Skip to main content

36 CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX “To will one thing”: Section 18

Exploring challenging passages and ideas

In the many posts that follow as part of this section I explore some of the challenges and difficulties and apparent conflicts I have discovered in the Bible, and, in many cases share my reflections on them.

As a first thought, it seems to me arrogance on my part to think that I have the right and ability to fully understand God and that I shouldn’t or can’t believe if I don’t have all of the answers. As I discuss throughout this book, there are a great many things I don’t understand but still believe are true. In all, I try to heed to wisdom of Proverbs 3:5-6 (New International Version):

5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;

6 in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.

With all of that said, what follows are some thoughts, but also some challenges and difficulties I have discovered, along with research and possible resolutions where I have found them. This section, particularly, reads more like a journal—a collection of related thoughts—than an essay. I hope it makes sense and is useful.

So, on to the challenging passages and ideas...

Do the differences in various Bibles matter? The Bible is considered true and inspired by most Christian groups, but there is some difference in which books are included by different denominations. What about the books that were once included and/or considered for inclusion (including the Apocryphal books) and/or are included by others in the sacred scripts/ canon? Do they hold truths that we could learn from?

(to be continued in subsequent posts)

Sections in this chapter:

  • The heart of faith
  • The core message and goal for your life
  • Seeking to trust God and become more like Jesus
  • Knowing your role—and God’s
  • Fruit of the Spirit
  • Managing our priorities and our praise
  • Identity, the creeds, and unity
  • The struggle of finding and holding faith
  • Faith must be our own
  • Levels and types of faith
  • Faith vs. knowledge
  • Faith and the Law and Works
  • Free Will and The Fall
  • Seeking to understand the Bible and life through discernment
  • The challenge of discernment
  • Handling different discernments
  • "Our own words"
  • Exploring challenging passages and ideas (which includes many posts)
  • The importance of prayer
  • Personal reflections
  • The importance of living the life
  • It’s not too late

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Preface

Before Tom Cruise, Matt Damon, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and even Clint Eastwood, there was John Wayne. The iconic action hero of my youth, “The Duke”, as he was sometimes called, was famous for fighting, shooting, and tough-talking his way through every movie to protect the abused and vanquish the bad guys, wherever they were. To me, his characters seemed a source of stability on which I could build my sense of right and wrong. I loved going to movies to see the most recent John Wayne film, and believed that anything John Wayne did was, by definition, good. He was a role model to me. And then an unsettling thing happened. There, in one of my favorite movies, The Duke was driving while clearly intoxicated. This was before MADD and SADD and national sensitivity to the dangers of drunk driving, but my awareness of the issue had been raised when someone very dear to me had almost been killed by a drunk driver. When that accident happened, I remember wondering why someone would risk lives—t...
Post a Comment
Read more

29 CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: Don’t be tricked into singing along with lyrics just because the melody is good

It’s hard to understand the emotional effect of music—how soothing, relaxing, uplifting, terrifying, or electrifying a good tune can be. It is scary, however, how easy it is to sing along with virtually any lyrics if the tune is stuck in your head. I always try to understand song lyrics, get their message, and think about why the author wrote them—and often I conclude that the message and motive are inconsistent with my beliefs and perhaps dangerous. And yet, I regularly catch myself humming or playing the tune of such a song in my head, with the lyrics floating along either in my brain or on my lips. While music’s effect may be singular, other things can have similar effects: something or someone of great beauty, an eloquent essay or speaker, a good story or movie, and even a friend. Anything that causes you to let your guard down can have this power. You must be aware of it all of the time. Let me explain why I think it is dangerous to just “sing along” without thinking about t...
Post a Comment
Read more

36 CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX “To will one thing”: Section 8

The Struggle of finding and holding onto Faith The struggle in finding and holding faith seems to me natural, and perhaps healthy and necessary if it is to be your own. It also seems common: there many, many autobiographies of people who struggled and then found faith, but a few that I have found helpful are: •          Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis and the play and movie, “The Most Reluctant Convert” about his journey to faith •          Seven Story Mountain by Thomas Merton •          Confessions by Augustine of Hippo, •          A Man Called Peter by Catherine Marshall , and •          The Language of God by Francis Collins. I Did It For You , by Lecrae gives his story in the form of a song. There are also tons of books on faith and belief, especially in relation to reaso...
Post a Comment
Read more