Is the Bible just empty words--or do its pages point us to a path leading to eternal life?
There is no doubt the Bible is unique. It is the only book ever written where you need to know the author for it to make sense!
You can read it and understand the history. But you have to meet the author in the person of Jesus Christ for it to change your soul.
“Now hold on just a minute! How can you meet Jesus? Didn’t he live 2,000 years ago?”
You meet him in the New Testament of the Bible. He changes your life when you personally accept him for who he claimed to be: the divine Son of God and the Savior of the world.
Unfortunately not everyone who reads it believes it. In fact there have been people who memorized much of the New Testament but never met Jesus or believed in him.
On February 11, 1962, Parade Magazine published a brief article about such a person called “Still Munching Candy.”
“At the village church in Kalonovka, Russia, attendance at Sunday school picked up after the priest started handing out candy to the peasant children. One of the most faithful was a pug-nosed, pugnacious lad who recited his Scriptures with proper piety, pocketed his reward, then fled into the fields to munch on it.”
“The priest took a liking to the boy and persuaded him to attend church school. This was preferable to doing household chores from which his devout parents excused him.”
“By offering other inducements, the priest managed to teach the boy the four Gospels. In fact, he won a special prize for learning all four by heart and reciting them nonstop in church.”
“Now, 60 years later, he still likes to recite Scriptures, but in a context that would horrify the old priest. For the prize pupil, who memorized so much of the Bible, is Nikita Khrushchev, the former Communist Premier.” [Khrushchev died in 1971, nine years after the article was written.]
As this story illustrates, the “why” behind learning is just as important as the “what” that is learned. The same Nikita Khrushchev who mouthed God's Word as a child, later declared God to be nonexistent -- because his cosmonauts had not seen Him.
Khrushchev memorized the Scriptures for the candy, the rewards and the bribes, rather than for the meaning it had for his life. Artificial motivation produced artificial results.
Sadly, Nikita didn’t believe what he read in the Bible. For him it was dead words.
But Jesus said, “The words I have spoken to you are life.” So what happened to Nikita?
Jesus once compared the good news of the Gospel to seed. Even though seed resembles an inanimate object (like a pebble), it contains life.
For the life to show itself, the seed must be planted in good soil. If you put seed in a rock garden it will never take root or bear fruit.
A receptive mind seeking truth is good soil for God’s word. When a person hears the good news that Jesus died on the cross for their sin and rose from the dead to give them new life, the seed is sown. When they believe it and trust it to be true, new life takes root in their soul.
“Believe” is the key word. The reader must personally believe Christ died for him or her and trust in him. When they do, God forgives their sin and gives them the gift of eternal life.
This is why the Scripture says, “For the word of God is living and active.” Far from being dead words, the Bible is the only book in the world that can bring hope and life to the hopeless.
Listen to the Bible; it’s great for your soul!
Showing posts with label Bible. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bible. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Wicked Weather
Well how about this weather!
Someone said that if it weren’t for the weather, most people wouldn’t know how to start a conversation! And they’re probably right.
Until recently, we’ve had a mild winter. Now it’s cold. And Baghdad and Mexico both had snow this year! So are we having global warming or cooling? I’m sure I don’t know.
Weather is so unpredictable and forecasts are often unreliable. Recently I heard a TV weather report say that all the experts and all the forecast models got it wrong.
That’s the problem with weather predicting. You can’t always trust it. Sometimes they’ll tell you to expect a summer storm and you get wicked weather—a tornado. Other times they warn of flooding and you get a few drops of rain. But occasionally they’re right on the mark.
I guess that’s why I like being a pastor. Why? Because you can trust the Bible.
Now I can hear someone say, “Hold it right there for just a minute. How do you know?”
Because the Bible is honest about what man is. Its heroes are not larger-than-life perfect people. It shows their failures and victories side by side. It’s truthful about their struggles.
While psychologists and police departments try to figure out where crime comes from, the Bible gives us the answer: evil. It tells us that evil has a source: Satan, the evil one.
Wickedness and evil seem to fascinate some people. I had a college roommate who decided he wanted to be an expert on demons and the devil. But the Bible warns us to stay away from witchcraft and sorcery. What you think you’re controlling ends up controlling you.
