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Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Bible for today

The Bible study series on John 14 will resume shortly.
         This blog is a response to a visit recently to the local Cabarlah market. As we presented Bibles and Bible plaques for the people to take, the wide variety of needs left a deep impression on me.

One lady came along, as she often does, to collect some Bible plaques to thoughtfully give to others. How good it is to be a link in the chain of God’s blessing to others.
Then a young man from another country came near. He evidently had no Bible and hardly knew what one was. He took an ‘Ultimate questions’  booklet in his own language as well as a Bible in English (easy to understand English). – a mission field on our doorstep!

A middle aged man paused to talk about the confusion of 30,000 protestant denominations? The difficulty of knowing the truth. Who was going to heaven? He seemed so distracted by the claims of men, that he was missing the most important matter  - the claims of Christ Jesus the Lord.

Another man told a little of his life story.  -  time in prison,  times in a motorcycle gang, but now turned to God, turned to good. It was a real joy to connect with one thus seeking after God. He was delighted with the Bible plaque of Titus 3:3-7  - “We were once foolish.........................we have become heirs of eternal life”

Then the young girls who are blessed with a foster home. They suffer the trauma of separation  from parents, the challenges of different schools etc. It was good to be able to accompany the Bible plaques with a gift of love.

This is not a trumpet blowing session, but rather an attempt to show that the Bible truely is a compass for the ‘all sorts ‘ of today.  Also to show that in presenting the Bible, it needs to be presented in different ways to meet the need of the circumstance i.e. language, focus on Christ, relevance to background, carried by Christian care etc.
It is interesting to notice in the Bible that the Lord avoids formulas. We read a verse like Acts 16.31 and make it a formula. God reached out to the Ethiopian in Acts 8 a different way. He brought Saul to his senses another way. He knows the hearts and we ought to be flexible by His Holy Spirit to meet the need appropriately.

One Bible verse that does remain significant as a summary of the gospel is John 3.16 Ponder it again and let it reach your heart afresh.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life

If you don’t know HIM, speak to Him yourself today – He is listening


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