The One Reason You Should Never Read A Blog
I love to share what God is teaching me in life-how I struggle with eating healthy foods or why I believe that as parents we are often much too harsh with our kids. Usually, I feel compelled to spill it out so I can drink it back in. But I also feel the weighty responsibility of speaking accurately, handling the Word of God with reverence.
I can’t tell you how many times I have wanted to support a brother or sister in Christ as a writer, but cringed at the message they were sharing. A message that sounded good. Logical. Perhaps witty and hilarious. Almost Biblical. And yet, searching the Bible for myself, I see how it was twisted....just….so.
Just enough to justify a stance that didn’t sit well with my soul. Just enough to be popular with their thousands or millions of readers. Just enough to make my heart drop. And just enough to make me wonder if I should ever type another word again lest I ever stray from what I know is True and Pure and Lovely.
Maybe it’s the English teacher in me-the decade of reading with a critical eye and a questioning spirit. Maybe it’s the church background I grew up in-where you examined carefully what people said and taught to ensure that it was in line with the Scriptures.
Maybe it’s that I simply long to be like the Bereans who didn’t take what someone said as gospel truth until they could examine it for themselves. And they weren’t just dealing with any “someone”. They were listening to the apostle Paul and Silas. They were pillars of the Christian faith-Paul authoring many of the books of the New Testament after a radical encounter with God while he was on his way to persecute Christians.
But they didn’t believe it until they could see it. See it right there for themselves in Scripture.
And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul's message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth. Acts 17:11
I know that bloggers often write about topics that are not “black and white” in Scripture. I do too. But Lord, help me if I ever write in such a way that gives a reader permission to take a stance, an attitude, or a step towards pride, self-sufficiency, or ambivalence when it comes to sin or how we treat others.
My prayer is that you will always come away from reading Mother Of Knights with a clearer, brighter, and more accurate measure of Who God is and how we should live in light of that truth.
If you come away thinking more about me-how silly I am, how funny or humorous I can be, how skilled or atrocious you think my writing is, or how “good” of a person I am-then just stop reading now. I know it’s okay to look at someone’s fruit and encourage them and build them up, and to recognize God’s work in their lives or their particular God-given gifts, but I always want that to be secondary to first seeing MORE of GOD in everything I do. It already bothers me how much the word "I" has been used in this post!!
Every time I sit in this tiny room, with my swivel chair and cup of coffee, I bow and I pray that God would speak through my heart to yours. I don’t EVER want the glory. I don’t ever want to be wishy-washy or lukewarm or sacrifice Truth to be popular.
I just wanted you to know.
To know that nothing matters more than knowing God and loving Him so that you can best love others. You can’t do that if you aren’t discerning for yourself what God has to say. It’s okay to be entertained and to laugh and to debate the gray areas, I know. I simply felt compelled today, to urge you to be a Berean too.
Filter carefully, the things you read. Even when they come from solid teachers and leaders. Don’t take my word for it either-use it to get you thinking and then examine my thoughts for yourselves.
Take on this attitude for yourselves when you are giving advice to your friends or your kids. Consider what someone is suggesting you to do and then pray about it. Seek the Lord first, and everything else will fall into place as you go to the Source of all knowledge. God does indeed use others to teach us, spur us onward towards love and good deeds, and to bring clarity to our questions in life. But you can never go wrong by going straight to the Source Himself and studying His Word on your own.
My prayer today is that each of us will grow in wisdom and discernment and that our lives will be lived to the fullest in the light of God’s Word.
It’s always more than enough.
YOUR TURN: Do you think this is a danger for us now that so many articles and posts are shared on the internet?
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