O how I love your law! it is my meditation all day long. —Your words were found, and I did eat them; and Your word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.
I delight to do Your will, O my God: yes, Your law is within my heart. — My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to finish his work.
The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. — Be doers of the word, and not just hearers.
Christians call the Bible the Word of God, or just "the Word," because to them, it speaks with His voice; because it is truth; because you can use it to shape your life and fill it with good things, but most of all because in the Bible are the words of eternal life. The Word is unique. No other book has been so treasured, so maligned, so loved, so hated, so honored, so despised. Those who "don't believe" think the Bible is full of lies--it's mythical, false, legend. Those who believe think the Bible is true, that the stories it tells actually happened, and that God literally breathed it out and gave it to human hands to write down.
Why this difference? Scholars don't show the same affection or opposition to Plato, for example, or to the history of Alexander the Great.
I believe that the opposition to the Bible is in a way its greatest proof. More than the prophecies, the miracles, the teachings, the opposition to the Bible tells us that someone hates the spiritual revelations in it, and that it is disturbing to the way people think about life. What if, for example, the Bible IS true, and the earth and the universe ARE proceeding towards a day of Judgment? Then you are responsible to God Almighty for your life and choices. What if ONLY a relationship with Jesus Christ can shelter you from that awful and mighty judgment? That would be saying that other religious paths cannot do what Christianity can. What if God really IS sovereign, and controls the events of the world? Then you really don't control your own fate and life--your life is in the hands of God, and even where you live was chosen by the Almighty, and the good things you enjoy are all His gifts. All these statements and more are in the Bible, and Christians believe them, if they think about it. Most people who are not Christians don't believe any of these things. They believe in chance, or at least evolution, which is much less probable than chance. Christians also believe that there is an evil spiritual force (being!) who tries to get unbelievers to hate Christians, Christianity, and the Christian's God without thinking or asking themselves, "Why do I hate this?" And the Bible's answer goes like this: "The god of this world has blinded the minds of those who believe not..." Now, if you don't believe, you certainly don't believe that anyone has blinded you. You think you are being totally rational. But just suppose you are subject to spiritual influences from both sides--God and evil. If that was true, wouldn't you feel just as you do now?? And then you will say to me, "Well, if you believe, then that's how YOU feel, and this is how I feel." And my response is this. "Test it." Try it and see. Jesus said this: "Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own." Notice how He said this: the order is, first you decide that you will follow what you find, and second, you will come to know. You can't invert those, and say, "I'm interested, and if I find that Christianity is true, I will evaluate whether or not I want to do it..." you must say, "I am willing to do this, if it's true." Then you will know. Jesus doesn't say, "you will know that I am speaking the words of God;" He says, you will know whether I speak from God, or only from myself. So if you make the commitment to follow this path if it's true, and God does not show you that it is really the true way, you have lost nothing, because now you know for sure that Jesus was a liar. Conversely, if you make the same commitment, and find that Jesus' words ARE true, you will gain everlasting life, and with it, everything else. Test it. Find out. See what happens.
No comments:
Post a Comment