Lots of fog this morning, but it looks like the sun is going to burn through.  It went from barely seeing the trees of our neighbors to seeing the outline of Cherry Heights a mile away, Klickitats are still hidden, though.

Starting to plan the garden, won’t be long before it will need to be plowed and prepped for planting.  We are going to have to figure out how to annihilate the bugs that destroyed her crop of squash last year – hopefully the cold weather helped.

Going to also have to deal with the deer, haven’t seen much of them this winter, but they know where her garden is and I am sure will visit it this spring.

Mathew 22:29 Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.

The Sadducees asked Jesus a question; the answer was clear as He quoted scriptures – they should have known them.

Now, these were men who were leaders in the nation of Jews.  They were considered great teachers with authority over the flock.  Their interpretation of God’s Word was supposed to be without error; yet, Jesus told them they don’t know the scriptures.  In effect they don’t know what they are talking about.

They believed there was no resurrection of the dead, Jesus quoted verse after verse showing they were wrong.

How does this happen?  How do people make such grave errors in their reading of God’s Word?  Especially scholars who should know better?

Part of it is that they don’t read the Bible in context.  They take a verse and build doctrine on it – even though the doctrine they are devising is diametrically opposed to what the Word says.

I learned the hard way.  I thought I had a good handle on a part of the Word and preached it based on the verses I used as my base.  It was my first ‘sermon’ and I learned a lot; but not what I thought I would learn. 

Fortunately there were two things that didn’t make it as bad as it could have been, first it was a Wednesday night when everyone there was well versed in God’s Word.  And second a brother came up and asked me a few questions – based on the context of God’s Word and I realized I ‘didn’t know it all.’  What I had preached was not correct. 

They handled me gently.

It also makes me very sensitive to my teaching and writing.  I don’t want to lead anyone astray and am always thankful for someone pointing out any errors I make that will hinder the growth of others.

The world says the Word contradicts itself, and then goes about pulling out verses that seem to do just that – when in reality taken in context they often reinforce God’s Word – using the same verses.

Just reading the Bible is not enough, it must be applied to our lives and to do that we must understand it IS God’s Word.  While there are some things that are hard for us to understand it doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

The main problem with poor understanding of the scriptures is understanding of who wrote them.

We can make the Bible say almost anything we wish for it to say – even if it is not what it says - by simply taking out those verses we don’t like and changing the meaning of those verses we want to use to prove our point.

This is precisely what the Leaders of the Jews were doing when Jesus challenged them to search the scriptures. 

How many of them had not really read the scriptures, had just listened to someone’s account of what they said?

Now, don’t look at me that way – we all do it, how many have read every technical book they receive with their cell phone or computer?  The same goes for many other things we do in our lives, we gloss over something relying on what others tell us it says.

Many Christians are no different when it comes to reading the Bible.  They listen to others, but do not search God’s Word for themselves.  They read a commentary or a devotional and base their beliefs on those writings. Or they listen to a Sunday School lesson or a sermon and are satisfied they know God’s Word.  While all these are good and help us they are not to be used as a substitution for reading the Bible.

Christians who rely solely on others without reading the Bible themselves, ‘think’ they know the Bible, when in effect they are just parroting what they have heard.

AND it may not even be scripture.

For years I heard the Bible says ‘God helps them that help themselves.’  That was supposed to be a verse somewhere in the Bible.  I didn’t look it up; I figured the person who kept quoting it knew what they were talking about.

Sounds good, but where does it say that in God’s Word? – as a matter of fact the Bible tells us to rely on God and not only does He help the helpless He tells us to help those that cannot help themselves.

But even when a person does read the Bible, they can misinterpret it because it is just the letter of the law they are reading, yet, God applies the Word not just by the letter but by His Spirit.  That doesn’t contradict the letter, but infuses it with reality. 

Without His Spirit the Bible is just a collection of books covering the history of the Jews and the early Christians with some good words to live by.

It is the same as saying Jesus was a great teacher, but He wasn’t the Son of God.  You can’t have the first, without the truth of the second. 

For centuries the Bible was used to teach children how to read, it was the one book that most people had in their homes, and the one that was most easily used.  But just reading it didn’t make the children understand who God is, not did just reading it save them.

Accepting who wrote the Bible is the first step in understanding the Bible and how we are to apply it to our lives.

Until we listen to the Spirit of God, we cannot truly receive the blessings of God.

1 Corinthians 2:4 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The Bible is the only book that allows us to learn more the more we read it.  With God’s Spirit guiding us, verses suddenly stand out in a new way – even verses we may have read many times – they come alive because God knows we need that particular truth, in our lives, at that time.

The world cannot understand because the world denies the existence of the infallibility of God and His Word.  Until a person allows God’s Spirit to enter in and guide them, they cannot understand all God has to offer.

God’s Word is for the believer, but it is also capable of striking the heart of the unbeliever and leading them to Him, they but have to allow the Spirit to envelop them in His love and submit to Him to know the both the truth and the spirit of God’s Word.

Later, Art :-)