As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
During my time as a student at Faith Baptist Theological Seminary, I learned that there was an old youth pastors’ joke, built on a misuse of Heb. 11:6. The verse states:
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
At the back of all this is this question—what is a relationship with God about? There is a continuum, with “love” and “knowledge” at opposite poles. A ditch lies at either end—God is either Jello or an iceman. Both poles are important (it is kind of important to know about God, after all!), but you will likely tend towards one over the other—Carl Henry certainly did.
“I’m as guilty as anybody, but in almost every case, I immediately feel badly about it. I may feel great for a moment, but the minute I hit ‘Send,’ conviction starts creeping in.” - Phil Cooke
“Calloused knees. Prayer closet. Answered prayers. Prayer warrior. These four phrases don’t exactly trigger me with spiritual PTSD, but they do represent markers in my journey of moving from prayer-guilt into the grace of praying.” - Desiring God
We need to read our bibles. God wants us to read our bibles—it is the story of Him revealing hidden things to us we would otherwise never know! Fair enough. But I first want to ask an important question—what is the best way to think of the Scriptures?
“They asked him, ‘Lord, shall we strike with the sword?’ [Luke 22:39-53] Is it time to fight, Lord? … This is, in essence, a prayer.” - SBC Voices
I believe a lot of things I would rather not believe. There are things about God I do not particularly like, but I realize the problem is mine. The God of the Bible and the teachings of the Word can be offensive or painful to embrace. Which is the hardest? Yours might not be on the list, so please choose from the list but then feel free to comment.
The question relates not to the world at large, but young, new, or less mature believers. This is obviously based upon your experiences and observations, and is about the situaiton in the now, not the past.
Poll Results
“When we question the legitimacy of our baptism experiences, we are essentially wondering whether we have crossed this boundary. Do we belong to the family of God?” - CToday
“Christ didn’t tell these two stories [Luke 11:5-8, 18:2] to imply that we need to approach God with the same request repeatedly before he complies.” - Word by Word
“My planning had gone as far as to block the time off but not as far as to figure out what I would do instead. I freed up a solid 40 hours between 9 and 5, but didn’t put anything in its place.” - Challies
Discussion