Questions, Questions, Questions

I read the Bible all the time. Every day in fact. And after all these years I seem to have more questions than answers. My only real conclusion is that God is more than a mystery with each new day! And so is His Book. Many of us quote from it. Many of us use it to make a point or to prove something we strongly believe. Some of us use it to pronounce judgment on each other or the world. And the scariest yet, is that some of us use it to create our own strange doctrine. But to find an individual who actually uses the Bible to seek after God is rare. Why is that?

Mankind is brazen in his stubbornness. We would rather feel ourselves right about something than be obedient to the ways of God. In fact, we hate obedience. Wasn’t that what took Eve down? We look into the Book and are able to list all the faults of others and yet we are completely unable to perceive any of our own. That is not why the Holy Spirit gave us the Book. The gift of the Bible is for the searcher, the one who seeks after God. There is no other purpose!

This should create many questions in the heart of both the one who seeks truth and the one who has found the answer to be Christ. Jesus Christ is not the end of the quest but only the beginning. That is why we pick up the Book and open it every day. Psalm 53:2-3 (NASB) “God has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there is anyone who understands, who seeks after God. Every one of them has turned aside; together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.” This statement comes straight from the Father Himself about us! We have corrupted our relationship with the Father, with the Son, with the Holy Spirit, with the Holy Scriptures, and certainly with each other. It is time to stop what we are doing and change our course.

The misinterpretation of the Scriptures turns us away from God. And the misuse of the Scriptures turns us away from each other. This is what we find in today’s Church. We argue and split up over dogmas and doctrines. Do the lost even stand a chance with us as God’s representatives? Do we dare look at ourselves as Jesus described in Matthew 23:15? “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” These are very harsh words from Christ. But it is up to each of us to search and see if any of this is true about us.

We are always searching the Bible for answers when we should be seeking questions. When we search for answers we can conclude the matter and tie everything up with a neat little bow. We can then settle back and applaud ourselves. When we seek questions then we find truth. The Father shuns the one full of answers but reveals Himself to the one full of questions.

Which will you be?