“Timothy, guard what
has been entrusted to your care. Turn
away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called
knowledge, which some have professed and in doing so have wandered from the
faith. Grace be with you” 1 Timothy
6:20-21.
Yesterday was an interesting day…I might even say
disturbing. A while back I met with a
wonderful group of ladies from a local church who wanted to get involved with
our ministry, On Eagles Wings. We moved
forward in that relationship and began building future plans. In order for their church to become involved
they needed the blessings of their board.
I spoke with the woman yesterday who informed me that due to one of our
faith statements they would not be moving forward as a partner. I asked her which statement since I believe
firmly in every one of our faith statements.
She said that the board as a whole was very uncomfortable with the
statement that the Bible is the infallible word of God. She went on to say that while they believe the
Bible was God-inspired, they were more ‘forward thinking’ than to think that
every word of the Bible was true. (I
fully understand that many people feel this way including possibly some reading
this.)
I just adore the Lord and how He works in our lives. Sometimes I can’t hear Him, even when it
seems very important to me. Sometimes, I
can’t feel His presence and have to rely on my faith that He is near. Sometimes I must wait and wait to receive an
answer to a prayer. And then sometimes I
barely even get a prayer out of my mouth when a resounding and glorious answer
strikes like lightning. Today was that
experience and I am sure it is because the very integrity of God’s word was at
stake. I was praying about the
leadership of that church, and how disturbed I was the stance they took. I didn’t waver in my beliefs but was wounded
in heart for their congregation. Then
God led me to our passage above as I considered the words they used…forward thinking...'opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge.'
Paul was writing to Timothy about believers, not to non-believers...‘wandered from the faith.’ I believe Paul went on to encourage him to
impart grace since he had been entrusted with grace. We are called to grace when dealing with
those people who have wandered from the faith.
With church pews full, hearts sometimes remain empty when dealing with
the Word of God. It is important to
measure everything the church stands for against what the Word of God
says. God went on in His sweet manner to
lead me to further confirmation that His word is true…perfect…God-breathed…infallible. I am not apologetic for my conviction on this
for how would we measure what is right and what is wrong…what is literal and
what is actual. Drawing those lines
would be left up to our individualism, agenda and experiences. The most beautiful part of this morning was
God’s urgency and clarity to reveal and confirm to me the importance of every
word in the Bible. He led me to a sermon
given by a contributor of www.gty.com who
cautions every believer. “But there's only one basic essential in a
church. There's really only one thing you're looking for and that is how they
handle the truth, that's it. How they handle the truth. That's the
essential thing. What do they believe about the Word of God and what do
they believe it teaches? That's the essence. Do they believe that
this is the inerrant authoritative determinative Word of the living God?” He is right…the integrity of God’s character
and truthfulness is at stake, and He will move heaven and earth to make sure we
understand.
May God be urgent and clear to each of us
every morning so that we may be reminded of who He was, who He is and who He
will be in the days to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment