Being A Christian Does Not Mean Your Brain Must Be LEFT BEHIND!!!!
Dear Friends of the Right,
When you joined the church did some misbegotten elder or deacon or Christianity 101 instructor give you the impression that henceforth and forevermore your brain must be checked at the door?
Who is the beatified "big brother" who has frightened so many of the brethren (and the "sistren?") into closed-mouth acceptance of and compliance with absolutely vile misinterpretations and half-truths regarding what it means to be the people of God?
Why is it that so many called "Christian" are choosing the way of conformity, the path of least resistance, the road most traveled when the One whose Name we bear not just chose, but embodied non-conformity, the path of greatest resistance (unto death), the road UN-traveled?
There is a mindset in some of our churches today that is frightening...the idea that we must blindly accept the hermeneutic dishes that are prepared and served up to us every Sunday morning (and Wednesday night)as gospel!
Years ago a friend gave me a flyer from her church. It had a simple message: "Jesus Came To Fill Your Heart, Not Steal Your Mind." At a time in my life in which I was questioning and seeking, this message opened the door to Christ for me. Importantly, when I walked into the door I didn't stop just past the threshold. That's not what Christianity is about.
"Further up and further in!" was the cry of C.S. Lewis as he peered into eternity. "The further up and the further in you go, the bigger everything gets. The inside is larger than the outside."
Jesus stood before a group of rigidly fixed church leaders one day, trying to help them understand the nature of God and God's expectations of us. He said, "If you stick with my teaching...you are my disciples. And then you will know the truth and the truth is what will set you free!"
It's an "if/then" deal. "Stick with the teaching" implies that learning has taken and is taking place. Learning, studying, exploring, questioning, and expecting answers is a process that is enormously holy. Please, people of God, try it! In so doing, a supernatural experience comes about in which the Spirit, Comforter, Teacher opens you up, takes you to new levels, equips you with the promised truth.
Judgment and fear are antithetical to that process.
Beware the naked man who offers you his shirt!
When you joined the church did some misbegotten elder or deacon or Christianity 101 instructor give you the impression that henceforth and forevermore your brain must be checked at the door?
Who is the beatified "big brother" who has frightened so many of the brethren (and the "sistren?") into closed-mouth acceptance of and compliance with absolutely vile misinterpretations and half-truths regarding what it means to be the people of God?
Why is it that so many called "Christian" are choosing the way of conformity, the path of least resistance, the road most traveled when the One whose Name we bear not just chose, but embodied non-conformity, the path of greatest resistance (unto death), the road UN-traveled?
There is a mindset in some of our churches today that is frightening...the idea that we must blindly accept the hermeneutic dishes that are prepared and served up to us every Sunday morning (and Wednesday night)as gospel!
Years ago a friend gave me a flyer from her church. It had a simple message: "Jesus Came To Fill Your Heart, Not Steal Your Mind." At a time in my life in which I was questioning and seeking, this message opened the door to Christ for me. Importantly, when I walked into the door I didn't stop just past the threshold. That's not what Christianity is about.
"Further up and further in!" was the cry of C.S. Lewis as he peered into eternity. "The further up and the further in you go, the bigger everything gets. The inside is larger than the outside."
Jesus stood before a group of rigidly fixed church leaders one day, trying to help them understand the nature of God and God's expectations of us. He said, "If you stick with my teaching...you are my disciples. And then you will know the truth and the truth is what will set you free!"
It's an "if/then" deal. "Stick with the teaching" implies that learning has taken and is taking place. Learning, studying, exploring, questioning, and expecting answers is a process that is enormously holy. Please, people of God, try it! In so doing, a supernatural experience comes about in which the Spirit, Comforter, Teacher opens you up, takes you to new levels, equips you with the promised truth.
Judgment and fear are antithetical to that process.
Beware the naked man who offers you his shirt!
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