“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time,…” (Matthew 5:21 and following)
More and more I have come to realize that what I have learned growing up in church has been incorrect. Now understand me, I have known since I was a teenager how to study the Bible for myself (thank you, Grover Anderson and others for teaching me), but as a teenager I was not allowed to voice what I learned in my own studies. When I attended Hannibal LaGrange College (now University) I received more training on how to exegete scripture. As a twenty-something among elders I was looked down on for my lack of wisdom in properly interpreting the Word of God by those who had grown cold and moldy in their denominational pews. As I have continued my studies in later years the revelations have continued to come. Now in my sixties I fight the battle on two fronts. There are always those older who run the churches I itinerate or do pulpit-fill who consider me a rebel or an apostate because I may buck their doctrinal stance. Then there are the younger ones coming up who have learned (somewhere) that there are NO absolutes, they doubt the veracity of scripture, and are well-indoctrinated into the inclusive religious movement. So I continue to study and share with any who will take the time to read and seek truth.
Not that I have fully comprehended all truth, believe me, but I know I am willing and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide me into all truth – just like Jesus said He would. There are things I wish I could go back and re-teach, sermons I wish I could go back and correct, and advice I shutter to think I gave. The Word of God stands forever complete, but it’s message is so multi-leveled, so deep and obscured by our faulty understanding, that each time we read it prayerfully and with open eyes the Holy Spirit is able to reveal to us more. The Bible is living and active, the Word of God is flowing and powerful, the message of God is eternal and changeless. We change as we allow it to wash over our lives and hearts.
Like many, when I was young I (thought I) knew it all. Ask me anything and I could have given you scriptural reasoning – according to my youthful understanding. But how can a youth truly understand the loving grace and mercy of God until he or she experiences it first-hand? How can one so young fully teach the tender heart of God’s compassion unless he or she has done something to test it? How can a mere lad sit among the leaders in the gate of the city, lest it be by the supernatural endowment of God Himself? The older I get, the more I study and read, the more I meditate upon God’s Word, the less I seem to know. Yet the richer my relationship with the One Who wrote it becomes!
Today I challenge you to sit down with your Bible, open your eyes and heart, and read it as if for the first time. Read it word for word, forgetting what you have been taught. Allow God Himself to teach you through the mentoring of the Holy Spirit. Just read for a little bit – until your mind begins to wander. Ask God to reveal to you His message for that day. If need be, go back and re-read the same passage before you go. Take that message with you throughout the day. Meditate on it when you have time and let God speak to you. May His Word bring life and healing to your soul, may your spirit be renewed, and may you be enriched as your relationship with God grows into full bloom.
Be blessed.
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