Let This Mind Be In You

Some of the questions that I have heard being asked so much more often over the last few years are things like: What do you think he means by that? What do you think she is thinking? Without coming out and voicing it, we have been asking ourselves what kind of agenda people have for the things they say and do. I'm certainly not immune from this either, as I've been repeatedly questioned as to whether or not it is my place to voice my opinion over anything from the direction that our group is taking to the price of eggs. Truly, none of us are really excluded from this examination.

You see, an agenda is a sticky thing indeed. We question peoples intentions, and I won't say that we haven't had good reason, but it has started to get out of hand as of late. It's becoming harder and harder to accept anything at face value anymore, and that is a sad thing indeed. The reasons that having an agenda is detrimental is that if anyone has one, then it's theirs and you can be pretty sure that any personal agenda deviates in some way from God's agenda. How can we operate under the leading of the Lord when we continue to insist on leading ourselves? This my friends is a sure sign of one thing: Rebellion.

Much of our questioning each other boils down to trust. It has become increasingly difficult for us to trust each other as fully as we once did because we have become a people that are not as trustworthy as we have been in the past. The reason we wonder about each other's intentions is that there have been some who have given us ample reason to question and called them out on their words and actions.

I'm not the first to notice this or even comment on this condition, however I believe that I am among the first to suggest this particular solution for it though. I've heard some say that we need to start trusting each other again, and especially begin to trust and rely on our ministry again in the way that we once did. I disagree with this as the way to regain what we've lost. Instead, it is my opinion that we must become worthy of that trust and do whatever it takes to regain that trust. Trust and respect are earned, not given, and a broken trust takes longer to rebuild than it did to establish initially. Even if it is only a perceived infraction that causes a breakdown it trust, once a trust has been lost it can't simply be recovered with a directive to trust again.

Before we can become trustworthy again though, we must give up our own agendas and leave them firmly behind us, buried in a forgotten past. Instead of operating this way, we must become willing to be used by God. I'm reminded of the chorus that we sing at church, though it's been a while since I've heard it.

Jesus use me, Lord please don't refuse me,

Surely there's a work that I can do.

And even though it's humble, Lord help my will to crumble,

Though the cost be great, I'll work for you.

In order for us to be used, we must recognize what our place really is. Brothers and Sisters, we are merely here to be used for the work of the Lord in any way that He sees fit. Not all of us are pastors or apostles, but all of us have gifts and all of us can be useful. Some of us might sit quietly most of the time, waiting a time when He will have a role for us to fill, but if we are ready and willing to be used, when our time comes, He will use us.

I've written recently about what Jesus would have us do, but in this case I think it's just as appropriate to ask what Jesus would do in this situation. Paul tells us to have the same mindset as Jesus (Phil 2:5). Let's take a look at just how Jesus thought because there is one record of Jesus dealing with an issue similar to the one that we are dealing with (Heb 4:15). In the garden of Gethsemane, in prayer Jesus asked God to take this cup away from Him. He did not want to suffer the way that He knew He would, and yet, in the same sentence, without pause He added, "nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done" (Luke 22:42). Paul says that He took upon Him the form of a servant and that He humbled himself and became obedient (Phil 2:7, 8).

Can we not learn from this example? Christ Himself became humble below His true station and became obedient though His obedience conflicted with His desires as a man. If He could do this when He was everything, how can I not when I am nothing? Let us lay aside our agendas, our own will, and instead, in everything that we do, endeavor to be used by God, agents of His will.

Even though it's humble, Lord help my will to crumble, though the cost be great, I'll work for You. Let that be our anthem as we stride forward into a new realization of working within the order that God has laid out for us.

Emergency Post

I want to draw a theme for much of what I'm going to write from Prov. 16:25. There is so much depth to this scripture, and yet I don't believe that we delve into it as much as we should.

There is a way that seems right to a man. A cursory examination of this scripture might lead one to assume that it refers to a man who is out in sin, doing whatever he want to do, but I wonder if there isn't more for us in this scripture than that. With further study it becomes evident that this man is not just reveling in sin either because of ignorance of a better way or simply because of the self gratification of a hedonistic lifestyle. "Seems right" stands out to me, and denotes that this man is trying to do the right thing; his intentions are good. He wants to do the right thing and is doing his best to determine what that is.

The problem that is described in this scripture is that this man is relying on himself to determine what is right. This scripture is describing humanism in its basest form and the arrogance that goes along with it. It is dealing with that ever so natural and universal thought: "I'm right". It is dealing with the condition of leaving God out of our lives and not recognizing His authority over us and His plan for us.

