Faith, The Bible & the Spirituality of Jesus

In what do you place your faith?

I hear countless stories of folks who are struggling with the church for a variety of reasons. It doesn’t matter whether they are Mainline, Roman Catholic or evangelical,
I often here stories of people falling away from the faith or at least the faith of their dominant culture.

That’s key: our faith is often defined by the culture where we find ourselves.

As a Christian, I have been reflecting on the life and spirituality of Jesus. In what did Jesus live out his faith? How did Jesus practice his religion? What was his prayer life like? How did he connect to God? What was it about the way Jesus believed and interacted with people that made his spiritual life so lively and vivid? What was it about his way of practicing his faith that gave him so much life?

I’d like to get more in tune with the Spirituality of Jesus as opposed to defining myself by a particular denomination or “church label.”

In seminary I have watched many folks have panic attacks when they begin to explore scripture and deconstruct it. Some have deconstructed their faith as a result. I think part of their problem was rooted in the reality that their faith wasn’t in God but in their understanding of the Bible. Once their particular understanding of the bible was deconstructed so was their faith.

In talking to some of these students I have encouraged them to hold on to their experience of God. The problem is that many folks have grown-up in a particular culture with a particular idea or understanding of scripture. For decades they thought they have been worshipping “The Word” of God or God, but in reality they had been worshipping the understanding or church’s understanding of the bible. Huge difference! Their faith is in their understanding of what is printed in black and red and maybe not God.

This had led many folks into a crisis of faith.

Jamming square pegs into round holes to make our understanding of scripture fit our particular context will eventually fail. At some point, if we are truly seekers of the Spirit, we’ll come face to face with challenging issues.

Jesus was confronted with very similar issues with his religion. As a human being Jesus’ faith was in God above and beyond anything else. His life was lived out in context of his faith in God, not the Law or the Torah and it was predicated on love.

I read and meditate on scripture nearly every single day. I pause, reflect and sit with the text and allow the Spirit to speak to me. I have stopped attempting to tell it what it says. My faith is in God and God’s Word, and no longer my understanding or beliefs in the Bible.