Warning: Comments may be offensive to some...

Sometimes I think it would help if we were more ignorant and not so enlightened. We are a culture so full of information and self-confidence that we have trouble hearing truth and obeying. We talk, and question and debate the thoughts of Calvin vs Arminius vs. Luther vs Stone-Campbell vs blah, blah blah.

Truly, it reminds me of Paul's warning to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 1:10-13

I have a serious concern to bring up with you, my friends, using the authority of Jesus, our Master. I'll put it as urgently as I can: You must get along with each other. You must learn to be considerate of one another, cultivating a life in common.I bring this up because some from Chloe's family brought a most disturbing report to my attention—that you're fighting among yourselves! I'll tell you exactly what I was told: You're all picking sides, going around saying, "I'm on Paul's side," or "I'm for Apollos," or "Peter is my man," or "I'm in the Messiah group."

I ask you, "Has the Messiah been chopped up in little pieces so we can each have a relic all our own? Was Paul crucified for you? Was a single one of you baptized in Paul's name?"

Paul is agonizingly frustrated in the church calling themselves Apollians, or Peterists, or Reformed Paulians, fracturing the body based on the teachings of men! The point of this letter is to remind the denominations that Christ was crucified for the redemption of all and it is only HI who we should follow. Yet here we sit thousand of years afterward stuck in the "we're right and your wrong" arguments of children on the playground.

It is super frustrating that we cannot be people simply in love with and longing after Jesus. It is aggravating that we cannot be people that have such a desperate need for GOD that we have not even skimmed the surface of the knowledge of God and salvation.

I think that there are traps that keep us in this thinking. Tradition, Family, and Comfort are three that come readily to mind.

1. Tradition traps us because it is safe and predictable. We know that it is "proven and reliable." After all, it has worked for _____years.
2. Family is a trap because the fear rises up that if this is true...then Grandma & Grandpa, or Mom & Dad were wrong, and maybe not in Heaven.
3. Comfort traps us because, "I have what works for me, don't rock the boat."

We need to stop putting out faith in a doctrine studied and developed by mere men (we have the apostolic teaching of SPIRIT filled men.) We need to stop buying the big think "Study Bibles" and reading the notes as if they were inspired as well as the Scripture. And we need to be people that read the Bible, pray and ask questions about what is the simple obedient thing to do now.

we now return you to regular programming...

jb