More Whatifs...

More Whatifs….
We’ve been hearing the phrase "Jesus is the way and every other way is not the way."
This is not ‘politically correct.’ ‘Enlightened’ people are meant to believe that "All paths lead to heaven… if you want to believe in heaven… If you don’t want to believe in heaven… well that’s OK too… what ever works for you… so long as you’re happy." or "There are many pathways to heaven, just choose the one that’s best for you."
But Jesus says "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father (gets to heaven) except through me."
Jesus is the way and every other way is not the way. A well-taught Christian will stand very firmly on this. Christians will not argue among themselves about this. We accept this as truth.
Here’s the whatif…
"There are many paths to healing"… You know where I’m going with this. Already the alarm bells are ringing….
Whatif… Jesus is the way and every other way is not the way. Whatif… God is the healer and the only way to God the Healer is through Jesus Christ, who himself bore our weakness, took up our infirmities, carried our diseases.
Whatif… our belief that there are many paths to healing is viewed by God to be idolatry, an affront to his provision of grace through his son Jesus Christ. An attempt to fix ourselves. Man fixing man, rather than God fixing man. An unauthorized tampering with creation by one who did not create it. (Even car dealers get cranky about this sort of thing…)
Whatif… the reason many of us are sick and even dying is because we have failed to recognize the ‘body broken for us’. 1Cor.11.29? We recognize the blood spilled, but do we recognize the body broken? Do we distinguish between the two? Should we? What about the stripes? We know our sins are forgiven, but Psalm 103 says "forget not ALL his benefits – who forgives ALL our sins, AND heals ALL our diseases, who redeems our life from the pit and … more and more and more…."
We get very unhappy when we hear a "Jesus +" gospel, which is no gospel at all. Whatif… the same were true of Jesus + a doctor.., Jesus + medicine.., Jesus + herbal remedies… Whatif a prophet of God came and told us in no uncertain terms that we are first worshipping at the temple, leaving our sacrifices and then scurrying off to Baal… to cover all the bases? Jesus plus…. Would we stone him? Would we say he’d lost his mind? Would we call him divisive? Offensive?
Whatif James… one of the founding fathers of the church gave this instruction… "Is anyone sick? He should call the elders…. And then… just to cover all the bases, pursue every other avenue (pathway) to healing you can find and/or afford."
Whatif… a very famous, very well respected, but very seldom read man would write these words for all to see. "Divine Healing is a Command… Divine healing ceases to be a mere privilege. It is the divine prescription for disease, and no obedient Christian can safely ignore it. Any other method of dealing with sickness is unauthorized. This is God’s plan. This makes faith simple and easy. We have only to obey in childlike confidence: God will fulfill."
Would we follow him, would we respect him still? It’s pretty bold. Pretty different… Bet you’d be surprised who wrote this…. (it wasn’t me…)
Whatif… like the learners test… we think we know it all…?
These are the questions I’m asking.

so many thoughts, so few posts...??

I borrowed a Sunday school class today. Such fun! Junior High kids are fun. As you know... I work in a vehicle registry office, therefore, I have the priveledge of administering learners license exams to all the wonderful 14 year old hopefulls that come in. I always ask them if they studied, they always say.."Yah, a bit..." and then they go at it. 9 times out of 10, they fail. Often by a lot! I ask them what went wrong and they say, "Well... I didn't know THAT was going to be on the test!"

They figure they know it all. They've been in cars all their lives. They've watched their parents drive. They know to drive on the right side of the road. They know what a stop sign looks like and what to do when they see one. They figure out the yeild signs and the T-intersection signs. They start to learn about lights and lanes and figure they know it all. They are operating in the realm of their experience.

But the parents don't know about the graduated licensing program that came into effect 4 years ago. They don't know that the demerits are different, the tolerances are different... the rules are different. The parents don't know that there will be questions about license suspensions and re-instatements, they figure (and so do the kids) that it's all common sense. They are telling the kids that you can get 15 demerits before they pull your license. That's true for the parents... but not true for the kids who will have a newly implemented graduated license which only allows 8. The kids are taking the parents word for it, and not studying. It is in the book

Back to the Sunday School... I asked them why they would study a drivers manual...and they said...so they could drive... But truthfully...they could drive anyway, some of them do (on gravel roads, or around their yards). So why study? So they could drive legitimately, within the law, so they would drive safely, not posing a danger to themselves or others. Not knowing which lane to drive in causes some serious safety hazards, but... you don't need a book to teach you what experience has already taught you.

The trouble comes when you come across something you have not experienced. I have never driven a traffic circle, never even seen one... but they have to know how to, if they're going to pass the test. That's where the book comes in handy. Really this post is not about learners tests. It's about experience.

I held up a Bible and asked why they would study this... There were no satisfactory answers. And, truth be told (which they did tell) they don't read their Bibles at all. They have watched their parents do life. Just like driving. They know that 'in the beginning God...", they know about Noah's ark, there something about Moses, then there were kings... David & Goliath, some prophets or something with funny names you can't pronounce, and then Jesus. He was born in a manger, he told stories, he walked on water, he died and then he rose again. He's coming back some time far, far in the future... That ought to do it.... Why study what experience has already taught me. I'll get by... how hard can it be?

We're no different. Do we study the word of God? or do we go on what experience has taught us. What if there's more out there than what we've experienced, more out there than what we've heard about? Whatif there's more to it than "pie-in-the-sky-when-I-die...but only if you get your chores done..." Whatif what our parents/chuch/sunday school teachers/taught us, or the common thought of the day, isn't true? How will we find out the truth? Whatif the word of God contradicts common thought, what if it contradicts experience? Whatif there are promises God has made that we have never heard?