Are You Listening To Me?

Well, don’t. All I do here each day is put down some personal thoughts on what I read in the Bible. If you think it’s important or has special meaning, you need to return to His word and read more:

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: (Colossians 2:8-10)

There are lots of thoughts written about the Bible – most supportive, but some would tear it down, toss it out or simply call it a book of lies. Unfortunately for them, the very history of the Bible tells us that it is special and has been to men for thousands of years. What it says about itself is important:

For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. (Romans 15:4)

Note that patience part. We are not going to understand overnight, but the scriptures are comforting. Especially so when we understand their source:

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: (2 Timothy 3:16)

Peter had seen prophecy from scripture fulfilled:

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. (2 Peter 1:20-21)

Jesus told His listeners how important scriptures are:

Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. (Matthew 22:29)

Those two items go hand in hand. God gave us scripture that we might know Him. We need to read them, study them, open our minds to what they are and how they impact all men, including our own personal lives. We need to know them spiritually, not simply intellectually.

I think of the wasted time Thomas Jefferson spent comparing the four gospels, writing out a chronological set of events in Jesus’ life, deleting any portion that indicated a supernatural or spiritual impact. He did not heed scripture:

Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. (Proverbs 30:5-6)

While leading Isreal to their promised land, Moses received the command to neither add to nor deduct from the God given commandments:

Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you. (Deuteronomy 4:2)

What I, or anyone, say about scripture may have a personal agenda. What God inspires speaks of Him. We are taught what to do with scriptures:

Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. (Psalms 119:11)

The closer we come to achieving that, the closer we come to achieving an even greater blessing – from walking in the garden with Adam, there has been but one goal:

And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, (Deuteronomy 10:12)

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? (Micah 6:8)

Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. (1 Thessalonians 4:1)