1st Peter 1:23, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.”
We view the Bible as being the inspired Words of God...
2nd Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”
The Bible can do what no other book on the earth can do, discern the thoughts and intents of a person's heart, piercing even between the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit. Now that's a powerful Book...
Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
Until the Word of God becomes more precious to a believer than the television, they'll never know the sweet peace that can only come from walking with the Lord. 2nd Corinthians 5:7 teaches that the Christian's walk is by FAITH, not SIGHT. When we make decisions based upon what looks good, instead of seeking God's will through prayer and meditating in the Bible, then we are in trouble spiritually. Job regarded the Word of God as being more necessary than his very food. In sharp contrast, the Bible speaks of those “WHOSE GOD IS THEIR BELLY, AND WHOSE GLORY IS THEIR SHAME, WHO MIND EARTHLY THINGS”! ...
Philippians 3:18-19, “(For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)”
The Bible says their glory is their shame. Charlie Sheen professes to be a born-again Christian. Sheen was featured not too many years ago on an episode of Saturday Night Live, where he partook of a skit making fun of his well-known sexual immorality, alcoholism and drug addiction in his earlier years. Something is very wrong with any professed Christian who GLORIES IN THEIR SHAME. I cannot determine if Charlie Sheen is truly saved, for only he knows that and God. You cannot determine if a person is saved by the way they live. Nor do I condemn Sheen or anyone else for that matter, for I am the biggest sinner that I know (and so are YOU if you're honest with God and yourself). We are all big sinners for whom Christ needed to die and shed His blood.
Albeit, no Christian should ever boast, brag, joke or take lightly the
awfulness of our sins. It was our sins that nailed Christ to the cross. As a
born-again Christian I am ashamed of my sins. I wish I could undo all of
them. I do not rejoice in my sins. I do not parade nor boast of them either.
There are many TV programs these days, which make cultural heroes and icons
out of former drug-dealers, mobsters and Wall Street crooks and criminals.
That's to be expected from the dead world. The world is DEAD and has always
been dead in trespasses and in sins (Ephesians 2:1-2). But we are alive
(quickened) in Jesus Christ.
Jesus Overcame Temptation With the Scriptures
When the Devil came to tempt the Lord in Matthew 4:1-10, Jesus quoted the
Scriptures all three times to defeat the Devil. If the Lord Himself needed
to use the Sword of the Bible to fight and defeat the Devil, then so do we I
assure you. No one can defeat the Devil without the Word of God. American
society is saturated these days with all sorts of behavior-modification
courses, seminars and programs to help reform troublesome children,
delinquent teens and society's criminals. None of those programs work! You
cannot reform the sin-nature! You cannot tame the flesh! You cannot tame the
evil tongue, set on fire of Hell. The answer is a new nature, and that
nature is the Spirit of Jesus Christ whom the world cannot see nor receive.
John 14:17, “Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive,
because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he
dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” The world is DEAD!!! Life is
found by faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
As a child of God I love the Bible. The truths of the Word of God mean more to me than my daily food. It is important for every Christian to purpose in their heart to seek after the manna (food) from God in His Word. The Bible teaches that God deliberately led the Jews out of bondage in Egypt, to bondage in the desert, in order to test them to see if they esteemed His Word more necessary than their daily food...
Deuteronomy 8:2-3, “And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.”
With this truth in mind, God often leads us into affliction and suffering to test us, in order to see if we esteem His Words as being more necessary than our daily provisions. Hebrews 11:6 teaches that is is IMPOSSIBLE to please God without faith. It's not hard or challenging; but rather, IMPOSSIBLE to please God without faith. A faith must be tested! Unshakable faith comes from having our faith shaken! God WILL shake your faith and mine, to strengthen it!
