Saying you have a relationship with God because you read the Bible is like me saying I have a relationship with my fiancé because I read Messages to Young Lovers. The Bible was never meant to be a substitute for personal experience and personal thought, logic and exploration. There is only so much you can learn from a book before you must actually embark on a personal journey in discovery with your personal God.
At some point, all those things I have read about relationships must be put aside to allow for a real relationship with a real person, Morgan. The rules, the dos and donts and the ideals all of a sudden don't make a relationship, I must allow for new revelations and ideals to shape my thinking as Morgan begins to slowly change the way I see relationships. I remember my first relationship, I had read all the ideal books, Ellen White, I Kissed Dating Good Bye, etc etc, I knew exactly how it was supposed to go. Imagine my shock when I realized my relationship was failing. The rules and the ideals all of a sudden meant very little. Where was the room for adaptation and growth? It failed because I did not allow for personal experience and individual needs.
It is the same way with God. For so long I read the ideals and the rules, I expected God to be a certain way and do certain things. One day though, I realized I had not allowed for experience. I read other people's experiences found in the Bible and other Christian writers, I knew everything I needed to know, but suddenly, tragically, I watched my knowledge of God disintegrate under me and the relationship I thought I had was not enough. You see it is not enough to know and study and read. There is no substitute for personal experience. You must search for yourself, learn for yourself, and discover for yourself. The Bible cannot do that for you, nor can all the Christian writers in the world. Can your own mind and logic and experience discover truth, or have you surrendered your relationship with God to the theories and ideals of other men? Do you personally know God or do you only read stories about him?
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