Most
new Christians and many long time Christians think that once they are “Saved”
that the only thing they have to do is try to be good and be kind. Obviously, when we are Saved we are joyful in the Lord and thankful for our Salvation. But, there is more to
our Salvation than forgiveness, cleansing from our sins and a ticket to Heaven,
although that is what gives us so much of our joy and thankfulness. With our Salvation we are now
to live for the Lord and are to do the things that He would have us do. To
truly be able to live for the Lord, though, we have to learn what God wants us
to know so that we will know how to walk for Christ. We have to acquire spiritual
knowledge. But, how do we get this knowledge and how do we learn?
Well, God did not leave anything to chance. He gave
us a world that has everything in it that we could possibly need to grow and
develop into a people who can honor and glorify the Lord in all we do. Still,
God knew that we would need more than just the earth and everything in it that
He had created for us. God knew that we would need knowledge of Him and knowledge of the important things
that He wants us to know. We needed instruction. So, God gave us His Word, the Bible, to help guide us and to teach us
what every person should know about Him and the world that we live in.
From the importance of rotating crops to give the
soil time to rejuvenate to the safest foods to eat, God made sure that His Word
had the information we would need to survive. Furthermore, God gave us His
commandments and directions for leading a productive and happy life. In fact, the Bible
contains so much information about God, Christ, and life in general that those who don’t
read the Bible can be lost in trying to live out their life and may be lost for eternity.
On the day of their baptism, which is a public
acknowledgement of their belief in Christ and a water immersion to symbolically
follow Christ into death and be reborn into a new cleansed being, individuals
at our church receive a gift. The Pastor of our church gives each person a new
Bible. But the pastor also stops to explain that the Bible is God’s Word and
instruction for their life. He then tells them that no one can make them read
it, but God would love for them to take the time to read what He has to say to
them. The Pastor tells them that they can get to know God’s heart if they will read the
Bible. Then, the Pastor asks them to try to read the Bible every day so they
will be guided in the way to walk for Christ. Long ago, the Apostle Peter also
explained the importance of reading the Word of God. He said:
“Now that
you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have
sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.
For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through
the living and enduring Word of God.
For, ‘All men are like
grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers
and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.’”
–
(I Peter 1: 22-25. NIV).
The
Bible is not an outdated book! It is the Truth! It is just as relevant today as
the day that the Holy Spirit inspired the authors to write it. Although, I have
read the Bible through many times, I can still pick it up and find relevant information
and guidance for my life. When I read from the Older Testament, I discover how
God expects us to act and behave. For through the stories about God’s people,
i.e. the Jews, I learn things such as the importance of truthfulness,
obedience, love, discipline, and to be able to recognize evil. And, whether I
read that the Lord had Moses build the tabernacle in a very precise way, or
whether I am reading about Joseph being sold to the Egyptians because his
brothers were jealous of him, I soon realize that all the precise details and the
many specific stories “point to and
find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ” Keep reading and you will soon discover that the Older Testament leads us right into the Newer Testament where we can discover our Savior. Jesus Christ is
the Savior that God foretold within the pages of the Older Testament; a
Deliverer that God would send to mankind to save us from our sins.
The
Older Testament is about a group of people who struggled to draw near to God;
often not understanding what God was telling them, because they often listened to the
devil and their own fleshly desires rather than to God. They also made mistakes
or were just blatantly disobedient to God’s commandments. Don’t most people today
still listen to their personal desires and accept the evil influence of the
world around them? So, nothing has changed that much, except -------- now we can know Christ as our Savior!
Moreover, we can share Christ with others in this world too! We can read the
Bible and find out how we are to live for Christ and His Father and how to be
obedient.
In reading the Bible, we learn that we do not have to be controlled
by this earthly life; rather we can control how we relate to our life and how
we relate to other people. With our Salvation, we can show the love of Christ
to others through our loving actions. We can also share the knowledge that we
have received from reading God’s Word – His instruction Book for our life.
“For
the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it
penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; It judges the
thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
– (Hebrews 4: 12. NIV).
Wow!
The Bible is powerful! So, if we read the Bible, we can learn what God wants us
to understand. We can learn how to live for Christ and how to love others as
ourselves. We can learn how to please God. But, if we fail to read and invest in the Bible,
we are just wasting our lives while we are here on earth. For, failing to read
the Bible means that we are giving up the power that comes from following the
Word of God. Furthermore, by failing to read the Bible, we will not know what
we are expected to do for the Lord, nor will we live the way that we are meant to
live for Him. So, we need to read and invest our lives in the Bible and take it to heart.
James,
the brother of Jesus, wrote one of the Holy Spirit inspired books within the
Bible. This small book is just a part of the entire Word of God, but it is
powerful. James wrote for God,
“Do not merely listen to the word (or
just read it), and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the
word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a
mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he
looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives
freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard (or
read), but doing it will be blessed in what he does.”
-- (James 1: 22- 25. NIV).
In
other words, we are to be “doers of the
Word.” I don’t know about you, but I would rather read the Bible than not
read it, because in reading the Bible I can learn what I need to know so that I
can be the best Christian that I can personally be. I also want to ensure that
I can share my Christ-light with others correctly and with truth. I want to be
a “doer of the Word.” Then when I get
to Heaven, I won’t be like the man described in the “Parable of the Talents (or loaned money)”.
