everything that's on my mind
(as if there's not already enough people doing this)Monday, October 17, 2005
You may be right...
I want to put in a plug for my friend Dan's site. Dan is a friend of mine who I worked with at Intergraph in Huntsville for nearly 4 years. Dan's a great guy (even though he's an Alabama fan - haha, Dan :) and has some good stuff to say. I recommend visiting completelyhis.com.
Yesterday at the church we visited I was reminded of two different quotes from Rich Mullins. One was as the story of Balaam was mentioned. Rich had a professor at a Bible college in Cincinnati who once made the following observation:
Yesterday at the church we visited I was reminded of two different quotes from Rich Mullins. One was as the story of Balaam was mentioned. Rich had a professor at a Bible college in Cincinnati who once made the following observation:
The Lord chose to speak to Balaam through his ass, and he's been speaking through them ever since.I suppose that may be offensive to some, but it still cracks me up. I don't recall if these two quotes were related, but perhaps they were. The second is in regards to the Bible and how we use it. I've grown up in a tradition that has placed the utmost importance on knowledge and correct interpretation. It seemed, at times at least, that nothing was more important than "being right" about certain doctrines. Rich said this:
I don't believe the Bible was given to us so that we could prove that we're right. The Bible was given to us to prove that God is right, and the rest of us are just guessing.It seems to me there is a lot of truth in that statement. I've encountered a number of people in the past who were bold enough to say they are correct on every point of doctrine, although they sometimes framed it in more of a "I don't know of anything I'm wrong about" type of way. Of course, that seems a little silly - if you knew you were wrong, wouldn't you change?? I suspect everyone thinks they're right, but some are unwilling to accept that they could be mistaken. I'm just not willing to say I know it all beyond a shadow of a doubt. Not that we should be indifferent about study and discerning what God wants of us in regards to doctrine and how we interpret His word. I do believe it is of great importance. However, I believe we should be careful about how confident we are in our own abilities, not trusting in ourselves to "get everything right", but rather to trust in Him who we know is right.
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