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What will it take? Part 2
I asked you last time to just ‘believe’ but and now I am asking you to go further and to know. We discussed what it will take to get you to read the Bible. Did you start? If you did I am super proud of you! Considering that God has made us all different we will have different ways of getting started and I told you my story so you would know how weird it was and how different God works in our life to mature us.
This week the question is – What will it take for you to start studying the Bible? Reading the Bible is one thing but studying it is something totally different. It takes time and effort to figure out what the Bible is talking about. It takes more than just going to the building where we congregate to study the Word. It takes more than a weekly Bible study to study the Scriptures. We are under the misguided perception that the Bible is incomplete due to missing information. There is nothing incomplete about Scripture. Let us go to Scripture to find out.
Paul tells us 2 Timothy 3:16 the Bible is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness and He said this before the New Testament ever existed. What other book is good for this? Romans 15:4 tells us that Scripture is good for encouraging us so we might have hope. What other book tells us it is there to encourage us and give us hope that also says it is profitable? Hebrews 4:12 tell us this Book is alive as well. What book, any book, can tell us the same and actually prove it? Jesus tells us Luke 8:11 that Scripture is a seed and 1 Peter 1:25 tells us the Seed will remain forever. What more do we need to tell us what a wonderful privileged it is to know the Word of God? What more do we need to decide that it is profitable to study the Scriptures because of it’s powerful characteristics.
Job 11:7 asked us if we can discover the depths of God? Why, yes we can! Daniel 2:28 reminds us there is a God in Heaven who reveals mysteries. Jesus told us in Matthew 13:11 that it is granted to us to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. The great mystery that has been hidden since the past ages has been manifested to His Saints (Col 1:26) is there for us to discover. The question still remains – what will it take for you to study the Word of God?
This week talk truth to yourself and figure out what it will take for you to want to uncover the mysteries hidden in Scripture. There are many rewards for gaining this information and one of them is listed in Proverbs 25:2. Do you want to be a king on the New Earth and go in and out of the New Jerusalem or would you rather just sit outside the gate waiting for the King of your Nation to bring you the latest news about Jesus. When Jesus returns there will be no more mystery to solve but our opportunity to search the Scriptures for this mystery will also be gone along with the reward we will get for searching out those mysteries.One last time I ask you – what will it take for you to begin studying Scripture? Start now and you won’t have to answer this question again.
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God IS in Charge?
What do we mean when we say, “God is in charge?” Do we actually believe what we say or do we just partially believe it? Why do we say it if we don’t fully believe it? Conditioning? Delusion? Hope?
We say it for three different reasons – to make others feel better, to make ourselves feel better and because we actually mean it. The first two seem to me to be placations or little white lies. Colossians 3:9 can be used here. Let’s look a little more closely at these little or huge white lies then the truth.
First we tell our hurting friends that God is in charge and that He has a plan for us in our sorrow. We pat them on the back and bear false witness to them. We tell them He is going to be good to them then we go home and say to our husbands – if that woman had not made that choice this would not have happened. We just took the will of God away from Him and gave it to her. He is not in charge she is!
The next time we say it we are saying it to ourselves when we are not getting our own way. “Well, God is in charge so maybe He has a better plan for me!” Then we proceed to drop that God ordained plan from our mind after some little obstacle side-tracked us then make a decision to go in our own direction without consulting God. In our own mind God is not really in charge we are! I chose to do God’s will. I chose to believe in God. I choose to do what I want! I am choosing God but understand it is still my choice! We skip right over John 15:16 like it wasn’t there.
I will put to you that the Scriptures scream God is in charge all of the time and of everything! He planned out our life from before time began. He knew us before we were even in our mother’s womb! He is all knowing and all encompassing. He knows what we will say before we say it. He knows what we will pray before we pray it! He knows all this because He created us to be who we are and what we are and where we are so that we will do His will for us not the other way around. GOD IS IN CHARGE whether we like it or not and whether we believe it or not!
Action Plan: Take this week to research in the Bible (not on the web) who is actually in charge – us or God! Then get the answer into your mind so that when you actually say ‘God IS in charge’ you mean it!
