News From Terre Haute, Indiana

Religion

April 7, 2012

THE JOY LADY: Perhaps we understand what we want and disregard the rest

TERRE HAUTE — March Madness is over, and I’m going to miss all those wonderful basketball games on TV. I don’t understand how people aren’t inspired by a game of basketball.

My husband tells me football can be just as inspiring. But I disagree. What’s inspiring about a handful of guys on a field desperately in need of rest while being watched by thousands of people who are desperately in need of exercise? What’s inspiring about a game called FOOTball when only the kicker is allowed to touch the ball with his feet? What’s inspiring about watching something called a footBALL that is by definition definitely not a ball. (Go ahead, look it up. A ball is a round, spherical object. Two things a football is definitely not.) I just don’t understand it.

So, now that I’ve offended all the football fans out there, let me confess I don’t understand how cars work, either. I mean, if my car doesn’t spring to life when I turn the key, one of two things must be wrong: it’s out of gas or it’s broken. If it’s out of gas, it’s time to fill it up. If it’s broken, it’s time to buy a new one. I can’t understand why my husband doesn’t understand that as well.

There are some things I do understand, though. I understand that when God guided the men who wrote the Bible, He made sure the Bible would be understandable. Psalm 119:105 explains that God’s Word is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. Hebrews 4:12 says: “The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Second Timothy 3:16,17 says that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

There are those who say they don’t read the Bible because they don’t understand it. The language is too flowery, too full of “Thees” and “Thous.” Some don’t read the Bible because the say it’s not true — that the Bible is just a bunch of stories written by a bunch of people over a bunch of years that doesn’t have a bunch of anything to say to people today.

A snippet of a song called “The Boxer” by Simon and Garfunkle says, “A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.” Maybe that’s the problem. We understand what we want and disregard the rest. We want to understand that God loves us, but we disregard that Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-38 that we are to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.”

The Bible is still a best-seller. Translations and versions and paraphrases and thousands of years have not changed the message of the Bible. It is the Living Word of the Living God, ready to be read.

Understand?

Verna Davis, speaker and writer, maybe reached at vrdspeaks@yahoo.com.

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