Yesterday, I wrote about reading too much in to Scripture (or, more like, reading what I want Scripture to say, rather than reading what it says). Today, in my prayers, I kept thinking of that line in “Jesus Loves Me” that says “for the Bible tells me so.” And it led me to some pretty deep questions: do I believe what the Bible says? If I believe, do I FOLLOW what it says? And I kept continuing down this road. If I’m a believer in God, if you’re a believer in God, we SHOULD believe the Bible and do what it says. Not as a way of legalistically pointing toward a man-made or works-centered righteousness, but to seek God’s holiness, so that we, also, may be holy. Why? Because God said “Be holy, therefore, as I am Holy,” (Leviticus 11:44) and Jesus said “If you love me, keep my commands” (John 14:15), and Paul reminds us in Romans 12:1-2 to not be living sacrifices who do not conform to the pattern of this world, but are transformed by the renewing of our minds, so that by testing we may know what God’s will is (Romans 12:1-2).
Do you see the point? This does not contradict what I said before. We are not to pull our own meanings out of Scripture, or to place our own viewpoints in to it. We’re to live by the very word of God. Jesus, when combating Satan in the Wilderness, said this very thing: “It is written: ‘man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). God’s word, who we also know Jesus to be, is our nourishment. Jesus is the bread that comes from heaven to sustain us (John 6 has a LOT to say o this). Therefore, beloved, we should put much stock in the words “For the Bible tells me so.” And this is not to shame or put down anyone else. This is to look within ourselves to see where we can be Holy as Christ Jesus is Holy, and to be conformed in to His image, that we may give God glory in every thing we do.
I don’t measure up to God’s standard of Holiness, but through the word of God, by Jesus Christ and His blood that took my debts away, and through the Holy Spirit who lives within me, I am being conformed in to His image, day by day. I believe the words “for the Bible tells me so,” because I believe the words the Bible says. God has proven His words do not fail or fall short over and again in my life with proofs and signs and wonders. I trust God when all else around me fails. Do you? Will you join me in trying to trust in the word of God and not in this world or within our own selves?
Hebrews 4
Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,
“As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’”
although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” And again in this passage he said,
“They shall not enter my rest.”
Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
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