Biblical truths for thinking Christians

Since I changed the subtitle on the blog, I want to address the question of what I mean when I say: Biblical truths for thinking Christians.

When I say "biblical truths" it's because I am here to explore what the Bible says.  I want to do it in some new ways, but always with the goal in mind of coming to a better, deeper, understanding of what it teaches us.  I will use other material, and my own thoughts and reflections, but I will always bring it back and relate it to scripture.

And while I believe that there may be some bits of truth in other places, the definitive source for all truth, and in particular the kind of truth that will lead you to an incredible relationship with God, is the Bible.  Are there things that we might be able to learn from other philosophies?  Sure.  But unless they agree with what the Bible says, they are just interesting ideas.  But let's not simply dismiss them out of hand; let's be willing to put them to the test of God's word.

Something that I like to tell people is: What we believe is more important than what's true.  And what I mean is: When it comes to how I live my life, and how each of us lives our lives, what determines our thoughts, feelings, and actions is what we believe.  Having read the Bible and being aware of certain truths does not mean that I believe them.  Because it doesn't matter how well I know some verse from the Bible, and how well I can quote it.  If that biblical truth has not actually set me free in some way, then I don't really believe it.

Our beliefs, no matter where they came from, are a part of who we are.  Most of the beliefs that we have were learned when we were very young, and very few, if any of them, are true.  At least not true in the sense of being biblical truths.  They may be things that we have experienced, so they are true in our experience, but that doesn't mean we can turn them into "truths."

An example of this might be someone who prays for something, God doesn't seem to answer their prayer, so they conclude that: God doesn't love them, doesn't hear them, and He doesn't answer their prayers.  They may even be able to accept that God still answers prayers, just not theirs.  All of which is false.

Their experience may be true in the sense that it is a historical fact in their life, but it is not true in relation to what the Bible teaches.  The problem arises because their belief has been based on their experience, but that experience did not demonstrate biblical truth.  And while we can't question the experience, we have to question the beliefs that were formed because of it.

In Ephesians 5:26 tells us that Christ is sanctifying and cleansing us by the "washing of the water by the word."  Just like bathing, this is an ongoing process of change.  We go from being unbelievers, people who believe a lot of things that aren't true (in other words: Lies), to people who believe God's truth, and that will take time.  How long will it take?  That all depends on us and how much time we spend reading, studying, memorizing, meditating on, and applying God's word to our lives.

Joshua was told that he would be prosperous and have good success if he would just do a couple of things: Meditate in God's word day and night, and be careful to do according to what is written in the word (Joshua 1:8).  And this has not changed.  Our prosperity in every area of our lives, and our success in life, will depend on how well we learn and apply God's word to our lives.

Our beliefs are in multiple layers, like the skin of an onion.  There was a point in our lives when we had very few beliefs, and most of those were genetically coded into us by God and through heredity.  When it comes to our beliefs, we were all born with a very open mind, and I mean that quite literally.

But ever since God began forming us in our mother's wombs, our minds have been busy trying to make sense of our world.  The brain is a magnificent creation that gathers information and creates memories.  Those memories include more than what we simply heard with our ears, saw with our eyes, felt with our sense of touch, and smelled and tasted with our noses and tongues, they also include the emotions we experienced.  Our minds take all of that information and organize it into memories and beliefs.

Every time we smell a certain smell, every time we see something familiar, our minds go to work and recall all of the memories associated with that thing.  The thoughts that come to us, and the feelings we have at that moment, are the sum total of all those memories.  These new experiences are then filed away along with the old memories, and become further evidence in support of what we have come to believe.

Because our brains do that, we tend to get stuck in ruts and continually repeat old behaviors.  And it's not just that our old beliefs influence our thoughts and feelings at a given moment, but those beliefs even filter the information that comes into our minds.

Imagine that you're at a party, or a gathering of some kind, and you're in a crowded room.  You are having a conversation with someone, so your attention is focused on him or her and what he or she is saying.  Suddenly someone across the room from you mentions your name.  Your mind instantly focuses in on the other person's conversation.  You're curious and you want to know what they are saying about you.

Have you had an experience like that?  Most of us have.  What is it about our brains that allows us to filter out all of the other noise and focus on one specific conversation, but that also enables us to hear our name from across the room?  It's because our brains are constantly gathering information from all around us.

The information that is not important to us, like the dozens of other conversations that may be going on in the room, is simply ignored.  It does register in our minds, but we are not consciously aware of it.  The fact is that all of that information, if we have to be aware of it, would be too much for us to handle.  I don't remember where I heard it, and I may not have this correct, but I believe that I once heard that part of the problem with autism is that the person affected by it has a hard time filtering the information that is coming at them all the time.  In other words, it's not that they are unaware of what's happening, it's that they are too aware of all that is happening, and their brains are simply overloaded.

But for the rest of us, this happens so automatically that we're usually not aware of it.  Our subconscious, or unconscious, minds are constantly filtering large quantities of information.  Only the things that are important to us at any point in time are then sent on to our conscious minds.

