Walking into a crowd...

I enjoy bookstores. Bookstores that sell only new books. Used bookstores. Christian bookstores. Super sized bookstores. Teeny tiny bookstores. Actually it doesn't have to be a bookstore at all. I enjoy book sections in thrift stores. The mini section devoted to books in department stores. The little turning racks in convenient stores that hold books. The rack hanging on the side of the counter in hospital gift stores. Basically if it sells books I enjoy it.

Or I used to.

There was a time when I could find a book that I could enjoy in just about any setting that sold a book. Then I got picky. I started narrowing my interests. And then I got pickier. So much so that there was a time I would only read one genre of books.

And then...

The Lord narrowed my selections even further. He showed me things about books I never knew. Things I never wanted to know.

He showed me that even the 'Christian' books aren't always okay. I have a friend that doesn't believe in reading fiction books. She thinks it's wrong. She also believes that 90% if books in Christian bookstores should be burned.

When I walk into a bookstore I enjoy just seeing the books on the shelves. I've enjoyed books since I was a child and even now...there's just something about seeing them lined up there in neat rows, something about the smell of books. That, by the way, is something only another book enthusiast would understand.

If I go beyond the sight and smell of the bookstore, to actually touching them... well...there's something about feeling them in my hands. Some of them just fit, others don't. They say books are best friends. My preference is when a book feels like an old friend.

But as I've traveled this journey toward Christ, as He's pulled me further onto the narrow path, my enjoyment of books has changed. I still like to visit bookstores. There's just something about walking in one that I enjoy. I don't go to them often....less than once a month on average...but I do enjoy going.

The visits though, aren't quite the same as they used to be. When I walk through the doors now, no matter the size of the store, I know that I need to avoid 90% of the aisles. I know without ever looking at a title, without picking up a book, that most of what's inside the store will not only be something I don't want to read but that it will be filled with the kind of sinful things that go against what my Lord wants for me.

So I browse some of the non fiction...a very few categories of it...and I walk the aisle or two of Christian books. It would be nice, very nice, if I could pick any book in the Christian section and know that it was an okay choice for me, if I could know that every book in that section held true to Scripture, not the gospel as it's taught in America, but true Scripture.

Sadly that isn't the case.

I've read many of the so-called Christian books and in most of them the Christian element is barely there. And the supposed Christian characters are often living their lives the same way every other person is, chasing the world and it's glories.

Whether there are three books on the shelf or three thousand the outcome is the same. There may be a book there that talks of, teaches, and supports the Truths of Scripture but I will have to search hard for it...or them. I will need to know that a certain author sees and believes the real Scripture....not the version most professing Christians believe. I need to know the name of an author...or multiple authors...and search for books written by that person. I need to know that not only does that person believe the true Scriptures but that they live them. I need to know....generally more than I do...to be able to pick a book that doesn't go against Scripture. Even in the Christian section.

That's a sad thing.

What's even sadder is that when I should be able to say... Well, I'll just stick with Bibles. I can't go wrong there... I can't say that. Because I can go very wrong there. There are gender nuetral Bibles. Bibles that promote the prosperity gospel. Bibles that support... Basically for every belief in the 'Christian' circles there's a Bible that fits their beliefs. So I can't just pluck a Bible off the shelf and enjoy it. I must use discernment.

But the saddest thing of all....

Is that walking into any 'church' building, or any group of 'Christians' is much like walking into a bookstore. You may walk into a Christian bookstore but how many books in there talk of Scripture as it's really written. How many teach the Truth as Christ taught it? It's the same when you walk into a group of 'Christians' no matter the setting.

Walking into a crowd of thousands of people...all of them professing to know Christ...is enough to make your head spin. It's enough to make a person question the meaning of what a Christian is. Because today...in America...anyone can be a 'Christian'. There are people, preachers even, that claim to be Christians and yet admit they don't believe in God.

In a bookstore, if I pick up a book, I can read the back of it and get an idea of what the book is about. If that doesn't give me enough information there's generally a page in the front with a short section from somewhere in the book. If that's still not enough information I can flip through the book, read pages here and there, and see if I like the book. If that's still not enough information I can pull out my smart phone and look the book up online, read reviews, visit the authors website.

But there's nothing in a group of 'Christians' to show me who the true Christians are and who are simply professing. I have nothing to go on, no way to determine who are and are not true Christians. I heard recently that if you knocked on every door in your town and asked the person that answered if they were a born again believer most if not all of them would say yes. Something like 80% of Americans claim to be Christians.

Jesus said we will know Christians by their fruit. And we can. The trouble is that when we walk into a group of 'Christians' we often don't spend enough time with any of them to be able to tell who is and who is not. It's like trying to grab a Bible off the shelf in a super sized Christian bookstore and hope you get the one that lines up with true Scripture, one that hasn't been changed or watered down to be what the reader wants it to be.

We can pick someone out of the crowd, speak with the person sitting or standing closest to us, and hope that maybe they understand Scripture as we do.  But finding someone that truly understands the truths of Scripture, that lives for the Lord, that's regenerated, born again.... is like putting on a blindfold and walking into that same super sized Christian bookstore, the one that sells hundreds of Bibles, and without asking for directions, without having anyone help you, walking to the Bible section and picking out a Bible that doesn't promote any other doctrine, any other belief, but the Word of God.