Guest Post: Where Are We and How Did We Get Here?

This blog is aimed at followers of Jesus.  I'm not talking about all who say they are Christ-followers.  It is curiously acceptable, even cool in our debauched, decidedly pagan, American culture to be "spiritual" and call oneself a follower of Jesus (What presidential candidate does not hope to gain popularity by claiming Christianity?)  Jesus classified hearers as sheep or goats.  Paul as saved or lost.  John as belonging to God or the evil one.  Now we mortals cannot see into people's souls to identify one from the other.  But the real life challenges of relating to people require that we make a discernment about others' relationship (or lack of) to God.  And our Lord calls on us to do just that, because we are to love people differently, depending on which category they are in.  You who are born again, reconciled to God, justified in God's sight, I'm writing to you.  

And I have a challenge for you.  Name the two or three best Bible students in your church group.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Yeah, I know.   The best you will find in most American churches these days is someone who uses a story out of the Bible now and again to support an argument they are making, or to persuade you to get on board with their cause.  We are literate, but ignorant of the Word of God.  The situation is shameful.  How did we get to this place?  We got here by traditionalizing the pagan notion that religious leaders are a finer breed of people, and letting leaders proceed with their career agendas,  without holding their feet to the fire of God's Truth.   We got here by accepting the assumption that studying and knowing the Bible is a professional's job.  So here we are.  Outlandish behaviors (stuff Paul said should NEVER happen in the Family of God)  can proceed and we shrug.  Church leaders can make strange, spiritually ambiguous presentations among us; we wonder what that is about, but we shrug.  If some courageous soul does raise his voice to suggest we look at what the Word of God says about something, he is labeled "divisive" and subtly marginalized.  So the study of the Bible to know God and His ways better, and  for discernment, is discouraged.  Honestly admit with me that among your American Christian acquaintances the Bible is generally viewed as a devotional book, something you read a little bit of occasionally to make you feel better about yourself and the world.


Of the number of people who read these words, almost all will just shrug.  But if these words strike a chord in your heart, I have another challenge for you.  Get into the Bible;  it wasn't written and kept all these years for the reading of a special caste of clergymen.  It was written in the language of everyday people, for them to understand for themselves.  And for you.  Ask God to speak to you as you read His Word.   Ask your Lord to connect you to others with the same thirst.  Please note what I am NOT suggesting.  I'm not suggesting you find out what the emergent, pop-christian, hip, 2013 writers are selling, and start a book club.  (I was mortified recently upon hearing a young pastor name a best-selling Christian book, and pronounce  it  the most influential writing in his life.  I read the same book;  the writer really had NOTHING TO SAY!  But that kind of nothing is sadly and obviously what most American Christians want to hear, and it sells.)


Come along as we seek a better understanding of God, His ways, the big picture, and what He is really calling us to.