Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Read God's Word Daily

Satan works in subtle ways. One very effective way I have discovered is "busyness." If he can keep you busy with trivial things in this life, it will keep you from the more important things - Bible reading and prayer are at the top of the list. Every high profile preacher that has publically fallen from grace has stopped those two things prior to their fall. Another attack related to this is to convince people that they have "all kinds of time," yet we have no idea when our end will come.

We need to be reading our Bibles and obeying what we read, and praying continually. When are you going to talk to that neighbor or friend or coworker about their eternal salvation as we are instructed to do by the Great Commission? Don't wait around for God to tell you who to witness to, He has already given us the command. It should really be the opposite, you should speak to everyone you meet unless God specifically tells you NOT to.

Back to the devil's subtle ways. Satan doesn't care who or what you worship - as long as it's not the one true God of the Bible - and he doesn't want you obeying what you read, either, especially when it comes to evangelism. He doesn't want this Message to get out. There are methods that he uses in an attempt to prevent it. If he can keep you from even reading your Bible, it will effect your life in many areas.

Keeping you from God's Word leaves you more susceptible to the influence of sin. And it keeps you from obeying what is written in it, namely witnessing to others about the Gospel. This is because you feel like a hypocrite for not even knowing the Bible. You cannot answer any questions skeptics might have and this hurts your own faith even more. Pride sneaks in under the guise of fear, but what you're really afraid of is of looking foolish, because there is no serious, life threatening persecution going on in America at this time. We're also lazy, so instead of studying and learning more, we just shy away from even talking about it.

But there are some who are more passionate and don't give in that easily. There are not many of those, but the devil must do something about them anyway, because they can be very effective.

If Satan can tie Christians up in silly arguments amongst themselves, they will not be using their time wisely in reaching out to the unsaved. Debating which day to worship on, what we can eat or drink, or conspiracy theories, which brings us to the subject at hand. If he cannot keep you out of the battle through busyness, fear or pride, then he will create useless arguments to keep you on the sidelines. Unimportant conspiracies such as the KJOnly movement. This has no basis to it at all, and if a person would seriously look into it, it becomes painfully obvious that the allegations made against all the "modern" translations are simply irrelevant.

KJOnlyists claim that the deity of Christ is taken out, the virgin birth is down played, the doctrine of the Trinity is hindered and some verses are removed completely. However, I find no one adhering to heretical doctrine solely due to using a version other than the KJV. Quite the opposite, I find many theologically sound Bible teachers, many who have studied the original languages even, that use a wide variety of versions. Why aren't they KJOnly?

The supposed results of these "dangerous translations" simply do not hold up, which in itself proves the allegations unfounded. But when confronted with this fact, the typical KJOnlyist will ignore the evidence, maybe give some lame excuse that you must have somehow been influenced by the KJV, and continue to tell you about all the problems with your particular version of the Bible. All this while they overlook many of the same issues in their own favored version. This kind of reminds me of the speck in your neighbor's eye contrasted with the plank in your own in Matt 7.
In the end, I am convinced that this entire argument is just another tool of Satan to keep believers busy arguing among themselves, and possibly even preventing them from reading the Bible at all.

So, pick a major translation that you will read - it's all God's Word, except for a few minor versions such as the New World Translation used by the Jehovah's Witnesses, or the "gender neutral" version which is simply political correctness run amuck. Choose the NIV, NASB, ESV, HCSB, NLT, NKJV, or the KJ version, if you prefer. Just choose one that you will read daily and can understand. Then obey what you read.

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