Switched Keys

Much of a Christian's life is spent considering whether or not this or that is a Christian thing.

Obviously there are the most obvious things. But there are a lot of things that are not so obvious. Some of them are only labeled based on our own prejudices and feelings. If we tend to be more strict anything that suggests breaking some traditional view is definitely non-Christian. A girl calling a boy for a date would be one. Taking a nap on the beach with someone of the opposite sex. Missing church is a sin. If we are more liberal we will tend to overlook the less obvious and excuse any objection with "There's nothing wrong with...".

The problem with both of these decision making processes is that they are subjective dependent on our own experiences our own thoughts. The same thing goes for Christian as for non-Christian. God's thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are higher than our ways.

While you may think that I'm being too technical when I say we need to look in the book that is exactly what the book is for. His words guide our path. When you look at the biblical text what God has to say and show us is often more liberal and more conservative than our own isms.

There is a biblical example of a woman sleeping at the foot of a man she wasn't married to. That's wrong right? I've been accused of being gracious but I sometimes wonder if I am gracious when God wants something more. Politeness and civility go a long way in maintaining a peaceful environment. Please no swords. What about the way we dress. We object to nudity and pornography but are our provocative clothes and adornments similar to that of the seductive women mentioned in Proverbs? What about name-calling? If Proverbs calls people fools can't we tell someone that they are an idiot? Or should we just talk ABOUT fools. What about prejudice? The Bible says Cretans are lazy gluttons. What about that? Our own culture defines how far Christian thought should go.

We tend to build walls around our own faith expanding it beyond what the scriptures say. On the one hand we will say something is wrong because it looks like this or might lead to something else. On the other we overlook every warning of temptation and end up falling in a pit. If we were to maintain a biblical world view that is more definitive of what the Bible actually says we might have more impact on the world.

The thoughts of God are higher than the thoughts of man. If we want to know what His thoughts are we need to study His book.