QUESTIONS WITHOUT CENSURE

I have lived over three quarters of a century as I write this. All of my life has been spent with an awareness of a supernatural God with whom I was encouraged to have a relationship through faith, and whom I truly believe I have come to know. My knowledge is still minimal, even though I have spent an entire lifetime informing others how to meet God, and trust God and live for God. In a sense God is enigmatic, unknowable. The incarnation of Christ is an exquisite gift. For suddenly in earth time, invisible God made himself known to humanity by becoming what we are, human. Biographies about Jesus were written by persons who lived with him. Yet since deity inspired them to write, their words became his autobiography. As Jesus lived and taught and prayed, he informed contemporaries and me about eternal and celestial certainties.  He made it clear that he is one of a trinity of persons who comprise God. He called God his father, and taught his disciples to enjoy that familiarity too. He told listeners who believed in God, to also believe in him. His biographers told of hearing God’s voice from heaven announcing that Jesus was his beloved son in whom he was very pleased. Jesus told disciples that he himself was God, and that he and the father are one. He said that being able to see him was the same as seeing the Father. When he knew he was about to die, he promised that he would send another comforter, the same as himself, whom he named as the Holy Spirit who now would not only be with his followers as he himself had been, but would dwell inside them. With the indwelling Spirit, living Christlike lives became a valid opportunity. Being holy as God is holy was once a command, and now became a probability. This assurance is gifted to every person who takes Jesus at his word. He came that we might have life that lasts forever.

I only know about God what he himself has divulged, and that's a library of information.  Even so, I said that my knowledge of God is minimal because the more that I learn about God, the more inquiries arise in my mind. Not questions born from skepticism but rather from interest. God encourages my freedom to ask questions by being ever ready to provide responses. His responses come from my reading and re-reading scripture, and reading other respected students and scholars, and dialoguing with other seekers who can embrace questions without censure.  

STAYING RIGHTEOUS AS A PERSON & AS A CHURCH

We are already fifteen years into the 21st century and shifting sociological values in Canada, and in British Columbia have redefined life to an extent that individual Christians and the Church must consider these changes when answering for themselves how they fit. What kind of responsible life decisions should the individual believer make in order to responsibly react to society? How should the church in a community meet people who are affected by cultural modifications to morality, sexuality, ethnicity, family and economy?

Right now, half of all children are spending a portion of their lives in a single-parent home. One out of three married couples with children, have a stepchild or an adopted child. Most children grow up with mothers at work outside the home. The most rapidly growing segment of homemakers is unmarried men who live alone or head families. Older people as well as young singles are seeking alternatives to traditional marriage. What were regarded once as 'non-families' have received legal recognition as families and these include unmarried heterosexual couples, gay and lesbian couples as well as friends who intentionally live together. Pressure is constant to redefine 'family' as a group of people who live and care for each other.

So here is my compendium of questions for the day. As an individual Christian and as a church, do you still champion the nuclear family as an ideal? If you are no longer attending an organized local church, how are you maintaining a lock on God's values for family, morality, society, and gospel? If you have been contemplating separating yourself from a local church, what blueprint do you have for preserving righteousness personally and in your family? If you lead a church or are a member of a local congregation, what roles do you want the church to have within the community? Do you provide family services that take into consideration the children and adults who are dealing with divorce, single parenting, remarriage and blended families? Do you feel that to be relevant, you must capitulate to societal values and abandon traditionally held moral values?

INTELLIGENT RISKS

I will assume that if you have been attending church for a long time, you have heard a substantial portion of the Bible’s narratives and teaching sections. With that background, have you given yourself permission to explore the reliability and believability of the stories, that is, to pursue valid clarifications to hard questions about God?

Will intellectual inquiry kill your faith? Is that a concern? If the entire bible is God’s inspired word, shouldn’t the entire volume stand any authentic scrutiny? None of us believe that God wants us to set our intellect on ‘dumb’ simply to maintain faith do we?