Morning Moments

Psa 119:130 The revelation of Your words brings light and gives understanding to the inexperienced.

Psa 19:7 The instruction of the Lord is perfect, renewing one’s life; the testimony of the Lord is trustworthy, making the inexperienced wise.

Did you ever change your thinking and feelings about anything in the Bible? If you haven’t, you have not learned much. Regardless of our “church” affiliation, no one, church, or denomination has a corner on the truth. Our divisions have come as a result of man’s “understanding”, not God’s Revelation, the Bible. In other words, nobody has all the light on all the truth.

My dream as a pastor would be to have a congregation where one small group would do diligence in the study of text background, another in each of the twelve major doctrines of the Christian faith, another in the study of manners and customs, etc. Can you just imagine how beneficial to the entire body of Christ that kind of thing would be? Of course there would be disagreements. Of course there would be dialogue and debate. Of course it could not be done between eleven and twelve on Sunday morning. But with one mind and one purpose, the body would certainly be edified. Every member would be a part of a FOCUSED study group which would research and return with clearer understanding.

Don’t misunderstand what I am saying here. I am not establishing a papacy, but a participation in study techniques regarding truth. Today, someone can sit in a Sunday school class, disagree with a teacher and split a church. THAT IS INSANE! Not the disagreement, but the fact that opinion is normally more important to us than objectivity when it comes to our understanding of Scripture.

I have some great response from spiritual thinkers to these blogs. I don’t bristle about that. I love it because it forces me to study harder and seek to be clear and accurate in my preparation and presentation of the truth. Multitudes have questions they never ask; while few have quarrels they never settle. We do not become enemies because we disagree with each other. We are brothers and sisters in the same family. Our desire should not be to prove someone else wrong, but to assure that we are correct in our understanding and be open to others who may have a bit more “light”.

As a pastor, I am as a surgeon who has interns, residents, and nurses. The pastor is SUPPOSED to give himself to study and prayer, but the interns, residents, and nurses spiritually all play a part in helping the patient to get well. God knows we need Christians to get well!
NEVER base your doctrine (teaching) on your subjective thinking or feeling, but upon the Word of God, which has ALL (OT and NT) profitable for “doctrine, rebuke, reproof, and instruction in RIGHTEOUSNESS.

We are co-laborers, fellow workers, in a family that is becoming more and more functional, not dysfunctional. I remember the time that if you did not graduate from one of the six Southern Baptist Seminaries, you were not accepted in Southern Baptist circles. When Southern Baptists turned BACK to the Word of God, they understood the importance of men like Ben Haden, a Presbyterian, Leonard Ravenhill, (certainly not a Baptist), Jerry Falwell, an Independent Baptist, and John Mac Arthur, a non-denominational, not to mention women such as Bertha Smith, Kay Arthur and others.

Diligent Bible Study keeps the main things the main things -
1. The revelation of Your words brings light and gives understanding to the inexperienced.
2. The instruction of the Lord is perfect, renewing one’s life; the testimony of the Lord is trustworthy, making the inexperienced wise.

So, if we want light, instruction, renewal, and understanding, we must get it from diligent study and application of HIS words, instructions, and testimonies which are trustworthy and which alone make the inexperienced WISE.

BLESSINGS!