My favorite bumper sticker I ever saw was on the back of a Harley, I laughed so hard as I read it, "Jesus I love You, but your people scare the hell out of me!" Wow, I've felt that way, I laughed. Then I felt saddened..."heck maybe I've been one of those guys, I sure hope not"...it hit me that too often those that may be drawn to Jesus are pushed away...often by the very people who claim to be following Jesus! UGGGH, what's up with that? Now that speaks to two things: that followers of Jesus still screw up and say and do stupid stuff (something most not-yet-believers readily accept and attest to...and just wish we'd admit it more often) and the second thing is that "our agenda's" often get taught to people, as if they were God's agenda, thus dis-crediting God or at the very least causing confusion about Him. It seems, we don't always take what God says serious. It's as if our "opinion" about what God says takes precedent. Or we can even be guilty of having "our opinion" and tacking a scripture onto it, as if to imply it's from God. This is a scary use of God's word, yet all too frequent. Unfortunately, far too many that are checking out this Jesus thing, run into this inconsistency, and it turns them off...it scares them! It causes them to distrust those who deliver the message. The solution the bible says is for each of us "to check everything against the Word of God". The apostle Paul, who wrote much of the New Testament said it about his own teachings...and to "hold onto what is true...and throw away that which isn't." No matter what any book, pastor, teacher, article, or sermon may say...if it doesn't line up with what is consistently taught in the bible...then toss it, it's not from God. God gave us scripture to not only reveal Himself to us, but as a "safety net" to filter what people say "is from God". A "truth detector", so to speak. My wife and I were recently in Austin, Texas at a gathering of pastors we have been invited to be a part of...20 to 25 of us from all over the country, and from various denominations. Everyone is there with a heart to support each other as we try to live out the simplicity of the Great Commandment in our churches: "love God...love others". One session was about "biblically illiterate preaching" and someone spoke of a well known pastor in Texas, who did a sermon called "D.E.A.", a message about Diet...Exercise...Accountability. A physical fitness message. Now he knows this pastor well, and he knows this guy is personally really into fitness etc... Now a personal value of fitness may be helpful, but it's hard to make a scriptural principle out of it. Yet he tried... in the end of the message he tacked on a bible passage, "don't you know your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit" from I Corinthians 6:19. He made it sound as if God commanded everyone to diet, exercise and have accountability for it. Unfortunately, this type of teaching often leads to confusion or a lack of credibility. This passage is not referring to your physical fitness...it's speaking of the spiritual fitness of your body. It speaks of how a life style of ungodly living is displeasing to the Holy Spirit who desires to live and empower each of us. But its not addressing what you eat, how you look, your work out routines etc... It's speaking of sinful lifestyles. Unfortunately a message like that may leave everyone who looks like "Ken & Barbie" feeling like God is pleased with them, and those that don't look that way like they have failed God somehow...apparently being negligent in taking care of God's Temple. When truthfully the bible states clearly the opposite, "man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks upon the heart". A truth reinforced throughout the bible. But people, in this case, left holding onto a value "thinking" it was God's...when in fact it was a human value of their pastor. That's the type of distortion that can cause a misleading of people and diluting the trust level of people as we teach them scripture. Unfortunately, other pastors and teachers have copied this pastors message, spreading it to their people, without checking to see "if it's scriptural". So poor biblical teaching spreads, and more and more people live biblically illiterate lives, not knowing if what they have been taught is scriptural or not. As Jesus followers we must "rightly use the Word of truth", as we speak, live, encourage and especially preach and teach. The bible says it is "reasonable" for us to discuss and even not always agree, as long as we "reason together" from the scripture, as we seek the truth on any matter. Not just a pet scripture or two. Not just a bible verse to tag onto "our opinion" in order to justify it. But if our "reason" is to search out the truth, on any subject, then let us learn to "reason together"...not based on our human opinions, emotions or preferences, but on God's word. This is "reasonable" isn't it? Even people I know who are not yet ready to trust the bible as "God's word", are at least reassured that my life journey's opinions are grounded in what the bible says. They may not agree, but they respect the focused search for truth. At least they know where I'm coming from, and to them that's "reasonable". At ECHO we desire to be a group of Jesus followers who learn to rightly use God's word as we reason together, and in love, point those exploring Jesus, towards the very scripture that reveals Him. In that we can model our firm confidence in the foundations of God's word...in our search for God's truth...and to most that's "reasonable". Join us as we love each other enough to "reason together" and discover all God has for us, bit by bit, day by day...with anyone who wants to explore with us!be God's!
Brian O
Lead Pastor dude, ECHO
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