Back to the Word

WARNING: Mature Content.

"We need to go back to the Word."

This thought was originally brought up by a brief article I was reading on a person's blog. It began with a search about piety as a sin. The blogger talked about how new age ideas have infiltrated the church and that old school orthodoxy are no longer hip and relevant today. He lamented that people can embrace the world's lies so easily. And he was talking about the church!

"We live and breathe in a narcissistic evangelicalism where preaching has been exchanged for therapy, sacraments for personal experience, discipline for dubious notions of sincerity, regulated worshp [sic] for entertainment, and the fellowship of the saints for cell-group discussions and self-feeding, all the while scorning ordinary means as 'boring', 'lifeless', or the embodiment of 'dead orthodoxy.'"

How true.

The point was further re-emphasized on my search for a quote "anything that leads you away from God is a sin" (para-phrase, if anyone knows who said it... it was a woman, let me know. I forgot where I found it). The first search result in google was "can masterbating [sic] bring you away from god". I thought it was a Christian forum, so I entered. It was not. From what I can tell the poster was Christian (posted Feb 7th 2007).

A religious breakdown of the respondents: (12)

Not Mentioned: 6
^-- Probably Christian/Catholic: 3
Athiest: 2
Catholic: 1
Christian: 2
Wiccan: 1

I want to focus on the results of the Christians and (to a lesser extent) Catholics, because they should have some understanding of Scripture. (side note: The athiest argument was weak logically. Wiccan was crazy.) Out of the 12 respondants, there are 6 (probable) Christian/Catholics that have either outright stated that they are, or from their comment I have surmised that they are.

Of the six:
Three horrible comments:
One denied infallibilty of Scripture - the Bible was made to control the masses. What do you base your belief on?
One said to ask a bishop or pastor and avoid a priest, because you might get raped. How does this help?
One revealed the proper context of Onan (mentioned by a previous poster) to suggest that masturbation isn't wrong. (That verse shouldn't be used to condemn masturbation.) However, goes on to say that masturbation is okay... in fact, "it's a sin NOT to enjoy and WORSHIP the gift that He has given you". (emphasis mine) Again, how does this help? In fact, you lead the poor lad away from God.

One practical suggestion:
Stay occupied to avoid masturbation.

Two worthwhile ideas:
Be sorry for what you did, pray for forgiveness. He talked about God a lot.
Cling to God.

So out of all of this, I realize that I have incredibly high standards for an online forum.

So out of all of this, I have to come back to my church and the people around me, and myself. I think there is a flaw in our understanding of how to come closer to God. It is related to the idea of inreach, where Christians take time to care about one another and motivate each other to grow in Christ. There is nothing wrong with that. However, when the church fails to reach out to those that are lost...there is a problem. When the church fails to teach its members solid theology... there is a problem.

Personally, I feel that my church has been blessed with pastors that have emphasized our understanding of Scripture. That is a good thing. Unfortunately, we have not been so great at reaching out to those that are lost. All throughout my Christian walk, this has been the norm. Fellowships that are focused on the self, and deaf to the mission call. Even for myself, I bring these flaws into my leadership.

Our understanding of God is so shallow and we are satisfied. We study the Bible, for the sake of one uping our fellow Christians. We spread the gospel with a hard heart, claiming that if people don't react to the message; God hasn't called them to be saved. We are disciples of hate, self-centeredness, and feel goodness. We pray in a patronizing tone to someone we have kept at arm's length rather than an intimate lover.

God has called us to more than this. Seek God with all your heart. Study the Bible for it is profitable in many ways, even when teaching to others, the Word still teaches you more and more. Spread the gospel with a broken heart, show people that they are in deed lost without His saving grace. Are we really that determined...? Considering, failure leads to eternal death? Repent, and come back into His presence. Bask in it, knowing that He gives peace.

It is time we stopped kidding ourselves and desired God unashamedly, desperately... all the time and everywhere.