I had had the same thought years ago, when someone said that you had to believe something or the other because it was in the Bible. George expressed it much better than I did, and much better than I have paraphrased him here.
Frequently when we are discussing religious thought, we have to spend some time talking about semantics. You can accept and acknowledge all kinds of things because you read it, or someone explains it to you clearly. But when you believe it, you incorporate it into your thought process, it goes down into your core and becomes part of your operating system.
I wonder how many potential Christians we have run off by insisting that they accept every facet of our beliefs before they were ready.
How do you believe something you’re supposed to believe if you don’t believe it?
I’ve had a resurgence of interest in the Bible itself in the last couple of years. And I find things that I know I’ve read before, but not paid any attention to.
The parable of the seeds is one of those things.
In Matthew 13, Jesus talked about a farmer who planted seeds. Some wound up on the road and were eaten by birds. Some went on rocky ground. There was very little soil, and when the plants came up, they were scorched by the sun, because their roots were shallow. Some seeds were tossed into thorn bushes. This wasn‘t a very careful farmer. The thorn bushes choked them out. But some seeds were planted in good soil and they produced a hundred times more than was planted.
When He explained this parable, He said that the seeds on the road were the people who heard the word but did not understand it, and the devil came and snatched it away from them. The seeds in the rocky soil were people who heard the word and took it in while things were going well, but when times got hard, they gave up. The seeds in the thorn bushes were people who heard the word but let the world take priority. The seeds on the good ground, of course, are those of us who hear the word, accept it, take it, live it and pass it on.
I heard this and it really resonated with me. Because I knew people who fit into each category. And I thought if someone hears the word and just doesn’t understand it, how is that their fault. I knew someone like that. She went to church and she told me, she gave up, because it just wasn’t sinking in.
I have heard people say that there are some people who cannot be saved. I don’t think that’s true. I think there are people that I cannot reach. And maybe you cannot reach. But I don’t believe there are people that God would just write off.
She’s a reasonably intelligent person, not particularly emotionally mature, but she should be able to get it. And the only thing I could think was that she wasn’t ready to give up her own thoughts, give up what she was doing, and listen to what God was saying.
My friend Robbie was giving the sermon a couple of weeks ago, and while she was talking, I had a thought, and I have no idea why, because it didn’t have anything to do with what she was talking about.
I thought you can know all the Bible in the world, you can quote chapter and verse, know every detail we know about Jesus’ life and all kinds of things about the culture and times, but if it stays in the book, if it doesn’t come out and become part of your life, then it’s useless.
It’s easy to say Live by Faith, but do we? Do we make our decisions, determine our actions, knowing that God has our back? Do we pray about a problem we have, then put it aside and assume God is handling it? Or do we continue to worry and fret?
We were preparing to move again, go to the next track. I didn’t have a job, and we weren’t sure where we were going to be staying, and my mother asked me if I was afraid, and I said no, without even thinking about it.
And I realized that I wasn’t just saying No, I am not worried because I knew I was supposed to depend on the Lord, but because it had finally sunk in. God had my back. If I let Him handle it, we were going to be okay.
That doesn’t mean I don’t have problems. I have financial woes, frustrations at work, people I have difficulty getting along with, traffic snarls and things that I am just not happy about in my life. But I also have the peace that Jesus gives me, and if I depend upon it, if I allow myself, then I have nothing to fret over.
Three things are told to us: “Be still”, “My Peace I leave with you” and “Fear Not”. Someone counted, and Fear Not is repeated more than any other phrase in the Bible. Which means not only is it important, but we can count on it.
Do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand. Isaiah 41:10
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