In today’s fast-paced, sophisticated and high-tech society we are constantly looking for new and better ways to do things. Old concepts and values are in a perpetual state of transformation. In order to make it today, you have to keep up with this constant state of change or else find yourself quickly being called old-fashioned.
Science is fast becoming the new altar at which we worship. We have literally placed our trust in and staked our lives on the belief that whatever problems we face in the future, our scientists will be able to answer for us.
Is it any wonder that the Bible has found little place in people’s hearts and minds today? To a great majority of people, when you say the word “Bible,” little enthusiasm is generated. Comments such as the following are heard: “It’s an old stodgy book that may have been OK back then, when it was written; but it is outdated and hasn’t kept pace with the times. Only religious people read the Bible. It’s a good book but not for my generation. It’s so dull.”
Most of the people who make these statements have probably never read the Bible. However, they are experts on why we shouldn’t read it. This bad press is quite unfortunate because it has caused many people to get a wrong impression about the Bible.
Far from being an old, stodgy, out-of-date, dull book, the Word of God is alive with action and adventure, full of incredible mysteries, quite timely for our space-age society, and full of wisdom, love and hope.
May I challenge you to judge for yourself just what type of book the Bible really is? As we travel back through some of my past devotions I think you will agree that the Bible stands head and shoulders above any and every book ever written. And as you embark on my future devotions, hold onto your hats and be prepared to journey into the pages of a book like no other book you have ever read before.
The reason people don’t read God’s Word is simple, sin. But when we parse down from there, it gets more complicated.
Are Christians bringing a faithful and winsome message to an unbelieving world or “another Gospel?” Has the hypocrisy of the Jimmy’s and Ravi’s provided convenient excuses for unbelievers to say, “And you want me to accept the lifestyle of that book?” Or, is the world not hearing because we’re not asking “How are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?”
We are just in laying the sin of neglecting or rejecting the truth of God’s Word at the feet of the unbeliever but we should start with seeing the log that obstructs our own vision and realize that the ax is always laid first at the root of the church whenever we are not bearing fruit.
To see God’s Word as “alive” is partly dependent on our discipleship of the nations. That requires a message of victory and hope. If we try to force feed a diet of gloom and defeat that includes an imminent escape clause, why bother investing any time in hearing from the law and the prophets about our Savior? If this world is not our home and we’re just passing through, why concern ourselves with such time intensive efforts. We need to be packing!
Do we only want the Bible to be read and appreciated or do we want the Holy Spirit to cause people to respond by saying, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
Believers and unbelievers alike can hear about the Bible but if we are to see hearts burn with its truth, we better “explain to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Jesus.”
We look forward to starting at the beginning where “the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
May God bless these devotions in the weeks to come.
Hi David:
I definitely agree that sin is the ultimate reason why people often don’t want to go near the Bible. Someone once said it well, “This Book will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this Book,”
And I also agree we must lead a lfestyle that shows the world why we should want to follow Christ, and sadly many Christians don’t. Thanks for your great comments.
I’m really looking forward to your future devotions about The Bible Curt. I’m hanging on to my hat!
I love it because so many of God’s promises in it have come true for me.