Feb
25
2015
Sea Legs
Posted in Bible 4 Comments
When my children were little, I put notes in their lunchbox.
Sometimes the note would be on a napkin.
Sometimes the note would be on an index card.
The note was a tangible reminder of my love for them.
When they were really young, and not yet able to read, the notes were in pictures.
An eye, a heart, and the letter U said it all.
U R Gr8 was another note they loved to decode.
It was my way of letting them know I was thinking about them during the day.
My youngest daughter kept all those index cards in a special container.
I think she kept them because it was hard for her to throw them away.
They meant a lot to her.
They were evidence of our relationship with each other.
We have all received letters that we kept for quite a while.
Letters or notes that meant something to us.
Words that touched our hearts.
Sentiments that we needed to be reminded of on a difficult day.
Women may admit to having a shoebox of love letters.
Teachers will keep the precious notes from their students long after they left the class.
We keep that which is important to us.
We tuck it away and pull it out to remind us of another time.
The correspondence between people has been preserved in books.
The letters of John Adams to his wife, Abigail.
The letters of Jonathan Edwards to his wife, Sarah.
The letters of Theodore Roosevelt to his children.
We can know much about a person when we read their letters.
Until or if permission is granted to read them, the letters remain private.
It is a terrible breach of trust to read something that was not intended for you to read.
If privacy is invaded, it takes quite a while to restore that trust again.
A former pastor of a mega-church in Michigan made some startling comments.
During a televised interview with his wife by his side, he spoke on the culture.
He systematically dismissed the Bible.
He called God’s Word, irrelevant letters from 2,000 years ago.
When I read about the interview, I wanted to hear the comment for myself.
Basically, in his mind, the Bible has nothing to say to us.
The Bible, that as a pastor he was to teach and uphold, did not stand the test of time.
Culture had it right; God’s Word had it wrong.
I was terribly sad for this man and his wife.
They are both looking to an ever-changing, ever-moving culture to determine truth.
They might as well be standing in front of an arcade game with a moving target.
Always moving, never staying still, trying to hit the target with a water pistol.
I loved to roller skate when I was a girl.
When I took off my skates, I had the sensation that I was still skating.
That feeling of movement remained even though my skates were off.
It took a little while for that sensation to stop.
It was the same when I once went on a whale-watching excursion.
The movement of the boat on the rough water made it miserable for most of us.
Very few of us had our sea legs.
The constant motion left many of us clinging to the side of the boat.
Our culture is experiencing motion sickness.
Our culture is moving wildly in the tumultuous waves.
Our cultural ship is being tossed to and fro.
There is constant motion with many clinging to the sides trying to spot the horizon.
God’s Word is not irrelevant letters from 2,000 years ago.
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
(2 Timothy 3:14-17)
We need to have our sea legs in this tumultuous culture.
The only way to have our sea legs is to stand on something that is not moving.
We need to stand on something solid so that when the boat is tossed, we can stand.
That solid ground is the Word of God.
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. Nothing is all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 5:12,13)
That immovable Word of God is a Person, Jesus Christ.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. (John 1:1-5)
The Word is a Person who spoke everything into existence.
How dare we hold up the shifting sand of culture as truth.
Sand will always slip right through our fingers.
The Rock, who is Christ, is solid, immovable, permanent, and unchanging.
We need our sea legs in this tumultuous cultural storm.
The Gospel is the only answer to all the moving targets that vie for our attention.
Only the Word of God, God-breathed, living, and active, can hold us steady.
We are living in a constant state of seasickness, looking for the horizon.
We search the horizon for the One who will one day return.
Every eye will see Him.
Every knee will bow, either voluntarily or involuntarily.
Those with their sea legs will stand and walk with Him into eternity.
If only the world would rely on the solid ground of the Bible! It is and will always be our rock! People who “quote it” oftentimes are not readers of it. It is God’s word, and who could be a better writer than our creator?
Sue,
No one is a better writer than our Creator God!
He breathed His Word, using ordinary men to write it down.
We still cling to that precious, inerrant Word as the only Truth.
Gina
Solid through and through. Let Him be true and every man a liar.
Thank you for a flare shot up for us to see.
Michelle,
To God be the Glory.
He alone is True.
Gina