recognition

I am still stuck on the idea of recognizing God. It seems like Jesus had this naked yearning for people to come to their own conclusions about God (preferably the right ones, I think). When the rich young ruler came to ask Jesus how to be saved (calling Him good in the process), Jesus asked Him, "why do you call me good? No man is good but God" with a do-you-really-know-what-you-are-saying type of frankness that often makes people stumble. The example repeats itself over and over in the gospels. Peter, the 12, the pharisees and Pilate all had to confront with a Jesus who insisted they come to their own conclusions about Himself. If I had to pick a theme for the 4 books, I would say they narrarate peoples struggles and problems with recognizing Jesus as God.

Yet don't we have the same issue here? The last couple weeks I've been reading a lot of Christian authors who slant towards the left side of the isle theologically. I mean, people like Donald Miller, Anne Lamott and Brian McLaren all would not classify themselves as liberal Christians (neither would I classify them so, really), but they would also stand in stark contrast to conservative Protestant theology. For a while, I felt really guilty about reading some of these guys, like I was aiding and abetting a practicing heretic (I wasn't). However for the most part, nothing was inherantly wrong or against the Bible (There are always exceptions! Gandhi said something like there are 6 billion religions on the planet, one for each person! Every feeble manmade attempt at doctrine is us looking through a glass darkly). I was raised with an interpretation that said writers like this were totally absent of truth. Yet, I found truth here. I drank deeply of it and feasted at this great big Biblical love-feast of truth. It ws beautiful!

I guess my point is, Christians have a responsiblility to look for God everywhere. He screams in all creation and I think it would be a shame if we didn't listen.

Daniel