Introduction/Preface/Thingy: Questions, questions, questions

What does one do to avoid the wrong theology, the wrong pictures of God, and find the right? Never stop studying, never stop searching for God everywhere, never stop pursuing God. He will find you and he will take care of the rest. He promised that he is there with you when you are studying with others . He promised that his Spirit will be with us always, guiding us into "all truth" .
Never be satisfied with what you have. Constantly question and re-examine it. As you learn more about God, what you have learned in the past will need revision and updating. Challenge everything you hear, even (especially) what is written here.
There is this odd thing about God. The more you discover about him, the more answers you get, the more questions you find. There is always something more, something deeper to God. He is infinite and so you can always go a little deeper. That is one thing I have discovered in the journey that has culminated in this book. There are always more questions to be asked. Never stop asking questions, for there is greater power in questions than answers.
Answers are good in their own way, but answers are an end. Once you have the answer, there is no more beyond. We need answers, no doubt, for they make the question worth something. But answers need questions to make the answer mean anything. To give you an example, think of Douglas Adam's Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. The answer to life, the universe, and everything is....42? That doesn't mean anything. Why? Because it is only an answer. Only when you know the question does the answer make any sense at all.
Questions, on the other hand, are born out of a desire to go deeper, to understand more. If one is satisfied with the answer, then there is no push to go deeper. That is what God wants with us, is for us to go deeper with him. This pulls us closer and closer to him. Above almost anything else, never stop asking questions and never stop seeking answers. God will reward you.
That is something that you will find in this book. There are far more questions than answers. I freely admit, I don't have it all together. I don't have all the answers; I don't even have most of them. This isn't about getting answers, but asking questions. Even the answers I have, I don't know how to put into practice. Let me be perfectly clear: I am not perfect, I make mistakes. I still struggle with pornography and objectifying women. I still struggle with pride and thinking entirely too highly of myself. I still am prone to indifference. The list could go on for pages. The list could be the book. Point is, I am a sinful, screwed up human. Therefore I don't know everything. Therefore I ask questions.
If you have been allowed to read it, it is with the purpose of making you think, of making probe, not for you to come away thinking that this answers everything. This is what I, a mere human, believe to be true. This means I maybe (likely am) wrong on some things, perhaps a lot of things. So think critically, test what I'm saying. And if you find me to be wrong, I would really like to know! Remember, this is not the Bible, nor the words of a prophet, or of God himself. Simply my understanding of them.
What do you believe? Who do you understand God to be? The purpose of anyone reading this book is to inspire those question, to make you search for God. To make you ask questions.
So, as Rob Bell would say, may you not be satisfied with the answers, but ask the questions that keep you searching more and more. May you hunger and thirst after God and never give up studying him. Above all, may you come to know the real, living, awesome, and loving God. It is worth the struggle and fight. I know it is for me.