Your Bible?

Sunday a friend gave this to me as a printout. It had a web address, but it’s no longer valid. The author is given as Gene Baker, and I have no idea who Gene is or when it was written. At a time in our lives, this could have been written by a Bible in our own home:

DIARY OF A BIBLE

JANUARY: A busy time for me. Most of the family decided to read me through this year.  They kept me busy for the first two weeks, but they have forgotten me now.

FEBRUARY: Clean-up time. I was dusted yesterday and put in my place. My owner did use me for a few minutes last week. He had been in an argument  and was looking up some references to prove he was right.

MARCH: Had a busy day first of the month.My owner was elected president of the PTA & used me to prepare a speech.

APRIL: Grandpa visited us this month. He kept me on his lap for an hour reading I Cor 13.  He seems to think more of me than do some people in my own household.

MAY: I have a few green stains on my pages.  Some spring flowers were pressed in my pages.

JUNE: I look like a scrapbook. They have stuffed me full of newspaper clippings - one of the girls was married.

JULY: They put me in a suitcase today. I guess we are off on vacation.  I wish I could stay home; I know I'll be closed up in this thing for at least two weeks.

AUGUST: Still in the suitcase.

SEPTEMBER: Back home at last and in my old familiar place.  I have a lot of company. Two women's magazines and four comic books are stacked on top of me.  I wish I could be read as much as they are.

OCTOBER: They read me a little bit today.  One of them is very sick. Right now I am sitting in the center of the coffee table.  I think the Preacher is coming by for a visit.

NOVEMBER: Back in my old place.  Somebody asked today if I were a scrapbook.

DECEMBER: The family is busy getting ready for the holidays.  I guess I'll be covered up under wrapping paper and packages ,again ... just as I am every Christmas. 

Oh, my – you’ve actually read this far! Now I can ask – how would your Bible’s diary read? I know some would read of how they were used daily. How their pages were worn at the edges, stained with tears and bindings loosening. Those are the ones with happy memories, for their owners truly have followed the psalmist’s actions:

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

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments. (Psalms 119:105-106 KJV)

Good example to follow!!

Warning–Controversial Subject Matter

This past week in Belgium, a person died. By choice, aided by physicians. The loss of life, and the reasons for it, bother me.

Nathan (born Nancy) Verhelst, 44, was killed by voluntary lethal injection. Euthanasia, the act of a doctor directly killing a patient, is controversial, though legal in three countries, according to the International Business Times "... the Verhelst case is set to ignite a firestorm in Belgium, which is one of three European countries where euthanasia is legal, the other two being the Netherlands and Luxembourg."

Nancy decided to become Nathan, giving an explanation in interviews:

... I was the girl that nobody wanted ... While my brothers were celebrated, I got a storage room above the garage as a bedroom. ‘If only you had been a boy', my mother complained. I was tolerated, nothing more.

Nathan decided to die when surgery did go well, physical additions facing rejection and expectations were not met:

My new breasts did not match my expectations

Six months of consultations with doctors ended in legal euthanasia.

The article closes with:

… there were 1,432 cases of euthanasia in 2012 in Belgium, a 25 percent spike from 2011. The country is in the midst of deciding whether to allow euthanasia for children.

Did no one ever direct Nancy/Nathan to:

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. (Psalms 139:14-15 KJV)

That book is available in most countries, though banned in several. The words are spoken in churches around the world, along with:

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. (Jeremiah 29:11-12 KJV)

Is it a question of not hearing? Or, not heeding? I grieve for this person whose life was deemed disposable, even by doctors who are taught to heal. Attention was given to physical, then emotional but no mention is made of spiritual.

Euthanasia remains illegal in the United States. However, the same results are accomplished in Washington, Oregon, Montana and Vermont with PAD - Physician Aided Death. The only difference between euthanasia and PAD is who administers the lethal dose.

Why do we look upon suicide as being illegal, change the name and toss in doctors then and call it legal?

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. (Matthew 23:23-24 KJV)

As explained in a commentary regarding these two verses:

Worthless are all outward observances when the moral precepts are neglected. … The gnat and the camel, which were alike unclean, stand at the extremities of the scale of comparative size. Our Lord uses a proverbial expression to denote the inconsistency which would avoid the smallest ceremonial defilement, but would take no account of the gravest moral pollution.

