Hi Everyone! (Twelve minutes past due… sorry) \u00a0<\/p>\n
Well, this week’s topic of thought may open a can of worms, so to speak. Let’s stir the pot a little for it may cause you to consider things you have long put from your thinking. As I hope these Bible studies stir us to think deeper about our regard for God and the things pertaining to God, I ask you to give more than\u00a0a couple of minutes thought on this topic. For to do so may confirm more strongly your convictions, which, of course, have eternal ramifications… \u00a0<\/p>\n
How’s that for an opener? And so let’s recap first. We’ve been talking about God and His characteristics. We started out thinking if God is… and ascertaining from the responses, we answered in the affirmative, (kinda silly to say, for God is God regardless of our responses). Then, with the premise that He is, we looked into some of His characteristics, for if we are to know God, then we need to understand the things that are true of Him. We talked about Him as being holy, set-apart and Him as being righteous. These two particular characteristics of God lead to reverential awe and respect. God’s holy presence has a way of causing sin to cringe and desperately try to escape, like nasty cockroaches under a brilliant and\u00a0blinding\u00a0white light. \u00a0<\/p>\n
And\u00a0so if God is holy and righteous, (always does right), then we can also say God is honest. And\u00a0if God is honest, then He is not a liar. And if God is\u00a0not a liar, then\u00a0whatever He may say or do is\u00a0true, not false.\u00a0Thus God is a God of truth. God is holy, God is righteous and God is truth. Hmmm… \u00a0<\/p>\n
What do you suppose His word is? \u00a0<\/p>\n
The answer simplifies the understanding of life. The answer tends to remove the gray areas of human discourse. The answer is so reliable; one may order their entire life around it. The answer requires belief. The answer is (By design, I assure you) the most popular selling book of all time. \u00a0<\/p>\n
God’s word is truth. Another way to say this is God’s word is infallible… no errors whatsoever! His word is revealed in Scripture and the Scriptures have been preserved since ancient times from the Garden of Eden to the Borders Bookstore on the corner. God’s word has staying power like nothing else on earth! In Matthew 24:35, Jesus says: Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. A look at the history of how the Bible came to be is astounding! \u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, frankly, there was a time when I did not believe God’s word was all true. I was able to accept Jesus as having been a real man\u00a0once upon a time, but I could not believe Adam (Eve’s husband) lived to be 930 years old. Oh I could believe Nebuchadnezzar was King of\u00a0Babylon, but Jonah being inside the belly of a big fish for 3 days???? Come on! Some stuff in the Bible had to be fantasy or myth, I thought. And sadly, such thinking leads to that ole’ study\u00a0Bible\u00a0we got\u00a0as a present to collect dust on the bookshelf. \u00a0<\/p>\n
But thinking back rationally, if God’s word is true, then everything He said\u00a0has to be\u00a0true too. This\u00a0means\u00a0God’s word is infallible. It was just a matter of whether I believed it or not.<\/p>\n
Hold onto your hats… Let’s see some ramifications. Well, to cherry pick God’s word is to be inconsistent. To lop off the Old Testament and accept mostly the New Testament is disingenuous. I mean, by whose standard was I deciding what was acceptable and not acceptable? My own? If I am the one deciding, then guess what? I am putting myself as God’s judge. Wow! But if I am the creature and God is the Creator, then how\u00a0backwards is that? Oh what haughty pride I once had! Sad to say,\u00a0huh? \u00a0<\/p>\n
Let’s read it again: God’s word is truth. Back to that prayer of Jesus (The Son) to God (The Father), In John 17:17 Jesus says: Sanctify them (His disciples) in the truth; Your word is truth. So if He says it, then by golly, that settles it. I must believe this if\u00a0I am to have integrity as a “Bible-believing”\u00a0Christian. My getting hung up on some portion of scripture and not accepting it as fact was doubt looking for proof.\u00a0And\u00a0doubt comes from unbelief. Why\u00a0was I once unbelieving? Oh, I was influenced by other people’s opinions. I was ignorant of what the Bible actually said. I never thought too deeply about\u00a0it. I never took an honest look at it. It wasn’t relevant to me at the\u00a0time. Ha! If God is eternal, then His word is eternal, so it transcends\u00a0time and place, culture and my measly amassing of\u00a0trivial pursuit knowledge. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Harsh? Perhaps… but straight up. We live in a\u00a0society of\u00a0relativism.\u00a0Have you noticed? And calling things black and white, not gray is radical! Them\u2019s fightin’ words. You know.. my truth is my truth and your truth is yours, and my truth is not\u00a0necessarily right for you, but\u00a0it\u00a0is right for me. Neil Peart of Rush, once a musical hero of mine says this in his lyrics for “Faithless”: I’ve got my own moral compass to steer by, A guiding star beats a spirit in the sky. \u00a0<\/p>\n
So think about how you regard God’s word. You may believe in God, but do you believe what He says too? All “Yeah, but”s are welcome \ud83d\ude09 \u00a0<\/p>\n
Peace,
\nJim<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hi Everyone! (Twelve minutes past due… sorry) \u00a0 Well, this week’s topic of thought may open a can of worms, so to speak. Let’s stir the pot a little for it may cause you to consider things you have long put from your thinking. As I hope these Bible studies stir us to think deeper […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[34,13,44,65],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-study","tag-bible","tag-gospel","tag-scripture","tag-understanding-god"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":365,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions\/365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}