Not sure why this is something I'm noticing lately, but it appears that Christians, especially pastors/preachers, over the past few years have obtained a fascination with quoting a plethora (I just love that word) of men/women/books/etc., outside the Bible...not that there isn't a place for that and not that a lot of sincere Christians don't have something to say that may be from the Lord. (Like me!) What I mean is that there seems to be a bent toward that practice...like suddenly the Bible isn't enough...or that it can't speak what God wants to say well enough...like something needs to be added in order to get its message across. This isn't limited to just quotations from other Christians (and, actually, some of the people quoted in Christian venues aren't/weren't Christians at all) but also contains prayers of other people. May or may not be anything wrong with that either, but I guess I'd rather hear from the Lord myself what He wants me to pray. I don't want other people putting words in my mouth. I feel like it's a distraction from what God may be wanting to say to me and I can't hear Him because I'm reading/praying what He said to someone else. Jesus Christ Himself gave us the basis for our prayers in The Lord's Prayer, not that I quote it every day or even most days, but I think we can all learn a lesson from how He taught His disciples to pray. After all, we're supposed to be His disciples, too.
I guess one reason this practice bothers me is that if folks are quoting so many other people, that means they are reading huge amounts of material outside the Bible. Lest you think I'm anti-reading-anything-but-the-Bible, let me remind you that I have written two Christian books myself and have two more tumbling around in my head. Also, on my website there are book reviews of some of the books I've read. In fact, I LOVE to read. I read the Bible every day, but I also like to read other books, articles, newspapers, magazines, etc. But if someone is going to read material in order to post to a networking website or develop a sermon, or whatever, I prefer to hear what the Bible has to say. Concentration and poring over pages and pages and chapters and chapters of what someone else said, inspired by God or not, seems to me to be a distraction from the Bible...which is so full that if we studied it as much as we should daily we wouldn't have time for a whole lot of other reading. Pointing the finger at myself here, too.
I know a lot of people are into that sort of thing, but it's time pretty much wasted on me. If you're posting it to a website that I frequent, I skip over it and move on, or if you've sent it to me in an e-mail, I hit "delete" and move on, or if you're preaching it in a sermon that I'm listening to, I zone out. A quote here and there, okay, I can get through that, but I'm talking about the constant barrage of who-said-what-that's-supposed-to-impress-me.
I know everyone isn't going to agree with me on this. That's obvious. But there are others who do.
Thanks for reading...and have a very, very "Happy Thanksgiving!" Remember the One to Whom we are to be thankful...God, our Father and the Father of Jesus Christ our Savior, Whose Holy Spirit empowers us.
