Monday Meditations - Believe

Believe

Here's a question for you: what do you believe? I know, it's a rather broad question. What do you believe…about what?

I believe it's going to be a beautiful day.

I believe I'm going to cross things off my to do list today.

But…

What do you believe about God?

Some of my favorite times of the week when my kids were still all at home were Sunday afternoons. We would have Sunday dinner and sit at the table for a couple of hours talking. Those were the best conversations.

These discussions don't happen as much anymore since the kids are all grown and have their own lives, but once in a while they do. One happened the other night with my son and his girlfriend. She was commenting on an article she had read about a Christian celebrity. The point he wanted to make was that we got so caught up in so many different things about worship and spirituality, people have a tendency to push the actual Word of God aside. People are more concerned about the style of music, which version of the Bible is used, and even their own feelings and opinions and trying to make God's Word say what they want to to, to match their agendas.

So many people read book after book by Christian authors. People soak up every word of some authors, while at the same time pushing the Bible aside.

Let me back up and say there are some amazing authors out there. Reading their books is not a bad thing, but when we use them to supplant God's Word, that is when they can become detrimental. However, not every author with the Christian label is, for lack of a better word, good. Some lead readers to believe things that go against God's Word. The only way we can protect act ourselves is by staying in the Word. Test what the author you're reading right now says against the Word of God. Is what they want you to believe questionable? Are they taking verses out of context and giving them a completely different meaning?

A couple years ago a friend gave me a book that she said I just had to read. I didn't get very far into it before I was questioning some of the doctrine. I wondered if I was alone in my beliefs because so many people were gaga over this author. I went to good old Amazon and read the one star reviews. I discovered I was not alone. One reviewer had taken

quotes from the book – many of the same ones I had struggled with – and refuted them with Scripture.

It was good to know I wasn't alone, is but I was also sad by the thousands of people the author had tricked into believing untruths.

We can learn a lot from other people's experiences and what they have to say, but you need to make sure their words match up with God's Words.

Don't believe everything you see, hear, or read, unless it comes straight from the Bible.



“A Bible that’s falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t.” - Charles Haddon Spurgeon