Not one thing, ‘tis another.  Got the car back after several weeks, not inexpensive – and Carla just called from work check engine light came on.

Yesterday the air conditioning in the house went out, tech came late this afternoon and found that the fan on the unit burned out – not a quick fix, it will be Monday or Tuesday before he can get that part fixed, hopefully it is the only thing wrong.

Lots of challenges, but we will get through them.  It will be warm the next few days and we have tomatoes to work up, so it will be interesting how me body holds up.

Not a lot else happening, just trying to stay cool!

Acts 17:10-14 And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.

¹¹ These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

¹² Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.

¹³ But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the people.

¹⁴ And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go as it were to the sea: but Silas and Timotheus abode there still.

We will always have those that want to stop us from presenting God’s Word, about Jesus, to others.  They can be relentless in their pursuit of God’s children.  It has gone on for almost two thousand years and will continue until Christ returns.

But those who know God’s Word, who test and understand it – not just a few verses here and there, but whole concepts taking into consideration all of the context of God’s Word find His Word to be true.

that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

¹² Therefore many of them believed;

Part of the problem with life in the 21^st Century is there are all kinds of information out there that are readily available, claim to be authentic, have the appearance of being credible, but once we look closer the information is incorrect.

Sometimes it is just poor research or interpretation, but many times it is a deliberate attack on the truth – and the Bible is one of those things that are being attacked.

That was not the case when Christ walked the earth.  The Jews had the Word of God, unvarnished.  Those that could read could find out whatever they wanted, particularly those in charge – and as these passages say – they researched God’s Word and found Jesus.  They were encumbered by those that did not believe and that was not a minor thing, but they didn’t have thousands of sites that tell lies to deal with.

We too, need to search the scriptures daily.  We need to read and understand who God is, who Jesus is and what we can do as believers to further the Gospel and to help one another grow.

We need to evaluate all that we are taught, especially when it comes to our Spiritual health.  A trusted source will support his comments with what the Word of God says. 

Those that come after Christians trying to use God’s Word against them are using verses out of context and trying to use the ‘truth’ to handicap the Believer.  “Jesus loves everyone, so we must too – that is what it says AND we cannot judge anyone because Jesus said we were not to judge.”  There are many other things, of course, that the sinner thinks makes us hypocrites and therefore unworthy to allow them to give us voice.

Satan is hounding Christians worldwide.  He is using his influence to mock us and to destroy our faith in God, our credibility to ourselves and others and shut us up.

Americans are so used to thinking in sound bites.  They are so used to having programs address things within an hour that they can’t concentrate on any discourse we may have to get them past their short attention spans.

There are so many distractions today, so many things that people can do that they can’t sit down for an hour or two to listen to what God is telling them.  So we try gimmicks and promotions to get them interested, but they never really get into the meat of the Word it is all peripheral – and without detailed instruction we become an empty shell walking around without real hope.

But, we can reach them.  We can show them the Word of God in action.  We can demonstrate to them, that there is a caring God and one who isn’t interested in games and gimmicks – just the salvation of their soul.

When people start throwing sound bites of scripture at us to try and make us look foolish, we need to use wisdom in dealing with them.  We need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us.  Most of those people have no interest in a conversation about God and there will be times it is best just not to engage them, not to encourage them. 

God’s Word, God’s Son does not need protecting in the sense we think of it.  We don’t need to vehemently argue, to try and put the other side down with scriptures.  We need to accept there are those that are out there trying to attack God through us and when we become vociferous we can actually play into their hands.

When Christ was on trial, He didn’t defend Himself.  He didn’t speak as He had spoken in the synagogues, on the shores or in the towns.  He knew that these people weren’t going to listen to reasoning; there was no point in arguing.

Mathew 27:11-14 And Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the King of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest.

¹² And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing.

¹³ Then said Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee?

¹⁴ And he answered him to never a word; insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly

There are times we too must use that wisdom and not allow satan to bait us using other people.

Most of the time when we are accused of something we have not done we will argue, we will defend, we will get excited – these are lies and we want people to know; most of the time it is probably the course of action to take.

But there are also times it doesn’t do any good, it just inflames the situation and so we hold our peace. 

When it comes to those that try to use the Bible to discredit Christians, they aren’t wanting to try and understand anything; they only want to accuse us using the Word and doing it with malice, knowing that what they are doing is out of context; and they don’t care.

The Word of God doesn’t need us to try and defend it in those circumstances – He may give us a Word that will help defuse the problem but we want to make sure that what we are doing is for His Glory and not to appease our own self-righteousness.

Studying the Word of God is more than just reading and being able to properly interpret the verses, it is also about allowing God’s message into our heart so that we can show that message to the world in our actions and deeds.

Later, Art :-)

From the ColumbiaRiverGorgeous
May Our Good Lord Bless and Keep YOU....’til we meet again