“I am what I am about these matters because I see them in the Bible. If I see 10,000 brilliant PhD’s saying one thing and the Bible saying another thing, the Bible gets my vote. That’s the way I’m going to be. And there’s a simple way of saying the reason for it, mainly, the Bible has lasted for 2,000 years plus and has stood against attack after attack after attack, and has made it from generation to generation, so that its vote is superior to 10,000 brilliant people who will be here today and gone tomorrow."
– John Piper, TULIP Sermon
Piper's heart for the Word of God amazes me at every hour of the day... and, although I have in no way obtained the depth of study or sanctification that Piper preaches from, I understand it far better then I can understand the superficial level of a disengaged believer. God is the main reality of the universe and is treated as a non-reality by so many. It is shocking how easily we ignore God. The Bible teaches us of our Creator and Redeemer, and yet so many believers do not care to study the scriptures.
Without God we LOVE sin - "For this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light..." (John 3:19-20). That is our nature; we are dark. We can NOT overcome that on our own. How many times have we heard "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8) - that verse makes us feel good, doesn't it?! I'm not going to say it shouldn't, but do we get the weight of it? It needs to make us tremble a little before we're able to fully rejoice in it. Jesus [the light] died for us while we LOVED the darkness and HATED the light because of our evil works. It is in our nature to hate the light, least it expose us.
How many times as Christians do we think that we wouldn't have eaten of the tree like Adam & Eve, wouldn't have abandoned Jesus like the disciples did, wouldn't have mocked Jesus like the crowds at his crucifixion... but ohhh how accurately we are represented in the Scriptures. How fallen me are; how weak our flesh is. "I am what I am about these matters because I see them in the Bible". God's Word is the one thing that is necessary, the good portion - what will fill us up. And it will never be taken from us (Luke 10:42). We should yearn for God's Word, we should feel it deep within our inner being.
We need to be shocked that God created a universe in which people are ignoring him - but we can't do that until we stop ignoring God ourselves. And if you're in the Word every day, and the Holy Spirit is inside of you, there is no way to ignore the Lord. If you let the Bible read you (not just you read the Bible, but the Bible read you) it will bring you into the light and show you that without it we will love only the dark. For "the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matt 26:41). Pick-up your Bible and walk in the spirit [light], not in your flesh [dark].
"The Bible gets my vote."
Without God we LOVE sin - "For this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light..." (John 3:19-20). That is our nature; we are dark. We can NOT overcome that on our own. How many times have we heard "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8) - that verse makes us feel good, doesn't it?! I'm not going to say it shouldn't, but do we get the weight of it? It needs to make us tremble a little before we're able to fully rejoice in it. Jesus [the light] died for us while we LOVED the darkness and HATED the light because of our evil works. It is in our nature to hate the light, least it expose us.
How many times as Christians do we think that we wouldn't have eaten of the tree like Adam & Eve, wouldn't have abandoned Jesus like the disciples did, wouldn't have mocked Jesus like the crowds at his crucifixion... but ohhh how accurately we are represented in the Scriptures. How fallen me are; how weak our flesh is. "I am what I am about these matters because I see them in the Bible". God's Word is the one thing that is necessary, the good portion - what will fill us up. And it will never be taken from us (Luke 10:42). We should yearn for God's Word, we should feel it deep within our inner being.
We need to be shocked that God created a universe in which people are ignoring him - but we can't do that until we stop ignoring God ourselves. And if you're in the Word every day, and the Holy Spirit is inside of you, there is no way to ignore the Lord. If you let the Bible read you (not just you read the Bible, but the Bible read you) it will bring you into the light and show you that without it we will love only the dark. For "the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matt 26:41). Pick-up your Bible and walk in the spirit [light], not in your flesh [dark].
"The Bible gets my vote."
2 comments:
Very encouraging Rach! Awesome to see the Lord continuing to move in your heart since Summer Project '07.
- Will from Va Beach :)
That Piper quote is gold. Yessssss. Dude, have you finished "Why We're Not Emergent?" Hey, take camp off of your suggested websites.
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