Tuesday, October 4, 2011

get through it or it gets through you…

knowledge increases responsibility.  the more we know the more we’re accountable for.  what am i doing about what i know? JESUS said, to whom much is given, much is required.  and james 4.17 (nkj) says, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

illustration:  let’s say you decide to get concerned about my health.  you my come to me and say, “bill, as you’re getting older we don’t want you to have a flabby body, or furniture problems -- where your chest drops into your drawers -- so you decide to buy me as a gift the p90x fitness program.  you say this can change your life.  it’s fantastic.  it has changed the lives of millions of people.  it will keep you strong.  it will be a blessing to you.  do it.  it will change you.”  i say, “great”.  so i go away for 90 days and then come back and i’m the same guy.  you say, “what happened?  didn’t you read the instructions, the book, didn’t you do what it said?’ what if i said to you, “i read them.  i enjoyed it.  this is a fantastic book.  i loved it.  i even underlined portions of it with colored markers and memorized sections of it and even started a group study of the book and looked at the origin of every single word of the book.  every night i would spend a couple hours studying it.” 

how often do we do that with the word of GOD?  we give awards for memorizing scripture, but we don’t give awards for doing scripture.  we get a plaque that says “i read through the bible” but don”t get one that says, “i did the bible.”  we need to mark our bibles, but we need to let the bible mark us.  it’s not how many times you've been through the word of GOD, it’s how many times it’s been through you.  you’ve got to be a doer of the word.  i used to deceive myself in thinking that because i had knowledge that it made me mature.  having knowledge of a bodybuilding book doesn’t produce muscles.  just because we know something doesn’t mean we act on it.

just a thought from the front porch… 

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