Thoughts for another day 

Jan. 23, 2014.

Today's verse: John 8:43. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. (RSV)

(Pls. read the above before you read further.  Thanks)

Many Christians across the globe read the Bible, but the question is how many actually follow it.  It may shock you to know (and you could check this out, first on yourself and then with others, as to how much you learn from Scripture every day as you read it) that very, very few understand what the Bible is telling them and even fewer find it a joy to accept and keep the Word in their hearts and follow it.

I believe from the time the Bible was written and compiled, people always resisted it, unless they were open to the Spirit’s prompting and were led by Him into the truth of God’s Word.  For most of us, reading the Bible itself is a chore and a pressure on our time, though none admits this overtly.  My point is, it’s sad that we as Christians don’t hold the Bible as the basis of our faith and agree to all in it, for God didn’t mean us to select as we want and leave what we don’t.  It’s not a grocery store where you buy what you need and ignored the rest.  The whole of the Bible is a compilation of what God wants to tell us and as a Catholic, I include the seven books which my non Catholic Christian brothers brush aside as apocrypha and I urge them to read them and know the truth.  Every book of the Bible is in its own class and gives an important facet of our God and each and every book is Spirit breathed and worthy of instruction to the unlearned in God.

Inviting the Holy Spirit is essential to live the time of the Bible and understand the instructions of the Lord as at that time.  We must breathe the Word of God and accept and understand it without any bias, even if there’s something we don’t like in it.  For it could be the Holy Spirit speaking within the alleys of our dark heart and trying to spread light therein.  He opens our hearts to accept and be flooded with the Word and understand and live by it.  He makes it possible to accept the teaching of the Word even if we stand acquitted by God in it.  By His Grace we’ll be able to learn and change so that on that day, the Lord will not say to us, ‘you cannot bear to hear My Word!’