I apologize for not posting since Wednesday. If you haven't kept up today would be a great day to turn off the noise of the world and submerge yourself in scripture and a sermon.
What we believe has a lot to do with several different factors. The famous theologian John Wesley used a methodology that consisted of reading scripture, tradition, reason, and experience. This method was coined the Wesleyan Quadrilateral by scholar Albert C. Outler. Outler theorized that Wesley used 4 different sources in coming to theological conclusions. I know I'm an idiot but I'd like to add a few others to this. 1. How our parents raised us and what they taught us. I've seen the guilt parents lay on to their kids have a negative impact on their faith. The irony to that is they lie to their kids about the brokeness in their own lives. I'll talk about this more in a bit. 2. How we create our definitions. 3. Our learning profile. 4. Our psychological profile. 5. What doctrine we are taught in church. Wesley insisted that scripture is the first authority. I agree with that, but the reality in the USA is the doctrine, interpretation, and implementation of what we have been taught can be far different than what scripture says. I'll use myself as an example. I was raised Catholic. I loved my parents. My parents loved God. When I was a kid I loved God. The problem was whenever I had questions they gave me answers that never made sense. What I'm trying to accomplish with this blog is to help people learn how to read, exegesis, and get some of their own answers in re-defining God in their lives so their faith actually makes a difference on the impact in the world. Please realize, I NEVER try to come to these answers all by myself. There are a myriad of different mentors I reach out to and suck their brains for wisdom. But my parents, like most parents had their expectations of their kids WAY too high. This led to conflict for me. Instead of teaching me how to read the sacred texts and learn church history to learn the context of what not to do. I was just told to shut up and accept it. I bring this up because a lot of the definitions I learned as a Catholic are different in the Protestant faith. Now please do spin this into me having anger issues with my parents. Absolutely not! My parents loved God, loved others, and taught me how to have a generous heart because I believe in God. You have questions. If your faith doesn't lead you to a place that your first natural impulse doesn't lead you to loving God by loving your neighbors in serving others than you may decide like I did "why not? Why aren't I making a difference in the world? Is my faith bring me to a place of serving or is God my magic jeanie in the bottle and I only reach out when I need him?"
I don't use churchy terms often, but it's necessary at times to help people grow in their faith and intellect. It's impotant for your to get answers to your faith. It's NORMAL to wrestle with God while chewing on these sacred texts as God changes you internally. He has used scripture and living relationally to change lives since the beginning of time. The word "Exegesis" is used in helping understand what scriputre means. It's a noun that means "critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially of scripture."
At the end of December my church did a sermon called "ask away" that covers some of the questions people of our congregation sends in. Fast forward to 45 minutes and 20 seconds for the sermon only.
Ask Away
What if Jesus really meant what he said in the beatitudes and the gospel when he told us how to live? What if everything we've learned all our life about Christianity was based on definitions which led to us receiving inaccurate data? What if we have rejected the existence of God because we made our decision not to believe based on those inaccurate definitions, what we were taught in our youth, or what we were taught in school, or by the lives and actions of other Christians?
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