On yesterday’s blog Steve commented
on the teaching of Jesus, “His technique was to just use parables that those inclined
to seek the Lord would understand and the rest would not…Nobody just stumbles over
the Lord…” Taking this thought a step further, I wonder what it says about
believers who are not deepening their relationship with the Lord by staying in
the Word — those who seek the Lord in nature, through the pastor and in fellowship,
but yet they never crack their Bible. Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the
branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart
from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5 NIV).
1 comment:
Gail;
-----The Jehovah’s Witnesses are an interesting ponder. They are pretty big on studying the Word. They even will come to your house and study with you, if you ask them. The Seventh Day Adventists are also big on obedience to the Word. They make piety out of Saturday rest just like Moses said to do. And they follow his dietary restrictions, too. No pork bacon. No rabbit stew. Some won’t even eat meat, though they eat substitutes made to look and taste as much like meat as possible. I guess that’s like a Baptist keeping his hands off the cute neighbor girl, yet subscribing to Hustler. Then there are these Presbyterians. I don’t want to see their book, but I hear they have one with all the rules for how to do church right, and I know it ain’t the Bible. Knowing the Presbyterians, I’m sure they got its basic stuff from the Bible, then fleshed the rest of it out with ideas beyond what was written in the Bible. Otherwise, their little “way to do church” book would only be a few “way to do it” paragraphs. And we can’t forget the Amish. They really stick together in the Word. I think they are beginning to find the Bible saying machines are ok on the job (maybe because competing against machines has gotten too tough.) Still, Mommy must scrub every dish, fork, and spoon by hand in candle light to be holy! I look at the guy who meets god on the river bank and I think, “Somehow, he seems to be getting as much out of the Word as are the rest of us.”
-----Truly, I jest. Where does attention to the Word start? Almost every denomination perpetuates its own form of error, but they all do it with the same Word, yet still fit each other like socks fit roosters. One old wise guy got smart and started a denomination he said wasn’t a denomination. It was supposed to work like: the Christian Church believes what you read in the Bible. It was a good idea. But some of them decided God hated organs and guitars and everything else that made music except the human vocal-cords. And eventually the others who thought pianos and such were ok decided podiums, communion tables, and about everything else that made church feel like church, including the great old hymns, “How Great Thou Art”, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God”, and the likes just weren’t part of church. I guess fellowship hadn’t much to do with church either, seein’ how many they told to go worship somewhere else. Where does attention to the Bible start? Maybe the guy with god on the riverbank isn’t missing much.
-----Then again, maybe he’s missing a great deal. I suppose I could be wrong about this, but it seems to me that if God’s going to keep His promise of hauling everyone into Heaven who call’s on His name, it might start with grace. At least I Cor 3:10-15 makes it appear that way. But as necessary as that is to get anyone into Heaven, it must go on from there for anyone to be right pleasing to Him before getting to Heaven. I like where Psalms 1:2 implies it starts: delight in the Lord’s law.
-----But even that’s kind of tricky. Way down inside, delight in the Lord’s law starts feeling a whole lot like delight in the Lord’s law bein’ like my law. Either way will start one to deeply studying the Bible, as all the different denominations demonstrate. But discerning the trick will keep your learnin' more in line with what He would like you to know, since attention to the Bible truly starts with I AM THAT I AM. It kind of ends with Him, too.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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