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GLEANINGS FROM THE WORD Experiencing an extraordinary God in ordinary life Issue 760 March 19, 2003 - Faith Library Sitting here this morning, I was looking around at the library in my office. There are shelves full of books on theology. There are books on hermeneutics, dictionaries, concordances, lexicons, commentaries, and more Bible translations than you can shake the metaphorical stick at. There are books on church history, missiology, eschatology (end times) spiritual warfare, prayer and more. There are aids for daily Christian living like prayer books and devotionals. There are biographies of Jesus, the disciples and various Christians throughout the ages. There are cd-ROMs with more Bible related topics than many seminaries held at one time. All of these are aids to help me understand the Word of God more. There are several ironies in that fact: 1) If Holy Spirit isn't helping, no amount of "research" and reading will help me understand the Bible 2) The Bible can be read and understood on its own. Certainly all the books help at times with a deeper understanding of the subtleties, intricacies and with gaining valuable background knowledge to see the picture more clearly. 3) It's easy to get sidetracked into reading about the Bible rather than reading the Bible itself. 4)The entire library doesn’t have all the answers. The truth of the matter is that you don't need a big library or formal training to understand the Bible. Certainly there are parts that scholars have spent their entire careers on trying to understand and there are some areas where people will come to differing conclusions. It doesn't take a doctorate in theology or years of seminary training to get the gist of the Bible. Here's my summary
I know that summary is over simplistic in some ways but it truly captures the essence of the Bible. If we know no more than that, we have all the information we need to make the decision that impacts us for all time. Even children get the message. Sometimes as adults we make it way harder than it needs to be. Perhaps that's why Christ commended the children and praised the Father for their faith. At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. Matthew 11:25-26 NIV At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:1-4 NIV We're not called to a childish faith. We're called to a childlike faith. A child learns that he/she can trust then trusts even when they don't understand. That's the way we're called to trust God. We learn that He can be trusted then we trust Him even when we don't understand. We're not called to ignore the hard parts of the Bible. We're not called to throw away our discernment and our intellect. We're simply called to trust. I know what life is like without Christ and I know what is like with Him. Having Him in my life beats not having Him hands down. I'll stick with trusting Him. I won't throw away my library. I'll keep searching and studying and working at knowing Him more, letting Holy Spirit guide me in the process, but I already know the most important thing: Jesus loves you and I enough to have died so that we can be reconciled to God. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." John 3:16-21 NIV Until next time, keep on working on getting to know God better, but rejoice that the core of the truth is so simple that even a child can understand it. Be blessed. Hallelu Yah (Praise God)! Kevin YOU ARE Once you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour you are cared for. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7 NIV Never let the enemy tell you that you are worthless or insignificant. You have value in the eyes of God so great that it was worth dying for. You are a blessing to the world. Have you made getting to know God harder than it has to be? All you have to do is ask Him to forgive you and come into your life. If you want to know how that's possible simply email us and we'll send you some Bible verses that will explain it to you You can simply begin the relationship by honestly and completely opening your heart, admitting you need God's help, and saying a prayer along the lines of: Jesus: I have made many mistakes in my life and done things I am not proud of. I have sinned. I need your love and forgiveness. I believe that you came into this world and gave your life on a cross to pay for my sins and that you defeated death and rose again. Please forgive me, and be the Lord of my life. I give my life to you Lord. Amen If you pray this prayer for the first time let me know so I can rejoice with you. Did you know that at Gleanings, we have a dedicated team of prayer warriors and all prayer concerns are kept strictly confidential? Your comments, your questions and your joys are shared with the prayer team, to keep me accountable as the head of the ministry and to encourage them as they see God at work in your life. As with prayer all these things are kept confidential within the Gleanings team. To share your questions, comments, thoughts, prayer concerns and praise reports email us If you enjoyed this issue of Gleanings From The Word, email it, in its entirety, to a friend. For information on use of Gleanings in your church newsletter or other situations please visit the permissions page . You can write to us at Gleanings From The Word Ministries International 114 Oak St Sherwood Park, AB Canada T8A 0V8 © 2003 K.F. "Kevin" Corbin Gleanings From The Word Minististries International - All Rights Reserved
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