Acts 11:17b “They received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so”. I feel as though this verse explains itself without further interpretation. Nonetheless I want you to notice a few things: They made their minds ready to receive the Word. If you look at an athlete, they will always warm up before a race and warm down after the race. In this sense that’s what we must do with our minds when reading the Bible. We must prepare our minds before reading it, by clearing our minds of the busyness and thoughts of the day and approach the Scriptures with a clear head, allowing the Lord to speak to us. By implication this means prayer is essential beforehand to confess our sin and to ask the Lord to fill us with his Holy Spirit and keep the arrows of the evil one deflected from us. Thus enabling us to concentrate and learn from his Word. Then after reading that Word, we should do our warm down exercises, by thanking God for the Scripture we read and asking him to speak to us in relation to it. After this comes the quiet time of reflection. We tend to read the Bible and rush away to do other things. However, if we do so, we rush away from God’s ability to speak to us. That quiet time of reflection is therefore essential to our Christian growth. They searched the Scriptures daily. I often think of the Scriptures as our daily treasure. We are told to search the Scriptures daily. God wants to reveal something new and fresh to each one of us every day. He wants to give us that Word that will enable us to grow as Christians and face the challenges that await us in life and death. God does not want weekly communication with us. He doesn’t even want every couple of days, but he wants every day communication. The Christian life is a daily walk. Therefore, we must report to our God day and daily. He wants to hear from us and he wants to teach us. If we search the Scriptures diligently we will find the treasure that he wants to impart upon us. If someone told you there was a pot of gold somewhere in your back garden, I have no doubt would dig until you found what you were looking for. God offers us great treasure in his Word and if we search we will find. Seek and you will find. To see if it was so. We live in a day and age don’t we were in society everything is acceptable apparently. With such a society friends we need to be more diligent than ever before in the Scriptures as we examine what is going on around us. We need to see carefully what aspects of our society are lawful and acceptable in the sight of God and dismiss those things from our lives which are not so. Indeed by doing this, we will know the things which we must take a stand against and firmly oppose. Christian, you need to remember that your citizenship is in Heaven. Therefore the law that binds you is the law of God, not the law of any country or nation on earth. That which pleases God must be supported and that which does not must be opposed. Admittedly we are living in a day and age, were opposing society could lead to imprisonment and even death. But what did the old hymn writer say? “Take up the cross the Saviour said, nor think till death to lay it down, for only he who bears the cross, can hope to wear the glorious crown.” Jesus also said, “greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends”. Jesus paid the ultimate price Christian for you and if called to do so surely we must do the same for him. Always make your mind ready for what the Lord has to say to you, search the Scriptures daily and diligently, that through them you might be able to see those aspects of your individual life and the society in which you live that are pleasing to God and those which are not. By addressing these things you will be able to live a life in God’s favour forever.
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 21:52:13 +0000