In
Matthew 25: 14- 30, Christ gives us more information about being “doers of the
Word” and about Heaven through the parable or story of the loaned talents of
gold:
Christ said that a
wealthy man had to go on a trip, so he called his servants and left them gold
to invest for him while he was away. To the first, he gave five bags (talents)
of gold, to the second he gave two bags (talents) of gold, and to the third he
gave one bag (one talent) of gold to invest. The first man immediately invested
the five bags of gold and soon doubled it. The servant with two bags of gold
also went to work and doubled the money. But the servant with only one bag of
gold dug a hole and placed the gold there for safekeeping.
When the master got back from his trip, he called his servants to
him. The first man gave ten bags of gold back to his master; five more than he
had originally been given. The master said, “Well done my good and faithful
servant.” You have been trustworthy and faithful in handling my money, so I
will put you in charge of many more and even greater things.
The second man gave the master back four bags of gold. He, too, had
doubled the master’s money. Again, the master praised the servant. He told him
that because the servant had been faithful in handling that small of amount of
money that he too, would be put in charge of more and greater things.
But the third servant just returned the one bag (talent) of gold that he had been
given and had hidden for safekeeping. Why had he hidden the bag (talent) of gold? Well, the third servant said that he was afraid
that he might lose the master’s money, and he knew how strict and demanding his
master was. So, to be safe, he just hid the money. But, instead of praise, the master called him a wicked and lazy servant. The master told him that he should
have at least put his money in the bank so that it would have drawn some
interest. However, because the servant was untrustworthy and lazy, the master
took the talent of gold that he had given him and gave it to the servant who
had ten talents of gold.
Then the master said, “To those who use well what they are
given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from
those who are unfaithful, even what little they have will be taken away.
Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping
and gnashing of teeth.”
– (Matthew 25: 29-30. NLT).
The
main lesson from this parable is that we have all been given abilities and
talents to use in serving the Kingdom of God. Our service for God doesn’t have
to be mentoring, but whatever your talent is that God has given you, use it. However, to understand how to use your talent, you must increase your knowledge and
understanding of the Word of God by reading and studying the Word, so that you
can share the Word with others and so that you can live a more productive and
honoring life for the Lord. In other words, we have to invest in the Word of God
in order to expand our knowledge and grow our talents so that we can then give
back to the Kingdom of God by being “doers” of the Word.
When
we get to Heaven (assuming that we have asked Christ into our heart and we
truly meant it) God will ask us what we have done for Him. Did we take God's instruction book, the Bible, and study it so that we could understand what God
wanted us to learn?Did we invest in and share the Word of God with others? Did we apply the Word of God and God’s direction and commandments to our
lives? Did we serve in and benefit the Kingdom of God through our kindness,
caring, humility, love, patience, etc. for others? Did we grow our talents
for the purpose of doing for the Lord and others? Or did we just sit on the
assurance of our Salvation and do nothing with it to benefit the world and
others? Perhaps, like the third servant in the story above, we buried our Salvation so deep in our heart that others could not see it?
When
we get to Heaven, God will give out crowns of honor for the work that we have
done within His Kingdom. We will get even more honor and responsibilities if we
have invested wisely in the Kingdom of God. How do we invest in the Kingdom of
God?
We invest in the Kingdom of God by studying God’s Word and by sharing our
knowledge and our God given talents with others so that more and more people
can come to know and live abundantly for the Lord.
What kind of crowns and
responsibilities will you receive when you get to Heaven? We will receive crowns and greater responsibilities when we get to Heaven based upon the work that we have done for the Kingdom of God while we are here on earth. Have you invested in
God’s Kingdom by working for the Lord? Have you helped to increase the Kingdom
of God or have you done nothing; not even taking the time to read the Word of
God?
If
you are interested in serving in and investing in the Kingdom of God through Active
Relational Christian Mentoring, please start reading the Bible. You need the knowledge that God has provided for you within His Word. But, even
if you don’t mentor, but provide some other service for the Kingdom of God, you
need to know what God has written in His Word for you. In reading the Bible you
may even find that you can do some other type of service for the Lord. Perhaps because you have read the Bible, you
can answer someone’s question about the Bible and God's Salvation? At the very least, you will know
how to explain to others what you believe, because you will have gotten your own knowledge from investing in the Word of God.
You
can pick up the Bible and read any book or chapter any time, and it will bless
your soul. But, if you truly want to get the full and big picture that God has
given us, you may want to start by reading the Older Testament, for throughout the Older Testament books God points
to Christ. Look for Him as you read, for He is there.
If
you read further into the Older Testament, you will find that the prophets even
foretold of Christ’s coming, and they foretell of the end times as well. But, please
don’t use the old excuse that there are too many “begats” or that the list of
genealogies is too long in the Older Testament. Yes, there are a couple of
chapters on the genealogies. But they are not a large part of the Bible, so that
is just an excuse not to read the Bible. Moreover, it would not be the end of
the world if you just scanned the “begats” and then went on to the next
section. I will tell you, though, that once you have read the Bible a couple of
times, you will actually look forward to understanding some of the genealogies
so that you can know about Christ’s earthly ancestors. But whether or not you
read the genealogies, please read and continue to read the Bible every day. God
gave us His Word for a reason, and it wasn’t to collect dust on our coffee
table or book shelf. Don’t bury the knowledge in the Bible in a hole or on a
book shelf.
Remember
that we can’t tell others about the greatest true story ever told, if we don’t know it ourselves. It is also
especially hard to mentor non-Christians if we don’t know the Word of God,
because they will invariably ask questions that we can’t answer. But, even if
you are never asked a question about the Bible, the Word of God will touch your
heart each and every day that you read it. As you invest in the Word of God, God invests in you! I challenge you to read your Bible. I
challenge you to invest in the Kingdom of God by serving through ARCM or some
other Christian service. You Can do it!
Happy
Reading!
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