If people lived in total isolation from everyone else, this would be a minor problem at worst. However, add just one other person to the mix and the result is something formidable indeed: an opposing view. I don't care what it is over, opposing views will eventually lead to only one thing: a confrontation. Put it another way, if you have two people, you are going to have differences of opinion, and those opinions will eventually lead to a disagreement. This my friends is something I like to call human nature.

The reason we don't see more fighting than we do is because in an effort to grow beyond our own capacities, we've learned to suppress this just a bit, and have instead chosen cooperation and mutual understanding. However, all too often beneath all of our high-minded ways still lies the thought, "but I'm still right."

The arrogance that accompanies the thought "I'm right" can be summed up with the counterpart of that thought, which is "I couldn't be wrong". Arrogance is at the heart of what this scripture is dealing with, and it is arrogance that I will address today in this post. If I were to take this scripture, and rephrase it, this is how I'd do it. "When you're sure your right, you can be sure you're wrong, dead wrong."

If you are at all informed about the workings of our group then my title is probably not a mystery to you, but for those of you who are not, allow me to inform you. An emergency ministers meeting has been called in one month in Little Rock and the purpose of this meeting is a dire one indeed. It is the intention of some to determine who can be a part of the Body of Christ. If this issue wasn't such a controversial and divisive one, the thought that some element in our ministry actually believes that they are qualified to make this decision would be almost laughable (1 Cor 12:18).

Just a quick side bar right here. I've heard from some that the people today do not want to submit to the authority that God has placed in the church and that is the root of all of the problems that we are experiencing. There is an element of truth in this statement, but to state that this is the whole story couldn't be more wrong. There is another variable that needs to be factored into this problem, namely ministers overstepping their authority (1 Pet 5:3). Some of what we are seeing is a rebellious factor, but if you ignore the impact that just a few ministers who have overestimated their authority can have on a group of people, you are being somewhat naive. I say that with no doubt in my heart there still remain among us those who want to submit to a proper God-given authority. Some of the hesitancy to do so however can be explained by the perception of problems at the leadership level in our group, either corporately or in some cases locally. When there is so much turmoil and confusion, how can you not expect people to be somewhat unsure as what to do or who to trust? But I digress.

At this meeting it is the intention of some to attempt to purify our group from some of it's more liberal elements and yet the simple fact of the matter remains that no person or group of persons has the authority to determine who is or is not a part of the Body of Jesus Christ. God has amalgamated our varied elements into one special whole and His body is not the work of any one man or group of men (1 Cor 12:24). We need to wake up to the fact that we are not called to complete uniformity but instead that there are meant to be differences among us. Is the purpose of this meeting not in direct opposition to 1 Cor 12:23? Instead of distancing or disfellowshipping or whatever you want to call it, we should be seeing to the care of one another, lest there be schism (1 Cor 12:25)?

Schism, that is not a nice word, and yet it is a very real possible outcome of this "Emergency Meeting". Let me be very direct with what I am about to say. No minister has the ability to remove another from the Body of Jesus Christ, however based upon their own actions they are completely capable of removing themselves. What can happen is for a minister to be so sure that they are right that they will stray out from under the covering of the Lord. There is a way that seems right unto a man. Might this not be what is really happening here? Self-righteousness and arrogance creating such a surety of action that on their own a minister or group of ministers will head off in their own direction, trying to pull as many as they can out from under the pillar of God, only to wander aimlessly in the wilderness? I wonder.

I wonder if in fifty years my decendents won't be able to look back at this time as the time when a significant portion of our group got out from under the covering of the Lord? What will our posterity say of us? Will they say that this people was a stiff-necked and rebellious people or will they be able to say that we narrowly averted a split at this time? Will they say of us that those among us who sought to sow discord among the brethren held more sway than those among us who sought the fullness of Christ through the unity of the faith (Prov 6:19, Eph 4:13)?

Don't be fooled, right now we are headed at high speed for a split in this group and if we don't alter our course by changing our attitudes, there will be schism. It completely mystifies me that the very same people who seemingly espouse a greater unity for our group also wish to divide it (James 3:11). I ask myself, how can this be and I'm am left with only one conclusion. Those people who wish to do this are operating outside of the order of the Lord.

