24

Jump Start # 2145

Posted on July 24, 2018 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 2145

Luke 21:16 “but you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be hated by all on account of My name.”

Our passage today is not one that we hear preached often. It doesn’t fit in well with the theology of everyone living happily ever after. I expect it struck the first people who heard this with shock and horror. Their own family would turn against them. They would be hated by everyone. They would be killed. Those words would be enough for some then and many today to walk away from Jesus. What’s the point, if this is what will happen. Nothing is more important than family, is how some see life.

Many fields of study, such as medicine and law have what we call “pre” courses. Pre-med, pre-law, is what we hear a young university student saying. The “pre” part is often as far as some get. They change their minds. It’s not what they thought it would be. For others, the “pre” part eliminates them because they just can’t get the grades necessary to move on. In some ways, this is what Jesus’ words were doing. It was going to eliminate those who were curious, but not committed. It would remove those who were there for the show, the free food, and to be with the crowds. Things were going to get much worse as time went on.

Now, in all of this, there are some lessons for us.

First, often our very family does not understand what we believe and why we believe it. There can be constant friction between family members about attending services so often, not engaging in things that they want to do, such as drinking alcohol, and gossiping about others. Family reunions and holiday times can be stressful and strained because of the pressures to go along with the rest of the family.

Here are a few things that can try your patience and stretch your limits as to what you should do:
Family weddings: someone in the family is getting married for the third or fourth time. They shouldn’t be getting married, but they are and you’re invited. Or, there is a homosexual wedding in the family. Everyone is going to be there. You’re expected to be there as well.

Family business practices: there are some under the table, not so ethical things going on and you are to be a part of that. Not only is it the family business, but it’s your job and your income.

Family gatherings that involve toasting a drink of alcohol, witnessing a baby being baptized, or going to see a young family member play in a church band. All of these things fly in the opposite direction of what you believe. Do you go and just not say anything? Do you bring up your opposition which leads to everyone ganging up on you and attacking you? Do you simply not go, which brings the same results? Do you come up with a lame excuse and hope that passes the judgmental eyes?

Those of us that have just about everyone in the faith do not experience nor understand how hard every day things can be from your own family.

Second, from our passage, often it’s our very family that turns on us. It’s hard for us to imagine parents being so upset and angry with the faith of their children that they would turn them into authorities, knowing that they may very well be put to death. The Christians were good people. They are nice. They are kind. They are forgiving. They are generous and helpful. They are not a threat to anyone. Yet, there was such a hatred for Jesus, anyone connected to Jesus, was hated. Even among family members.

Some of the worst things said and some of the greatest pressures we experience come from family members who do not hold anything back. All kindness is gone. The questions are harsh. The criticism is often not accurate, yet intended to be hurtful and cruel. Ridicule, false statements, repeated arguments that they have picked up from others, are all used to pressure you to be like everyone else. “Do you think we are all going to Hell?” is asked repeatedly in front of others. They stare and wait for your response. They may pick apart your life and point out mistakes and sins in your life to show that you are not any different than they are. It can get very mean and nasty. It can get to the point that you are not welcomed, invited, included. It can get to the point that you are asked to leave. It can get to the point that you are cut out of the family will. Things can be done to hurt your feelings. Things can be done that are cruel.

Thirdly, all of this are means to test our faith, and all of this has Satan behind it. A study of Revelation reveals that Satan could not alter the plans of Heaven. He then set his eyes upon the people of God. If he could keep Heaven empty, God would be alone. His attacks are upon those who keep the testimony of Jesus. He will not go by the rules, we do and we must. He will use anything and anyone, including those very close to our hearts. He will discourage, confuse and twist things in our minds to deceive us and get us to not follow Christ. He will offer alternatives that seem very close, but are not the same. It’s like “knock-offs.” I walked by a guy selling “knock-off” purses. Name brands, but you know they were imitations. They weren’t the real thing. Satan does that with us. Imitation religion. Imitation faith. Imitation church. Close, so close, it fools most eyes. But those who really know, see the differences. It’s not the same. It’s only an attempt to get us away from Jesus.

