Walking With the Word

Dear friend,

More and more I am drawn to the reality of life in Jesus and not to the theory, and not necessarily to the strict adherence of orthodox belief systems. I read somewhere that blindly following orthodoxy leads to unthinking, because it does not encourage one to think and to learn in order to gain understanding—instead by being told what to think and how to understand something, it would thus make you a blind follower of whatever brand of theology you hear the most.

Don’t misunderstand me, orthodoxy is a safe place to be, and having clear understanding of doctrine and biblical principles is vital, but it can also keep you shackled. My contention is that you must be willing to dive in to Scripture and challenge your closely held beliefs and what you hear or read with an open mind and an open heart; we must be prepared to be wrong and be willing to think differently about things. It is always distressing when you see Christians going at it, hammer and tong, polarising one another and getting nowhere; winning arguments; losing fellowship.

We mustn’t compromise to appease, thereby softening our message, but we must seek to understand another’s position. It’s no mistake that Paul the Apostle is always telling the believers, in so many words, to ‘get along’ with one another.

This blog is a journey of discovery for me—since I am no expert; as I read and have inspiration from the Scriptures I follow my thoughts, cross referencing with things I already understand, drawing from my own journey and then put some thoughts together and thus have, I hope, something to share.

You will enjoy this blog if you like to be challenged about living as a follower of Jesus Christ; if you like to relate Scripture to every day life; if you like to think a little deeply, but not too much so (I am no C S Lewis, but I do love his work, as well as A W Tozer too). My journey is not even close to perfect, but if you’d like to join me on it you are welcome to. My hope is that you will see that being a believer is not a bed of roses, but that it’s also not for the feint of heart either.

Walk with me as I try to follow Christ.

Paul