Bible
verses to build your life on
Jesus said: “…
whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise
man who built his house on the rock…” ~ Matthew 7:24
John 10 - Part 3
(vs. 10)
10The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to
destroy. I have come
that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
Words to note: “10The thief does not come except to steal, and to
kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more
abundantly.” These are among the most profound words in the
Bible. As we look around we see this principle in action. From non-Christian
rock music that fuels our angers and drives us to isolate ourselves because ‘no
one understands what I’m going through’ (I’ve been through this, so I know what
it’s like…) that leads to depression and worse… to the light and fluffy,
cotton-candy poison of the fantasy world that draws us into a world that
doesn’t exist and is unaware of gravity and ‘spiritual gravity’ – i.e. consequences.
Fantasy is so dangerous because it creates a world that doesn’t exist, where
good guys and bad guys do things that are wrong, but they don’t get in trouble
for everything. And yet in real life, God doesn’t let us get away with sin –
there are consequences for every thing we do good or
bad. Everything we do that we know is wrong and every thing
that we know we should have done because it was right and didn’t do – there are
consequences. We can ignore those consequences and not learn from them if we
want to, but that sure does make things painful! Life is painful enough without
us knowingly fighting for our selfish desires too! And yet, sadly, our culture
fills their minds with lies and deceptions that make this real world so
confusing. I know this first-hand from having seen it myself (and having to
undo things I’ve done), and from having worked with youth groups for 8+ years
and counseled youth who had various questions about problems that were caused
by a lack of understanding the connection between what we do and the
consequences for our actions.
Now, I agree real life isn’t
much fun because there is such pain in life. But which is worse: going around
in a fantasy world and not understanding why life doesn’t make sense or going
to our amazingly-loving Creator
(who desires a friendship with us) and asking Him to teach us how the world
really works and relying on Him to show us how to get through life and to help
us work through problems? That second option doesn’t sound too bad, does it?
Better yet - The second option is real! I can tell you from my own experience
that I love the second option for sure – so it is very real! But we have
to choose it. It means that if we take it seriously to learn from and obey our
Creator, we are going to have to make some changes. We are going to have to be
more honest with ourselves and God about what is really going on in our life
and more honest about our actions. And btw (by the way), I go through all of
these things too and the REALLY COOL
part is that God not only sees all of it, but He actually has a clear, good
solution to every single problem we face in life! NOW THAT’S GOOD NEWS! J
God knows that we can be easily deceived even without putting
deception in our heads - that is why He commands us to make sure we are not
deceived (1st Corinthians 6:9, 15:33; Galatians 6:7; Ephesians 5:6;
2nd Thessalonians 2:3; James 1:16; 1st John 3:7). That is
a phrase that helps us understand God’s perspective. Even Isaiah hints at it: “All we like sheep have
gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us
all.” There again, God is pointing out that we are very capable of
following something that isn’t truth. That is why God complimented
various different people for being diligent to study His Word to make sure what
they were taking in was the truth of His Word. Example: Acts 17:10-11 - “10Then the brethren immediately
sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into
the synagogue of the Jews. 11These were more fair-minded
than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness,
and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.” Why were they complimented as more fair-minded or reasonable? Because they studied the Scriptures. How often did they
study the Scriptures? Key word: Daily!
They were faithful to get in God’s Word and His presence DAILY and God blessed
them and honored them for it. Also, we should notice, did they read the Bible
like a textbook? Did they read the Word of God like a newspaper or a history
book? Did they read it like poetry or as a book of good wisdom? What word
describes how they studied it? “searched” – that implies careful study. And we have to keep
in mind they didn’t have ‘Easton’s Bible Dictionary’ or the ‘John MacArthur
Study Bible’ or ‘Strong’s Concordance’ or even ‘Cruden’s
Compact Concordance’. (Just in case you were wondering, I appreciate all of
those books, and www.blueletterBible.org is a great tool, too!) Yet, even though they didn’t have
all of the resources we have today to more effectively study God’s Word, they
were diligent and searched God’s Word daily, which meant hard work, to find out
if what Paul and Silas were saying matched God’s Word. (God’s Word is
always the best interpreter of truth and God’s Word. Funny
how that works, yes?) And God had Luke write down that these Bereans
were commendable because they were faithful to study His Word daily.
Interesting challenge for all of us! A good challenge for us as this new year takes off!
Back to those words: “The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy...” In this verse, Jesus also describes Islam. Just weeks ago, we all heard about how a so-called moderate Muslim lady named Benazir Bhutto was murdered in cold-blood because of a murderous religion called Islam. Anyone who watches the news can tell that this very well describes their religion: stealing, killing, destroying… Does anyone remember the Muslim cartoon riots? Case-in-point! But, of course they hide the true face of Islam behind a mask of friendliness as they work on conquering the world. If you are wondering if I have my facts straight, I encourage you to do as I did – study this subject from the experience of one who was one of the top professors on Islamic History for one of the most top Islamic Universities – Mark A. Gabriel. Ph.D. His book entitled: ‘Islam and Terrorism’ is very insightful and includes what he learned and his testimony. Btw, Mark A Gabrielle is his pen name because he became a Christian, came to America and had to change his name for his own personal safety. But as you read his story and his information and explanation, I know you will see as I did that it makes all the confusion about Islam and their real goal - crystal clear. So, this example briefly shows that one of Satan’s tools is false religions. Another one is false teaching: in other words, taking God’s Word out of context, and there are even some who deliberately twist God’s Word out of context. False religions and false teachings both deceive and confuse, and even kill people every day. Only the Truth can rescue them, so let’s look at Jesus’ offer…