The testing of your faith. Is your faith greater than your family? Is you faith strong enough to withstand opposition? Is your faith able to stand on it’s own? Can you keep your faith when others around you do not agree with you? Can you keep your faith when others are inviting you to join them in things you know are not right?

Remember back in school, some tests were pretty easy. Some, especially the multiple choices, when only one answer could be right, were really tough. You could narrow the choices down to two, but which one. That’s hard. That’s the way tests can be. It can be that way to our faith.

This is why the more Bible you have in you, the easier it is to take those tests and to know just what we ought to do and to face the consequences of those who do not believe as you do. You stand with the three Jewish teens who would not bow down to Babylon’s idol. You stand with the aged Daniel who continued to pray when he was told not to. You stand with Moses’ who was not afraid to choose God’s people over Pharaoh’s family. You stand with Peter when released from prison, declared that he could not stop speaking about Jesus. You stand with those early saints who suffered and gave their lives because they believed in Jesus more than anything else. They understood that their faith was greater than their lives. Death is not the worst thing that can happen. It’s being thrown into eternity alone and without Christ. Nothing is worth that, nor can be worse than that.

Family. You gotta love ‘em, but it sure can be hard. We don’t pick our family. They can be our greatest support and help or they can be the very thing that trips us and keeps us from succeeding with the Lord.

Jesus or family? It’s sad that it often has to be that way, but there it is. Who will you stand with? Who will save you in the end? Who is always right? Who died for you? If you had to choose Jesus or family, who would you stand with? For some, this is life every day. It’s hard. It brings tears to your eyes. Why won’t the family give me a chance? Why won’t they see the goodness of my faith? Why are they pressuring me to change?

Hang in there. God is with you. Be kind. Be thoughtful. But, be with Jesus.

Roger

23

Jump Start # 2144

Posted on July 23, 2018 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 2144

Psalms 92:14 “They will still yield fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap and very green.”

I was in Italy recently. We visited a farm that grew olive trees. Some of the trees were a thousand years old. They were still bearing olives. Still productive all those years later. Generations have come and gone. Wars, conquests, economic depressions, earthquakes, good times and bad times, and those olive trees were still producing. For a thousand years, those trees have been productive.

 

Our verse today is like that. It is describing the righteous man. He is compared to a flourishing palm tree and a cedar of Lebanon. Time passes and those trees are not just standing, but they are productive and useful. In old age, they still yield fruit.

 

The Bible, particular in the Wisdom literature section, honors the aged righteous man. He is a person of wisdom, experience and has earned respect from those younger. This is missing today. Our times is geared for the younger crowd. It’s fast pace and honors youthful looking. This may be why so many try to hide their age. They don’t want to be classified as “old.” That label today means dinosaur, out of the house and into the home for aged people. Years of service doesn’t mean much today. But it did and still does with God. Those that lead God’s people are referred to as shepherds or elders. Elder, not implying old, but experienced. Not a new convert or a novice, is how the Holy Spirit defined the characteristics. Not the first rodeo, how our friends in Texas, would phrase this.

 

Out to pasture, and retired spiritually isn’t found in this passage. Yielding fruit in old age, still useful and still productive to God, even in the final innings of life, is what this is about. Now here are some things to remember:

 

First, the yielding of fruit hasn’t begun in old age. It’s been a life time of service. Raising family, building careers, those busy years of life, have still found ways to be useful, productive and fruit bearing to the Lord. Some get this mixed up. They want to wait until the kids are out of the house, the career is sailing smoothly before they begin to consider being fruitful. In so doing, they pass by multitudes of opportunities to be an influence, to help others, and to use their talents for the Lord. Through your kids, you can reach other parents. Through your working years, there will be all kinds of people in and out of your life that you can teach, help and influence. Don’t put off the opportunities God presents to you. The Lazarus’ laid at your gates may not always be there. They may not be there once you slow down or find a better time. Opportunities come and they go.

 

Second, life changes us as we get older. This is something that most of us dread and try all that we can to keep from happening. Our bodies and our minds change. The twenty year old looking in the mirror doesn’t look the same as the seventy year old looking in the mirror. Same person, but that body has certainly changed. Energy levels drop. The eyes often need glasses and the ears hearing aids. And our minds become forgetful. This is something that I am seeing more and more. It takes me longer to recall names. Bible passages that I have known all my life, I get the chapter and the verse numbers wrong. I have to double check these things now. It takes my wife and I together to remember things out of the past. This is all what Solomon wrote about in the last chapter of Ecclesiastes. It happens, if you live long enough.

