Tearing down my OWN high places

I'm tired.

Not tired tired, but rather spiritually tired. Not worn out, mind you, just tired. I've been neglecting my blog and my work I used to do on Christianity.com. I have been spending a lot of time on stuff away from the internet, which I should be counting as a good thing, and it is...

The reason I'm spiritually tired is because I'm having to put a lot of what I've learned in the last two years into my life. Not like personal application, but rather in teaching and discussing. I teach a class on monday nights, based on a ciriculuum called "the Bait of Satan", and it's been a chore keeping it from devolving into a "5 points to X" lesson program, because this ciriculuum is a lot like the Purpose driven life. There's very little content in it that's not already a retread of other lesson programs, and it comes across as "do this or you'll be in trouble" kind of preaching/teaching.

One thing I'm wondering here is, maybe, if I have "high place" involved here that I don't know about. The latest lesson, number 6, in a round about way asks the student to accept "gut instincts" as revelation from God. I'm not sure this is a biblical practice, and I know I'm going to have to address it during the class. I'm wondering though, if maybe I'm wrong about this, but the more I look at God's word the more I think this needs to be rebuked.

For one thing, it's protestant liberalism. Fredrick Schlaiarmacher, a Christian theologian/philosopher in the mid 19th century, began proposing that religious experience is rooted in the "internal", or in the heart. Along with this comes the idea of "personal revelation" being derived from sort of gut instincts, and saying that the Holy Spirit revealed this (whatever it may be) to us personally. This idea of "heart religion" or "internal" religion has spread through much of Christianity today, even into the Roman Catholic Church!

So when I see someone saying, "the Holy Spirit revealed to me", I have to question: What did he reveal? How does this stand up to God's Word? Did you search the scriptures and test the spirits to make sure that this revelation was true? Too often the answers are, "something pertaining to me (Job/family/finances)", "I don't know", and "no". So then Peter's statement about, "there is not personal interpretation of Scritpure" comes to mind... Well you get the picture.

But I'm growing weary of the fight, I think. I find myself correcting and exhorting a lot lately, asking people "what does scripture say", and "is this something that Jesus would agree with?" But most of the people around me here in florida are more interested in what the scriptures say to them personally, rather than what the scriptures actually say.

I'm tired. I pray that God will revive me.