What are the foundations of our moral precepts? When and how do they allow the taking of human life?

Powerful

Our Wise County Electric Co-op has a good website for keeping customers updated. They also have good customer service representatives to handle our calls. For just less than three hours Friday, a blown fuse disrupted service along the lines marked in red. In today’s world, in a total electric home, that lack of power changes how things are accomplished – and some things do not get accomplished.

Whether nuclear, coal, gas or wind generated, with the connections, power doesn’t get to where the work can be done.

Our bodies operate along those same lines. We need fuel to keep our brains, our circulatory system and other organs all connected, all functioning. Without that, we have no power to utilize.

We fuel power plants – electrical and bodily – with specific components that we know work now and have worked in the past. We’re not so sure about the future and the impact on our world.

Too often we neglect the most powerful force available to us – spiritual.

And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. (Mark 11:22-23 KJV)

We doubt. As did this father, we need to admit it:

Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. (Mark 9:23-24 KJV)

A very sweet lady I know lost a ring that had deep emotional meaning to her. Going over the hours between the last time she knew for certain she had it on and the time it was noticed as missing, she figured one merchandise purchase was the best for its location. Not turned in there, no posting for a reward if returned. She turned to friends for prayer – and we prayed that night.  The next day it turned up at her home in a totally unexpected, just as totally inappropriate, place. She rejoiced with her friends:

Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost. (Luke 15:8-9 KJV)

There is power, spiritual, God-given power, offered to us through faith, and we are given instructions regarding that faith:

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
(Romans 10:17 KJV)

Best way to hear it is from a good preacher reading out of God’s word, expounding on what he’s learned, teaching us to learn more on our own. Pick up your Bible. Find your questions. Ask your pastor, hear and heed. It’s powerful!

Differences

How many different preachers do you know? Of how many do you approve?

October is Preacher Appreciation Month here in America. Is your preacher appreciated? Has he been told that he is? A lot of the time, Paul wasn’t – and isn’t to this day.

Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will: The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel.

When I read these verse, I can’t help but think of the Westboro church that I pray would remove Baptist from their name. Their doctrine of hate and disparagement also makes me think of mill stones and a deep ocean as they turn people away from the gospel message of love. Paul saw contention and insincerity, but he also saw Christ preached with love.

What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. (Philippians 1:15-18 KJV)

That’s why I so strongly advocate measuring any preacher’s words up against what the Bible says. That requires becoming acquainted with the whole Bible, not snippets, quotes, verses or buffet selections that sound good. Remember, Paul advocated and preached:

For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. (Acts 20:27 KJV)

… not just the stuff people wanted to hear. Sometimes, when today’s sermons give all the counsel of God, people feel offended. Thus some preachers will shy away from controversial matters. Some would never preach on these verses:

The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. (Matthew 19:3-6 KJV)

Christ’s answer went to the root of the question. There is no divorce in God’s original plan with male and female becoming one flesh, joined by God. Mankind altered that plan by their own request:

They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. (Matthew 19:7-8 KJV)

Does your preacher give God’s word to the congregation? Milk, or meat? Are the sermons prosperity-focused, secular in nature or explanations of God’s word with where/when/why discussed in detail and applicable to our lives? That is to be appreciated.

We need to tell our pastors how much we do appreciate hearing God’s word from the pulpit. We need to let them know if there’s something we didn’t understand, discuss with them what they’ve given us to digest. Do not think regular attendance will let them know, that could simply be habit. Share with the preacher the good things in life!

Learning. Applying.

I worked with a lady who was sold into marriage by her mother before she was sixteen. She had several siblings, same schooling, same lack of opportunity, but she was the only one who learned how to read and write. She was also the only one who did not accept her mother’s lifestyle of uneducated poverty. She took every opportunity to advance herself, both with on-the-job training and company-provided tuition in her chosen field. To my knowledge, she received a masters degree – and I know her mid-level management position when I met her. She advanced further before retiring, always active in community affairs.

What made the difference in her life, giving her the courage to better herself, that did not exist in her siblings? I don’t know, but I equate this to differences in Christians’ lives.

