And about a year ago, I started becoming…an agnostic? A liberal Christian? A deist? My soul, if I indeed possess one, seems to have an “under construction” sign hanging on it. Enter at your own risk, and for pity’s sake, wear a hard hat…

via Confessions Of A Heretic Husband: Chapter 1: In which I introduce myself, and copy the way that Winnie the Pooh names chapters..

If God has indeed used Scripture to birth something real within our hearts and minds, let’s trust Him to bring us where it leads rather than cutting it down and using it as mulch for some doctrine of our own, based as it usually is in the often underdeveloped and immature understanding of those who went before us! I’m not advocating a “chronological snobbery” (Lewis’s phrase) that assumes everything before us was wrong and everything modern is right, but neither should we commit the opposite error of supposing that “greater things than these” can never be done by those who meet God for themselves. Surely an all-out trust in God as a fundamentally good person, as best we understand “good” with all the available data weighed judiciously, is preferable to letting slavish adherence to orthodoxy stand in for a faith that could mature both our souls and our understanding of God.

via “We might like it, but it’s not in the Bible, so…” – Undeception.

I’d recommend reading the article.

Because the Bible does not come with a divine commentary,  we all interpret the Bible, and we are all responsible for determining what makes the most sense using whatever means we have at our disposal. We do not have the option of just “going with what Scripture says” — we can only go with what we think Scripture says.

via Putting words in God’s mouth – Undeception.

“…Using whatever means we have at our disposal.” That’s what I’m doing lately: the best with what I have.

This is a great perspective.

In Matthew 16, Jesus said that He would build His church, and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. This does not mean that the church is to huddle safely behind marble walls and stained glass cathedrals, as Satan tries to beat down our doors. Rather, it is the church which is to lay siege to the gates of hell.

…But our enemy is not flesh and blood — we do not attack other people. No, people are the captives and the victims. People are the ones we are fighting for…

So let us stop inviting people to church, and instead invite the church to hell. Let us go with Jesus, and batter down hell’s gates.

via To Hell with the Church | Till He Comes.

This is a great perspective. It could easily become unconvincing by loading on too much “spiritual warfare” craziness, but if it remains about loving and serving people traditionally written off as hell-bound then it’s a powerful description of God’s Kingdom as I understand it.

For the church to lack love is for the church to lack everything. No heresy could conceivably be worse!

via Shutting Up about Free Speech | Till He Comes.

As a man perpetrating a long list of heresies lately, this is a great and timely reminder about what’s truly important.