In his awesome book, SURPRISED BY THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT, Dr. Jack Deere gives his experience on falling prey to the snare of intellectualism and misguided anchoring in the depths of mere mental knowledge of the scriptures even as a christian minister: In the process of getting theologically trained and becoming a seminary professor, I developed an intense passion for studying Gods Word. I found myself loving the Bible more than I loved the Author of the Bible. I was caught in this trap for more years than I like to remember. Without realizing it, I began to think the essence of the christian life as Bible study or Bible knowledge......This is an easy trap to fall into when you live in an academic community whose major purpose is to teach the scriptures and to train others to teach the scriptures. It took me too long to learn that knowing the Bible is not the same thing as knowing God, loving the Bible is not the same thing as loving God, and reading the Bible is not the same thing as hearing God. The Pharisees knew the Bible, loved the Bible and read the Bible, but they did not know, love or hear God. One day Jesus said to them: JOHN 5:37-40 And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life... These men spent hours everyday studying the scriptures, and yet the Son of God said that they had never heard his Fathers voice at any time. It is possible to read the Bible every day of our lives and never hear the voice of God!
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 09:07:25 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015