 

All of which tells us, that we will not be as productive as we were decades ago. Our minds and our bodies can’t keep that pace. Also, there are things that we once did, that we cannot do any longer. An afternoon with grandkids, and we need some rest. Even in old age, we will be productive, but it will be a different level than what it once was.

 

Third, there are things that age allows us to do that others cannot. I find more and more younger preachers reaching out to me for advice. I’m getting to be that old preacher who has preached a long time. Years ago, I was the one who was asking older preachers advice. This is something that age honors you with. Wisdom, experience and the ability to share those things with others to help them out. A few years ago, several preachers in my area started getting together once a month to help each other. We call it, Old preacher/young preacher studies. Guess which group I belong to? The younger preachers are full of fire and energy. They have great ideas. I love being around them and I appreciate that they actually believe I have something worthwhile to say.

 

Titus addresses the older men and the older women. There are things that life has taught us. We have seen battles, tough times, and people come and go in the kingdom. Our dedication, our faith and our commitment has helped keep the congregation going. Younger Christians need us. Sometimes they have not thought out every aspect of new ideas that they want to float. We can’t be against every new idea. However, we can remind them of the Biblical aspect of things. They may not have thought about that. Our years of knowledge will help. Our voice can help encourage those who are in the midst of their first dark valleys of life. In too many places, the younger Christians and the older Christians are not united. They are in a constant battle. Modern churches have resolved this by having contemporary and traditional services. That’s not the answer. Splitting us up isn’t wise nor healthy. The older folks need the younger and the younger needs the older. Together, experience and energy can be united into something powerful. Don’t fight change unless it’s wrong. Don’t be a stick in the mud who always declares, “We’ve never done it this way before.” Well, maybe we should have.

 

Fourth, don’t ever retire from the Lord. Even in old age, find ways to yield fruit. The hand written letter from an older Christian is something to treasure and store away. I have many. Sometimes the handwriting is hard to read, but the thoughts, the insights, the love shared, is worth much more than dozens of store bought cards. Find ways to encourage others. Find ways to continue to invite others. Find ways to still have folks into your home. Don’t stop until the Lord stops you. When age and time won’t allow you to do what you once did, find other ways to be fruitful. For some, the retirement years gives them both money and time to do things that they never could when they were younger. Don’t believe that this is now “my time.” It’s never your time. It’s always the Lord’s time. The single years, the married years, the young family years and the retirement years, all presents special challenges and opportunities. Each period is different and unique. Each period be fruitful and productive for the Lord.

 

If you cannot teach classes anymore, maybe you can write the material for someone else to use. If you cannot lead singing anymore, maybe you can have folks in your home for a singing or arrange to go places for a group of you to sing. If you cannot serve publically, maybe there are things you can do privately. I know the day will come when I will no longer be able to preach. I hope at that time I can be a preacher’s best friend and confident. I hope I can find ways to transition to other ways of serving in the kingdom.

 

They will still yield fruit in old age. Can that be said of you? Have you quit along time ago? Don’t stop until the Lord stops you.

 

Roger

 

20

Jump Start # 2143

Posted on July 20, 2018 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 2143

Galatians 1:6 “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel.”

Not long after Paul left the Galatia region, Jewish teachers followed. They were distorting, twisting and confusing what the new Christians had been taught. Now, they didn’t know. Were the Gentiles supposed to become Jews first and then Christians? Was certain aspects of the Old Testament law still supposed to be followed? The letter to the Galatians works through those questions and those issues.

What we want to look at today is the expression, “so quickly deserting Him.” It didn’t take long for the purity of the Gospel to become mingled with error. Church history attests to this statement, as well. By the second century, distortions were made among bishops and their power and control. A hierarchy was quickly developing. During this time the adoration of martyred Christians, referring to them as “saints” began. Infant baptism also began very early. I think this is shocking to many folks who have never looked deeply into church history. It is easy to believe that for three or four centuries things were running smoothly and everyone was sticking pretty close to the Gospel message. Then, later, gradually, things started creeping in and changing. That thought would be nice, but it isn’t historically true.

