Deconstructing Faith?

So many people are deconstructing their faith or leaving it altogether lately.
And it takes me to 1 John 2:19 where they talk about anyone who leaves the faith
never truly belonged to it.
This verse use to confuse me a bit and I’d find myself asking
“what do you mean I wasn’t really in it?! I was, and I left!”
But it’s true, you weren’t. Let me explain.

The closer I get to the Lord, the more I study the Bible, and the more I put my own footwork into my faith and not rely solely on church or leaders or pastors to “feed me”, the more I get it.
Growing up in the church I was always there, I was around it, a part of it, but I wasn’t really in it.
Turning 18 I decided to “leave” my faith but realistically I was never truly in it. I did what was asked. I followed rules. I respected and obeyed authority.
But that’s not what Christianity is about.

I would say that I actually came into a true relationship with Christ at the age of 30. Though I did go back to church at around 25yrs old. Again, we have completely misconstrued what faith in Christ really is and because we stopped it from being about teaching believers how to seek God and why to seek God, it’s become more of an institution of obeying a pastor in order to “figure it all out”; people have been walking out.

I’ve heard so many podcasts and seen interviews on YouTube with people talking about how they left the faith because it was too brainwashing. But the truth is if you really knew Jesus you wouldn’t leave Him. I will admit that some churches have truly lost their way and have forgotten what this is all about. It is not about popularity or the number of offerings per head in a church.

This thing that we are doing is opening people’s eyes to The Truth, The Way, and The Life. Paul, one of the greatest apostles even got it. He says in 1 Corinthians 4 that pastors and leaders have been put in charge to explain God’s mysteries, to create disciples, and to remain accountable to Christ alone for the job you’ve been given.

When we fail to teach people how to seek God, how to study their Bibles, how to apply scripture to real life, and why we do all these things, we fail them.

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So more and more people have been “walking away” but they are not really walking away from the faith because they never truly got it, they are walking away from man-made dogmas.

It’s hard to look into the Word and not find the right way to solve a problem.
It’s hard to look into the Word and not find grace.
It’s hard to look into the Word and not see that JESUS is the Ultimate authority and the reason for it all.
It’s hard to look into the Word and not find peace.

So it hurts my spirit to hear so many people leaving because of their church, or specific dogmatic Christians. If I could say one thing to each group it would be:

Deconstructionists: Give GOD your heart, invest in Him and allow Him to show you His heart by you seeking out His. Don’t let any person talk you out of faith because it truly holds your eternity.

Christian dogmatics and the Church: Let’s get back to Jesus. Let’s get back to rescuing souls from the darkness. Let’s get back to healing and nurturing. Let’s make it about growth in our faith more than growth in anything else. Let’s show the world that outside of Christ life holds no true meaning. Let’s allow God’s Spirit to do the transforming and let’s focus on the teaching and preaching of Scripture.

My prayer is that people’s hearts would come back to Jesus and truly depend on the Author of Life to guide their life.

Faith is in JESUS not in man.

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