Getting Back To The Basics

We're familiar with the "3 R's . . . reading, writing and arithmetic." We go to the grocery store and we read on the label, "new and improved." We assume perhaps because it is new and it states, improved, that it is. Prices continue to climb in cereal, cracker and chip products, yet, the quantity is diminishing all the time. Take for example, I was at a local grocery store and picked up a package of Goldfish crackers. I thought, woe, this is much lighter than before. I read the label and it read, "6.6 ounces." So being the careful shopper that I am, I went over to the produce department and weighed it. The packaged weighed 5 ounces. Perhaps you have picked up a bag of chips only to discover it's full of air.

Likewise, the modern Christian church is advertising this and that, yet the content inside is diminishing and the Gospel message is unrecognizable in some churches. There is a lot of "rethinking" going around. It's okay to evaluate one's priorities and goals. I'm fine with that. What disturbs me to the core of my soul is that there seems to be a perversion of the Gospel. A sort of 'dumbing down the church.'

Rob and I have this devotional book, "The Morning Watch or Thoughts for the Quiet Hour" by Belle M. Brain. It is 110 years old but oh so relevant today. Please allow me to share what I read.

September 11 - Dwight L. Moody
"Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read. --- Isaiah 34:16

Hints about Bible Study
I have been wonderfully blessed in studying the Bible, by taking up one book at a time. I used to try to read the Bible through in a year. I would as soon read a dictionary that way now. Sometimes I want something to stir me up; others days I want something to comfort me. When you read right through, you don't get much comfort. It is a great deal better, if seems to me, to take up a book at a time.

Or take a character or a type. How many antetypes there were of Christ! --- Adam, Abel, Enoch, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and so on all through the Old Testament. Another good way is to take a subject. That's how we get grounded in the fundamental truths of the bible. Take "Repentance," for example. Read up everything you can find about repentance. Take time. Suppose you spend a month; you couldn't spend it better.

Let the Bible speak for itself. Don't listen to what this man and that man says about it, but study the Bible. And as Bishop Stevens used to say, "Don't study it with your little red lamp of Methodism, or your little blue light of Presbyterianism, or the light of the Episcopal Church, but just the light of Calvary." Come without prejudice, and say, "Whatever this book teaches I must receive." --- "TEN DAYS WITH MOODY."

I truly believe with all the available resources we have at our finger tips, we have become spiritually lazy. It is easier to opt for the most popular author's book study about the Bible rather than just dig into the Bible ourselves. There are software programs along with excellent Study Bibles that are available to help us actually study the Bible itself. It is assumed perhaps by leadership that the person in the pew is not smart enough to study God's Word for themselves. If they truly wanted a revolution of heart, mind and soul, then God's Word would be taught line upon line and precept upon precept.

One only has to take the time to read Paul's writings without any presuppositions to understand how the love of Christ compels us and propels us to tell others of Christ. We may have spiritual batteries inside but perhaps they are not in the right direction, thus no current is flowing. Man cannot energize us, only the power of the Holy Spirit to a heart and mind that is seeking Christ.

To say, "you must do this to be successful as a Christian," is absurd. I take my marching orders from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He's the author and finisher of my faith, not the most popular Christian guru.

So my challenge for all of us to is hide God's Word in our hearts that we might not sin against Him. To literally get ourselves immersed in God's Word that we know Him, not just things about Him. That we have a true honor and respect for our Creator. He's not our buddy. Yes, we can consider Him our best friend. But to bring Him down to us is lessening His Deity. He is our Abba Father for sure. Yet positionally He is still the Father and we, the child. I think what bothers me is how casually Jesus is sometimes referred to . . . as if He was one of our chums. He's Holy God Jehovah and we are to reverence Him with all our whole being.

Indeed let's get back to the basics. Whose boot camp are you in? Christ's or the latest trend in Christianity?