Wake Up Call: Shattering Spiritual Complacency with Raw Biblical Wisdom
Leviticus 20-21; Acts 1; Psalm 125
These days, most believers don’t read the Bible. Most Christians are completely illiterate in the Word. Settling for morsels on Sunday, they have not come to the feast that is readily available to them.
What a shame!
They pontificate on the Sunday commentary, instead of learning for themselves. We would have better preachers, I’m sure, if the communities they taught knew the Bible. Instead, most Sunday services are nothing more than a plate of empty calories that cannot nourish the Body.
I don’t know what has gotten into me lately, but I’m on a roll.
I’m just sick of the game. I’m sick of our Christian sentimentality that yields nothing. Nothing like what we read about in those first-hand accounts. Nothing like what we see in the book of Acts.
We’ve got preachers going to sermonindex.net as their preparation for their Sunday message. Shame!
Whatever happened to getting on our knees? Whatever happened to travailing for our people?
It’s got to stop.
Where are the grandmothers in the faith, who knew the book like the back of their hand? Where are the wailing women, who cried out to the Lord until their prodigals came home?
We can repeat our decrees and go to our conferences and, and, and, NOTHING!
Jeremiah 6: Thus says the Lord: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.”
We don’t need a new thing. We need to come back to the ancient path. We need to come back to the Word. We can wag our fingers at the professional clergy and end up nowhere. It’s time to open the Book and believe!
I’ve preached in countries where they shared Bibles. Only one per village, and those people knew the Word. They memorized it. They believed it. And God was honored there and answered their prayers.
They lived in great persecution and they lived in great fulfillment. They were seeing the “greater things” Jesus promised.
And so can we, if we will come back to the ancient way.
In today’s reading, with all there was in Acts 1, and there is a lot, the thing that stood out was the way Peter was engaging with the scriptures.
Acts 1: 15 In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, 16 “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. 17 For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.”
18 (Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. 19 And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) 20 “For it is written in the Book of Psalms, “‘May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it’; and “‘Let another take his office.’
21 So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.”
Peter didn’t read the Psalms as nice poetry. He didn’t read the Word as a history lesson only. He was searching for present-day instruction, and he found it. More than that, he found his timeline hidden in those ancient texts. He found himself, and his friends in the book.
And that’s how we need to read it.
Psalm 40: 7 We need to look for ourselves in the scroll. Then I said, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: 8 I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”
As we go through the Word, as we search the text, let’s continue to ask the Lord to show us where we are in the scroll of His book. That we might say, “Behold, I have come to do your will.”
Deepening Faith: Reflective Journal Prompts
- Reflect on your current relationship with the Bible. How often do you engage with the Word outside of Sunday services? What steps can you take to deepen your understanding and connection with the scriptures?
- Consider the concept of being a ‘grandmother’ or ‘wailing woman’ in faith – someone deeply rooted in scripture. How can you embody this role in your community or family? What changes would you need to make in your spiritual routine?
- Explore your thoughts and feelings about the state of preaching and spiritual nourishment in your church. How does it align with your personal experience in reading and understanding the Bible?
- Write about a time when a specific scripture, like the Lord’s Prayer or a Psalm, had a profound impact on your life. How did this scripture change your perspective or actions?
- Imagine a scenario where you only had one Bible in your community, as mentioned in the post. How would you engage differently with the Word? What practices would you adopt to ensure you and others around you could learn and remember the scriptures?
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