How can we avoid this? Paul answered this very question in 1 Cor 12:31, in the last half of this final verse of this chapter. Paul states "And yet I show you a more excellent way". This one sentence should really be the first verse of 1 Cor 13 because it serves as an often ignored preamble to this chapter whose theme is love. Charity my friends is the answer to the problems that our group is experiencing and the only alternative to a very probably split. Unfortunately, it is charity that we are sorely lacking right now, and not just within the ministry, at every level. Charity will not fail us, and yet I despair that we will be able to see it (1 Cor 13:8).

I leave you with a question and my hope. What will our leadership choose? A way that seems right unto them, or a more excellent way? Although I pray for the latter, I cannot say that I expect it. However, I will continue to hold out hope that we will forsake our own ways and will instead humble ourselves, pray for forgiveness and seek the face of the Lord. This way my friends and no other way will we see healing in our group (2 Chr 7:14).

I Had To Write This Post

I am going to tackle predestination in this post, not only to address what is an easily misunderstood doctrine but also to make one other point that should apply to all of our doctrinal teachings.

Predestination in a nutshell is the belief that God planned everything that will ever happen in His creation from the beginning until the end. An excellent example of predestination in action is Jesus foretelling the disciples of Judas' betrayal (John 13:21). Another well known example can be found when Jesus foretells Peter's denial of Him later in the same chapter (John 13:38). A strict application of predestination would state that these men were meant to do these things from the very foundation of the Earth.

The whole thought of predestination however seems to fly in the face of the concept of free will. I've heard from my earliest days in Sunday School that God created us with free will because He desired a people who would make the choice to worship Him because they wanted to. As far as I know choice has been a root of Christianity, and is taught as one of the primary elements of salvation. Do we not preach to those without Jesus that they need to choose to listen to His call and follow Him?

The debate that has centered around the doctrine of predestination for hundreds of years can be summed up in the following question: If every action that we take has already been planned out and God has predetermined what will happen throughout His creation, how can you say that we act as free agents capable of making decisions in our own lives?

It seems on the surface that predestination and free will are at least inconsistent if not in complete opposition to each other. I've even heard some detractors of the Bible bring up the subject of predestination as one of those contradictions or discrepancies that in their opinion disprove the Bible. Certainly it can seem that the idea of free will contradicts predestination, but in truth this is just not the case and is instead a problem with understanding.

The problem as I see it is actually a matter of pride. People assume that they can understand everything, but this is just not the case. The Lord's ways are above our ways and in some cases we are just not capable of understanding them (Isa 55:8-9). People often come into contact with this concept at great times of loss in their lives; an example of which would be the loss of a loved one. Most likely they will struggle to work out in their own mind why God would take this person away from them but will eventually console themselves with the thought that we cannot totally understand God's ways. We are able to accept on a base level when emotional trauma has stripped us of so much of our resistance, but when there is no emotional impact involved we struggle with it from an academic standpoint.

To imagine that we are capable of completely understanding how God set up creation is laughable (Rom 11:33-34). How can we really think that our understanding is actually on par with that of God (Prov 3:5,7)? This condition is prevalent enough however that we have developed a word to describe this way of thinking: hubris. There is also an aspect of this hubris where we impose the limits of our understanding on God as well. We are limited in not only our understanding, but also in our perception. Does our arrogance translates those limitations to God as well? Are we really so confident in ourselves that we think that our ability to understand somehow dictates God's ability to act? I think that unfortunately this is all too common a belief, and one God has addressed (Job 38:4, 40:2).

How can we know something that is unknowable? Paul seemed to think that this was possible (Eph 3:19). Is Paul speaking in riddles in this passage or is there something else happening here with this comprehension that Paul is speaking of (Eph 3:17-18)? Instead of a full understanding, Paul is referencing an appreciation of the fact that God is not only more capable than us, He is more capable than we can conceive (Eph 3:20). It is possible to know a thing and not completely understand all of it's design and harmonious inner workings. How much more the thoughts of God (1 Cor 2:11)? Put your trust in Him.

Personally speaking I do not find it in any way incongruous to believe that God is capable of predetermining His creation in such a way that it incorporates our free will. Ask yourself, is your God powerful enough to do such a thing even if you are not able to understand it? Ponder that question while we look at predestination at a personal level.

Let's assume for a minute that there is a real difference between free will and predestination for arguments sake. Unless you had explicit, detailed knowledge of the future, your ignorance of said future would render the difference between the two a moot point at least to you would it not? What is the real difference between complete free will, and unknowable determinism? Conceptually they are different, but in any real life application they are indistinct from each other.

