Our tendency as humans is to pull things down to our level of comfort. It seems inherently natural to rationalize that which we haven’t experienced by adjusting the message to something more palatable. We either add to or take away from the message to make it fit our perceived notions or to align with our experience in life.
“Most people heed [God’s] words only to the extent that they make sense. … Jesus spoke a lot of words that don’t make sense on the surface. He gave us authority over the enemy, but we question it because we don’t always seem to experience it. He made extravagant promises about answering our prayers, but we have a hard time believing them and feel compelled to add some fine print that explains them. … Jesus never insisted that His followers understand Him. He insisted that they trust Him.” – Chris Tiegreen
We do this to God’s word, often without realizing what we are doing. It is not usually a conscious effort, but rather a subconscious adjustment of beliefs. But, God warns that in so doing we limit what He would share – we limit revelation.
Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Mark 4:24 And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given.
When we adjust God’s word to our experience we limit what we get. We receive what we expect from Him. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts. It is a vicious cycle, it a downward slope leading to less and less. As we expect less, we receive less.
“I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ.” (Galatians 3:5)
Why don’t we see more miracles? Perhaps because we don’t believe we will. We have two millennia worth of rationalizations to explain all the times we haven’t seen one when we expected to, and the explanations may undermine our faith. – Chris Tiegreen
There is an old tradition that is robbing the church of the intended power of God. We focus more on a word, more on knowledge, albeit limited knowledge than on He and His power.
1 Corinthians 4:20 For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.
We do this to our detriment. We limit the power of God in our lives, and as a result, the power of God to change lives. We, in effect, reach up and pull God’s word down to our level of experience and expectation. In so doing, we compromise the plain meaning of scripture.
“The real issue … is not that it is pleasant, but whether it is true … tradition can be the hindrance to Truth.” – Marvin Rosenthal
“Modern man, instead of attempting to raise himself to Truth, seeks to drag Truth down to his own level.” – Rene Guenon
We should seek God to pull us up to His Word, not His Word down to our experience.
This blog site is focused on exposing subtle false doctrine and old traditions within the Church that are undermining the Christian walk in the fullness God intended. It is about seeking Truth – Verum Quaeritis; especially, Biblical Truth – Biblicis Veritum. Too often our thinking is tainted by centuries of erroneous doctrine and beliefs – Church Tradition.
God seems to have placed me on a decade-long journey to expose these false beliefs – Old Traditions robbing the Church of power. The Posts and Pages in this blog come from hundreds of pages of writing since 2011. These writings center on Truth – finding the balance between adding to or taking away from God’s word.
It remains a challenge to not “throw the baby out with the bathwater“, as they say. The journey has required a great deal of adjustment in my Christian walk as nearly everything I believed or thought I believed, was and is being challenged. Likewise, I am confident it will in those who are willing, as well.
Follow this blog to follow my journey.