What Will it Take? Part 1
I am on a mission! The mission is to figure out how to get Christians to read the Bible! The big question is, “What will it take for you to start reading the Bible?” When I was a baby Christian I went to a women’s retreat and while there God used a false teacher’s words to wake me up! A story was told about Mary and Elizabeth being cousins (look it up) and as I sat in the auditorium my mind started running. My friend was sitting beside me and I said to her, “Now, wait just a minute! If Mary and Elizabeth are cousins that means that Jesus and John the Baptist are cousins too?” Whoa, fully awake! I was finished with ignorance and so began my hunger for knowledge. After one year of salvation I began to work it out. How many years of salvation have you been ignoring? You are missing so much! Well, let’s remedy that right now knowing that you will go through a couple things! I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact that we will be killed by reading the Bible and the upside is that we will be transformed into the image of God!
The down side of having Biblical knowledge is the ‘selfish’ you is going to be killed! This is probably the most un-verbalized reason for not reading the Word I know. All the other reasons come down to just this one. I know you’re a nice person who is good to people but that is not going to get you food from the tree of life. I know you go to church and give your fair share but that is not going to get you into the city. I know you love Jesus and you do your very best to love those unlovable people but that is not going to guarantee reward. All of the works you do as a good person, a fair person or a loving person are useless without obeying His commandments. In other words they are not the works listed in the Bible, which you don’t know, because you are ignorant of the Word. Our selfish works will not be rewarded so they need to be killed and God works need to be begin. When you begin to read the Word the God works start popping out on the page and taking root in our mind killing our selfish works. The hard part is the realization that what we want is not what God wants effectively killing us when we start doing what God wants! We need to overcome this selfish mindset and be overcomers so we can enter through the gate and eat of the Tree of Life. There is no easy way to do this but to FORCE yourself to start reading the Word so you will be given your rewards.
If anything will give us a hunger to get started it will be the rewards that Jesus is coming with. Revelations 21 & 22 tell us of the New Earth and the New Jerusalem as our eternal place to live not Heaven. As much as Heaven is a place of joy and peace without pain it is only temporary just as our life on this Earth is meant to be temporary. The new Earth and New Jerusalem are the place to be for all eternity. I know that your ignorance of the Word makes you question the rewards but I am asking you to just believe. Do not question the fact that you will be rewarded, just believe it. All of our lives, and all of our works are set up within a reward system. You know it and you participate with it, so please don’t think that Jesus was not responsible for setting it up this way! You would be fooling yourself and others! Read the story of Caine and Abel to make that clear. Rewards make us work harder and longer but it needs to be something that we want. Do you want to spend all eternity being able to go in and out through the gate of New Jerusalem? If the answer is yes (and it should be) then you must force yourself to read the word of God and do His commandments to receive this reward.
Revelations 22:14 is my mantra and hopefully it will be yours, forever in the back of your mind. Blessed are those who do the commandments of God for they will have the right to eat from the tree of life AND enter through the gates into the City. [Emphasis mine] If you believe that everyone will enter through the gates just read verses 15-16. Yes, there will be people who will not be allowed into the City therefore they will not be able to eat from the tree of life nor get knowledge from the Tree of Knowledge. What is most disturbing about this is the absence of the Light. Our excuses quoted for not knowing the things of God or obeying the things of God will be powerless to help us when our works are judged. Jesus will open the Lamb’s Book of Life when He is judging our works and we will have no excuse good enough to get us into that City. It will be determined here on this earth. Will we do what it takes to do the commandments of God here so we can get the reward of entering the New Jerusalem?
Tell me your story. I regaled you with the story of what happened to propel me forward into the Word of God now tell me your story so that others will be blessed and maybe your story will propel them forward into a life of doing the commandments of God. Sign up to receive the weekly email plus post your story and get access to my free eBook ‘The Eight Great Character Traits’ while it is still free.
