Words of Knowledge

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts  and intentions of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

 

Last night I heard a man raise the question of whether he was reading a lot of other books and taking that information to the Bible to confirm it or if he is reading his Bible and taking THAT information to check the other books he’s reading. What a great question.

We started attending a Bible believing church when our children were in their early teens. One of the most impressive things we saw there was the Bible knowledge of the friends our kids were making. Those who had been in that church their whole lives knew and understood the scriptures. We assumed it would be that way in any Bible teaching church.

As I meet and talk to more and more young women who are about the same age as our children I am finding this isn’t true. Many young people don’t seem to know what I would consider some pretty well-known (at least among Christians) Bible stories. Some, they have heard but have no understanding of the truths they teach.

Everyone seems to know the story of Noah and the ark; few seem to understand that it is a story of judgment. Lots of women have heard about David and Bathsheba but seem to have little recognition of Nathan’s confrontation with David or his repentance. Samuel’s confrontation of Saul in 1 Samuel 15,  Nehemiah’s rebuilding of the wall, the effects of godly kings versus ungodly kings, Habakkuk’s ability to worship God in dire circumstances, and on and on it goes.

These same women may have read a few books about being a godly wife or a godly mother. There are plenty of options out there to read about prayer, love, heaven, diets, purpose, relationships, etc. There are plenty of “Christian” books out there and apparently, women are buying them and reading them.  Are they evaluating these books by their understanding of principles in the Bible?  Or are they taking these books as gospel and evaluating the Bible by the words of human authors?

Several other women and I have been studying the Bible together for several years. We have done some topical studies and some studies of books of the Bible.  Currently we are working through Galatians and I am encouraged at how engaged the women are, how much conversation is generated, and how we are talking about ways the Bible applies to our everyday lives in this study.

Actually, I’m more than encouraged — I’m delighted.  Isn’t this the goal of Bible study?  To make God’s purposes our purposes? Still, I’m worried that this is not the norm.  I fear for us all that our problem is not that we don’t know every detail of how to pray, what to eat, or how to be a good wife and Mom – we have all read the books! My concern is that we don’t know our Lord well enough to want to please Him by how we apply His Word to every responsibility and role He has called us to in this life.

Knowledge of Him comes from His Word. Are we spending so much time reading the words of other people that we are failing to spend the time we need to know God in His word?