Have We Learned Anything ?

It’s so easy in our current world environment to assume our observation and analysis of current events are solid when, in fact, they often are not. We start taking sides about who is right and who is wrong about the same facts that we end up hating people who we once embraced.

With the ability to search the web for information on any subject we often have faulty reasoning because our “FACTS” are slanted by the person or company posting the information. The unfortunate part is we don’t know the bias of the writer or publisher.  Our loyalties to certain writers and ideologies often color our perception of what is correct or incorrect. This often happens to both secular and religious people. We often are convinced our point is correct and the other person if a fool…. even though we don’t go to God’s word for guidance.

As Christians, we have so many biases which we don’t realize we have because we often trust the speakers, pastors or writers we know.  Life has taught me that we always need to review the information we have against what we currently know regardless who we know or trust. Look at the Bereans in the book of Acts.

Acts 17:10-12                                                                                                                                          

That same night the believers sent Paul and Silas to Berea where they went to the synagogue. These people were more willing to listen than the people in Thessalonica. The Bereans were eager to hear what Paul and Silas said and studied the Scriptures every day to find out if these things were true. So, many of them believed, as well as many important Greek women and men. 

For example, some Christians might have certain biblical teaching about how to take communion but another person might come along and challenge that view.  Some may react by labeling this person as ignorant of scripture or even a heretic simply because they suggest taking communion a different way. Now, I picked the topic of communion because it’s fairly safe to use as an example. If I had used a more “Hot topic“, like that of the baptism of the Holy Spirit or the second coming of Christ, people would shut down before they consider the relevance of my argument.  This perspective can relate to the subject of scripture or even of politics.

I had a friend that was part of a certain denomination a number of years back who told me a story about how easy it is to get entrenched in ideology that separates friends and family for generations. The story goes like this. A certain church in a certain denomination took the Lord’s Supper the same way every time and believed their practice to be solidly grounded in scripture. A new person joined the church after a number of years and then one day suggested they might want to take communion a “New Way”, which he had learned in his previous church, and all hell broke loose. The church got into such a heated debate over the issue that the church actually split up over it.

I read another story about a pastor who was praying about the debt of the church.  He was asking the Lord to give him wisdom about how to pay off the debt when he felt the Lord tell him to go buy a lottery ticket. This pastor had never done this before and it seemed to go against his beliefs about gambling.  However, he could not shake the sense that the Lord had spoken to him. So, he went to the local grocery store and bought a lottery ticket and went home.  Miraculously,  the ticket won over a million dollars! He was so excited that he went and paid off the church mortgage!  He then prepared to share the good news with the congregation the next Sunday morning.  After sharing about this “Blessing“, the church, instead of rejoicing with him, got into a heated argument about the evils of gambling.  Many thought it was a bad example of Christianity and questioned the pastors fitness to lead them. Unfortunately, the church ended up splitting up. Why? Because these faithful church goers had embraced “Loving Religion” rather than loving Jesus. Their faith in Jesus was substituted for a system of rules.  They didn’t even noticed that they had abandoned the one who had saved them, Jesus Christ.

As followers of Jesus, there are some basic beliefs that we need to hold onto regardless of the culture trend.  Yet, much of what makes us nervous and sometimes foolish is when we think we are following Jesus but really following rules made by man. These rules may have been good for a time, but they often are not the same as following Jesus. This is why it is so important to read the scripture, with the help of the Holy Spirit, because we can get lost in translation. The Holy Spirit, who is our guide, will lead us into correctly understanding the Word, both in the church and in the culture.

One day, Jesus gets into an argument with some Sadducees about their understanding of scripture.  At the time, there were two large groups of Jewish teachers in Israel and the Sadducees were one of those groups.  At the end of the debate about Jewish responsibility to family, Jesus rebukes them for misunderstanding the word of God.  They then try to trick Jesus with their misguided interpretation and evil hearts. Look what he says to them.

Matthew 22:29                                                                                                                                         

But Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God. 

Jesus says we get off track because we don’t understand scripture nor the power of God. Jesus taught the disciples that the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth. Without the Holy Spirit, we get into all kinds of foolish and destructive ideas.

John 16:13                                                                                                                                                 

But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. 

This coronavirus nation wide shut down is a stressful time that we can learn from yet my fear is that we will go right back to business as usual. God’s intentions for us is to always learn from what we experience. This develops wisdom.  The devil, however, wants us to learn nothing so that God will not be able to fulfill his great plans for us.

Romans 8:28                                                                                                                                           

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 

Here is the conditional part of this promise:  1) We truly love God above all else    2) We are called according to his purpose in life.

I trust we all are asking God to reveal what we should be learning from this national shut down before we go back to business as usual.

Questions:

1) Have you drifted from loving God to loving rules? Rev 3:20 says he stands at the door of your heart.

2) Have you drifted from the purpose of God for your life? Pr 3:5 = Trust in the Lord with all your heart and don’t learn on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path.

May God help us to access what we are learning so we can become wiser for Him and His kingdom.

Pastor Dale