Blah, blah, blah, blah. . .
You think youve heard it all, but have you heard it from God? First hand. Gods words. Minus the religious blather.
Okay, so now you think you’ve stumbled on another crackpot who promises to show you the true way to God, claims to divine truth, special revelation or may I put it this way: “blah, blah, blah. . .”
What I want to do is help people hear what God has actually said and is saying. Everyone who professes to know God seems so eager to speak for God. Listen to Christian radio. We talk more about our indepth, beautifully illustrated studies than we talk about living out the words we claim to be so powerful and life-changing. To quote someone “we speak of the life-changing power of the words of God but we don’t let the words change us.” Oh, I guess that was me I was quoting.
God speaks very plainly in the Bible. He speaks to the most important things in life. The Bible does contain a life-changing message. The problem is we often (usually) mess it up.
Maybe the best thing I can do is to help another person hear what God is actually saying. I have read through the Bible many times in many different translations. Every time I read through and listen, God shifts a category on me. Whoops! Hey, God, I didn’t realize that.
Life is what we are all after. We chase life through the pursuit of possessions, sex, power, accomplishment, entertainment and often religion is merely our pursuit of what we want embellished in God terms. And that is what we offer to other people and it is not enough.
The pursuit of life is natural, but our methods and direction usually miss the mark.
Why do people party and do drugs? Because it is some reflection of life. Yes, a twisted reflection, sometimes a destructive pursuit, but we continue knowing the harm because it is the only place we feel alive. One time I was so stoned that I wondered if I were alive or dead, and I didn’t care. If this was death, then good; I liked it.
Why do people shop? It brings a glimpse of life. Sports, sex, church, you name it. Fill in the blank. What touches that very deepest part of your soul that tells you there is more?
But everything besides what God offers comes up short. Reminder. I am not saying that everything but what Christians say comes up short, or everything except what the Church says comes up short. Maybe the Christians are saying God’s truth and maybe we are not. Often professing Christians are as confused as the rest because we aren’t really listening to God either.
If you believe that God doesn’t “get real” in the Bible, then you haven’t paid attetention. Read the accounts of Abraham, Lot, David, Solomon, so down and dirty that we have to clean them up for Sunday School. And then we leave them there as Sunday School stories and they don’t reach us and teach us as they should.
If you are tired of blah, blah, blah. . .then begin a disciplined, honest reading of the words of God and let God break your categories of what he likes and dislikes, and what he is like and is not like.
The Bible is shocking and life-changing. It’s too bad more of us don’t see it that way.
