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Tuesday, May 31, 2005
I grew up in a place where everybody had a church home. You may not have gone there except on Easter and/or Christmas, but you had a church...and the differing denominations helped us all know where each person stood.
I had a lot of friends who were Catholic. They went to confession and didn't eat meat on Fridays during Lent. The rest I was a little fuzzy on.
I also had a lot of friends who were Southern Baptist. They were always inviting me to big events their church held or we were going to play basketball at their church. They had altar calls and you had to dress nice when you went there. The rest I was a little fuzzy on.
I had a couple of friends who went to the Methodist church. They didn't talk much about it and I didn't ask. I was very fuzzy on what they were about.
My family went to the Episcopal church. There was only one other girl in my grade who went to an Episcopal church and it wasn't the one I went to. What I remember most was how formal everything seemed, with organ music and silver/gold stuff everywhere, stained glass, repetitive creeds and readings and responses, kneelers. I was fuzzy on what my own church was about.
Later in high school I started attending a Bible church...and EVERYBODY in my town was fuzzy on what THOSE PEOPLE were about. It shattered conventions of the comfort zone of denominations. We dressed in our normal clothes for church services. Our youth group was pretty small (like our congregation) but we were pretty good friends, both at church and in the hallways at school. We had a worship leader who only used a guitar. We had to sprinkle people for baptisms because our building didn't have the money for an indoor pool to immerse new converts.
To me, it was peculiar that all my friends asked so many questions about it. We were just a church in the community, with no ties to any other church. We gave money to missionaries we wanted to and not some larger organization within the denomination. We took votes on what to build or buy for just our property. My mom even visited every Sunday for a month to make sure we weren't a cult.
And you know what my mom and most people that I invited thought about the services and the teaching style?
Too much Bible.
See, there would be a couple of songs, then about 40 minutes of teaching straight from the Bible, then another song while an offering was taken up. Then we'd all stand and sing one last song and we'd head for Sunday School...where there'd be some games, a song or two, and then 30 more minutes of Bible teaching.
My teachers weren't Bible thumpers or pulpit pounders. They weren't necessarily all that charismatic or dynamic where people were drawn to them or anything like that. The services weren't very flashy or very well choreographed.
They taught the Bible.
They trusted that we would seek the Holy Spirit's guidance through prayer.
That made perfect sense to me.
And apparently, it made sense to Paul as he wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4: 4 & 5, "For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is receieved with gratitude; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer."
It all seemed so simple in my way of thinking. It still does. That there is a God we can know...and we can get to know Him through His Word, through His creation, and by our experience of walking with Him. It also seemed so simple that the Bible was very much the final authority in our lives. It settled all disputes and that was that. You might not've gone by what it said, but it was definitely God's words and you could get to know God through what was written.
Since that time I've been curious as to how people make life decisions without Scripture as a guide...and the Holy Spirit's conviction. I mean, the Bible is quite clear on many things that are NOT the will of God: Drunkenness, any extramarital sex, gossip, anger, lust, pride, the list could go on and on...
That settles it, right?
Same for making "gray" area decisions, like where to go to college and what movie to see/not see or music to listen to, etc...those areas of grace-living...we can be led by the Holy Spirit and our perceptions of that to make those decisions.
That settles it for personal decision making, right?
I never got what it was so difficult or different to see those things. I still don't.
So, for today, since we're all good Bible church going folk: What is difficult about letting Scripture be the undisputed final authority for our lives? What is difficult about discerning the will of God through prayer on those issues Scripture doesn't address directly? What would be the results in our lives and the lives of our church if we took this seriously?
Brent 4:26 AM
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