BCC Weekly Email

My Way or the High-Way?

Pastor Jim Harper

9/11/2025

Imagine you purchase a multi-function kitchen appliance for that special someone at Christmas.  It arrives from Amazon - brand new - shrink wrapped - unopened - every part as advertised.  You open the box and the first thing to slide out is the instruction manual that falls to the floor as you hurriedly empty the box - laying out each component part in random order on the kitchen table.  Your eyes flit back and forth between the instruction booklet below and the picture of the finished product on the box front.  Then, a little voice whispers in your ear:  "Aw, how hard can it be?"  I suspect some of you pushed pause at this point as you feel a wry smile forming across your lips.  Been there - done that?  Too often, it goes like this:  "I'm pretty sure I can figure this out.  What's the worst that can happen?"  If you can't relate to the above scenario, count yourself lucky or, better yet - wise.  Ninety minutes in, when one side of the unit is a bit lopsided and your massaging two remaining parts with no observable use in your left hand, you'll likely wish you'd made a different decision.  Correct?

Now as disconcerting as making the above blunder may prove to be, there's a similar gaffe that takes place in the spiritual realm with immensely more serious consequences.  Let me explain.  I'm third of four siblings.  Though all four of us grew up in a Christ-honoring (albeit far from perfect) home, only my younger sister and I are following the faith today.  I'm not certain that my older brother ever noticed the 'spiritual instructions' slip to the floor when he opened the package of his life.  He's pretty much been 'winging it' for the last 72 years and, well, his life pretty much gives evidence of that reality.

My older sister grabbed the instructions early on, persued them lightly before setting them to the side as a teen.  Over the years, she's picked them up a time or two, maybe lingering over some sections longer than others.  In recent years, howere, she's make the conscious decision to toss those age-old instructions in the nearest bin and set out rewriting a new and final manifesto of what she's determined is the true and right way.  Here's a clip from a recent Facebook post:

"Growing up, I was taught that religion was the key to everything.  So, I tried to hold that belief...I really did.  I followed the rules.  I played the part.  But it never quite felt...right.  The soul connection I longed for...the intimacy, the truth, the knowing...wasn't there.  Over time, I came to realize something that felt radical at first.  That for me, it's not about religion...it's about a direct, personal, deeply authentic connection with the divine...God.  Source. Jesus.  Whatever name speaks to your soul.  And that realization didn't come easy.  There was guilt.  There was grief.  There was a fear of not believing what my family believed...Of stepping outside of the box I was raised in.  But once I did...once I let the box fall away...I found a line so clear, so pure, so undeniably true, I could finally feel the spiritual intimacy I'd been searching for all along."

So, here's the challenge.  The telltale consequences that accompany someone determining to 'wing it' spiritually often takes years to show up - maybe never in this lifetime.

But remember something important: this life is a mere 'blip' on the radar screen of eternity.  Jesus didn't blink or flinch when he spoke these historic words: "What does it profit a man (or woman) if they 'gain the whole world' and lose their soul?" (Mark 8:36)  My heart breaks for my extremely intelligent and accomplished sister who is now using her Facebook platform and growing Social Media influence to guide hundreds - maybe eventually thousands furthere away from the truth and reality of Christ's gospel.  Will there be consequences?  Even nature demonstrates that we'll always reap what we sow (Gal. 6:7) - especially when we choose to usurp our Creator's revealed plan.

This coming Sunday, we'll take a deep dive into a very prominent and popular belief system that my sister has, at this point in her life, swallowed hook, line and sinker.  It's a movement blanketing most of the western world today called 'New Age'.  Thing is, there's nothing new about it.  The lies associated with it and the steep ensuing consquences of choosing this path are as old as Eden's Garden.  

So, a question to close:  Are you being influenced by this age old, man-deifying movement?  How can you know?  Join us this Sunday morning at 10am to find out.