04/16/2019
Don’t use scripture to build walls for your faith, use it to build a ladder on which you can surmount all obstacles, and reach the crowning glory of salvation and joy. How do you read God’s Holy Word? Do you read it looking at every verse for conviction, a roadblock to a happy life, or as if it were a bit in your mouth? Scripture is for instruction, but that instruction is to bring us love, joy, and into the presence of God; not to be an overbearing misery. How do you chose to approach scripture, and God?
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
Colossians 3:16-17 ESV
When I was a boy I was taught how to live my life, and to be certain, I was punished... but I was also praised and rewarded for learning my lessons well. Now as I look back on those times I rarely think of the He punishment, but see the joy, and the purpose in my instruction. I remember all of the happy times with my parents, and the obedience that eventually led me to where I am today. These were the lessons of a good mother and father. Our faith, and scripture, is much the same. We are taught by a loving God who cares for us.
“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.”
Psalms 19:7-10 ESV
Not every child has good and loving parents; some live hellish childhoods. Not every child is taught what is right from what is wrong, or how to love their neighbor as themselves, but all of us have the same loving Father in Heaven who has made scripture our school of faith, life, and relationship.
“Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts; his name is the Lord; exult before him! Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.”
Psalms 68:4-5 ESV
And Jesus His Son speaks similarly. These are all words of encouragement to those of us who find themselves in homes that are fatherless, or worse... homes who have unworthy and unrighteous mothers and fathers.
“"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”
John 14:15-18 ESV
So we are inclined to read scripture according to our prior circumstances in life. Some of us read punishment because our life has been full of pain and punishment. Some of us read scripture as being full of unyielding boundaries because that is how life before finding God has presented itself to us. Some of us read of suffering because we have suffered much in life, and others read of being downtrodden because that is who we have been... well you get the picture. But reading scripture in these ways imprisons us in humanity, and those ways are chains that bind us in faith to lives without God, or to an image of the Lord that is harsh, or hard, and without the fullness of Love that is His true self.
“"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
John 3:16-17 ESV
God’s Word instructs us and provides for punishment when we stray, or are disobedient, but it is always administered in love. God is love, so there is no other way He can approach us, or by which we can approach Him.
“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8 ESV
There is love and hope at the heart of scripture, and the lessons we learn are so that our relationship with God can reach the pinnacle of that love... why else are the two great commandments about loving God, and each other?
“"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."”
Matthew 22:36-40 ESV
So how do we read scripture? Do we allow the world and our past lives to dictate the emphasis we place on it, or do we read the love and joy that awaits us there? Do we dwell on the lessons, or the punishments? Do we continue to live as hard men and women, or do we read of meekness, and humility? Do we dwell on our sin and how it convicts us, or that we can ask forgiveness, and leave that sin behind? Do we want to see a nearly insurmountable wall between ourselves and God, or a ladder by which we can reach glory, salvation, and joy?
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your Holy Word, and the love that underlies it all. Thank you for your Son Jesus Christ whom you sent as the ultimate act of love to redeem mankind. Help us Holy Father to throw off the limitations of this world... all of the hatred, hardness, and darkness, that taints our perception of your Word. Teach us Merciful Father to see your love in every lesson, and in your punishments as well. As we read your Word open our eyes to the fact that it is for our own edification and to perfect us as we strive to be like Jesus, and you. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who never abandons the orphans, nor the lost and abused. Praised be your name always Gracious Father, and in our lives build righteousness, and sanctify us by love. Lift us up Father, and as we find love, joy, faith, and fulfillment in your Word, we give you all of the Glory, and worship you forevermore.
“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
Romans 15:4 ESV
Rich Forbes