45. Construction upon the foundation : By Grace

INTRODUCTION

A journey into the unknown requires courage, fortitude and a sense of adventure. Many familiar landscapes are left behind and viewed from a new direction. The environment of the journey does not change but is viewed with new eyes and a new mind.

We are called upon to worship God in Spirit and in Truth. In Spirit, yes, because we have chosen the one True Mediator between ourselves and God, our Saviour, The Son of Man, Jesus Christ, The One we now recognise as The Lord of all creation, The Expression of God and our teacher.

But what about Truth ? Do we pay heed to the preacher ?

My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you

call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you

look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,

then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.

For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.

Then you will understand what is right and just and fair--every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.

Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, who leave the straight paths to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.
It will save you also from the adulteress, from the wayward wife with her seductive words, who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God. For her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead. None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.

Thus you will walk in the ways of good men and keep to the paths of the righteous. For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it. [Proverbs chapter 2]

Many of us, by default, ignore this work, never checking that the people who teach us, correctly report what God has said. What we learned in Sunday School, Youth Classes and Church Bible readings remains the limit of our personal doctrine. The ultimate adventure of God's Word remains untried because either it is easier to sit and listen, or we mistakenly believe that the travelling tools are too difficult to handle.

Any Christian dedicated to 'looking for it as for silver and searching for it as for hidden treasure' knows that he must 'call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding', without which his work is sterile.

And what about Spiritual maturity? Do we assume that as we grow older under the work of Christ, we will naturally mature ? Do we even seek to be mature? The writer to the Hebrews tells us that the sincere milk of the word is for the immature:

........seeing ye are dull of hearing. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.

For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto maturity; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And God permitting, this we will do. [Hebrews 5:11]

As an Evangelical Christian we endure the constant repetition of those highlighted parts of doctrine, not realising that to understand God and His purposes means real effort and dedication, more important than telling others of His Salvation. After all conveying the message of Salvation is but one of those tasks of a Christian, whose knowledge of God and His needs forms the foundation of his life.
Increasing maturity based upon this principle of The Knowledge of Good and Evil is difficult, but fascinating because its outcome is our privilege to truly perceive God's plans and purposes. Most Christians are satisfied with their activity of Bible readings with comments, called Bible Study. This is a misnomer. To study the Scriptures it is necessary to examine the meaning of the God breathed Hebrew and Greek words, without which there are only men's interpretation and translation. This must be done because No prophecy of the Scripture is of its own interpretation. [2Peter 1:20] Even so, true Bible study as such is only a step towards Scripture Research. Scripture Research involves the examination of the perfect structure of these God breathed documents and the recognition that underlying the languages is a perfect word structure based upon the numerical value of the Hebrew and Greek letters. These are God designed aids which the dedicated student uses in his attempt to rightly divide The Word of God. It is at this point that most Christians turn away from such mental exercise, being content to rely upon their self appointed leaders for their doctrine of faith, OR worse still, accepting the advice of priests or 'Elders' in order to take the easy path to avoid the self satisfied advice that there is no 'superior' knowledge.

Other Christians, motivated by The Spirit of God, cannot wait to be shown the way. There is this example in The Old Testament: Moses knew that the promised land of Canaan had to be taken and occupied, so after he had introduced the Law and organised the construction of the Tabernacle…….He began to expound this law, saying:

The LORD our God said to us at Horeb, "You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites; go to all the neighbouring peoples in the Arabah, in the mountains, in the western foothills, in the Negev and along the coast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates. [Deuteronomy 1:6]

The twelve tribes had been rescued from Egypt, consolidated and given an intimate relationship with their God, just as we now are in Christ Jesus. Our doctrine of Salvation is firmly established. We have no need to re-establish it by constant repetition. The Israelites are told to advance and meet the enemy face to face, and as we know, often in intimate battle. We have every need to make use of our travelling tools on the journey of fascinating discovery, and reject the comfortable status quo, which often opposes our acceptance of greater understanding, and because the journey of maturity does not conform to our existing belief structure. Even as the Israelites, we shall experience many self appointed 'leaders' who are holding down the truth in unrighteousness because they fear the loss of their authority by ensuring that a believer accepts their doctrine.
.
Some Christian authorities claim that to examine and 'pull apart' the Christian Scriptures in an effort to understand what God is really saying, is to dishonour Him. That is not what the Scriptures themselves say, as we have seen in the quotation. The Scriptures are a challenge to our faith.........do we really desire to know God? As above, the Wisdom of Solomon says:
It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.

To move forward in understanding we need to accept the challenge of new thoughts and actions which the close study of The Word of God reveals. Here are a few quotations from men of worldly experience regarding this challenge to change:

The soft-minded man always fears change. He feels security in the status quo and he has an almost morbid fear of the new. For him, the greatest pain is the pain of a new idea. Martin Luther King

Change does not change tradition, it strengthens it. Change is a challenge and an opportunity, not a threat. Prince Phillip

Progress is impossible without change and those who cannot change their minds, cannot change anything. George Bernard Shaw

You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. Buckminster Fuller

Are we prepared to accept any changes that the travelling tools reveal? Are we prepared to take on the hardships of learning to use our tools to best effect? Are we prepared to overcome the disappointments of having to discard erroneous beliefs, to open our minds to the teaching of The Spirit of God alone, tasks which require persistent effort and concentration? To open ourselves to the ridicule of Christian friends who hold conventional Evangelical or Orthodox beliefs. If you are, then read on and enjoy the journey, checking the construction at each step to assure yourself that you can safely accept the edifice.

If you have no mind to give yourself to this Scripture Research, practicing and learning the use of the tools which have been crafted over generations, then read no further because what follows will not be acceptable to you.