There are warnings within the New Testament of trouble on the horizon. Diotrephes, in John’s third letter, was running the church as if he was the boss. He was refusing to accept people and he was putting people out. No one person has such control, not according to the structure of the N.T. organization. But, it happened. Peter warned of false prophets arising among the people. Timothy was told that the people will not endure sound doctrine and will seek preachers who will tell them what they want to hear. Paul warned the elders of Ephesus that salvage wolves would arise among them, speaking perverse things to draw the disciples after them. Before the ink had dried on the New Testament, storm clouds were on the horizon.

Why did departures happen so quickly?

First, this was attacks by Satan to destroy the people of God. The message from the mid section of Revelation is that Satan could not wreck God’s eternal plan. He set his focus upon making war with the God’s children. As the gospel spread, so did opposition, resistance and the spirit of change. Glorifying man more than honoring God became a massive part of the powerful church in Europe. Statues adorn cathedrals of bishops, saints and leaders. Churches were named after men. While fooling the people into thinking that they were still following Christ, idolatry, power and control became dominate in what they did. The simple message of Jesus Christ, became so twisted and abused, that powerful men were becoming rich off of the common man. The church switched from a spiritual body to a political body and powerful men in the church were influencing world governments to their liking.

It’s easy to look at all of this and think, this is nothing like what we read in the New Testament. The lust for power, money and control, fed by Satan, corrupted hearts and twisted the church into what God never intended.

Second, the gullibility and ignorance of the people allowed this to take place. Instead of the people thinking for themselves and searching the Scriptures, as the Bereans had done, they were being told by these powerful church leaders what to believe and what to do. Few people had their own Bible. They were left to trust what the church leaders were telling them. If they disagreed, the heavy hand of the church came crashing down upon them. Discipline, not in the Biblical fashion to restore one back to Christ, but rather in the form of imprisonment, taking property, and even death, caused the common man to fear the powerful church. The church wasn’t a fellowship to help one get to Heaven, as the New Testament teaches. It became a powerful system that crushed any that opposed it. Ignorance isn’t bliss. The powerful church kept the people in the dark. There was period of time that a list of forbidden books was circulated among the people. If anyone had one of those books, they were subject to stiff punishment. On that list was the Bible. The Bible was a forbidden book, banned from the people. This is why the works of early reformers such as Wycliffe and Tyndale, who translated the Bible into the common language was seen as a threat to the church. Those men were viewed as a heretics to the church. Their bodies were degraded in death.

Third, the silence of the people allowed this. When people are afraid to act, they will hide in fear. They will go along with things that they know are not right, but they are fearful of saying anything. A powerful, distorted church that does not allow any questions to be asked, and keeps a heavy hand above the people will continue on it’s path of departure. There is no one to speak up. There is no one to warn. There is no one to question. Finally, after enough corruption and abuse, some started to speak up. They started to write. This led to what historically is called the Reformation Movement. We are talking about the 14 and 15 centuries, hundreds of years from the first century. A long time of corruption, departure and abuse.

Now, four lessons from this. Do not think that this is a walk down the halls of history. Our times are no different. The modern church today, with all the social and emotional emphasis, is a far cry from what we read in the New Testament. The organizational structure of the modern church is not close to what you read about in the New Testament. Every Sunday, mega churches are filled to capacity, listening to messages are distorted and twisted from the Gospel account. Our times are not much different.

First, we must realize that Satan is still after God’s people. He will use anything and anyone to put a wedge between us and Christ. He will use discouragement. He will use compromise. He will use false teaching. He will twist, change and present new ideas and new ways of looking at things. Any congregation that does not have their radar on and is not keeping a sharp eye out on Satan will suffer. Today’s twisted message is found on Social Media. There any fool can say anything he wants. People air their complaints. It can be a feeding frenzy for error.

