Sometimes I think God wants to get my attention...

I can usually tell when God wants me to learn something, or pay attention to something. He knows that I'm kind of dense, so He has to tell me important things several times. Otherwise, I don't get it.

(When the Mighty Mrs. J reads that first paragraph, I know she'll let out an "Amen!" that can be heard for miles.)

Anyway, God has been repeating something for the last few days, and I guess I should pay attention. It started when I got my weekly edition of the Door newsletter. (warning: the Door is extremely satirical, and offensive. It's not for everybody.) One of the satirical pieces was about how God worship was being replaced by Bible worship in some seminaries. The point was that there's a group of Christians who verge on bibliolatry in their doctrines and practices. In other words their trust is in their own interpretation of Scripture, not in Jesus Himself.

Then our fellowship Sunday looked over John 5. In one verse, Jesus nails the Jewish leaders with this:

You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

Sounds like those people were trusting their interpretation of Scripture, and missing the life that Jesus offered them. I'm sensing a theme here.

Then Monday, I read this post by Joel Brueseke on his great blog.In it, he talks about how following biblical principles almost ruined his marriage. What? What he means by that is that he got so caught up in doing his husband "duties" that he forgot to just love his wife.

The application is clear: we do the same thing with Jesus. At this point, I'm pretty sure God is trying to remind me of something important.

We look for the 7 laws of spiritual success, or the 5 steps to a life God blesses. We look for any set of rules or principles that will get us farther down the Christian road. But really, those aren't the things we should be looking for in the Bible. We go to Scripture to find Him.

I need to be reminded of this all the time. It's easier to follow pre-packaged steps than to have a love relationship with Jesus. I'm just glad God thinks it's worth the effort to remind me...