I’m only 33 years old, so I don’t have the experience some of my readers have. At the same time I like to think of myself as an observer. I like observing people. Not in an NSA kind of way, but as someone who is intrigued by human behavior. One thing I have noticed over the years is there are a lot of people who have “thrown out the baby Jesus with the holy water.”
What do I mean by that? I grew up in a Christian family and went to a Christian school. We were in church more than most. I also grew up with a lot of kids like myself. As life went by and I looked back, I noticed something. There were a lot of others my age who grew up with good Bible teaching and practices, but fell away from God and no longer follow Him or attend church.
One reason young people leave the faith is that they find something they were taught in church which they find inconsistent (or believe to be consistent) with either Scripture, logic, reason, or true ethics. In some of these cases they are right, other times they are not.
I believe I have found quite a few of these myself. My encouragement to those who believe they fall into this category is this. Don’t throw the baby Jesus out with the holy water. In other words, just because you find something you believe is truth that the church is not following, doesn’t mean that you should stop following Jesus. What it might mean is that you need to help others see that truth.
Don’t be so quick to throw out everything that you have been taught. How should we handle times like this? Make sure you are convinced of truth. Maybe the church is wrong and you are right. But maybe, you just have not studied the topic in depth. Be careful not to discard everything you have been taught. A change in the baby’s water may be just that, not a change in the baby Himself.
My excitement is that there are several at Cornerstone who once threw out the baby Jesus, who now are worshiping Him again! In fact, we have several who threw out the baby at one point that now are following Him and are leaders in our church. I hope that if you have made the mistake of throwing the baby Jesus out with the holy water that you would come back and search for who He is again.
Thanks for taking time to read this Maddening Theology post. If you enjoyed this content you can find Pastor Tim’s sermons at www.cornerstoneforestcity.org. You can also join us at 520 Marion St. Browndale, Pa 18421 on Sundays at 10:45 AM. To make following the blog easier you can also register. You can also join us on Facebook at Cornerstone Forest City. Also, don’t forget to download our APP on iTunes or Googleplay.