This certainly hasn't stopped people from perverting predestination doctrine in an effort to absolve themselves from personal responsibility though. I've heard this abdication of responsibility from both sides of the argument. On one hand, I've heard people who will justify horrendous acts as being predetermined by God in such a way that it seems that they are almost blaming Him. Atrocities have happened and well-meaning but misguided individuals have either stated that these actions are the judgment of God or might point out that if it was not in God's plan, He would have stopped it. In essence, they are stating that God is responsible for actions perpetrated by people. On the flip side I've heard people ignore their own responsibilities to live productive lives for Christ, and instead using reliance on Christ as if it were some kind of a all-encompassing waiver. I saw an example of this in high school when one of my friends told me that she did not see any reason to try to tell anyone about Jesus because He was capable of adding to the church as He saw fit which was an obvious misuse of Acts 2:47 (BTW, I questioned her about this further and this is really how she had been taught at her church). In both cases, people were more than willing to abuse the doctrine of predestination to dump the responsibility of their actions, or lack thereof, squarely on God's shoulders, and in some cases the blame too. This is just despicable.

This brings me to my other point. Our doctrines as well as our actions should bring glory to God and not reproach. In my examples of how the doctrine of predestination can be misunderstood it is important to realize that these applications can be logically derived from how predestination is actually taught in many churches (it certainly was in the case of my friend). This being true, this understanding of predestination has in it an inherent application that brings reproach to God. If for no other reason this is enough in my estimation to bring this doctrine into question. Yes, I do understand that people can misunderstand any doctrine and any scripture can be misused, but in this case the applications can be inferred by how the doctrine is taught. This to me is indicative of a faulty doctrine.

Instead, how much better to believe that yes we are responsible for our actions because of free will and that the predestination in creation exists as a greater level than we do (not that it does not apply to us)? This brings glory to God in our recognition of just how great He really is and it keeps us aware of our role in His plan (Isa 64:8). Should this qualification not be one of the measurements by which we determine whether a doctrine is good or not? Should we not endeavor to glorify God in every aspect of our lives, especially our doctrine? I certainly think so.

A Vessel

It is important to know our place in the Kingdom of God. I never want to take on a "do you know who I am" mentality, especially with it comes to the faith.

I am merely a vessel to by used at God's discretion. I'm no great thing, but I am God's thing.

Jesus use me, Lord please don't refuse me,
Surely there's a work that I can do.
Even though it's humble, help my will to crumble,
Though the price be great, I'll work for you.

You see, we're all vessels in God's Kingdom and those vessels are all different and God can choose to use us however He sees fit. (2 Tim 2:20-21). However, if we are to be honorable vessels, we need to be counted among those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart (2 Tim 2:22).

I don't know about you, but I want to be used and I want to be pure. Psalms 51:10 says "Create in me a clean heart" and that's what I want. I know the alternative, which is to be cast out of the presence of God (Psalms 51:11).

We don't sing this song as far as I know, but it is a good song that reflects submission to God.

Change my heart oh God, Make it ever true,
Change my heart oh God, May I be like You.
You are the Potter, I am the clay,
Mold me and make me, This is what I pray.

Regardless of anyone or anything else, Lord let me be useful to You.

It's Good to be Weak

I've got to say that writing this blog has been a wonderful experience for me. As I've spent time writing and praying about what I've written, I've been reminded over and over how good God has been to me, and how good He is to all of us. I've been so blessed, and I want to try to share some of that blessing with you.

You see, in my life I've constantly needed to watch my spirit as it is just so each for me to think down of people who don't see the truth, and would hide their eyes to illumination. I have to remind myself that they are where God wants them and that God is in control and for me to think less of them only diminishes me, not them. But recently, I've learned another lesson from these situations that I've had to deal with in my spirit, and I'm so glad to have seen it.

You see, some of these people have an attitude that screams "How dare you disagree with me. Don't you know who I am? I'm right and you're wrong! I know more than you. Don't challenge my position." I still have to watch my spirit, maybe more so with these kind of people, but the lesson that I've learned from them sadly is just how easy it would be for me to take up the same mantra and have the same attitude and be just as sure of myself as they are.

Instead though God has worked in my life in a way that reminds me of who is really in control. Almost every time I've had that thought that things were going good and that I had anything to do with it, that good thing has come crashing down on me so fast that it seems that I can't even breathe. But through it all, I've learned to rely on Jesus, and my life is better for it. I've only started on a path of complete reliance on Jesus for my needs, but I've learned the hard way that the only strength that will ever be evident in my life is His strength, because I have none myself (2 Cor 12:9).

