What would your answer be if I asked you: What do you think is the most dangerous thing you can do? Could it be to jump over a cliff or to walk in front of a speeding train locomotive or to drink 2 litres of a very potent poison? Take your pick. Naturally, the obvious result would be death. Believe it or not, there is an even greater danger lurking and that is to downplay, minimalize, water down, dismiss, scorn and to reject the Word of God. The following verses from Scripture show how important it is to revere God’s Word and why it is imperative to believe every word that is written in it.
Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. (Proverbs 30:5-6).
And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. (Luke 4:4).
And he answered and said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it. (Luke 8:21)
And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it. (Luke 11:27-28).
And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. (Acts 4:31).
Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. (Acts 6:2)
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: (Ephesians 6:17)
For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. (1Thessalonians 2:13)
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. (1 Peter 1:23)
Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. (John 15:3)
I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. (1John 2:14)
If Jesus said we shall not live by bread alone but by every word of God, then the Word of God must pretty much be the most important thing in one’s life. Let us now examine the apostle Peter’s estimate of the Word of God. As you know he stood up with the eleven on the Day of Pentecost and overcome by tears said:-
Men of Judaea and all of you who live in Jerusalem, I must confess that due to my hectic schedule and the pressure to keep everyone happy I was unable to prepare a sermon. I have been so busy trying to keep everyone happy that I didn’t even have the time to become quiet at te feet of my Lord. You may have heard that I practice the contemplative art of SILENCE to stay in touch with my Lord but I did not even have the time to do that these last few weeks. Please forgive me for not having a bunch of new biblical insights to share with you. In fact, if I had any new bibilical insights for you it would have been a fiasco in any case.
Suddenly a man amongst the great crowd shouted with tears in his eyes: “Wow, Peter, this is the most touching sermon I have ever heard from your lips because you shared yourself with us. Wow! thank you, thank you, thank you Peter. If we should now ask you “what shall we do to be saved . . . .?” Aaagh, it will only spoil your heartrendinhg story. You can be sure that I am going to tell others what you have told us today.
Do you want to hear the original of the above story by Peter? Well, read on here!
Someone told me about their pastor’s greatest sermon ever. It was not a bunch of new Biblical insights that he shared with them. Indeed, that sermon was actually a fiasco. Halfway through the sermon the pastor got stuck. He then admitted that he wasn’t prepared thoroughly. And then a spontaneous tale unfolded about the pastor’s hectic schedule due to pressure to keep everyone in the congregation happy. In tears he confessed that he didn’t even have time to become quiet at the feet of the Lord anymore. “That day our pastor touched more hearts than in any other sermon because he shared himself with us,”
Storytelliing seems to be the cool thing amongst the emergent fraternity cause it seems to have a greater impact on our emergent society than a bunch of biblical insights. To substantiate his postulation Stephan Joubert recalls with gusto how Paul often struggled to properly gain direction in God’s path at times and that he was not ashamed to share it (2 Corinthians 4). That’s strange, Stephan, cause Paul actually said the very opposite of what you would like your readers to believe. In verse 1 he says: “Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not.” The Amplified says it thus:
THEREFORE, SINCE we do hold and engage in this ministry by the mercy of God [granting us favor, benefits, opportunities, and especially salvation], we do not get discouraged (spiritless and despondent with fear) or become faint with weariness and exhaustion.
Does this sound like someone who struggled to gain direciton in God’s path at times? You, being the prolific professor in ancient Greek, should know what the word εκκακέω (faint) means. And what’s more, Paul never suggested in the very slightest that the Word of God is just a bunch of insights that are prone to a fiasco. Indeed, he continues to say:
THEREFORE, SINCE we do hold and engage in this ministry by the mercy of God [granting us favor, benefits, opportunities, and especially salvation], we do not get discouraged (spiritless and despondent with fear) or become faint with weariness and exhaustion.
We have renounced disgraceful ways (secret thoughts, feelings, desires and underhandedness, the methods and arts that men hide through shame); we refuse to deal craftily (to practice trickery and cunning) or to adulterate or handle dishonestly the Word of God, but we state the truth openly (clearly and candidly). And so we commend ourselves in the sight and presence of God to every man’s conscience. [Please note Stephan: Paul was so sure that the biblical insights he preached had the power to change man’s mind so that he may repent and receive eternal life that he openly, publically and without hesitation commended himself in the presence of God to every man’s conscience. it simply means that Paul was so sure that he was speaking the truth and nothing but the truth that every man’s conscience shall approve it — perhaps with the exception of your own. Does that sound like someone who struggled to gain direction in God’s path?].
But even if our Gospel (the glad tidings) also be hidden (obscured and covered up with a veil that hinders the knowledge of God), it is hidden [only] to those who are perishing and obscured [only] to those who are spiritually dying and veiled [only] to those who are lost.
For the god of this world has blinded the unbelievers’ minds [that they should not discern the truth], preventing them from seeing the illuminating light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ (the Messiah), Who is the Image and Likeness of God.
For what we preach is not ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves [merely] as your servants (slaves) for Jesus’ sake. [Please note Stephan: Paul never preached himself. He never told others how busy he was to keep people happy, content and elated in their carnal desires and that he hardly had any time to prepare his sermons. If ever there was a man who was busy, it was Paul. He once wrote: “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. (1Corinthians 15:10)
