Part 2 from our Church Retreat

I mentioned in the last post that our theme for the weekend was rocks in the Bible. Here’s my talk from Saturday morning:

Remember the parable about the house that was built upon a rock? “And the rain descended and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not for it was founded upon a rock?”

One’s spiritual house is the state of mind. Your beliefs and the way you live your life according to those beliefs. The storms that come are the trials or the false thoughts and ideas. A living conviction of the eternal truths of God’s Word, of God Himself and of His Kingdom, gives us a foundation, which cannot be shaken and actually can become stronger in times of trial when we keep on trusting God and doing what He commands. It’s in doing God’s will: being obedient to what He tells us, that we come into a relationship with Him.

The rock is the unchanging truth of God’s Word. I mentioned last night that Jesus quoted often from the Old Testament. There are some people who don’t enjoy the Old Testament. They think it’s ancient history, no longer important since Jesus came. But, you can’t really understand the New Testament without knowing the Old Testament.

Many of the images Jesus used to define Himself: Lamb of God, Shepherd, Sign of Jonah, the stone which the builders rejected, came straight from the pages of the Old Testament. In fact the entire Old Testament points to Jesus. It’s a foundation for the New Testament.

Proverbs 22:28 says, “Do not move an ancient boundary stone set up by your forefathers.”

God’s ancient boundary stones are the 10 Commandments. There was a survey done which showed that while 80% of Americans say they believe in the 10 commandments, very few could name more than 4.

We’ve all heard the funny stories where kids get the people in the Bible mixed up; like Joan of Arc is Noah’s wife. And they are funny, but also sad. We have to ask ourselves why our kids don’t know the Bible better. To me this says we shouldn’t depend on a weekly Sunday school class. Our home’s environment should be one where we do as we are told to in Deuteronomy 6:7-9: Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

There are no Loopholes in the Bible

I led the group gathering part of a church retreat a couple years ago and wanted to share the Friday night and Saturday talks here. The theme for the weekend was Rocks in the Bible. Below is Friday’s:

How many of you read the Bible looking for loopholes?

How many of you pray and pray and pray for guidance in some area and then when God gives it to you say, “No…that’s not it!” ?

One of the ways rocks are used in the Bible are as truths. When Jesus asked His disciples who they thought He was, Peter said, “You are Christ, the Son of the Living God.” And Jesus said, “On this rock I will build my church.”

The rock here is the truth. Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of the Living God. And it was at this time that Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter, which means rock. This was the first stone of confession and upon it Christ would erect all the other living stones that would build His church. This statement of Peter’s, this rock, is the truth and it will never change. We can count on it.

The world is looking for truth. The world is desperate for truth! Something we can believe in beyond a shadow of a doubt.

How many times have you started taking a particular vitamin because some study said it would keep you from getting some illness only to read another study a couple months later saying that that very same vitamin would cause the illness!? We’ve been told coffee is bad for you. Then we’ve been told it’s actually good for you.

We read parenting advice that contradicts itself all the time. Spank your kids. Don’t spank your kids. Give them educational games to play with. Give them the box the game came in to play with! Involve them in countless activities and classes so they have every opportunity in life. No, send them out to play and lock the door behind them!

And look at diets! Eat fat! Don’t eat fat! Eat carbs. Don’t eat carbs. Eat according to the food pyramid. No, wait, turn the food pyramid upside down!

How about the abundance of religions? A lot of them were created because someone, while searching for the truth, took a verse from the Bible out of context and just “tweaked” it a little or misunderstood it slightly. And now some of these religions have a million people blindly following them!

But, we can believe Jesus. Because one thing He cannot do is lie. And if we can believe Him when He says He is the Messiah, and the Son of the Living God, and all that involves, then we can believe that the Bible is the Word of God.

I have no problem believing that the God who created the earth and universe and everything in it has put exactly what He wants in the Bible. And I don’t, actually, understand why some people do question that!

Jesus quoted the Old Testament often. He used it to settle controversies with the Sadducees and Pharisees and even Satan. He said He came to fulfill the law. (The Old Testament) Matthew 5:18 says, “For truly, I say to you, til Heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whosoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of Heaven, but He who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven.”

There are no loopholes in the Bible. So quit looking for them! We can use it as our plumb line. It is full of God’s absolute truths. But, we have to open it. We have to read it. And we have to know it.