When it comes to our beliefs, the problem we all face is that our minds are continually trying to reinforce what we already believe.  Part of this is because of the filtering that is being done on the information that is coming at us day in and day out.  That information is filtered through what we believe is important, like when we hear our names, and what we believe is unimportant.  In order to break free of our old beliefs, we have to be able to remove the filters created by those beliefs.

We can remove those filters by asking ourselves different questions.  This helps us get past them because questions do a couple of things.  One of which is that they focus our minds and cause us to put our attention on something specific, i.e. finding the answer to the question.

Here's a fun experiment that we can do, as long as we don't get rude about it.  When you're having a conversation with your spouse or a good friend, and they are busy telling you something, ask them a totally unrelated question.

The first thing that might happen is that the person will have a somewhat puzzled expression, maybe even a look of frustration, come over his or her face.  Right then and there, you have broken the train of thought and focused that person's mind on your question.  The next thing that will happen is that he or she will deal with your question.  One way or another, the question has to be removed so that the conversation can get back to what that person wanted to talk about.

This process works the same way in our internal conversations as well.  When you catch yourself thinking certain things, interrupt that train of thought with a question.  You'll see that you do the same thing, but possibly without the confused and frustrated facial expressions.  Your mind will immediately shift your attention to the question.  You will have to deal with the question in some form before you can move on, or get back to your original train of thought.  The question will have focused your mind, and that's what you want it to do.

The other thing that questions do is to open our minds.  They do that when we start asking ourselves questions that we've never asked before.  Like in the first example of focusing them, our minds have been trained to do it, or we're simply born with the need to answer questions.  Some people even feel that all thinking, in one form or another, is nothing more than our minds constantly asking and answering questions.

So when we start asking different questions, our minds will automatically start looking for answers.  The better we get at asking good questions, the broader and more open our minds will become.  Why is it important to have an open mind?  It's important to us because faith cannot exist in a closed mind.

Faith requires that we begin to accept something as true, that we have a conviction about the reality of something, before we can physically see it.  Faith cannot survive in a mind that only accepts what it sees.  So one of the requirements for faith is that we accept things into our minds, see them as real, even though they are not visible.

The other reason faith requires our minds to be open is: If our minds are closed, then we limit how God can answer our prayers.  The very act of thinking about ways in which God has to answer us, will automatically close the door on other possibilities.

For example, if you think that God has to bless you financially by giving you a raise at work, by that very thought, you close the door to a myriad of other possible ways God could do it.  By focusing on certain ways we believe it has to happen, we close our minds and set up a belief filter that blinds us to other options.  The result is that our faith can quickly turn into doubt and disappointment.

Our minds are incredibly complex, and there are a lot of times when we wonder where our thoughts come from.  And there are a lot of different places, from the world around us, to our memories, to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.  But the quickest way to both focus and open our minds at the same time is by asking questions.  As someone once said, "The quality of our lives is determined by the questions we ask ourselves."

When it comes to what I will be writing about and exploring here, it's a matter of asking questions.  And the reason that I say: "Biblical truths for thinking Christians," is because I am asking you to think about things in different ways.  That process of thinking about these things will help to focus and open your mind.  The result that I am hoping for is that you will discover truths that will set you free in every area of your life.

There are a couple of areas that I won't question.  For example, I will never question whether or not the Bible is God's word.  I decided a long time ago that it is, end of story.  And I have also decided that God is love, His Son gave His life for me in payment for my sins, and that the only way to salvation is by faith in what Christ did.  I am righteous today because He has given me His righteousness.  It's a gift, and all that I have to do is accept it and thank Him for it.  And I will never question that.

But there is a whole lot of Bible that is outside those, and a few other, fundamental issues, and all of that is pretty much up for grabs.

I believe that part of the problem we have as Christians is that we are not willing to ask new questions.  We look at things that are considered traditional Christian doctrines, and never ask the question: When did this tradition begin?  Is that really the only way to understand that verse, or parable?

My goal is to help all of us open our minds to who God is and what His word says.  We have so many things that we simply accept that may not be true.  I don't mean to imply that they are false, just that: If they are true, then they will stand up to some questions and scrutiny.  The truth never has to worry about being proven false.

On the other hand, many of the beliefs that we all hold are false.  They are based on lies that have been taught to us, things that we've experienced that are not in agreement with God's word, and we need to question them.

My hope is also that you will take an active part in this process.  I like it when people disagree with me because it forces me to think.  I can get stuck in my ways of seeing things, and miss the truths that are probably right in front of my face.  So please take the time to comment on these posts and send me emails with your questions.

I really appreciate that you have taken your valuable time and read all the way through this.  And I look forward to what we will learn together as we all create lives that are full of faith and abundance.

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Comments

[frederick]

You have some interesting theories and thoughts. Makes one think. I was interested in your string theory. Scientists say the universe has never stopped expanding. Too bad, they don't read the bible. God spoke it into existance,said let there be light,and the "big bang" started. He never said light stop.