Brain Fertilizer

I was reading nighttime devotions with my kids, and the subject was based on the Bible verses John 8:31,32: Jesus said, "If you continue in My Word...you will know the truth."

The story was of a man who thought he had plenty of time to make the train, only to find out his watch has stopped. The "deep"* theological insight was that if your watch is wrong, you miss your train, but if your belief system is wrong you miss heaven.

One of the paragraphs was:

The Bible also tells us what is right and wrong. It tells us how we can please God...If we don't keep on believing what the Bible says, our Christian faith stops. Then, like a watch that has stopped, our religion begins to tell us wrong things.

I think there is a deeper insight that can be drawn from this.

You have a watch, and you spend an enjoyable time with your new date. You glance down and think, "It cannot have been a full two hours!" Do you assume you know more than your watch and throw it away? Or adjust it back to the time you think it should be?
That's what some people do when they decide they cannot agree with the clear words of the Bible. They assume their understanding of God and Christianity is adequate enough to make judgments on the Bible. And then they start drifting from God's Word, and then drifting away from God's Grace, and then they wonder where God went.

Or, you have a clock, and the alarm is set...but when it sounds in the morning, you are more concerned with your sleep than with getting up on time, and you turn it off. The alarm has sounded, but you refuse to heed it. Do you then blame the alarm clock? Well, from watching people, it certainly seems as if most people would rather blame God for the results of their willful digression from the path laid out for us by God in the Bible than accept their own conscious or unconscious decisions and actions are to blame.

I think this Bible verse is true. Although I often try to remind people that the Bible is not God, but merely one of the best ways to begin learning about God, I am convinced that the Bible is an important touchstone for your Faith. Return to it often, that heretical notions don't creep into your mind and heart. As Paul said, test every spirit against the scripture. If someone says something that does not agree with the Bible, it is an attempt to lead you astray, bit by imperceptible bit. Do not be deceived.

May God bless you all.

*well, hey, it's a children's devotion book. Whaddya expect?