Just finished...

I just finished this Bible Study, but my thoughts are a bit jumbled. So, please be patient with me as I sort them out...

I think I'll back up first. A few years ago, I read an amazing book called Seeing Through Cynicism by Dick Keyes. It hit me hard--like a brick! And so many lights went on for me. I was able to see that my struggle with many mainstream Christian books stemmed from growing feelings of cynicism about the "church", mass popular Christianity, and mega churches. It was as if there were books that gathered cultish like followings (which always makes me think of brainwashing) and mega churches that were/are about checking in on Sunday and putting in your time without any accountability and personal relationships--with God or others. See? Can't you just hear my cynicism in those few thoughts? I saw it and didn't know what to do about it. My cynicism was beginning to permeate my entire world view--which is deadly! I read the book by Dick Keyes and it really helped me see what was going on in my head and my heart.

The book also really helped me think about how to tackle it. One of the ways I found that was wise to do that was to stay out of Christian bookstores. I know that may sound funny, but the advertising and displays had begun to make me uncomfortable. I remember walking into Lifeway in Georgia and seeing a display for The Purpose Driven Life that said "Why wait until your 75 to have the life you want? Have it now." or something very similar to that affect. That's not biblical at all! Sanctification is a process and we can't choose to rush it--God works in all things in His timing, not ours. At least that's what I believe from what I've read in the Word. It's our culture that tells us we should be able to have everything we want now, not the Bible.

The second thing that I began to do was to read books by people I trusted--who's theology I knew I could trust. I had found that it seemed like a lot of authors were asking me to interpret the Bible and read into it--read things into it that weren't there. Asking me to imagine how people were feeling. I understand there was a purpose to this, but it didn't feel right and this is why... about 5 or so years ago, I read Francine Rivers series of books on women in the Bible. She wrote a story about each of these 5 women and then at the end had a short Bible study about the verses actually in the Word. I was astonished to realize how much I had read into the story about Bathsheba and how much wasn't there that I thought was! It made me realize that I needed to be careful to take what I read back to the Word and make sure that it is biblical. Much of the fallacies that I had thought came from inferring about the feelings of the people in the stories. In doing this over the years, I saw that this put the focus of the stories on the people and not on God. So, after all of this, and much pondering, I arrived at the conclusion that it was wise to read books by authors that I trusted and to be careful about inferring/reading into the Bible.

My second coping strategy has run into a few little bumps as I've participated in the blog book review programs because I've had the opportunity to read a lot of books by authors that I haven't known, but for the most part, I have really been pleased with the books that I've read and the few that I haven't, made me go back to the Word and really search out the truth. This summer I read these books published by NavPress: Money Strategies for Tough Times by Matt Bell, Trusting God by Jerry Bridges, and Paul Miller's new book about prayer. All three were excellent and I am so thankful that I had the chance to read them!

An Undivided Heart is also published by NavPress and it is the first that I haven't been so crazy about. This study, An Undivided Heart, is an 8 week study (though it took me about 4 weeks) about drawing closer to the heart of God with "an undivided heart", loving Him, and letting Him love us. I have never read a book by this author, Rita J. Platt before. The chapters were short and very doable to do one a week even if you're pretty busy. I just did a few questions each day. The format of the book is fine, though I longed for lines to write on when there were questions instead of blank space. But, that's really just a matter of personal preference.

As I got into this book, I noticed that the author often asked me, as the reader, to imagine or infer what was happening in a given scene in the book. I know that there is a place for this, but I'm not really keen about doing that. And she asks the reader to do that a lot.

But, there was another thing that made me unsettled as I went through this study--because it is what has helped me fight my cynicism and struggles to trust and listen to what authors have to say. The authors and people that she references are people I don't know, with the exception of Henri Nouwen. She even referenced the movie Nights in Rodanthe and how the main character describes love. I stayed away from that movie because it is about a woman who falls in love with another man while separated from her husband and who finds that she needs to do what she should do to be happy (http://www.pluggedin.com/videos/2008/Q4/NightsinRodanthe.aspx). I know I have a limited scope of knowledge and there are many authors I don't know about, but when I tried to find one of the people online that she quoted, I couldn't.

I do believe that God had a purpose for this book in my life--whether it was to challenge me to look for the truth in the Word or whether it was to make me realize that I need to draw closer to Jesus. And I have seen both of those things because of doing this study. But, is it one I would recommend? No. I think there are other studies I would recommend first. But, is it okay? Yes. And I could tell that the author loves the Lord dearly.