A Sigh of Remembrance

Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

I find myself down the road a little way.  As I look back I see many times I have come to decisions that would impact my life, some decisions I made, other decisions were made for me.

Why question the long standing traditions that have been handed down?  For me it is not that I wish to diminish those traditions or to change the ancient landmarks to meet the whims of the world.  Rather, it is our responsibility to make sure in our own minds the things we have been taught.

I don't know where my shoes
are, can I wear my sneakers?

I cannot be an effective preacher or teacher if the authority with which I preach is found in my parents’ belief system or my grandparents’ belief system or my own belief system except where those beliefs line up with the Word of God.  The Word of God is our final authority.  The Bereans were commended in Acts that they received the Word with gladness and then searched the Scripture to find out if the Apostle Paul was teaching them correctly. 

I recall the first time in my life that man put a question mark where God had put a period. 

Ours was a Christian home, typical in nature for the 1980’s.  Hiding one dress shoe on Sunday morning hoping to wear my sneakers was standard operating procedure.  It never worked.  Our seats were in the first row of the left of three sections.  Dad and Mom sat behind us ready with a stern whisper of correction should we decide to lie down on the seats or enjoy some brotherly elbowing for position.  Dad lead the Music, Mom played the piano.  At times it seemed we spent as much time at church as at home, but we were good with that.  Room to run, a lake to throw stones in, peeper frogs to catch, hoping they peed on our brothers and not on us, and the skill it took to properly smash, with open hand, a wasp on the wooden banister without getting stung.  Three to thrive was the norm, the assembly line of boys folding bulletins, the funny cartoon my Dad would pick out.  All these memories and more changed one Sunday Evening.

No Seat belts either.

We visited a different church.

Suddenly, as 12 or 13 year old boy, life was different.  As if I was sitting in the back of an old station wagon, I saw my friends fading from view as my life was carried in a different direction.

With this new direction came many new things.  New friends, new girls, new music, new place, new activities.  But of all the new things there is one that stands out above all the rest.  Something that I had never dealt with before.  Something that I never even knew existed.  Something that would change my life in a drastic way.  Something that should have been a positive influence on me for the rest of my life.  But it was not.

A new Bible.

For the first time in my life I got to choose a what God said.  Camp was just around the corner and I could memorize verses to raise money to help pay my way.  But these verses were different than I remembered.  I had been memorizing verses most of my life, this was going to be easy until they changed the words on me.  They let us quote from which ever version we wanted.

I had been taught that the Word of God was the final authority in my life.

Now instead of ‘Trust and Obey’, it was ‘Choose and Obey’.

Yea, hath God Said? 

Long dissertation on which if any Bible is truly God’s Word is not the point of this blog.  But when given the option today of any Bible you choose from the ‘Gender Neutral’ Bible, to the ‘Reader’s Digest’ Bible, to the ‘Message’, to the ‘Living Bible’, to the NIV, to the KJB, and everything in between, it is no longer about what God has said in His Word, but which ‘word’ do I like best.  Regardless of the debate of ‘oldest’, ‘best’, ‘majority’, ‘Sinaiticus’, ‘Vaticanus’, or ‘Westcott and Hort’, the problem is this: Man takes the place of God when Man chooses what God says.  God has promised to preserve His inspired Word, therefore it is available to us.  The debate on the Bible is lengthy and I don’t intend to have it here.  But those who will debate the multiplicity of versions must answer this question.  Which ONE Bible is actually God’s Word.  The versions are different the words are not the same and Jesus (the Word) is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  One of these versions must be God’s word because of His promise to preserve it.  Which one?

I will not blame my time in the ‘far country’ on my parents, or church, or school.  It was a willful act of disobedience to go away from the Lord and the blame lies with me.

But I returned to the Lord with questions.  I will not take the preachers word, or a school’s word, or my families word, I want my answers from God’s Word.

I do not have all the answers, in fact, I probably don’t even know all the questions, but to the best of my ability I will make God’s ideas my ideas.  God said it, that settles it, I believe it.

The path I took away from God led to heartache and want, the path that brought me back has given peace and comfort. 

I have many dear friends in the ministry, we may not agree on everything, but we can agree that neither they nor I am the final authority.  God’s Word is the Final Authority.

I look back with a sigh of remembrance of where I have been and how far God has brought me and I thank Him that He has enabled me and counted me faithful putting me in the ministry.