Recovered In Christ

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Where are you right now? In your heart with God – where are you? Before you can “clean up” the scene in your conscience – take a quick tour of your life – honestly….where are you?

Where are you in your study? In all honesty how much time are you spending alone with God, reading his word? Collectively, not selectively, page after page, prayerfully? As beautiful and powerful as individual quotes are, as wonderful as it is to feel that God is speaking to you in the random stories you flip to in the Bible, it is equivalent to taking a leisurely attitude of admiring a life raft in its packaging. Do you realize that a life raft, unless taken out of the packaging and blown up properly is useless? Do you realize that every single cult and demonic perversion of religion and spirituality has come from reading and dealing with the word of God selectively?

We would be no exception. How long would it take until your theology becomes 5% biblical doctrine and 95% the word of “you”? Pause and think for a moment how vain and arrogant it is to be satisfied with reading 5 minutes of a few paragraphs or pages, and yet spend hours discussing and philosophizing on “God’s Truth”? And then claim to have a prophecy, inspiration or message from God. Oh the blinding light of pride. The Devil knows us very well, and his strategy is perfected long before you even notice that he is involved. Let us commit ourselves to honoring and obeying God. It is HE that is God, his word that is perfect, we must humble ourselves and come to him in truth. The more difficult and painful it is to study and focus on the Bible, the more it is simply exposing who we’ve been truly worshipping. God is our only protection. And the only way to truly honor and obey him is to listen to him.

Would you consider me a good listener if you wrote me a precious book pouring your heart out to me, detailing the whole story of your love affair with me – and I simply read a few scattered sentences and paragraphs throughout? Is that listening?

The Bible is God’s love letter to you. It is your life raft in the raging storm that is this world. The word of God is your lamp, your light, the very words of God Himself, alive and active!

“Let us arm ourselves with a thorough knowledge of the Word of God. Let us read our Bibles more diligently than ever, and become familiar with every part of them. Let the Word dwell in us richly. Let us beware of anything which would make us give less time and less heart to the perusal of its sacred pages. The Bible is the sword of the Spirit – let it never be laid aside. The Bible is the true lantern for a dark and cloudy time – let us beware of traveling without its light.” – J.C Ryle

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” Hebrews 4:12-13