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Okay, so the title may be a little misleading, but in writing they say you need a hook. Really, I want to talk about self-centered “faith.” This week I had several conversations with people that included phrases such as “Well, it’s working for me...” or “The way I see it...” or “I feel that..” and then go on to describe how they can twist who God is to suit their particular needs or current place in life. I call that a “god of my own making.” By the way, I’m not talking about non-believers here, and it’s not a new problem. Historically, God’s people have made excuses, set our own agendas, tolerated sin because God’s word seemed a little intolerant about it, put our own rules in, applied our own slant, and so forth. We have tried to make God fit our system of beliefs, based on “what works for me.” The problem is, we are not God, so what works for me, where it conflicts with the Word of God as it is written, cannot be truth.
Let’s start with the easiest one: “I feel...” Stop right there. Feelings lie. That’s the truth of it. As I have said in other blogs, perception is NOT reality, reality is reality. Our feelings frequently get in the way of truth. That’s why text messaging can become the source of arguments. We read emotion and intent into the message we receive based on our immediate circumstance, emotional state, perception of the words, etc. Feelings are just that, feelings and, devoid of comparison with truth, relevant data, information, they lie! “I feel” is self centered. “I believe,” when based on evidence, is another matter and perhaps another blog.
In my everyday job, I am a science person. I know research, I know what makes good research and what makes poor research, and I know when research is setting out to prove a pre-conceived notion. A friend shared with me some, what I will loosely call research, which they said supports their new belief system about who Jesus is - I won’t go into those details here. The problem is, scientifically speaking, and they were purported to be science, these studies were filled with fatal flaws. No peer reviewed scientific journals would print the studies because they had so many errors in design, implementation and analysis. Yet these were being used to convince people of who Jesus really is - that if we can get past things in our mind, we can be the Jesus we need. Really? Is that what scripture says, in essence, that we can be God? Then why did Jesus show up on the scene? I thought it was because I was trying to be God and couldn’t, or trying to get there on my own and, again, couldn’t.
In chapter 3 of his book The Blue Parakeet, Scot McKnight talks about the puzzlers - those people who read the Bible as if it were a puzzle, if we put all the pieces together, then we will understand the mind of God. He discusses four basic problems with this, but in finality, the puzzle that we piece together is fraught with error and in the end, “my puzzle is not the puzzle of anyone’s in the Bible. It is my puzzle, not the Bible’s.” So, the “way I see it,” has its basis more in me than in the reality of God. It is difficult to read scripture without filters, because we are human, but we need to be keenly aware of it when we do apply those filters. Are our thoughts consistent within the context of the Word, is Holy Spirit guiding us, have we asked for that guidance, and are we listening?
A mantra of the Evangelical Covenant Church is “Where is it written.” This is our starting point. We need to read scripture as the story of God’s relationship with us, not as an explanation of God or a defense of a position or belief. We have to submit and take God on His terms, whether or not (and especially when not) it fits our system of belief. Until we do so, we will continue to be ineffective little gods of our own making.
