellect to read a paradoxical book. From my experience this Does Not Work if we want to be disciples of Christ, only if we want to be disciples of Christianity.
The BOOK tells us to go to God - if we want to listen to the book, how about we GO TO GOD?
Does Satan, and the world, and the flesh try to snare us? Absolutely. But the bottom line, IMO/E is that Jesus says “my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” and I believe him! Absolutely.
Do we have to grow up into this knowing, be trained by God? Absolutely. Is this learning and growing obligatory in the Christian life? Absolutely. Any individual who does not do this ends up as a big fat sheep, a Christian who lives an entire life and never leaves Kindergarten.
Churches of almost every stripe exacerbate our laziness and rebellion by telling us we don’t have to go to the living God, that there is some other way. But there IS NO OTHER WAY to be a disciple of Christ, to live the unique journey that is our call.
SO many say the way to know God is to read the bible. That occurs as dung. The bible is not God. If we want to know God, we need to be still, and know God.
The bible is not God. We are not called to a relationship with the bible. We are called to a relationship with the living God! There is no other way to grow up in God than to go TO GOD and let God grow us up. No Other Way.
I believe Protestants went awry when they separated from Catholicism. And the Catholic church went awry right near the start. The Catholic church likes to say it is is/was built on scripture and tradition. Protestants said – No – scripture alone.
I say they are all missing the mark! It is God Alone. God Alone! God alone can not only save us, but also keep us.
The bible is a tool God uses in our journey deeper into God. The bible is a tool God can use in many ways in our growing up in God. But it is only a tool and it doesn’t matter. In the end it is only a book and it is dangerous to allow it to become an idol!
Modern Christianity is so off the mark on this, IMO, that it is hard to even communicate about it, because it is so far from our programming about what Christianity IS.
May God teach us to look to God Alone.
Amen.
.
Posts