Since faith pleases God; and since afflictions, problems and tribulations test and increase our faith; then it can logically and reasonably be concluded that God can be expected to make our lives difficult and hard for our benefit. Some believers get angry at God (such as Jonah). Others quit and go back into the world (Luke 8:13). God has to chastise and scourge them by giving them over to their sins to conform them to Christ's imagine (Hebrews 12:6-8). God knows how to test and shape the character of His children (Philippians 2:13). Growing always involves pain, that is, growing pains. No pain, no gain.
The unsaved world places God on trial and hates Him because of the suffering and pain in the world. What most people fail to understand is that when Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, desiring to be as gods, God gave them what they wanted... that is, the freedom to make their own choices between good and evil. Adam and Eve wanted to control their own lives. Satan had told Eve the truth, sort of. In Genesis 3:1-5, the serpent (Satan according to Revelation 20:2) told Eve that her eyes would be opened if she ate the fruit, and she would becomes as a god. Satan was correct in the sense that Adam and Eve were given the freedom to choose for themselves from now on; but Satan deceived Eve by misleading her to think that she would become as God. Eve didn't become as God. She didn't become omnipotent. Eve didn't become omniscient. Eve didn't become omnipresent.
When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, God allowed them to have what they wanted,
that is, the freedom to choose between good and evil. In this respect, they
did become as gods. But there were corresponding consequences. With the
privilege of making our own decisions comes the great responsibility of
accepting the consequences, whether good or bad. This is why the world is so
messed up. Since the time of Adam and Eve, God has allowed men to choose for
themselves between good and evil, and to suffer the consequences. When we
consider the evils of starvation, war, deindustrialization, poverty,
genocide, Communism, deforestation, pollution and pain across the world, we
must realize that men have caused this!!! When we place our will above God's
Word, we are placing ourselves in God's stead. God has allowed mankind to
make his own choices since Adam ate of the forbidden tree, and to live and
die by those decisions from henceforth (Romans 5:12)!!!
The Holy Bible Has All the Answers
The world needs the Word of God (John 3:20). The world needs Jesus Christ,
Who is the Living Word (John 1:1-3,14; Revelation 19:13). As Christians our
faith is in God, not the wicked world. We trust in God, not man. Americans
do NOT trust in God as they falsely claim on our money. If we trusted God,
then we wouldn't legalize abortion since 1973. If we trusted God, then we
wouldn't have removed prayer and the Bible from our nation's classrooms
since 1963. The world is a dungheap of evil and atheism. America is no
better than Communist Russia, which will become more obvious in the decades
to come (if the Lord tarries) as a police state rises up to afflict the
sin-loving, arrogant and fool-hearty American people. Sin always undermine a
nation. To the same extent that we have forsaken the God of the Bible in the
United States, to that same degree people look to central government to
supply their needs and solve their problems. In effect, the government has
become our god, which is the very essence of Communism.
Understanding these truths makes the Word of God all that much more desirable. I love the Bible, for it is my spiritual food which burns my heart, comforts my soul and warms my mind as I ponder the PROMISES of an unchanging, faithful and good God. Blessed be the name of the Lord Jesus Christ!!! I learned this awesome passage of Scripture today... Acts 13:38-39, “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” The Lord is good and worthy of our praises!
The Bible means nothing to the unsaved world. To the wicked person, the Bible is a religious book of intense bigotry, wrongful prejudice and senseless hatred. Homosexuals in particular despise and hate the Bible, which is why they've relentlessly tried to CHANGE THE TRUTH OF GOD INTO A LIE (Romans 1:25). Same-sex marriage is evil, a mockery of the divine institution of marriage. Job 20:4-5, “Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth, That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?” I am so glad that I am on the winning side in Christ Jesus. There is NO controversy if you believe the Bible. I am as narrow-minded as the Bible. Amen! God's way is the right way. The big word “righteousness” means that God is always right in all that He does. Praise the Lord!!!
Psalms 119:9, “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.” Reading the Bible as a Christian is like filling a bucket with a hole in it with water. You can fill up the bucket repeatedly and it'll keep going empty, but the bucket will be a lot cleaner afterwards. The Word of God keeps us clean as believers.
“The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.” —Psalm 12:6-7
