This past week in VBS we undertook The Challenge To Know God. Our primary text was 2 Chronicles 34 and the record of good King Josiah as he had the temple of God repaired and the proper worship of God restored. As the work is being done the Bible tells us that “While they were bringing out the money that had been brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the Lord given through Moses” (2 Chronicles 34:14). Most of us could find a Bible in a moment’s notice. We may have a couple or several copies lying around the house, in our cars, on our computers, etc. We have Bibles on CD's, MP3's and iPods. But we are no better off than God’s people in Josiah’s day if the Word of God does not fill our hearts and minds to direct us as to what to believe and how to behave. We are told that “when the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his clothes. And the king commanded…‘Go, inquire of the Lord for me and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do according to all that is written in this book’” (2 Chronicles 34:19-21). God lamented through the prophet Hosea, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children” (Hosea 4:6). Again he said, “An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?” (Jeremiah 5:30-31). What indeed?

If we think the situation is less serious today because we live on this side of Calvary we are mistaken. Jesus said, “The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day” (John 12:48). The Bible says that the time is coming “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-8). Paul writes to Timothy, “If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing” (1 Timothy 6:3-4). So is it arrogance to insist that we adhere to the Bible? No! It is arrogance to suppose we can drift from it and still be all right with God. The Bible says that the man who oversees God’s church “must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it” (Titus 1:9). That seems to be contrary to the “you believe what you want to believe and I’ll believe what I want to believe” spirit of the age, doesn’t it?

Friend, what you believe and how you behave matters. Modern morality and mad-made revisions to the apostles’ doctrine will keep you tossing and turning, every drifting from the truth.  There is an objective, unchanging standard given from God that determines what is right and what is wrong. That standard is the Bible. God gave it to guide your life. One day it will judge your life.

God bless you,

Brad Fry