We all need to realize that the only safe place to build our lives is on God’s Word. In this chaotic and troubled world we live in many people acknowledge the value of the Bible, but affirming its value does not mean they build their lives on it or that they find it reliable. I hear the naysayers screaming….”that’s an assumption you cannot prove.” But, in reality recent surveys have revealed that 80% of those who attended church last Sunday will not read or touch their Bibles until the next Sunday when they pick them up to go to church.
People today spend much more time reading and writing in Face book than reading and studying the Word of God. The Bible is for the most part in people’s lives is marginalized and/or ignore totally by the majority of people in our world! Skeptics want to dismiss Christianity, saying it is based on a flawed document. But, if the Bible is flawed, then how can we trust if for matters of eternal significance? But, the reality and truth we have discovered is that the Bible continually shows us its trustworthiness and reliability, and we can trust it in all matters.
I minister to men broken by sin and choices and I emphasis every day the key to any relationship is communication. Relationships collapse when we fail to learn how to communicate. Relationships do not grow when the communication is one sided. One person doing all the talking does not promote a healthy relationship. Let me ask a question–is your prayer life a one sided conversation? Is it a monologue and not a dialogue?
I think in my own life how I have taken God’s Instruction Manual and go into my prayer closet and proceeded to read it to Him as if He is totally ignorant of what it says. Then I proceed to tell Him what He has to do because this passage says this and I know it means this! We take verses out of context and often attempt to manipulate God to do something for us because we found a verse that sounds good; so, based on that verse God like a trained animal is suppose to obey and pour out a blessing! This is stupidity at its best!
One guy in the Bible that you and I would agree deserved some answers and TLC from God was Job. The dude is sitting a manure pile scraping his body that is covered in oozing and bleeding boils. The only thing he has left in his life is a nagging wife who is encouraging him to curse God and die and some self righteous so-called friends telling him he was not right with God. He has lost all he had–his businesses and his children. Job is hurting and he asked God some tough and honest questions. Ironically for the longest time God is silent— God does not respond at all. From the vantage point of our flesh it appears God does not care about Job. God provides no comfort for a man that is describe in the beginning words of this book as “perfect.” When God finally speaks He simply asked Job a question–“Where were you when I created the world?” At a glance it appears that God is insensitive and not caring about Job. God’s question is rhetorical and says– hey your problem is small in comparison to the task of being Creator God!
Throughout the Bible when men speak the reference is to words. When God speaks the reference is Word. For many of us we see God at a glance because that is about how much time we spend in the Word. On occasion we glance at it and look at it but we spend little if any time in the Word! Alone and being guided by the Holy Spirit into all truth. We must discipline ourselves to come apart from the busy world where we are bombarded by the words of men that confuse us and challenge the Word. Words cause us to doubt! Words get us to place our faith in the world and the things in the world. The Word tells us to “set our affections on the things that are in Heaven and not the things here on earth. The task of Jesus was to come to earth and pay the terrible price required by Satan to redeem man. He also came with the purpose was to offer man the opportunity to be a part of the family of God and once more communicate with God. It took thirty three years for Jesus to complete that task. He announces He is going home but He is not going to leave His followers alone and will send the Holy Spirit to “lead them into all truth.”
The Holy Spirit’s first task was to bring into existence “the Bride of Christ–the church. But this accumulation of Gentile believers needed something tangible to teach them and guide them in the formative years of the Church. Jesus tells us in John 14 he is leaving but he will send the Holy Spirit. The teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness comes through revelation and study of the Word. Whatever God is going to say has already been written in the Word!
2 Timothy 3:16 tells us the key to our life being what God desires: “All Scriptures is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Do you see what the Word says it is the Word that changes and equips God’s children? The Truth is plain and easy to understand. Romans 1 verse 19 tells us: “since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them.” Paul goes on in the last part of verse 20–“….being understood from what has been made, so, that people are without excuse.” People go to seminars, counseling, yoga and a whole bunch of activities seeking answers to the mess in their lives. But, they hardly if ever read the Word.
Please today listen to God speak through His Word and do not allow the Words of men drown out the Word. “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every WORD that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Is this true in your life?
