Inside or Out?

Growing up, i was pretty sure i was a liberal Christian. I believed in Jesus, a correct and healthy way to live, and i BELIEVED that i was in the right.

After leaving home and changing country, i found that what i BELIEVED was a lot more shaky. When a faith leaves the context of culture, you can suddenly find yourself in unfamiliar territory. Without the framework of culture, many of the things i had understood as 'faith' were quite clearly not.

sexual sin, alcohol, drugs, and eating dos and don't were all up in the air.

I'm sure that some people would say that my faith was being tested. I saw it as my faith being matured.

All my life i'd been trying to live a Christian life without much practical living thrown in. I didn't have to think about issues except to apply a Bible verse to them. It didn't much matter of the Bible verse and the practical application were ridiculous, I knew i'd done everything i was suppose to. But as my faith matured, i began to see that the brain i was given was not there for decoration. Turns out that my belief system should be practical as well as God-centred.

But practical faith is a lot more difficult to practice than simple Bible faith. For one thing, you've got a lot more thinking to do.