Is your Bible an Earthly Treasure???
One of the recurring themes in my life is where I store up my treasure.
Matthew 6:20
…store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
I constantly have to asses my wants to try and determine if they are a fleshly want, or a tool to build up my heavenly treasure. One thing I have never questioned, till this past Saturday morning, was my bible. I like bibles, I have many of them. A couple weeks ago I was telling myself I need a new bible, because I have a hard time reading mine when it’s lying too far away on the table. Now I am very capable of picking up that bible and moving it closer, I could also put on my glasses. My very favorite bible, which is just over a year old, looks almost like it just came out of the box, because if am near a computer, which is most of the time, I will use biblegateway.com rather than flip though the pages. So I started looking around with this thought of buying “Another” bible. This last Saturday while in the Excellencies of Christ class, I was looking at the bibles of those at the table around me. The only ones that seemed relevant were those that were worn out and trashed looking, the ones that have shared life with their owners. Yes I have bible envy, but there is a bit more to this story than that.
You see I had a revelation that the bibles we all carry around, the ones that we can physically hold in our hand with the leather bindings, and union paper and are printed with black and red ink, are just another treasure of the flesh, another earthly belonging. Now don’t get me wrong, the bible is indispensible to our faith. I am not trying in any way to minimize that, but here’s the deal. In its printed form the bible is of this earth. It’s when we read the word; speak out what is written there, that it becomes spiritual. When we consume the words and store them up within our minds, and our hearts, and they become an intangible thing do they become a spiritual treasure, a treasure stored up in the heavenly warehouses.
If you are here reading this message you have the keys to unlock this door. Don’t get hung up on what the cover of your bible looks like; get hung up on what it protects.
Its spring time and many people are looking forward to their spring heart challenges. Many employers are sending out the pedometers, and we will start counting our steps. Here’s my challenge to you, after your daily reading of the bible, whatever that may be, 1 page or 1000 – At the end of the day look at your pedometer and for every 1000 steps you have taken read one more page of the bible.
The bible according to who?
So, I have been very consumed lately with the idea that some people changed the word of the bible at will.
I had a good friend, and somewhat of a spiritual mentor, tell me (at least this is the way I remember it) that the things book of revelation had already come to pass, so held no weight in Christianity today.
This raised some red flags for me and I should have questioned him on this further, and truly wish I would have. He no longer speaks to me, which is truly sorrowful to me, because I believe he is leading others into a false relationship with God.
Here is kind of my train of thought on this. If you can remove punctuation from the bible and skew the meaning of one sentence, why can’t you remove a word or two? Maybe remove a sentence that you don’t have the ability to explain, or perhaps a paragraph that you think is useless. How about the book of Revelation, because we don’t understand, or it makes us uncomfortable? Heck, if you can do away with a whole book and justify that, why not just get rid of everything that does not convey your message. Why not make it say Kill Thy Neighbor, or, I don’t know, some other misrepresentation of the word. What I am saying is that by anything, and I mean anything in the word of God, you are taking it away from away from Christ, and making it your own. The bible according to completefaith…
We have to freely share the word, but I think we have to be extremely careful that we are sharing the word of God, not our twisted memory of what the word may have said.
For whatever reason, I jumped to the last chapter of Revelation today and look what I found. This is what prompted me to blog this today. Tell me it’s not the “LIVING” word…
Revelation 22:18-20 (emphasis mine)
18I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. 19And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
20He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
BAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I am so fed up with the garbage that Obama and his flunkies are trying to feed us. Stupid is as Stupid does. And yes we, the people, are the first stupid in that statement for electing and following him.
We are in a bad spot with our economy right now, so why would you continue to build debt, and become further enslaved to other nations. Nations who do nothing more than desire to see is run aground. In who’s book is it a wise plan to give billions to a company who is going to turn around and pay it back out in bonuses to the execs who destroyed the company in the first place. Oh yeah, that would be the same people who want to set criminals in some of the highest seats in the nation.
I am not into Politics, or finance, or whatever other BS that might be on the front page of the paper today. I am just a guy who wants to see his family do well, and it’s come to the point that I can’t do that without doing more than just work 8 to 5 and go home at night.
It should be very common sense that we are going to have to go through some hard times, yes you and me. Change our life style, cut back on what we do and where we spend. Until we are willing to sacrifice a little of our cushy life we are screwed.
I am sorry, I don’t normally get into this kind of thing, but right now it’s like we are following someone bent on self destruction and are smiling and singing all the way.
WAKE UP AMERICA
What are you made of, surely it has to be more then you flat screen TV, you iPhone and you BMW. I would hope there is a little backbone, elbow grease and passion in there somewhere too.
God Bless you