Second, we must know God’s message. There isn’t much difference between those early years when people didn’t have their own Bibles and today when people simply won’t read the Bible. It’s not ownership that makes the difference. It’s spending time and getting to know what the message is all about. There is a difference between knowing facts about the Bible and knowing the message of the Bible. For instance, what is the purpose of the church? Is it to take care of the whole of man? Is it to provide a safe haven for teens to play and get together? Is it supposed to entertain us? Ignorance then and ignorance today, allows things to happen that never should.

Third, we need to take personal ownership of our faith and become actively involved within our congregations. Sitting back and saying, “Well, that’s what they decided. I don’t agree with it,” simply doesn’t fly. Abuse among elderships still happens today. Elders who do everything except shepherd the flock is still all too common. Raise questions. Look in the Bible. Don’t be a trouble maker, but demand proof from the Bible. Believing that you don’t have a say, leads right into the abusive church we read about in history. Now, don’t allow one wrong to make you do wrong. Your spirit, your attitude, your words—can lead people back to the Biblical pattern or you can just be seen as another power hungry person who wants to control things.

Finally, we must give the church back to God. It is His body. We belong to God. Our lessons, our classes, our interaction must be laced with Biblical references. We must honor Him by doing what He says. This attitude will help us stay the course that God wants.

So quickly, is what Paul said. How did you leave the Gospel so quickly? It happened then and it continues to happen today. Put a stake in ground for God and rally around that. Some may leave. Some may not have the disposition to stay with the Gospel message. They would rather run the church and ruin the church than to do what the Bible says.

We stand with God.

Roger

19

Jump Start # 2142

Posted on July 19, 2018 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 2142

Psalms 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

 

Our verse today begins a powerful section that reminds us that not only is God in charge, but that He is there to help His people. Affirming that God makes wars cease and at His voice, the earth melted, the Psalmist reveals that God is with us and God is out stronghold.

 

This chapter is often read at funerals. It is a reminder that in the midst of the darkest storms, God is there. God is able to do what we cannot. We cannot stop wars. We cannot quiet the earth. We cannot stop the chariots. But God can. This Psalm is a victorious praise of God who helps His people.

 

Now, the practical question comes to our minds, just how does God help us?

 

Some would assume that we are to just sit back and watch God at work. He’ll take care of it all. Just go on with your life and everything will work out in the end. That sounds wonderful, but it doesn’t help much when the storms are closing in all around you. It’s easy to see God on a Sunday. It’s easy to see God in the sunshine of life, when you are feeling well, you have money in the bank, and everything around you is at peace. But it’s the nights that change all of this. What about the days when I do not feel well. Not, just an occasional bug, but a disease that will not go away. What about the days when there is no money in the bank and the collectors are calling? What about those days when we don’t find peace? Trouble at home. Trouble at work. Trouble in the church house. Trouble within my head. What then? It’s hard to sit back and watch, when fear, discouragement, and worry fill our hearts and our nights. Problems is all that we see and problems is all that we talk about. Where’s God at those moments? Where’s the help?

 

Some are waiting for a knight to come riding in on a white horse to save the day. That’s the help they are anticipating from God. Someone is going to turn all of this around. This is why so many look to the White House. Turn this country around morally. Turn this country back to God. Turn this county away from wrong. Their hope is in someone saving the day. On a personal level, some are looking for someone to come and save the day for them. They are looking for the church to bail them out financially. They are looking for a sermon to change their marriage. They are looking for someone to go talk to their prodigal so he will come home. Where’s the knight on the white horse? Whose going to help us?

 

Biblically, the answers are found within Scriptures. God does help. He has always helped and He will continue to help. But the help doesn’t come independently of us. We don’t sit back and watch it happen. It doesn’t come about through voting for the right person. Our help comes when we walk by faith, trust God and apply the Scriptures to our lives. God has provided us with the armor to face anything the world or Satan throws at us. Satan won’t pitch underhand to you. He’s going to throw fast balls. He’s going to throw everything that he has at you. The weak, those who have not filled their hearts with God’s word, those who ignore God, they will knocked out of the box in seconds. They don’t stand a chance. Trouble, trouble, trouble and they are gone. It’s to the bottle they turn. It’s to immoral relationships they turn. It’s sour, miserable and unfulfilled lives that lack meaning and purpose and direction that define them. They don’t have God and thus, they don’t have God’s help.

