The Bible

My pastor's sermon about how much we spend our money on Christian books. Not that there is anything wrong with inspirational books. He wasn't going there. He was warning us to be careful with what we read and just make sure it follows the Bible. He reads them all - he just was amazed at how so many Christian books make up stuff or add to the cross and how we have to be very careful. He read us a passage from a best seller and how it made God sound like He was surprised at some things that transpire. God surprised? How can an all-knowing God be surprised? He gave us 4 questions to think about when reading other books:

1. What does the book do with the scriptures? Does it imply that the Bible is cold and dead? (The Bible is comprised of writings over 1000 years with many different types of authors and is cohesive. It is not cold and dead - it is living and good for the present day.)
2. Does the book add anything at all to the cross? (Christ died once for all! Nothing needs to be added to the cross.)
3. What does the book say about the essence of man? Does it imply that man is intrinsically good? Does it imply that man is the center of everything and God did everything for man? (Nothing could be further from the truth. Man is not good. Man is a sinner. God created all for His glory - not because He was lonely or to make us love Him.)
   
4. What does the book do with Jesus? Does the author make Him effeminate? Does it imply that Jesus is only a good moral teacher or is He God? (Jesus is God - fully man, but fully God.)
   

Luke 6:39 says, "He also told them this parable: "Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?"

Are you going to follow a man or are you going to follow God? I'm not a book burner or one who thinks books should be banned. Take the recent hub-bub on The Golden Compass. I bought it. I read it. There were a few things that made me uncomfortable. I won't recommend it to anyone else. But I don't think the fuss that a lot of the Christian community made about it should have occurred. Same with The Da Vinci Code. It was actually a great book. It was just fiction. I think discussion about these types of books is important, but to ban them as evil is funny to me. It's like the Harry Potter series. I absolutely love those books. They are the epitome of good verses evil. I have a little girl in my classroom is not allowed to even listen to the soundtrack because the mom told her Harry Potter was evil. The soundtrack is evil? I of course won't play it when she's in the room because I don't want to offend anyone, but that is craziness! The soundtrack is by John Williams - the genius behind the Star Wars music. My daughter will read Harry Potter - heck, I'll read it to her! And we will have great discussions about fact verses fiction and how magic is not real and what great lessons we can take from Harry Potter. Anyway - I'm getting off track. My point of this entire post was not to rant about censorship. Everyone has their own opinion.

My point is that my pastor's sermon made me think about how many times I will pick up a Christian book instead of picking up the Bible. Why do I think I'm going to get more from some other human's thoughts about the Bible instead of reading it on my own? I fall into the trap of reading more from other places than from the Bible. And that's something I want to change. I want to spend more time in the Bible.

Great Abba Father - lead me to Your word, to Your truth, to Your love.