God or the Bible?

I am only just beginning to realize how many assumptions we Christians operate under as part of our religious "beliefs." Is this faith or foolishness? Are we making logical leaps into the largeness of God or making safe, easy assumptions to make Christianity a comfortable religion? Or is there perhaps a middle ground that I have not yet discovered? I don't know, but some of the assumptions that we've made honestly bothered me when I realized exactly what they were.

The biggest piece of this for me was the realization of the complete dependence we have on the Bible, to the exclusion of dependence on God apart from the Bible. We are so intent on hearing from God through the Bible that we spend relatively little time listening for Him in any other way in our lives. It's like God is not any bigger than what has been revealed in the Bible, and so we cannot look critically at the Bible for fear that we will take out the cornerstone of our faith and our little towers will come crashing down in a heap on top of us.

It's not that I want to tear apart the Bible or that I am filled with some deep-rooted mistrust for the Bible, but I think we ought to have the freedom to question it and look critically at it. If we are never allowed to do this than we can never truly accept with our own faith, but we will be simply taking it on the faith of others, which is even weaker than their original foundation. We are building our faith buildings on shadows, and if we do not begin reconstruction soon our buildings will collapse.

If one's faith is not based on the Bible, then where does one find the basis for faith in God? The church? The testimony of other Christians? No, I would say the biggest foundation for my faith is the real, unarguable presence of God in my life. That is the kind of foundation that cannot be shaken by criticism of my particular beliefs, my Bible, my church, or my anything else. No one can take away the very real way that God has revealed Himself to me in my life, and that will forever be my biggest reason for continuing to believe fully and completely in God.

I think that this is hard for many because we have not been raised in a Christian culture that promotes listening to God or hearing from God. This Christian culture is so pragmatic, so scientific, so theoretical, so logical, that the highly spiritual, emotion, and invisible side of faith has been pushed to the side in this rush for explainable, logical, reasonable Christianity. So it is much easier to say, "God is who He is in the Bible, that's all we're allowed to know of Him, so don't bother to try to know more, just settle for that piece of God."

And it is even harder for them to hear me say that the Bible needs to take a back seat to God. The Bible has become so sacred to us that the statement I just made in the last sentence probably sounds pretty heretical to most Christians, but I will stand by it. The Bible needs to take a back seat to God, because He is so much bigger, better, and more powerful than the Bible. As awesome as I believe the Bible is, there is no way you could fit an infinite almighty God into a finite little book.

Don't get me wrong, the Bible is a wonderful, awesome, incredible, priceless gift from God to us, and it has a special use and purpose that nothing else could fill in quite the same way. I am so grateful that God gave us the Bible, but I refuse to stop there. I believe that letting God communicate to us only through the Bible would be like only letting my father communicate to me through writing. Absurd! I live every day with my father and He wants to speak to me way more personally than just through writing to me every day, and I believe that is even truer of God, the perfect father.

So, what if God does want us to keep reading our Bibles, but He wants something else too? What if God wants to talk to us in a much more personal, intimate way every day? Maybe even multiple times a day? Wouldn't that be just awesome, to get to spend personal, one-on-one time with this incredible God of ours? Wouldn't that just blow your mind? So are you willing to give it a shot just to see whether or not He would talk to you if you began consistently giving Him opportunities to? From personal experience, it's well worth any time or effort you put into it, and then some, because God loves you that much and He wants to be talking to you and loving you in a personal way.