Thought for the day
I heard about a story about a man whose wife wanted to buy a pet monkey. The husband protested strongly. He said, "Where will the monkey eat?" She said, "He'll eat at the table with us." He said, "But what will he eat?" And she said, "He'll eat the same thing we do." He said, "But where will the monkey sleep?" She said, "He'll sleep in bed with us." He said, "But what about the smell?" She said, "I got used to you, I reckon he will, too."
So often when we think about the need for change, we are quick to think of ways that somebody else needs to change. We are much more hesitant to recognize that there are problems in our own life that need to be dealt with. But Christianity is a growing process, a process by which we are constantly looking for those things that need to be changed and improved, and then taking steps to do just that.
In the next several messages, I want to share with you some things that relate to changes that may need to come about in your individual lives. They are certainly changes that I'd like to see in my own life. In regard to our Christian lives, I think there are three areas that we need to focus on -- we need to KNOW the will of God better, we need to DO more of the work of Christ, and we need to BECOME more like Christ.Knowing, doing and becoming -- I really think those are the three pillars of the Christian life. I believe that's what Christianity is all about."
For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God." (Colossians 1:9-10).Do you see the ideas of knowing, doing and becoming in Paul's prayer for the Colossians? In my next message, I'll begin a closer look at each of these points.
KNOWING
I heard about a preacher who was talking with a man, and he asked him, "Do you know the Bible?" The man said, "Yes, sir." He said, "What part of the Bible do you know the best?" The man said, "The New Testament."The preacher went on to ask him what part of the New Testament he knew the best. The man said, "Well, I suppose I know the story of the Good Samaritan best of all." The preacher said, "Tell me that story."
The man said, "Well, as best as I can recall, there was a good Samaritan traveling down the road from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among the thorns and they sprang up and choked him and left him half dead."
But a man came by feeding his swine and he said to the man, 'I will arise and go to my father.' So he took up his bed and walked. But while the soldiers were chasing him through the forest, he got the hair of his head caught up in the trees and he hung there 40 days and 40 nights, and the ravens fed him."Just then, Delilah came along with a big pair of shears and she cut off his hair and he fell on stony ground. But the good master of the house resurrected the man and he journeyed on his way."
All of a sudden, he came to the wall of Jericho and there's Jezebel sitting on the wall and she mocked him. And he said, 'Chunk her down to the dogs.' And they chunked her down 70 times 7, and great was the fall thereof, and of the fragments that remained they picked up twelve baskets full, and whose wife shall she be in the resurrection?"
Now I would hope that your Bible knowledge is not quite as bad as that, but I think it's safe to say that few of us know the Bible as well as we should. In the last message, I spoke about three pillars of spiritual growth -- knowing, doing and becoming. God has always stressed the fact that his people need to know His word. And contrary to popular opinion, when it comes to spiritual matters, ignorance is not bliss.
In the days of Hosea, God said, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you from being priest for me; because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children." (Hosea 4:6).What was the problem? It wasn't that they didn't have access to God's Word. They just simply didn't care enough about it to listen to it. Does it scare you just a bit to realize that God could possibly say the same thing about us – "my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge... because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children."
Folks, we need to once again become known as a people of the book, a people who study and know and love the Bible. Throughout the Bible, God's repeated command to the people of God is "learn, study, grow."92% of households in this country have one Bible or more. We have the Bibles, but we don't pay much attention to them. A Gallup poll from 2000 shows that only 50% of South Africans read the Bible at least occasionally. The percentage of South Africans who read the Bible at least once a week is 32%.Contrast this with the people of Berea. We read in Acts 17, "These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so." (Acts 17:11)May we continue to study and learn and grow in our knowledge of God and our responsibility before Him.
Tomorrow we will feature Doing and Becoming.
Verses
Matthew 9:29
Upon that he touched their eyes, and said: "It shall be according to your faith."
1 Peter 2:24
Christ carried the burden of our sins. He was nailed to the cross, so that we would stop sinning and start living right. By his cuts and bruises you are healed.
Romans 8:28
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
Ephesians 6:18
Pray all the time, asking for what you need, praying in the Spirit on every possible occasion. Never get tired of staying awake to pray for all the saints;
Prayer
Father, Romans 1:21 indicates that those who knew You neither glorified nor gave thanks to You which led to their futile and foolish thinking. It eventually caused the light of Your Word to be veiled and ineffective in their lives as darkness crept in and covered the radiant light of Your truth. They sought honor for themselves and lived for self-glory. Anything good in us is but a reflection of the Spirit of Christ who lives within, so we will glory only in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ though it is mocked and ridiculed by the world. We are unashamedly children of God whose depth of wisdom comes not from the understanding from the world but the understanding from Your Word. May its truth always be our source of light in the darkened age in which we live. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
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