Drawn and Quartered

I've been thinking lately about the stretching exercises God puts us through. Street evangelism, working with the handicapped, prison visits, and talking to the "weird" people after Sunday services. I've decided that He must know what He's doing...'cause I sure don't.

I'm from a fairly conservative theological background...not quite Pentecostal, but on that side nonetheless. In that environment I felt like the liberal of the group, based on my views pertaining to things Scripture doesn't speak on directly. At the time I felt like God was stretching me to remember that Jesus was radical. He ate with prostitutes, tax-collecters, and "sinners". I always thought it was funny that there were always quotes around "sinners" (might just have been my Bible). It's like he was looked down on for associating with people who were considered sinners, whether they were or not.

Anyway, I always felt like I was supposed to let people know that the old way isn't automatically the best way just because it's old. I mean, for us the old way isn't even the old way! Just a couple centuries ago our way didn't even exist. And a few hundred years before that the way we separated from didn't exist, and so on and so forth. New isn't necessarily better, but neither is old.

Well, I now feel the pull in the opposite direction. My new church is not the most liberal Christians denomination in America, but they are moving towards that end. Politics aren't a concern for me within the church, but theology is. And as time passes it seems that people are moving farther away from the basics and giving less and less authority to Scripture. Now I feel the need to stop and say, "New isn't better just because it's new!"

Just because something is socially acceptable doesn't mean it's morally right. And always remember, if you go to the Bible and something doesn't seem right, it's probably you.

Keep the main thing the main thing.