I'm a musician, and for just about every point I have to make, I know about a dozen wonderful songs that make that point so much better than I ever could, and this post is no different. There is a wonderful hymn that I think tells of the lesson I'm still learning, and that is "God Will Take Care of You"

Be not dismayed whate’er betide,
God will take care of you;
Beneath His wings of love abide,
God will take care of you.

God will take care of you,
Through every day, over all the way;
He will take care of you,
God will take care of you.

There are three more lovely verses that I will leave it to you to look up, but I've learned that this is true, God will take care of you.

There is so much I could go into, so much support throughout the Bible of what I'm trying to point out that I could just go on and on, but instead I'm going to close this post out by rephrasing another scripture. I love the scripture Phil 4:13, but if someone were to ask me what it means, here's what I'd tell them. I can't do anything without Jesus for He is my strength.

The Sheep and the Goats

I don't mean to get into a deep theological discussion of sheep and goats. The scripture makes pretty clear the differences in temperaments between the two animals. So this post will be brief.

The first point I want to make is that sheep and goats are similar animals. They both eat similar food in similar amounts. They both require similar shelter and climate. They were both acceptable offerings in the Old Testament (Lev 22:19). Some sheep look just like goats and some goats are a source of wool just like sheep. In many countries where mutton is more common than beef, both sheep and goats are considered mutton, and their meat is used interchangeably. Both animals are raised for both their meat and their milk. Functionally there is a large overlap in these animals; the differences between these animals are just not as monumental as we who were not raised around these animals would expect.

When Jesus spoke of separating the sheep from the goats, His listeners understood that this was not a drastic thing (Matt 25:32-33). A similar comparison was made by Jesus when he spoke of letting tares grow with the wheat (Matt 13:29-30). When we are talking about people, it's not always obvious who is a sheep and is a goat, and it isn't a good idea to try to clear all the goats out of the flock, at least if you listen to what Jesus said about the tares and the wheat. It's the similarity between the animals that sometimes allows goats to flourish among sheep.

There are precisely two types of people who inhabit this planet: children of God and potential children of God. You might say, "I know someone who would never be a Christian" but if you really truly believe they have absolutely no chance, you deny the awesome power of Christ. The marvelous thing about goats, at least metaphorically, is that they can become sheep. "You never know" could not be truer.

I think that the true difference between sheep and goats can be delved by looking at Phil 2:10-11. Perhaps the only real difference between sheep and goats is that when every tongue confesses Jesus, it won't be the first time for the sheep.

How God Doles out Grace

There is a wonderful parable in Matt 20:1-16 about the wages a householder paid to his workers. I won't write the entire parable, but instead ask the question, when you consider the housekeeper, was he fair? You might sympathize with the workers who worked all day and got paid the same amount that those who only worked one hour received. You might think that they deserved more than those who started later.

Every one of us was given grace by God according to the generosity of Christ (Ehp 4:7). We also know that we can't earn grace or God's gifts. What we have earned is death, though what we've been given instead is life (Rom 6:23). We've heard that we aren't getting what we deserve so many times that we can forget just what we do deserve. God gives grace to people because they need it, not because they deserve it.

This way of thinking is not something we are taught as children. Play fair is often the mantra of parents with multiple children. When a parent doesn't share with equal measures, they potentially stir up jealousy in one or more of their children. This can lead to favoritism and cause resentment among children. But we are not children, and God does not play favorites.

When we think that we deserve God's grace, we set ourselves against the working of grace in our lives (James 4:6). God doesn't care what we think is fair, instead He supplies all our needs. Have you ever questioned why God blesses someone who isn't living right? Does God seem to bless them more than He blesses you? Is this fair?

Let's consider the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). Which brother deserved the favor of his father more? Which brother had the greater need? These questions have obvious answers, but let's take this just a little further and put yourself into the roll of one of the brothers. Do you relate more to the younger son or to the older son? What if you were to put yourself in the place of both brothers displaced by a period of time? Haven't we all had both our prodigal moments as well as times we question why God does the things that He does? Does our perception of the older son being angry with how his father treated the younger son change when we place ourselves in both positions? After years of dedicating your life to God and living a faithful life, do you resent God's mercy on you when you first repented of your sin? Of course not. Why is it then that we resent God's wonderful mercies on anyone?

