Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Progressive Faith and the Slippery Slope 2

I am going to start today's post with a snippet from yesterday's post....

The point is that it is always easier not to question or doubt. It is usually easier to ignore the truth if it requires that we change. It will often be easier to stay in the same place.

Uh huh...but how often does God call us to the easy place? Does he ever allow us to stay in the same place or is he always beckoning us to grow. Is there such a thing a "ssdd" with God?

Ever hear of the theory of inertia?

I read the following on Wikipedia...

The law of inertia states that it is the tendency of an object to resist a change in motion. An object will stay at rest and or stay in motion unless acted on by an external force, whether it results from gravity, friction, matter, or some other source.

Another definition...

The tendency of an object to continue in motion at the same speed and in the same direction, unless acted upon by a force.

Which brings to mind a quote...

Lest he should wander irretrievably from the right path, he stands still." William Hazlitt

Get the picture? Camping out on our island is a kind of spiritual inertia. Unless acted upon by some other source we might be content to stroll the beaches of our island forever.

Is this what Jesus was talking about in Luke 5 when he said:

"But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one, after drinking old wine wishes for new; for he says, `The old is good enough."' NAS

Two commentaries on this verse…

And beside, men are not wont to be immediately freed from old prejudices. John Wesley’s Explanatory Notes

"The prejudiced person will not even try the new, or admit that it has any merits. He knows that the old is pleasant, and suits him; and that is enough; he is not going to change" This is Christ's picture of the reactionary Pharisees. Robertson’s Word Pictures

As Fred Plumer noted in his essay we might have to "let go of the need for dogma or inflexible belief systems" and to "learn to move with the flow of the spirit,"

More tomorrow....

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