Slideshow image
Scripture for the day: John 5:38-40 But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.
Thought for the day: They spent countless hours searching the deep things of what we call the Old Testament. Once they’d read until their eyes could no longer focus, they shifted their attention to what a myriad of Rabbis had said through the years. Then, and only then, they venture out into the highways and byways, these Pharisees, Sadducees and lawyers, spending countless more hours arguing the finer points of scripture with anyone careless enough to be drawn into a debate. At the end of the day, these elites would roll up their scrolls, shake the dust from their feet, and make their way back to the Temple or to their homes, anticipating the joy of another day of successful arguments that would surely return with the sun.
The problem with these giants of the faith was that they never once stopped to consider the fact that all their study was actually leading them away from God and not toward Him. They filled their heads with knowledge about God and failed to ever really know God. If reading the Word of God doesn’t cause us to wait on His word for us; if study doesn’t lead us to glorify Him in obedience to the leading of His Spirit, we have done worse than waste our time. You see, unless we read the Word with the expectation that the Holy Spirit will use those sacred texts to speak to us, and unless we’re determined to listen and obey, we may as well be reading the latest Stephen King novel (yuck!).
When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, He pointed directly to the scriptures. When he confronted the religious rulers of the day, He said on more than one occasion “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.” Later, when He was raised from the dead, He once again pointed to the Scriptures while He walked on the way to Emmaus. He said, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself (Luke 24:25-27). When He had disappeared from their sight, they looked at one another and said, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us” (Luke 24:32)? Again, after He had presented Himself to the disciples, Luke tells us, “He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45). But why? What was so important that they simple had to understand the scriptures?
The purpose was just this: they had to understand in order to fulfill the reason behind it all. The purpose of understanding was not enlightenment, a deeper knowledge, the ability to out argue the Pharisees, or even a more complete picture of their place in God’s scheme of redemption. The purpose of opening their understanding was that they might be obedient to the Word He had given them. He said, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:46-47).
We ought never read the Word of God without a settled intent to obey the commands we have read. How sad when we somehow think it’s enough to read the Word with no intention or desire to walk in obedience. James said we are to be doers of the Word and not just hearers (James 1:22). When we have been given a distinct direction through the Word and by the Holy Spirit, we may be sure He will give us the strength do it.
Now go take on your world. - Bill