Anyway, grace is not something we always completely understand. Consider this, if God seems to be blessing someone who has many problems in a great way, and you don't have nearly as many problems as them, isn't having fewer problems also God's grace working just in a different way? The way God works is not always apparent in our lives. The trials that we haven't gone through and the paths that we didn't walk can be just as valid an operation of grace as when He brings us through a trial.

In Luke 7:41-43, Jesus asks the question of what person would appreciate forgiveness more, one who was forgiven a little or one who was forgiven a lot? Jesus said that those who have been forgiven greatly will love the person who forgave them more. Is it possible that these people are more open to the moving of God than those who have been forgiven less? I'm not sure, but I know it doesn't have to be this way. You see God forgives us as individuals, not as corporate entities. We all need complete forgiveness; thankfully God doesn't ration his forgiveness or his grace. He gives us gifts freely and generously.

So maybe, just maybe, could it be that we are the cause of our own consternation? Could it be that maybe we don't accept the gifts of God as freely as they are given. Search your heart and you will know; this is what it means to have a contrite heart. Keep in mind the other half of James 4:6. God gives grace to His humble, contrite, and undeserving children. Don't take this away from yourself.

The Undoctrine

I use a bold title to emphasize a simple concept. I realize that my understanding is far from perfect. I came to this conclusion a long time ago that some part of my doctrinal stance is wrong. There is no possible way that I could have 100% of the truth 100% of the time. Because of this, I want to learn everything I can so that the things I have wrong I can correct, but I also do not suffer under the delusion that while in this mortal coil I can have all of the truth. Even the Apostle Paul didn't claim to have all of the truth (1 Cor 13:9,12).

The thing is, I don't know what doctrines I have wrong. I do want to understand every good thing I can about God, but at the same time, I don't expect to ever have an answer to every question, I'm not even looking for that. It takes a pressure off knowing that I don't have to understand everything in order to be saved. Instead we see that the saved eventually will know even as we are known (1 Cor 13:10).

Expanding on this idea, what applies to me applies to everyone. I realize that there is no one in my church, the pastor included, that possesses all of the truth. My church has some doctrines that they hold to and teach that are wrong, how could they not? There is a flip side to this too though. There are those in my church that understand things that I don't, so in the church there is opportunity to grow in knowledge (2 Pet 3:18).

Expanding again, what applies to me and to my church applies to our group of people. There is no way that our group could possess all of the truth. The ministry in our group are divided on doctrine. What use is the threshing floor if everyone agreed on everything? Additionally, if there is a disagreement on a doctrine, can you honestly say that at least one of the parties disagreeing aren't in the wrong? Even if the ministry was in complete agreement on everything, that would be no assurance of accuracy, merely of being wrong (1 Cor 8:2).

Am I trying to destroy and lay waste to our heritage? No, instead you should be asking yourself what my intent is. Merely this: Humility. "God keep me humble" is a truly precarious prayer indeed; He's just might do it. It takes a truly humble person to stand up and say the words "I am wrong". This is the difference between someone who is searching for truth and someone who is defending their position.

Do we lose anything by admitting that we are wrong? I ask you this, if a father wrongs his children or a husband wrongs his wife, does he lose their respect by apologizing to them? No, the opposite is true. By admitting our faults instead of pretending we don't have any, we stay humble, teachable, open to the moving of God. The alternative is to be mired in arrogance and self-righteousness (1 Cor 8:1).

I learned early in my Christian walk that knowledge and understanding can be a trap. Someone who is knowledgeable can be easily tempted to rely on that understanding. We've been admonished not to do this though (Prov 3:5-7). We need to acknowledge and rely upon God; He will direct our paths. I'm so thankful that as a schoolchild I was made to memorize that passage, it's never left me. When I rely solely on myself, I am building on sand, and when the trials of this life surround me, what I've built will collapse because it has no foundation (Matt 7:24-25).

So do we throw away everything that we are and everything that we have? Of course not. We are built together upon truth with Jesus as our cornerstone and what kind of fool would I be to ever suggest throwing that away (Eph 2:20-22)? Instead I want to have a proper focus. I want to be Christ centered. Where our focus should be is on the Love of God and not on our own understanding.

The third verse of the old hymn The Love of God is such a beautiful thing, I've included it here in its entirety:

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

With a love like that, how can we refrain from talking about it every chance that we get? That should always have top billing over any doctrine or man's understanding. For you see, the love of God fills the gaps of my understanding and I become known of him (1 Cor 8:3). I'd rather be known than know anyday, that is my undoctrine.