So the people went away to eat and drink at a festive meal, to share gifts of food, and to celebrate with great joy because they had heard God’s words and understood them. [Nehemiah 8.12]
The people had to be told to celebrate because when they first heard God's Word they were crying.
Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were interpreting for the people said to them, “Don’t mourn or weep on such a day as this! For today is a sacred day before the LORD your God.” For the people had all been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law. [Nehemiah 8.9]
How calloused have modern believers become? With only a few exceptions, we hear God's Word with little or no emotion or conviction.
God's Word causes change in people. So why does it seem so ineffective today? I believe it is for one reason alone: dilution.
Modern man is so immersed in his own knowledge and technology that God's Word is inadvertently dispersed to the point that what is God's and what is man's is indistinguishable. Consequently, when man reads God's Word today, he does so through the filters of his own knowledge and technology. This makes it near impossible to isolate God as God without something of man's doing being attached.
The best example I have is a phrase that has become commonplace among believers today concerning issues of health and wellness. That phrase is, "God uses doctors and medicine." While it seems logical and appropriate for Christians to make such a statement, does it not make God necessarily dependent upon man? Any godless person who has ever been successfully treated for cancer and seen it go into remission without a single prayer would certainly think so!
The paragraph above is where the dilution of God's Word has taken place. Everyone today deals with the same issues and same solutions, except that Christians "throw God a bone" of acknowledgement for the same results the unbeliever says are all about science. Christians credit God and prayer for successful treatment and godless people credit science. It's purely a matter of differing perspectives looking at the same results! Neither side can give absolute proof that a successful treatment was singlehandedly God or purely science.
But God's Word never taught us such. God places Himself above all. God said He is our Healer (not to mention, Peace, Provider, etc...) and, God is not in the business of sharing His glory with anything or anyone:
You must not have any other god but me. [Exodus 20.3]
If we truly understood God's Word, I think there might be more tears on our part...
Father, forgive me for my gross ignorance of Your Word and consequently of You.
No comments:
Post a Comment