Fifth Gospel
Theme of the Week: Following Directions
Patrick Morley
Thursday, August 1, 2002
 1 of 1
Fifth Gospel
Theme of the Week: Following Directions
Thursday, August 1
Key Bible Verse: "All too quickly the message is crowded out. … so no crop is produced" (Matthew 13:22). Bonus Reading:Deuteronomy 11:13-28
After my conversion, God gave me an insatiable appetite to read the Bible every day. But I read looking for evidence to support the decisions I'd already made. If I saw a verse on the left-hand page that pointed in the direction I was going to go anyway, I'd underline it. However, if on the right-hand page I saw a verse that veered off in a direction I didn't want to go, I'd pull out a large mental eraser and smudge that verse right out of my mind.
This is the essence of self-deceit. In those days I followed the God I was underlining in my Bible, without following the rest of Him too. I had a plan for my life, and just wasn't ready to give it up. So I remade God in the image I wanted. You could say I created a fifth Gospel: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Patrick.
It wasn't much of a problem early on, But by the time I hit the ten-year mark as a believer, I was becoming dangerous. For example, I was regularly teaching "tell me what it means to you" Bible studies. We sat around in a circle, and each told the others what a verse of the Bible meant to him. It never dawned on me that we should be asking each other, "What does it mean to God?"
—Patrick Morley in The Seven Seasons of a Man's Life
My Response: To prevent my own bias from cancelling out God's instructions, I'll. …
Thought to Apply: Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true.
—Demosthenes (Athenian orator and statesman, 3rd century B.C.)
Adapted from: The Seven Seasons of a Man's Life (Zondervan, 1995).
Copyright © 2002 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.
July/August 2002,Vol. 5,No. 4
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