When I was the youth pastor of a small church in San Diego, I became very disheartened with the fact that such a small percentage of my students came to church with their Bibles. Without really thinking it through I decided to teach the students a lesson. As we sat down for our youth meeting, I asked the students to open their Bibles to Amos 12:27 and proceeded to "read" a passage that I made up. It sounded Biblical and even had a good lesson, but was completely fabricated. Not one person called me on it. Not even my leaders! I was shocked. How could no one have caught this? I stopped toward the end of my made up passage, closed my Bible and confessed that all I had just "read" them was crap, my words, not Gods. The lesson on this particular Wednesday night was that God's words change lives and not mans.

My question here is this, can we blame others for leading us astray when the truth is right at our fingertips and we simply choose to ignore it? This is not me defending the false prophets of the world, Matthew 18:6 says it is better to have a millstone around your neck and thrown into the depths of the sea than lead a child into sin, but that is not what we are talking about here. We must take responsibility for our faith! We cannot blindly follow the words of man; rather, we need to have our path illuminated by the Word of God that is collecting dust on our shelf. That's ignorance. Lazy Christianity is running rampant today. We would rather simply have someone tell us what God is saying and what to believe rather than hear it from God Himself. Baffling! We guard our possessions, our homes, and even our money; so why do we so easily take the word of someone else when it concerns our soul? It seems we have our priorities skewed.

God has called some people to lead and educate within the Church, but he has also given every Christian the responsibility to "work out" their own faith through personal study. Don't accept something as truth simply because it is thrown on a screen with Bible reference tacked on it. Find out the context; who was it written to, why was it written; how do we apply it to our lives today? This will not be offensive to someone desiring to see you closer to God, so do not worry about your pastor or teacher taking this wrong. I would be enamored with my students testing the things I say. God desires us to seek after Him, not blindly follow someone who happens to say they are leading people toward Him.

David Miller
NotTheAverage Ministries