The Bible is unique among the world’s holy books. According to the Internet site gotquestions.org, about 40 authors wrote the Bible. They wrote over a span of 1,500 years and came from very different backgrounds. Yet the Bible doesn’t contradict itself and contained no errors when it was written. The authors have different perspectives but they all speak of the same one true God. They all point to the same one way of salvation—Jesus Christ.
Now I’ll be the first to admit that not everyone agrees with me. And that’s OK. The Bible can stand on its own merits. But most people will agree that Jesus was special.
The truths Jesus taught and the claims he made set him apart as more than just a good teacher. And while he died for what he believed in, he was more than a martyr.
Jesus claimed that through faith in his death and resurrection, sin would be forgiven and believers would become sons of God. He spoke with clarity and left no doubt what he meant.
Some folks have honest doubts—and that’s OK—as long as those doubts push them to search for answers. Don’t forget that Jesus said, “Seek and you will find.”
Let’s also admit that Jesus’ followers don’t always make us proud. But it’s been that way since the beginning (remember Judas?). Followers often make mistakes. What you need to do is look at the leader. Christianity stands or falls with Jesus. Not with anyone else.
Even though others may let us down, Jesus said he is God. He never fails us.
The way to determine if Jesus was who he said he was is to accept his challenge. He said, "My teaching is not my own. It comes from Him who sent me. If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own."
I’m not sure you can do much about wicked weather--but one thing is sure: You can do something about you! Will you take Jesus’ challenge? I did and it changed my life for good.
Listen to the Bible; it’s great for your soul!
Someone said that if it weren’t for the weather, most people wouldn’t know how to start a conversation! And they’re probably right.
Until recently, we’ve had a mild winter. Now it’s cold. And Baghdad and Mexico both had snow this year! So are we having global warming or cooling? I’m sure I don’t know.
Weather is so unpredictable and forecasts are often unreliable. Recently I heard a TV weather report say that all the experts and all the forecast models got it wrong.
That’s the problem with weather predicting. You can’t always trust it. Sometimes they’ll tell you to expect a summer storm and you get wicked weather—a tornado. Other times they warn of flooding and you get a few drops of rain. But occasionally they’re right on the mark.
I guess that’s why I like being a pastor. Why? Because you can trust the Bible.
Now I can hear someone say, “Hold it right there for just a minute. How do you know?”
Because the Bible is honest about what man is. Its heroes are not larger-than-life perfect people. It shows their failures and victories side by side. It’s truthful about their struggles.
While psychologists and police departments try to figure out where crime comes from, the Bible gives us the answer: evil. It tells us that evil has a source: Satan, the evil one.
Wickedness and evil seem to fascinate some people. I had a college roommate who decided he wanted to be an expert on demons and the devil. But the Bible warns us to stay away from witchcraft and sorcery. What you think you’re controlling ends up controlling you.
The Bible is unique among the world’s holy books. According to the Internet site gotquestions.org, about 40 authors wrote the Bible. They wrote over a span of 1,500 years and came from very different backgrounds. Yet the Bible doesn’t contradict itself and contained no errors when it was written. The authors have different perspectives but they all speak of the same one true God. They all point to the same one way of salvation—Jesus Christ.
Now I’ll be the first to admit that not everyone agrees with me. And that’s OK. The Bible can stand on its own merits. But most people will agree that Jesus was special.
The truths Jesus taught and the claims he made set him apart as more than just a good teacher. And while he died for what he believed in, he was more than a martyr.
Jesus claimed that through faith in his death and resurrection, sin would be forgiven and believers would become sons of God. He spoke with clarity and left no doubt what he meant.
Some folks have honest doubts—and that’s OK—as long as those doubts push them to search for answers. Don’t forget that Jesus said, “Seek and you will find.”
Let’s also admit that Jesus’ followers don’t always make us proud. But it’s been that way since the beginning (remember Judas?). Followers often make mistakes. What you need to do is look at the leader. Christianity stands or falls with Jesus. Not with anyone else.
Even though others may let us down, Jesus said he is God. He never fails us.
The way to determine if Jesus was who he said he was is to accept his challenge. He said, "My teaching is not my own. It comes from Him who sent me. If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own."
I’m not sure you can do much about wicked weather--but one thing is sure: You can do something about you! Will you take Jesus’ challenge? I did and it changed my life for good.
Listen to the Bible; it’s great for your soul!
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