Saturday, March 26, 2011
pura vida quote 1
Don't read the Bible for information. Read it for relationship. What you need to know and what you need to learn the Holy Spirit will make clear to you and teach you, whether swiftly and in the moment, or slowly and over time. But make sure you come to the Bible to meet God and love him and worship him - don't come for data or statistical analysis or argument fodder or a printout of God's schematic for your life and the future of the planet. Come for him and everything else you need will fall into place at the proper time.
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3 comments:
Amen.
Well said. The terrifying reality is that the Bible is composed of facts, and they are powerful, vital, and interesting facts -- well able to equip our egos to "win" arguments.
Sadly, sin (the nature, not necessarily the individual expressions of that nature), sin, the nature, lies in that direction as surely as it does in the slaver's or destroyer's hearts. The best understanding of my life of successes and failures I can arrive at schools me that the only truly safe application of the Word of God is when the resident Spirit of God lets it illuminate a person's life. Then they shine for Father rather than draw attention to themselves. The Bible truth, taken as a mass of facts, though that is true enough, can very rarely, if ever, lift one that "high."
I know this to be real and realistic because I have failed at it so very many times and have had to observe the usually sadly lacking, and occasionally tragic, consequences. I do pray my experiences and resulting conclusion may help others of you not make the same mistakes on the way to maturing a little more.
In Christ, best to you.
Bill
Thanks for your honesty, William. Of course I also have played Bible games too many times to count, even though sometimes I convinced myself I needed to play them for the good of God and the good of others. But you are right - such games never help. Facts, however true, without being governed in their use by the Holy Spirit, are like nuclear energy gone wild: they are powerful and they can harm instead of help. In God's Spirit, they bless and heal and restore - they give light, and, as you say so well, they illumine.
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