Ripples

By Biel Morro bielmb -   Gallery at the Wayback Machine (archived on 23 June 2017)

You can find a lot of pretty pictures of ripples on the web. This one came from WikiMedia.org after searching “ripples.” I liked it because it isn’t ripples from a single drop into still water, but because it shows the interaction from multiple ripples.

Let me back up a moment. Our Sunday School class opens with a request for Praise. The members speak of something that happened this past week that gave them reason to praise God. Then we have announcements, followed by Prayer requests, then offering our prayers.

This past Sunday, one of our members had a praise. Her son-in-law met a man at a conference on the east coast who had been brought to the Lord by our Pastor, in our small Cottondale church, close to 20 years ago. What a small world! At that same conference, a lady mentioned that she knew of Cottondale, too, from a blog she follows written by Grammy Blick. Definitely a small world.

This blog does not have a large following. I do not “advertise” it, nor do I monetize it. The reason it started (in another media – in fact it has been on three different websites, two which no longer exist) was to share Bible study hints for girls in our Junior High Sunday School Class. I thoroughly enjoyed Bible study and just continued to post.

As steady readers know – how often I publish has slowed to almost once a month. I could explain, but most of the explanations entail excuses, along with a few exceptionally good reasons. That’s life, isn’t it. And, I’m in good company:

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. (Romans 7:18-19 KJV)

Did you notice that ripple? Words written almost two thousand years ago ripples across those centuries for me to read – and I not only understand them but I can relate to them in my own life. That is what is so beautiful about Bible reading. It relates to our own lives.

Recently a large denomination voted on a divisive issue. People are faced with divisive issues in religious and secular life. What surprised me was the people on the “losing” side – the one with the least positive votes – were not willing to accept the vote. One media article referred to the denomination’s equivalent to Robert’s Rules of Order as not being followed. No media article quoted the Bible, as though it was not relevant to a Christian's actions.

That didn’t surprise me, really, for so many have moved away from God’s word at the source for decisions and are demanding man’s traditions. The Bible addressed that centuries ago:

He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. (Mark 7:6-9 KJV)

Paul wrote of this, too:

As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. 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 2:6-10 KJV)

How can we know if we are following Christ’s doctrines or man’s? Jesus gave us the answer, and while there are multiple references to His doctrine across the Gospels, I like this for now:

And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. (John 7:15-18 KJV)

There’s another ripple across time from God's word and applicable to our lives – and I hope it touches your life, too, encouraging Bible reading as well as prayer, seeking God's will – eternally.