Taking the Bible to Heart by Stephen Davey

Taking the Bible to Heart
Psalm 119:160 The sum of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting. The word on the street today is that God's Word is really not all that important. People are beginning to believe that the Bible is a book written for those who lived thousands of years ago, and is irrelevant for us today. I have actually had people leave our church because "we took the Bible far too seriously." To them, the Bible is a nice collection of moral tales and Jewish fables, rather than God's blueprint for living. Although this idea is widespread, it remains dreadfully wrong. Some years ago my wife and I had dinner with a couple who had recently moved into our city. Both of them were medical doctors, but they had come to the point in their lives where they knew they were missing something. We listened as the couple told of growing up with religion—one in the Catholic church, and the other as a Protestant, both eventually abandoning their churches. Upon moving to Cary, they decided to find a church for their children's sake, feeling that a little religion might do their family good. One Sunday morning the father decided to stay home and watch the kids so that his wife could visit a nearby church. It just happened to be ours! She told of slipping into the back row in her "first-ever evangelical service," and hearing the message from the book of Esther. With excited eyes she reminisced, telling us of sitting in her seat dumbfounded, realizing for the first time that everything she had heard as a child about the Bible being merely a collection of stories was not true. Instead, the Bible was alive and real and had meaning for life, here and now; it was meant to be obeyed. She went home afterward, walked into the house, and said, "Honey, we've been wrong—the Bible is for today." They came to Colonial the next Sunday and the next.  It was after those two weeks that they called the office and asked me to come to their home. They both accepted Christ, and I discipled the husband for nearly a year. On one occasion I was told, "When we went to church in the past, we believed a lie about the Bible. But we were wrong . . . now we know the truth.  The Bible is for us to followtoday." If you ask the average religious person about the Bible, he will say it is a good book to own; it is a nice thing to quote at weddings, funerals, and family reunions; but it is only a collection of stories at best, not something to build your life upon. Can you blame him? As long as so-called Christians are indifferent to the Bible, the world will be, as well. God's Word won't change their lives until they see it has  changed ours. Don't believe the lie that this couple believed for so many years. Read God's Word; love it, listen to it, and live by it. Your relationship with God will never be intimate if your relationship with His Word is casual. Frankly, since God wrote the Bible, we can't afford to take it lightly . . . see that you don't!
Prayer Point:Thank the Lord for preserving the Word for us . . . thank Him that you own at least one copy. Ask Him to develop a greater longing in your heart to read and obey His Word. Ask Him to speak to your heart through His Word; commit to Him that you intend to obey what He says.
Extra Refreshment:Read another portion of Psalm 119 and note in each verse the difference the Word of God makes in our lives.