Music to Our Ears

CWO quote for October 26, 2007

"The Word of God well understood and religiously obeyed is the shortest route to spiritual perfection. And we must not select a few favorite passages to the exclusion of others. Nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian." ~ A.W. Towzer ~

Wow! What a true statement we have here from A.W. Towzer. From time to time all of us have been guilty of selecting our own favorite passages from the Bible and taking it no further. There’s nothing wrong with memorizing and looking to those scriptures that seem to help in our time of need or mean a lot to us. However, we can’t stop there.

There is so much to the Bible that we can’t be guilty of selling it short by not reading the whole thing. That doesn’t mean we need to read it front to back non-stop year after year. Although that’s not a bad idea, that isn’t what is meant by “nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian.”

Our Heavenly Father has written a letter recording the things that happened in our absence and the things that will happen in our future. Leaving us with the instructions needed to guide us in the right direction and to keep us company in His absence. It becomes our responsibility to find out what is inside and obediently follow the instructions given.

God didn’t write it to record a religion created in time, it’s there to close a gap in a relationship that was broken due to sin. Back in my college days when my fiancé and I were separated by distance I would read over and over again the letters he sent me. I had them practically memorized, as they seem to close the gap between us. The letter from our Heavenly Father should be treated no differently as we read it over and over again. Drawing from it the recorded love God has for His children and the instructions He’s left us to see us through.

In the front on my Bible is a collection of phrases or sayings about the Bible I have collected over the years. For each old Bible I wear out and new one I break in the phrases get transferred one by one. Things such as:

**Study the Bible to be wise; believe it to be safe; practice it to be holy.
**The Bible is NOT to be used as a “suggestion box” It’s to be used as a miraculous box as you
pull out and believe in and live by the truths within it.
**The Bible is the armory that holds the swords used to fight Satan
**People try to bury the Bible but it only rises up to out live its pallbearers.

Also found written in each of my Bibles starting with the book of Genesis at the top of the page is, "Dear Karen, enter my daughter to worship… "At the end of Revelation is written, “Depart ready to serve. In love with my daughter Karen. Signed, Your Heavenly Father.” God has written us a love letter and we need to read it and use it for what it was intended to be. Not as a pick and choose tool but as an owner’s manual that comes equipped with everything we possibly need to know.

It’s not for us to read between the lines, put in our own meanings, or exclude what we don’t want to hear. Selective hearing or reading will not excuse us from not knowing everything God wanted us to have knowledge of. Sticking our fingers in our spiritual ears and saying “la la la la…” to drown out what He is trying to tell us won’t work.

What works is digging in, studying often, and recording in our hearts the Bible as a whole. Don’t stop at “Blessed are.” Don’t stop at, “the foolish man who heard God’s word but didn’t obey it building his house on nothing but sand.” Don’t stop at “For God so loved the world.” Keep digging, keep applying, keep whole.

CLOSING THOUGHT: One day as I was recording for my dear friend who was quickly dieing of Lou Gehrig’s disease our Women’s Bible study the sound created by turning the pages of my Bible caught my ear. I never thought of it before but suddenly that day I realized I really love that sound. It is definitely music to my ears that I have been hearing ever since I was a little girl curled up on my bed reading myself to sleep. Looking up scriptures that pertained to what had happened to me that day. Searching for some kind of guidance, comfort, and strength from the one person I knew was listening.

We need to do the same with our Heavenly Father that He knows without a doubt we are listening. Allowing the Bible to be music to our ears not thinking of it as a burden to our soul. Praise the Lord it has outlived its pallbearers over the years and always will. That we have it today to glean and harvest the things within the walls of its cover to some day meet the author Himself at a book signing no one should miss.

“It is written” and we need to see to it that “it is read.” All of it! PTL

We have a new host this week; it’s Debbie over at Chocolate and Coffee. Drop in to read and share on today’s quote. Don’t forget to grab your Bible and sit down with it and read and share with God what He has written as well.