Balance

I have written some about many of my personal struggles with legalistic teachings and with scrupulosity (which I believe is a direct result of many of these ideologies).  I have also written about the importance of not giving up on studying the Bible, no matter what comes at us.  There are times that I felt doctrinal teachings attempting to pull me away from my Bible studies.  Sometimes they did momentarily.  But God always had His hand holding me, pulling me deeper into His Word.

No matter what I was hearing, there was always a deeper passion, a deeper meaning that I could not deny.  I knew from the time I was a teenager that I was to study the Bible in as much detail as I could.  That's why I chose  a religion degree when I made it to college.  Prior to that, I did independent studies of my own and more formal studies through churches.  I devoured each Bible class I took.  In college, I couldn't wait to delve deeper into what God tells us through His Word.  One thing I have always respected about Liberty University is the fact that they did not indoctrinate.  They do not even stop non-Christians from attending and do not expect agreement with the ideas of the college.  They taught me to sometimes look for Biblical proof of viewpoints opposite of my own.  This type of open thinking lessened a lot of the burdens I had carried for many years.

So I just need to say in this post, we cannot allow whatever tricks the devil may use to keep us from studying the Bible.  Even when we think there may be pain when we read these pages, there is more comfort than we can imagine.