Condemning Silence

This is part two of my series on the Scriptures. (Read Part 1)

Listen to: Scripture: God-breathed and Profitable!

Divinely Inspired
Every word is filled with meaning, and that includes every genealogy list, every story, every detail of prophetic visions, and even down to the dimensions of various religious buildings. Every one of these details are details that God included for our understanding, and for our edification.

These are not deep mysteries available only to the educated. The Scriptures offer no power to the philosopher. Matthew 11 says that His yoke is easy, and His burden is light. The Bible is not a mystery needing the enlightenment of the intelligent, the educated, or the religious. God said that there is no mediator between man and God, only the man Jesus Christ. Not a minister, not a priest, not a doctor of divinity, or greek and hebrew scholars. We make the scriptures far too complicated. Does it really take scholars to understand words penned by those in history who were barely literate? Perhaps we look for hidden meanings, and deep mysteries in our Bible, because of our pride, or because we are scared of where the simple interpretation would take us. All we succeed in accomplishing is watering down the words of God until they are made of no effect in our lives, and as a result God’s hope makes no impact in the lives of those around us.

I gave some examples earlier of various parts of Scripture, that we tend to ignore, and often consider irrelevant to our lives. Let’s look at a couple of those.

Genealogies:
I Timothy makes it clear that we are not to engage in endless disputes of genealogies. So why would God include huge lists of genealogies throughout Scripture? Perhaps to demonstrate the importance of families, and the importance of knowing where we came from.
Take the genealogy of Christ as found in Matthew. It shows the unfolding of God’s plan throughout history. It also shows the lineage, in which God placed the hope for humanity. The list reads as a list of murders, liars, whores, adulterers, kings who participated in child sacrifice, cowards, doubters, heathens, and many more. It essentially boils down to a list of unremarkable humans just like you and me, with failings and successes, doubts, fears, mistakes and triumphs. If Christ had come from a lineage superior or above average from anyone else, His ultimate triumph over evil and temptation could be disregarded as simply good biological breeding, of no effect to the rest of us. Instead He came among us, triumphing over evil not because of a great lineage, or because of His divinity, but because of His constant reliance on His and our heavenly Father, thus making clear that victory over sin now lies firmly within our grasp, and is proportionate to our constant reliance on the Father, through His Holy Spirit.

Another area of Scripture we often overlook are the many historical stories we see.
These are not just bedtime stories, or stories to give us warm and fuzzy feelings, or even to make us feel better than those who failed. They’re not even formulas for denominational doctrines, or church policies. I cannot think of a single story where we can’t see ourselves in the characters. Perhaps one thing God is trying to show us is that people have been the same throughout history. That the people He used were average failures, just like us. Failures that He turned into the cloud of witnesses which inspire us on, leaving us with no excuse to remain silent; no excuse to abandon our watch posts in this hurting, hopeless world; and no excuse to leave the Great Commission to the ordained, or educated.

The next time that you are reading your Bible, and the section seems a little dry, just ask the Lord why He felt it was important to include that section. You will be blown away by the revelations He shows you.

As always, you may agree or disagree about what I have to say. I’m not really worried about it! I simply encourage you to Read the Scriptures, Study them for yourself, and most importantly, Live it out, wherever it may take you.

Andrew Trivette Scripture podcast, Scripture

Listen to: The God That Is Changing Our Lives

27 As Jesus passed by from there, two blind men followed him, calling out and saying, “Have mercy on us, son of David!” 28 When he had come into the house, the blind men came to him. Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They told him, “Yes, Lord.” 29 Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you.” 30 Their eyes were opened. Jesus strictly commanded them, saying, “See that no one knows about this.” 31 But they went out and spread abroad his fame in all that land.  Matthew 9:27-31 WEB

When Jesus healed the blind men in Matthew 9, he strictly commanded them to tell no one. What is telling, is that these men immediately went out and told everybody! Why would they disobey the man who just gave them back their sight? When God changed their lives, they simply couldn’t be quiet. We see the same pattern throughout Scripture. Whenever God changes someones life, whether through healing, wholeness, or miracles, they can never hold it in. So the question today is if you’re walking through life in silence about the overwhelming power and wholeness that Jesus brings, could it be because He hasn’t changed your life? Could it be because you haven’t allowed Him to continually change your life?

You see, the life-changing power of Christ, and His sacrifice, is not a one time event. It is a continual overhaul of our lives. If we can’t think of a change he is making in our life today, then perhaps we should consider whether we are still allowing Him to move in our lives. To many times I see people testifying about what God did in their lives 20 years ago(not that there’s anything wrong with that), but they are never able to tell what God is doing in their life today.
When God changes our lives, we, like the blind men, like Jeremiah in the pit, like Peter before the rulers of Israel, cannot help but tell the things which we have seen and heard, for it will be as a fire shut up in our bones, that we cannot contain it.

No longer will we need to be taught how to evangelize, or how to witness to others. We won’t see evangelism as an event, or a duty, but as a simple extension of our daily lives!

You may agree or disagree about what I have to say. I’m not really worried about it! I simply encourage you to Read the Scriptures, Study them for yourself, and most importantly, Live it out, wherever it may take you.

Andrew Trivette Random Ideas podcast

Jesus chose the faithless, uneducated, laborers, men just like us, so that we have no excuse. The message of Christ is so powerful, that God knew that even if He entrusted it to the weak and ignorant, it would still retain it’s power. We are to tell people simply about the change God has effected, and peace He gave us, that has changed our lives. Nothing more is needed.

Andrew Trivette Random Ideas random