IT'S NOT BAD, IT'S YOUR HEART BAD.

 IT'S NOT BAD, IT'S YOUR HEART BAD.

I was teaching for years in a place where there were people who always sat in the front row to refute everything I taught.

That was one of the best things that ever happened to me in my life, because it made me study the Bible in such a way that no one could refute anything I taught. Many times in the middle of the study I had to change what I was thinking of teaching because I realized that I was wrong with what I was thinking of teaching.

I have seen people preach some AWESOME CRAZINESS and the church shouted Amen! I looked around and didn't notice anyone even looking like they were questioning the barbarities that were being taught.

I saw a preacher ask the church if they knew what a term meant and when the church didn't give a 'clear' answer he wanted to teach what it was, and it was the craziest and most incorrect thing I had ever heard apart from not giving a Bible verse for his statement. It was obvious that I wasn't going to get it.

And while he was giving the craziest explanation I could have ever heard in my life, the amens didn't stop. I was expecting a video camera to appear and everyone to laugh and tell me "You fell for it, it's a joke!" But it didn't happen and I realized that all that madness was real.

I was telling myself in my mind: "This preacher has it so easy!" And how horrible the church has it. Being the laziest Christians to study the Bible in the era where the most false and crazy teachings are going to arise within the church itself.

We were taught that studying is bad, that reading books is bad. Someone when they found out how I studied the Bible told me to be careful that I could go crazy.

Eating is good, but it can become bad. Drinking water can become bad, the most necessary things can become bad if we abuse it or don't do it correctly. We have people who die from bulimia and people who die from obesity.

'Nominal' Christians, there is no problem if they don't study the Bible too much and don't read books. 'Nominal' Christians can read the Bible 'as necessary' (although in this time of so many heresies they should not be so lazy)

BUT THOSE OF US WHO TEACH, my son, you have to know not only the verse, you have to know the context of the chapter, of the book, know how the person felt to write that, know who and why he said it, because not knowing those things is why we have preachers teaching that women only have to raise children to be saved.

This kind of retrograde mentality that if you study you will go crazy is what has created this kind of preachers who always go down the middle of the road as they say around here. People who don't study come out with these barbarities and "it's in the Bible," the apostle Paul said it, women are saved by bearing children, nothing more. And please shut up women and don't talk in church.

I have heard all kinds of things from the pulpits! And no, it is not bad for someone to know the meaning of a word in Hebrew or Aramaic, the problem is when they spend 3 hours explaining the ten thousand meanings of a word in the original language and the sermon goes into that and in the end you do not prove anything except that you studied in a Bible institute where you learned theory and not practice.

My motto is "If the study does not lead you to be more passionate about God, to fall more in love with him, you are just another hypocritical Pharisee"

And I want to clarify something, those who study a lot are usually called Pharisees, no, the term applies to hypocritical people in general, people who talk but do not live and there are hypocritical people, people who teach but do not live and have never touched a Bible institute. Do not think that because you are not a scholar you are not a Pharisee.

We are in a time of confusion. I have never seen a time where so much pulpit has been given to people who teach so much nonsense.

I used to watch one of those crazy sermons and I would say to myself: "In my time, after five seconds you would have the pastor next to you whispering in your ear to turn it down two seconds or taking away the microphone." Not today, today pastors let nonsense be taught to the church and even they shout amen. Or maybe because of the same mentality that studying is bad, they themselves don't even know that what they are teaching is crazy.

It is not bad to read what someone else wrote, it is not bad to adopt what someone else wrote, it is bad to not filter it through the Bible.

Let me tell you something, all the denominations that exist have their basis in what someone thought about the Bible. The Pentecostals have their principles in what William J. Seymour, Maria Woodworth-Etter, called the grandmother of Pentecostalism (among others) thought and thought about the Bible.

Our current perceptions of the Bible are influenced by what someone thought about the Bible. For example, in the early church there was no dancing and there are many churches with dance groups (this is just the first example that comes to mind, there are hundreds of things). But we take these things and no one criticizes us anymore and we live well with something that was not practiced by the early church but that we like.

In the early church, no one covered themselves with the blood of Christ but we cover ourselves all the time. A man brought that teaching to the church a little over 100 years ago (the church is over 1800 years old) and it seemed good to us because of the reference to the meaning of the blood and we adopted it. Without a verse that says we should do it, without any verse that says that some apostle did it and without any verse that says that an apostle ordered it to be done... But it seemed good to us and we do it according to what a person interpreted and seemed good to us.

Many churches believe that they are based on the early church that does not read books so as not to be influenced by the thoughts of a man. Man, you are already influenced!

All the denominations that exist are influenced by what someone thought about the Bible. There are hundreds of practices that we have in the church that if we dare to question ourselves we will realize that they were never practiced in the early church.

It is not that you are going to be contaminated by the thoughts of others when reading a book, you are already contaminated by the thoughts of another.

I do read, I even have an online Christian library and my dream is to create a physical Christian library with thousands of books, maps, dictionaries where everyone can have a coffee while reading and feel like a discordant note in the middle of this digital world. And how could I not love reading if I have discovered the most beautiful people by reading? I have sat with the beautiful Maria Etter, whom I love so much.

I have sat next to Charles Spurgeon, learning to pray with him. I have suffered his sorrows along with Muller... People who are too beautiful, like I have never met in this world.

Reading, I have even met wonderful and beautiful people like Maria Woodworth-Etter, Charles Finney, Jonathan Edwards, George Withefield, Leonard Ravenhill, A.W. Tozer, David Wilkerson, the Wesley brothers and the sweet and beautiful Susanna Wesley, the long-suffering George Muller, who used his wealth to evangelize (among others) this beautiful country, Charles T. Studd.

Charles Spurgeon and his beautiful way of praying with his family, which impressed everyone. I have sat with Charles Finney so that he could teach me what a revival is and its true characteristics. I saw in Evans Roberts how even the greatest men of God have emotional problems that affect them terribly in their ministries.

I saw in Leonard Ravenhill a love and zeal for the bride of Christ like I had never seen before.

Reading about the history of the early church gave me a lovely insight into the evolution of the church.

Reading about what life was like in Jesus' time helped me understand some things more clearly.

Reading about the history of revivals meant that I did not fall for Asbury's deception or for all the supposed revivals that happen every 5 seconds. A deception that those who say that studying is bad do fall for.

No matter how many crazy teachings about studying being bad, it is impossible for me to stop doing it. Reading I discovered the best Christians I have ever seen, the most beautiful women of God in the world, the most passionate men of God I have ever seen... I prefer to be with them than with many who call themselves Christians.

Beloved, so as not to make this long, we must understand that everything depends on the heart. Someone said "It's not that when you get a position you become bad, it's that you've always been that way, it's just that when you have the position you show it"

The same is true with studying or not. It's not that studying the Bible makes you arrogant, it's that you've always been that way and you've never had an excuse to show it and knowledge gives you that excuse.

As I said before, all the men of God have been students of the Bible and of all kinds of books. ALL!!! None, NONE, not a single one of the men of God who have existed only dedicated themselves to reading the Bible and nothing else, not even the apostle Paul!

As I always say, I can't force them to do anything, I only give the word and the arguments and the one who convinces is the Holy Spirit.

I started to write, my fingers went off and now I don't know what title to give to this, I need a Timothy hahaha No, I'm not looking for disciples, father, what title do I give to this? hahaha

If you don't like it, don't worry, but not studying is not something that is biblical, it is just an opinion of you misunderstanding one or another biblical verse and taking it out of context.

Kisses