Primal - By Mark Batterson - Chapter 6 - Holy Curiosity

In chapter Six of PRIMAL Mark Batterson uses a quote from Olviver Wendell Holmes to start this chapter. "A mind stretched by a new idea never returns to its original shape".

Why is it that we tend to look back and try to repeat our actions or try to duplicate a scenario verses letting us experience new ideas and scenarios?

God has created us with the capacity to keep learning until the day we die. And that isn't something we should take for granted. It wasn't until I was elected to my local school board that I realized that I need to be a life long learner. And it is not about being taught or having a good teacher that is most important it is about me developing as a good learner and having a desire to know more.

For most people somewhere along the way we stop living out of imagination or learner mode and start living out of memories. We stop creating the future and start repeating the past.

The true litmus test of spiritual maturity isn't how much you know. It's knowing how much you don't know. It's coming to terms with the fact that God is not an object of knowledge as much as He is a cause of wonder. And that sanctified sense of wonder fuels a holy curiosity to keep learning more about God.

So where is your wonder meter? Think you know it all or do you realize you have so much more to learn?

More later on this chapter.....

Pastor John

Primal - By Mark Batterson - Chapter 5 - Seventy Faces

Once again I am challenged by some of Mark's analogies and comments he makes in Chapter five of his book Primal. Being a musical person and someone who enjoys singing I loved the story of the musical trainer working with opera singers who could not hit certain notes that fell within their vocal range. After testing the singers ears they learned that they could not hit those particular notes because they couldn't hear the notes. The problem wasn't singing. The problem was hearing!

Until you hear the voice of God, you won't be able to sing His song. Why, because you're out of tune.

One of the complaints Pastors often hear from people leaving the church is that "they are not being fed". As Pastors we do our best to feed our congregations every week... but think about this... we learned as toddlers to feed ourselves and we should do the same thing when feeding on God's word. If you are relying on a preacher to be fed, that is a dangerous place to be. Listening to a sermon is acquiring second hand knowledge. It's learning based on someone else's experiences. If you want to grow spiritually, you need a consistent diet of scripture.

Let me share with you some excerpts from page 83 through page 85 of Chapter five; The Bible is not an end in itself. In other words, the goal of knowing the Bible isn't Bible knowledge. The goal of knowing the Bible is knowing God.... The truth is that most of us are already educated way beyond the level of our obedience. We learn more and do less, thinking all the while that we're growing spiritually.

Have you ever audited a class? You get no credit, you just take in lots of information. If we're not careful the same can happen in our spiritual lives. You don't get credit for auditing scripture. You've got to put it into practice. Every word of Scripture, with its seventy faces and six hundred thousand meanings, must be translated via obedience.

Obedience is the way our life becomes a unique translation of the Bible. And, ultimately it's the way you love God with all your soul!

He wants to write His-story through your life. And Scripture is the script.

Read it. Mediate on it. Then live it out.

Pastor John