LITERACY (Biblical)
“Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You”(Psalm 119:11 NKJV).
Having been raised on a farm during my teenage years has helped me greatly connect with the agricultural imagery of the Scriptures. My father grew many different types of crops: Sugar Cane, Corn, and a variety of Peas and Greens. We also had some Fruit trees on our farm. One thing I observed was that when it was time to harvest there was no confusion as to which field would yield what? You see, that had already been determined. Whatever was planted as a seed in the field was what was expected to come up from that ground in which it was planted. So it is true as God likens His Word to seed that when planted in the right environment would yield its increase.
Jesus loved using “Parables” or stories that were familiar to explain the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven. One in which each of the Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark and Luke record, is the parable of the Sower and the Soils in which seed was sown and a harvest was reaped. Some fields yielded more than others, “Some thirty, some sixty, some a hundredfold”(Mark 4:8). The point of the story was told by Jesus later, when privately with His disciples. He impressed upon their hearts that they needed to let the Word of God go deeply into their hearts. “And He said to them, ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear”(Mark 4:9).
We are in great danger in our Western culture of becoming a “Biblically illiterate” society, not because we do not possess the Word of God in written form. But we neither value it, and as a result, nor make our hearts the place that the seed of His word is hidden, heard and heeded. Many who gather at least once a week around the Word have lost confidence in it’s power to transform their lives. You remember Jesus had to confront many of the religious leaders of His day with the reality that for all their religious posturing in the Scriptures…they really had not worked it into their lives, consequently their was no fruit seen in their lives. They were bound by traditions that neither honored Father God, nor set people free to be who they were created to be. He diagnosed the problem, “You err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God”(Matthew 22:29.
For all our gains in the field of knowledge and technological advances we are falling further behind in the field of knowledge that matters most, the knowledge of God. The apostle Peter wrote to the followers of Jesus who were facing much pressure to compromise with the culture of their day. He said, “Grow in grace and in the knowledge of God”(2 Pet. 3:18). Again, the apostle John wrote of our need to go deeper in the Lord Jesus. He wrote, “The Law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ”(John 1:17). He is not saying to do away with what Moses taught. Rather, he is saying that this is the One Whom Moses pointed to. “For Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him shall you hear in all things, whatever He says to you”(Acts 3:22 NKJV).
This year we must do more than get back to the Word of God in our lives. We must get back to confident obedience of letting the Word of God work in our lives. God’s Word works when it is properly applied to living. And let us not merely be satisfied that we have read or studied the written Word of God. Let it lead us to the Living Word of God. Jesus said, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life”(John 5:39 NKJV). The Scriptures were meant to point us to a Person called “The Word of life”. The apostle John wrote, “That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full”(1 John 1:3-4 NKJV). May this be a Year for the increase of Biblical literacy in you and your household.
Copyright© 2012, Walter Fletcher Jr., All rights are reserved. This article may be copied free of charge provided that it is not altered in any way from its original content. Send all correspondence to: Walterfletcherjr@gmail.com
Messenger On The Bridge 