It’s not simply desire that advances Christians to positions of authority. Obedience will locate us in His will. A lack of obedience will allow someone else to be raised to that position – as Mordecai explained to Esther:

For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? (Esther 4:14 KJV)

It is not the hearing nor reading of God’s word, but the application into our daily lives of what we’ve learned that places us correctly for such a time as God wills. We also have the ability to select a different path, giving our place of growth and deliverance to another.

Where we were before doesn’t matter at this stage in our lives – turning back to regret or attempt to fix a time of disobedience serves to take our focus from where we need to be next. Going back is not an option, as Spock said:

What you want is irrelevant.
What you've chosen is at hand

We move forward from where we are right now, in obedience, though we may live with consequences of our ignorance or disobedience.

Just as those siblings, living under one roof, we all hear the same gospel message. We hear and read of Jesus’ birth, ministry, death and resurrection. The story hasn’t changed in two thousand years. Multiple references to Old Testament prophecy are tied to New Testament fulfillment. The story is ignored today as much as it was then – and listened to, applied and lived as much as it was then, too. The message hasn’t changed, the choices haven’t changed and the response percentages haven’t changed all that much, either.

So, why does it matter now? Because our daily choices determine where we will be, not only where we are today. We may remain unlearned, or we can build our lives upon a firm foundation by study and application:

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: (Matthew 7:24 KJV)

Ask in prayer what He has in store for right now.

Scripture

I posted this on Facebook yesterday. I was enjoying the work on Second Daughter’s Christmas project. We discussed this year’s presents, my girls and I, because I wanted to learn how to put to good use the machine I bought earlier this year. My last sewing machine was handed down in almost pristine condition from lack of use.

This year, though, I have added machine embroidery to the mix, along with piecing quilt tops and I am having a very good time. This quilt begins with scripture – twelve different ones chosen by Second Daughter’s family and friends. By chance, the first two I embroidered today were totally appropriate.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (Genesis 1:1 KJV)

The second was too long to fit in the four square inches:

Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls. (1 Peter 2:24-25 KJV)

So, I took what could fit:  Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.

Both quilt blocks state absolute truth. Both relate to each other, but it takes a lot of words in between to make the connection, and both are incomplete without the other.

Truth is often that way. It can stand alone, but it is awesome when seen in its entirety. To know that God not only created, but provided for His creation is still incomplete until we read through the gospels.

So much to read! And, I have six more scriptures to embroider. I wonder what thoughts will come as I read them. Each one of them help me from going astray – which is so easily accomplished!

Please, take a moment and leave your favorite verse in Comments.

Who? Me? Pharisee?

Standing before God in the temple, he was quite pleased with himself. In fact, Luke states:

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. (Luke 18:11 KJV)

Didya catch that?  “… prayed thus with himself …” Now, there’s a one-sided conversation. He knew what he wasn’t, based on the list of items where he had not sinned.  No acknowledgement of ignoring God. Along with his list of non-sins, he bragged about being better than another.

I’ve spent some time recently thinking about Pharisees. That came from reading Bro. Brad’s Blog. He completed a series of posts here at the end of September that look at Matthew 23, not simply learning about Christ’s view on scribes and Pharisees, but applying attitudes that are alive and well in congregations today. Not only in the pulpit, either. We members are very adept at thinking we are better than someone else – it eases part of our own guilt.

Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. (Matthew 23:1-3 KJV)

Jesus didn’t keep His views on this within the disciples – this is spoken before the multitude. Jesus spoke to the scribes and Pharisees about the woes they would face because they would "... say, and do not":

But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. (Matthew 23:13 KJV)

That is a scary thought, isn’t it? Especially when we remember:

But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. (Matthew 18:6 KJV)

By their actions, Pharisees were keeping men out of the kingdom of heaven. They should be considering the effects of millstones and sea depth!

Now, please do not feel complacent that this applies only to leadership – all of us are leaders, examples to others. Witnesses with specific testimony that we live in our daily lives, often unaware of who is listening. We need to be aware of ourselves, the heart and mind we control – taking care of beams before looking for motes.

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. (Matthew 7:3-5 KJV)

Become aware of the beams before they change the view! Cast out beams, see clearly for there are motes.