What is IT to You?

What I am about to say is probably going to make some of you burst into laughter, while some others will think that it might be time for me to start taking some of my wife’s dementia medicine…   But as I was studying in my Bible from the book of 2^nd Peter, I began to realize that Peter really reminds me of… Donald Trump!

Peter has always been my favorite of the original twelve apostles.  When I read about his escapades I see a character that is bigger than life.  I picture him as a big man with a big heart.  One who tends to be a little clumsy, who more times than not speaks first and thinks later and is very loyal to his beliefs, his country and his friends.  That to me, is a like picture of our 45^th President, here in the United States.

I’ve known men like President Trump my whole life, in both my secular jobs and in the church.  They are successful individuals, have an outgoing personality, are born leaders, tell it like they see it and underneath it all have a heart of gold.  Most of the individuals that I have known in my secular jobs have  had a good sense of morality and are usually open to the things of God.  In one on one conversations we had many times talked about Christian beliefs and ideals.  Most of these conversations being initiated by these men and women in leadership.

In the church world these individuals are successful in business and in most other areas of their lives, but have tended to be young in the level of their Christian faith.  Many times, though, due to their success in the business world and confident dispositions, they have been put in leadership positions to which they are not really ready for when it comes to teaching or leading others in the Christian faith.

Let me also say though, that I have seen many of these folks who humble themselves before God and church leadership, grow in their faith tremendously as they have sought to “Study earnestly to present (themselves) approved to God, a workman that does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15 MKJV)

This is how I see our president.  He tends to be brash, speak first and think later and is very out-spoken, but has repeatedly demonstrated that he has a heart of gold, holds on to Christian moral beliefs (although he has had failures in this regard in his life), is very patriotic, protective of the rights and privileges afforded to our citizens through the Constitution of the United States, and is humble and respectful to and surrounds himself with the prayer and council of men and women of God.

And that is how I’ve always seen Peter!  The scriptures portray him as being brash and out-spoken but yet humble and hungry for the things of God.  His weakness at speaking before he really thought out what he was going to say got him in trouble many a times, but with each of these infractions he was quick to seek forgiveness and grow through the experience. 

Toward the end of his life in the book of Second Peter, his spiritual growth in the knowledge of the Word and ways of God becomes very evident as there seems to be little evidence of the cockiness and self-made, self-assurance that oozed from him in the Gospels.  At the conclusion of his days here on the earth, his main concern was focused on giving the Christian’s he wrote to a firm and stirring remembrance of the Godly characteristics that Jesus talked about and lived while on this earth.  Peter taught, “Therefore I will not neglect to put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know them and are established in the present truth.  But I think it right, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by a reminder, knowing that the putting off of my tabernacle is soon, as indeed our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.  And I will also be diligent to cause you to always have memory of these things after my departure.” (2 Peter 1:12-15 MKJV) 

Peter knew that the success of the believers would come ONLY from their ever-increasing knowledge and unflinching firmness and stand in and on the Word of God.  For he was a living example of the physical reality that no matter what arose in the path of the lives of the people… that the Word of God was the truth and answer!

Piper and I read a book in the mid-1970’s that changed us and set the foundation of the course of our lives from that point on… and still holds true to this day!  That book entitled “The Believer’s Authority” by Kenneth E. Hagin established the understanding in us of who God says that we, as Believers, according to the truth of His Word.  It set us on an unwavering course to find out all that we could from God in His Word.  As I have stated many times in this blog, we determined early in our marriage that if God said it, then we believed it to be so and would act accordingly… and as far as we were concerned… that settled it!

So yea… Piper and I hold the Word of God to a very high esteem in our lives, as well as in the lives of our family.  I guess that is why I continue to point the readers of this blog continually back to the Word!  We’ve been reading a sermon given by Smith Wigglesworth, a man who lived and ministered with a unique anointing from God accompanied by signs and wonders (See:  Mark 16:16-20) during the turn of the twentieth century and is known as a Father of Faith in Pentecostal circles.

He makes a statement toward the end of his teaching that was given in a Bible School located in San Francisco, California in 1922, that has simply ignited a fresh fire in Piper and I concerning the power and applicability of God’s Word in today’s 2018 society.  He declared (and you’d better get your shouting clothes on…)

“The Bible is the Word of God; supernatural in origin, eternal in duration, inexpressible in valor, infinite in scope, regenerative in power, infallible in authority, universal in interest, personal in application, inspired in totality.  Read it through, write it down, pray it in, work it out, and then pass it on.”

He then concluded by stating that: “The cry of our souls can be satisfied only with God.  The great plan of God is to satisfy you, and then give you the vision of something higher.”

And that is something that Piper and I have always strived for since those early days in the ‘70’s!  How about you?

Exactly what is the Word of God to you?

Have a great weekend, and as you do keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting from the Word of God today?”