20 Questions

I am in the middle of a fabulous conversation with a friend. She is a girl who thinks deeply, questions openly, and doesn't accept canned answers. I have great respect for the way she approaches life. That said, we disagree on almost everything. Talking with her provides a great opportunity to really think through what I believe and why I believe it. We've been having a discussion related to one of my previous posts (Level Ground). She liked my last comment enough to encourage me to copy and paste it as an actual post. So, here it is (you can see the conversation in its entirety in the comment section of the post Level Ground):

Erin said:

Well, we certainly can't base our view of truth on feelings. Sometimes we feel really good about things that are totally wrong. . . Like a girl who is in love with a guy who treats her like crud. Sometimes our hearts and emotions misguide us. I might feel good about my interpretations of certain passages of Scripture - but I'm basing my understanding on a lot more than feelings. I am studying those passages to try and understand what the author originally intended. Just like any writer, the authors of the bible wrote intentionally. They were trying to make a point. If you want to know what a particular section is talking about you need to know about the author, about the people he was writing to, and about the cultural issues that were prevalent at that time. If you know those things then you can gain a pretty darn good understanding of the overall principles that underscore the writing.

Its easy to leave a church on a Sunday morning having never felt the active presence of God. Sometimes there is a void in the service - a lack of passion, transparency, or authenticity. Sometimes its because our own hearts are hardened or turned away from God himself. But don't reject the Christian understanding of the bible based on fallen, sinful people who sometimes misrepresent the gospel it preaches. . . and don't question its validity because you feel better about a different way. God's word goes against a lot of common, accepted things in our culture. Not everything in the bible is going to 'feel' good - but that doesn't mean it isn't truth.