 

But for the people of faith, God helps. God has given us everything within the Scriptures, to not just be able to stand in there with Satan, but to be victorious. The battle is not up in the air. It’s not a contest that could go either way. God wins. God’s help is found as we walk with Christ and become like Him. That’s the hope. That’s the power of God working through us. Does this mean every problem goes away? Health returns? Money flows? Peace abounds? No. But what it does mean is that you will not collapse like the fool who build his house upon the sand. There will be storms. The rain will descend. The floods come. But your faith, God’s help, will keep you standing spiritually. The storms may take your life, but that’s ok when you are walking with the Lord. Ours is not to live here forever. This is not Heaven and it never will be. Our goal is to be in His presence forever.

 

Got problems? Who doesn’t. Got God? That’s the difference. His help is there. His help not only makes you strong and able to endure, but His help will make you victorious. Give us all you have, Satan. As long as God is among us, we can overcome.

 

Sometimes we forget about God’s help. Sometimes we don’t realize that God’s victorious. We get upset with family because they let us down. We get snippy with the church because they don’t come through for us. We want quick answers to our prayers. We want everything to be resolved by morning. And, we walk up, and it’s yet another day with the storms. I think about that pitiful bent over woman in the gospel of Luke. For 18 long years she had this disease from Satan. Bent over and unable to straighten up. It didn’t happen over the weekend. Eighteen years ago. You just know that she prayed about her back. Every day, multiple times a day, she must have prayed. Yet, for her, the storms remained. She must have thought that she would never get better. She may have thought that God was doing this to her for a reason. But Luke introduces us to her as Jesus is in a synagogue. The synagogue was a place to worship. It was a place to pray. There she is, bent over and all, storms and all, in a place of worship. She hadn’t given up. She didn’t turn her back on God. She didn’t throw in the towel spiritually. I expect many of us would have stayed home that Sabbath day. We got this back problem, we’d say. Just can’t make it out. Not her. There she is. And, Jesus just happened to be there that one particular Saturday. He calls her to come forward. She doesn’t know why. The audience doesn’t know why. And, right then, she is healed miraculously. God helped.

 

Had she stayed home that day, she would have remained bent over. Had she blamed God, she would have remained bent over. Maybe we run out of patience with God. Maybe we expect God to work in our time table, rather than His. Maybe we remain bent over because we are not where we ought to be in our faith and in our worship.

 

God is a very present help in trouble. Do you believe that? His help may not come in the fashion nor the time that you expect. But He helps. His help may not stop the storm. We want the problems to go away. God may want us to become stronger, tougher, more patient, more dependent upon Him and all of that may come through continual storms. Health, money and no drama in our lives are what we seek. What God seeks is our faithfulness, righteousness and dependence upon Him. God helps accomplish what He wills and what He knows is best.

 

Fear less and trust more. God is near. God is there to help. He has provided everything we need to endure any storm and any thing Satan can throw at us. The victory belongs to the Lord.

 

Roger

 

18

Jump Start # 2141

Posted on July 18, 2018 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 2141

John 8:32 “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

This verse came to my mind yesterday. I finished reading a book that is subtitled, “Rethinking how you read the Bible.” That implies that we have not been reading the Bible correctly. A new way. New approach. New ideas. That also implies that generations have not read the Bible correctly. Are all of our spiritual forefathers lost and wrong because they did not know how to properly read the Bible?

There is a section about women in the ministry. The author really tries to find ways to “rethink” this. The Bible, he claims, was written by men and the Bible tells stories from the standpoint of men. Chapter after chapter, builds his claim for women preachers and leadership roles in the church. He claims that Jesus’ teaching and the book of James, was shaped by Mary. He finds her influence in both. He claims the opening chapters of Luke came from Mary. But, very subtly, there is this sentence: “I cannot prove that either James or Jesus got these ideas from their mother.” Words such as, “perhaps,” “could,” “we cannot be sure,” fill this section. When addressing Paul’s warning about women being silent in the church, “we are not completely sure what kind of special silence he has in mind.” When looking at women being saved in childbearing, from 1 Timothy 2, he says, “Once again, no one knows for certain what this verse means.”

