According to certain denominations, what is important is what we do for
God. Some stress tithing, others Sabbath-keeping, following the lead of
a church appointed prophet, using the King James Version, or focusing on
going from door to door...
With such a variety of opinions,
we find ourselves extremely confused. All religious denominations
proclaim they have the truth and warn their members that if they walk
away from "the" truth they will be heading straight to hell. We find
ourselves thrown into a situation similar to what we experienced in
Bethune, France last year, when we tried to find our way to St. Pol.
Unfortunately, all roads from Bethune seemed to be leading anywhere but
St. Pol!
It all started when we tried to find the city center of
Bethune. During World War 2 the city had been mostly destroyed, except
for the bell tower, but the citizens had rebuilt it into a lovely city
and we wanted to see it.
Although we faithfully followed the
signs to the city center, we ended up on the other side of town
wondering how we could have missed it. Puzzled, we tried to find our way
back to where we came from.
After driving around and around, I
suddenly recognized a couple of houses that I had seen on Google Images.
We parked and very much enjoyed our visit to downtown Bethune. On our
way out of town however, we got completely lost again. We tried all
possible directions, North, West, South, and East, and whatever other
roads existed. We ended up getting so twisted around that we didn't have
a clue where we were, and traffic signs were of no help at all. There
was no indication anywhere of the road D941 to St. Pol.
Desperate, we stopped at a pharmacy and asked for help. The only thing
the pharmacist was able to do was to indicate on the map where we were,
and then she gave some advice for heading towards highway A26.
And then we found it: Road D941. Hurray!
Imagine our
disappointment to discover it was leading us the wrong way! Were we to
be stuck in Bethune for the rest of our existence on planet earth? Help!
Lost amidst complete chaos. That's how many people feel when looking
at all these hundreds of different denominations. If you find yourself
in a similar situation, you need to ask yourself: What is truth? Pray to
your Heavenly Father for direction and He will lead you to the Truth.
Every time anyone asks God for directions, that person will always
discover that Truth is not a certain specific doctrine.
Rather,
Truth is a person, One who willingly exchanged heaven for a wooden
cross, exchanged His life for ours so that we could experience our
Father fully once more again!
"Jesus answered, 'I am the way and
the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'"
(John 14:6 NIV)
Jesus is not some intellectual concept. He is not a shadow of the real
thing. Rather, He has always been our destination. Our God is not a God
of confusion (Unlike those who claim to be "religious"). He is a God of
love for us to discover fully.
"But now you have arrived at your
destination: By faith in Christ you are in direct relationship with
God." (Gal 3:25-26 MSG)
Uh, can anyone out there tell me how to
get to St. Pol? I'm dizzy from trying to find my way out of Bethune!
Rob Chaffart
