Moving around as much as we do, we have experienced many different types of houses.  Every house has had features I liked and some I didn't.  I've often dreamed of building our own home someday when we settle down and being able to design it in the way I think would function best for our large homeschool family and our unique needs.  Mind you, I know nothing of architecture or building, but I do know that most pantries are too small and laundry rooms are usually an afterthought. 

     Now suppose, we have the opportunity to build our own home someday.  Let's say I order some plans from someone who does know about architecture and building and has degrees and years of experience in these areas.  But when I get the blueprints, I don't like everything I see.  I think I can make it better.  So I cross off the beams I think are ugly and I move the walls to suit my tastes.  Then I build the house according to my own plans.  What do you think would happen, given my limited knowledge of building houses?  I shouldn't be surprised when my house falls down around me and my family.  I would be a fool and would reap a fool's reward.

     Yet, how often do we do this very thing with matters much more important than house-building?  I'm speaking now of the Bible.  Often, while reading it, we come across passages that confound and perplex us.  We find it easier to ignore these than seek out their meaning.  Then there are the ones that make us uncomfortable because they highlight the little sins we don't particularly want to give up.  Maybe they speak of condemning actions our culture finds acceptable.  And sometimes most distressing, are the parts that paint God in a different light than how we want to see Him.  Wouldn't it be better just to cut those parts out?

     But God is the Master Architect.  His wisdom and understanding are limitless.  My own, however, are frail and not to be leaned upon.  To pick and choose from the Bible what I'm going to believe and what I'm going to obey are just as ludicrous as altering the blueprints to my house.  Who are we to edit the Word of God? 

     Years ago, I heard of a group who got together to vote on which quotes of Jesus from the Bible were things he actually said, which were things he might have said, and which things he didn't really say at all.  How ridiculous is that?    In studying American History, we read how Thomas Jefferson, a Diest,  wrote His own version of the Gospels.  He actually did physically, what many people have done mentally and took out the parts he didn't like. (In his case, the references to the supernatural.)  In my thinking, these two examples reek of arrogance.  Who are we to tell God what He actually said and what He didn't?  Who are we to say how things really happened 2,000 years ago?  God had it written down for us precisely because we were not there.  We wouldn't know unless He told us and preserved for us a record.

     If I worship the God I want to worship instead of worshiping God as He has revealed Himself, then am I really worshipping God at all, or I'm I just worshipping an imaginary god that doesn't really exist--an idol?  Idolatry is putting anything other than Jehovah-God on the throne of my heart.  I'll take that a step further and say idolatry is also worshipping God the way I wish He was instead of worshipping Him as He has told me He is.  How can I know anything of God unless He reveals it to me?  To tell Him who I think He should be is creating my own god.  God has created me, not the other way around.

     There are many parts of the Bible that I'd like to skip, or I wish weren't true, or I don't understand, or I never will.  Yet, if I start throwing out the passages that are difficult or uncomfortable, where does it end?  Much like my house analogy, it probably ends with things falling down around me and my family. 

 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.   --Matthew 7:24-25

     How does the wise man build his house?  He trusts that the Builder knows what He is doing and will build a strong and sturdy house if he will but get out of the way and let Him.