What we walk away from such books like this, and they are falling off the shelves in bookstores, there are so many like this, is that the “rethinking how you read the Bible,” is nothing more than think the way I think. Inspiration and the role of the Holy Spirit has been left out. Speculation and assumptions without any proof fill the pages. And, there is the omission that no one knows what some of these verses mean. I know folks who have bought into these ideas. This is why I read this. They have left plain Biblical teachings for the land of speculation, ideas without proof and hoping to find ways to do things that they never could before.

Our verse today reminds us that Jesus understood that truth is not vague, fluid and ever changing. You can know it. You can follow it. You can understand it. The truth Jesus had in mind was His words. Now, there are certain things a person has to do to know this truth.

First, they need to try to understand the context and the intention of what is said. Each of us have our own ideas, ways of seeing things, backgrounds, issues and baggage. Yet, through all of that fog, a person can not only know the truth, but that truth will be the same for you and for me. What I see and what you see will be the same if it is the truth. Truth for me and truth for you will not be different.

The very nature of truth is that it is singular and exclusive. One and one equals two. That’s a truth in mathematics. Two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen makes water. That’s a truth in chemistry. You throw a ball up in the air and it will come down. That’s a truth in physics. When I was in grade school, a long time ago, educators came out with what was called “New math.” But that new math didn’t change the truth about one plus one equals two. That remained the same. Truth doesn’t change with time. Truth doesn’t change with location. If I throw a ball up in the air in my backyard, it will come down. If I threw a ball up in the air, while in a foreign country, the ball will still come down.

Second, we need to understand how God uses words. Using an American dictionary often hinders our pursuit of truth rather than helping it. The dictionary will show the various ways a word is used and defined. They may not all be Biblically correct. Look at how God uses those words in other places in the Bible. Use the Bible to help you understand the Bible.

Third, truth isn’t formed by our agreement or acceptance of it. God states things. These are truths that are necessary for us to stand holy and righteously before Him. These truths often compel us to change. They can be difficult and even exhausting on our part. The author of the book I finished reading wants women in the pulpit. Instead of letting the Bible guide him, he manipulated passages and made assumptions without proof to build a case for what he wanted. The same can be done for many cultural themes today. Social drinking is an example. Those that want it, find ways to support it. Homosexual authors have claimed that the sin of Sodom was a lack of hospitality, not homosexuality. They build their cases, stuffed with ideas and assumptions and feed the masses who read them, ideas that are not true. Let the Bible speak for itself.

Fourth, the freedom that comes from this truth, as Jesus spoke about, is found when we embrace it and are changed by it. Truth itself just lies there. Until it is received by faith into our hearts, it will not set us free. The freedom is from Satan, sin, and the bondage of ignorance and error. How many homes today have a Bible? Yet, how few are changed by the pages of those Bibles? Owning a Bible will not help me unless I open it, understand it, and follow it.

I wonder how people back in the 1300’s were able to walk with God and please Him, when they didn’t know about “rethinking how you read the Bible”? It sounds arrogantly, that we now have something that no one else ever had. We have found a new way and a new thought that changes every thing. Solomon’s words, “There is nothing new under the sun,” sure makes one think.

Too many folks, especially younger couples, are eating up books that tell them how to think, how to see and what to believe. Rather than spending so much time reading modern authors, we’d be better off just opening up the Bible and spending a few moments reading it.

Peter could explain the Christ in his Acts 2 sermon by using the Bible. The Ethiopian could understand who was being discussed in the Isaiah passage when someone used the Bible to show him. When tempted, Jesus used the Bible. Over and over, all throughout Biblical history, the Bible was used, understood and changed lives. It worked then. Why can it not work today?

I put my stock in the inspired word of God and not the call by moderns to rethink how we ought to read the Bible. The truth be, the author of that book ought to rethink what he is thinking.

Truth—it’s there. You can find it, know it, believe it and follow it. You don’t need another book to explain the Bible. You just need to open it up and spend a few moments every day, reading slowly, looking up words, see who is speaking and why and then let it sink deeply into your heart. It will change how you think. It will cause you to do better. It will give you greater reasons to love God. It will give you hope. It will answer questions and drive away doubts. It will, open the prison doors and set you free!

Roger