Last week I asked for opinions on what is the greatest sin Christians commit: the underlying, root cause of all the other sins we Christians commit. If we didnt commit THIS particular sin, we would probably not commit all the other sins, or at least drastically reduce our commission of them. I want to thank everyone who participated. A lot of great answers were provided. And while some were very close, theres one underlying sin that aces all the others, and if we Christians did not commit this sin, we would be a lot less likely to commit any other sin. In other words, we Christians would actually live like Christians. If we did, imagine what we could accomplish! What we do is controlled by our minds. Therefore, the battleground for our soul takes place there, and is usually carried out to fulfillment by the flesh. Thats why God says in Romans 12:1 & 2, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. It follows therefore, that what we put into our minds is very important. At the start of His earthly ministry, Jesus was led out into the dessert to be tempted. The three temptations (Matthew 4 & Luke 4) followed exactly the same pattern as in Genesis 3 when Satan tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. That is the same pattern Satan still uses on us. Theres no need to change it. It has proven very effective. EXCEPT in the case of Jesus. Jesus faced every temptation you and I face, but where you and I fail, He passed the test. Remember that when we trusted Christ, our old nature we inherited from Adam died (Romans 6, etc, etc, etc,) and we now have Gods own nature. That being the case, since we have Gods nature, and since Jesus withstood every temptation we face, what did Jesus use to overcome temptation? Luke 4:13 13 Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time. If you read the passages, Jesus always answered Satan with it is written. In other words, He used the Word of God. As a Jew, Jesus education would have consisted largely of learning the Scriptures. The longest chapter in the Bible, Psalm 119, 176 verses is entirely about the importance of the Word of God in our daily life. A couple of examples: Psalm 119:8 How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. (This also works well for an old codger) Psalm 119:11 Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You. What is the reason for reading the Bible? To wow the other kids at Sunday School? No!!! Its to enable us who have been born again to live a Godly & holy life; to enable Christians to live like Christians. Yet most Christians rarely even look at their Bible. We all own at least one. We generally take one with us to church. But do we read it? And if we do read it, do we read it regularly, consistently, and with the view to obey it? Do we read it through, all 66 books, or do we read only bits and pieces, here and there? A home-spun example: The check engine light on my wifes car came on. A big deal? Maybe, maybe not. The car ran okay. It couldve been something as minor as a loose gas cap. Or it couldve been??? Charlie Powell can attest that Ive kept a FIAT running for over 9 years. Hes helped me many times. So, having owned a FIAT, I know how to trouble shoot. I took Lindas car to OReillys and they ran a diagnostic check on it. One possibility for the code was the cooling fan relay. GM uses another of the same relay for the headlights, so I swapped them, and the headlights stopped working. Having brains Ive never even used yet, I realized the relay was the culprit, replaced the bad relay, and now the cars fine. Thats applying information. And thats how we should read the Bible. Its a three step process: 1) observation (what does it say?) 2) interpretation (what does it mean?) 3) application (what does it mean to ME? How should I live out what Ive read?) And you have to follow that process in that order. But in order to be able to do that, we have to have first read the Bible. We cant remember what we havent learned. I want to challenge you, if youre not already doing so, to start right now, to begin regularly reading the Bible systematically, prayerfully, and with the intent to obey it. Dont worry about the parts you dont understand. Obey what you do understand. And God will reveal over time what you dont understand. I like to read through, cover to cover, every year. I start January 1st at Genesis 1:1, and on December 31st, finish up at Revelation 22:21. You might prefer to alternate between the books of the Old and New Testaments. That doesnt really matter. What matters is that you do it. So, to sum up, if youre a Christian, and you want to live like a Christian, I want to invite you to read your Bible, daily, consistently, prayerfully, and with intent to obey it. Youll be really glad if you do, both in this life, and in eternity.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 23:52:05 +0000
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