Bible Direction
Do you spend time reading the Bible each day?
How often do we as 21st century Christians set down and read our Bibles? Do we let other people tell us what the Bible says and go with it, or do we read what God says in His word and let Him be the one who directs us in our daily walk? Jesus told a group of people who were challenging Him in Mark 7:6-10, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 7 They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’ 8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.” 9 And he said to them: “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!” If Jesus condemned people in the first century for setting aside God’s rules then it only makes sense that we shouldn’t do that today.
Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Nothing we need to know is missing from God’s word. Since the word of God thoroughly equips us for every good work, then it only makes sense that we should get all of our instructions on living our lives from it and no other source. When we do this, we have assurance that we are not setting aside the teachings of God in favor of things that men say we must do.
And finally, Jesus taught in John 12:48 that “There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day.” From just three verses of scripture from the God’s word, we see that if we reject God’s word in favor of men’s teachings, our worship is of no value to God; that God’s word contains everything we need to know and that it will be used to judge us when Jesus returns.
Are need to ask ourselves, are we getting our instructions from the source? Do we know what God’s word says or do we know what someone else thinks it says? There are a lot of problems out in the world today. One only has to turn on the TV to any news channel and see that there is much pain, suffering and sorrow out in the world and it’s getting worse. Too many people are setting aside the commandments of God in favor of the wishes of men. More people need to read their Bibles. Imagine what a wonderful place this world could be if everyone read and followed the teachings of God. All of society’s problems are a result of not knowing and living God’s word.
The first step is to read God’s word and know what it says for ourselves. 2 Timothy 2:15 reads, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” The King James version reads, “Study to show yourselves approved“. Read and learn what God expects and then from there, we can share it with others. The word of God has the power to change people for the better, but if we don’t know what it says, we cannot use it to help ourselves and others.
The Word of God says a lot about what’s wrong in our society today. Let me encourage you who may be reading this to get your Bible some time today and everyday thereafter and read for yourself, ‘What does the Bible Say?’