Questioning Our Beliefs

I have had recent conversations with family and coworkers concerning theology and other spiritual topics, mostly related to how one denomination is different than the other. They have been pretty good conversations and have caused me to think about some things.

One thing bothered me the most about those conversations. It always seemed to be "Well, our preacher/pastor said this and another said this, so that's what I believe". Okay they didn't say that last part "so that's what I believe", but basically that seemed to be where their beliefs were coming from.

An example which has really been churning in my head was that one of my coworkers heard a minister tell a story of a man approaching him after some people had been lead to Christ. The man was sad and expressed to the minister that he had heard God's calling before, several times, in fact, yet had never answered the call. He then proceeded to tell him that he no longer heard God's call anymore. The minister's point was that the man had missed his chance, and that God would no longer call him. Could someone run out of chances to become a follower of Christ. I would declare that God never gives up on us, no matter how many times he may call on us, which by the way, I believe God is constantly calling someone to come to Him. God's grace is great enough to save even the worst of sinners (see my post from yesterday). I need to do more study on this to give a more biblical ansewer. By the way, the coworker believed that you only have so many chances to answer God's call.

My point is that people tend to rely too much on people in ministry positions and their parents, and even others for biblical answers. Now don't get me wrong, ministers, elders, deacons, pastors, etc. are there to help give you biblical answers to problems or to give spiritual guidance, but we must not neglect our own individual study of God's word. We need to sometimes question what has always been taught to us in Sunday School or told to you by other Christians, and look at it for ourselves. God intends for us to study his word on our own as well as with other people. We need to get it straight from the Horse's mouth, so to speak. I believe it is the only way we will know for sure what we need to believe, and more importantly, how we need to live. How can we teach salvation to those who are lost if we are unsure what it means, or what the bibles teaches us about salvation. Don't let it be "Well brother so and so said this, or my dad says this or my mom told me that".

We must stop borrowing our faith from others and learn to have a faith of our own. Read this scripture

Find out why we should baptized, why we should love one another, how gracious our God is, Read about the heroes of Faith, the Lord's Supper, the consequences of sin, it goes on and on. And the only way you will know is by finding out for yourselves.

By the way if anyone could help me out by giving me scriptures I could look at related to the above mentioned example (Only getting so many chances to answer God's call) I would appreciate it.

God Bless