Know Your Bible


VOL. 14                                                                                                                         March 29, 2015                                                                                                                            NO. 3

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MORE IMPORTANT THAN THIS…?


Some things are more important than other things, yet we often do not treat them as being important.


Everybody goes through life with their own set of priorities and think that their world is more important than someone else's. Often, we place value upon the wrong things.


One might think that the championship game is the most important thing in the world, but for some there are other things on their minds.  Some may be sitting at the bedside of a loved one who is breathing their last breaths. Some may be involved in the birth of a child. Some may be working to provide for their family. Not to mention the billions of people who could care less about a game because they are hungry and poor and destitute.


There are times when we think something is important, yet other things prove to be more important. A person might think himself important and cannot leave work because things would suffer without him. Yet if his child is in an auto accident, he should leave immediately and go to the hospital to meet his child there. At that moment, the child needs the most important person in the world next to them; their daddy.


No matter what you think is important, there is always something more important. That is, until you get to the most important thing of all. Nobody can trump Jesus Christ our Savior and our relationship with Him. Being a faithful Christian is the most important thing you can do with your life. Sure, we cannot shirk our parental and spousal duties here. We cannot shirk our duty to provide for our families. It is foolish if we do not plan for the latter stages of our lives. But all of that will be wasted and useless if you are not a faithful Christian.


We make plans for our future and have great expectations for the future, then find we have a health problem and we may not make it to old age. What do we do then? It might be wise to get your affairs in order and all the legal documents prepared. But it would be best to evaluate your relationship with God. Take care of that first, and then worry about the rest.


We think that good friends are very important people in our lives, and they really should be. But if your friend is not helping you to be a faithful Christian, they are causing you harm. The first thing you should do is to introduce them to Jesus Christ and offer them the salvation that comes through Him. If they are not interested, hopefully you will see that they are not that important for you to have in your life. You need to find other faithful Christians who will encourage and motivate you to do the really important things in life.


When all is said and done and you are standing there before God on judgment day you will realize that it is too late to try to figure out what is really important.


If you do not make it to heaven, you will have an eternity to figure out what was really important. You might consider that you should have, but you will be sorry you did not do those important things while you had the opportunity. Figure out what is really important before it is too late.


—Carey Scott



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“BE CAREFUL, YOU’RE BENDING THAT TWIG!”


J We are all aware of the old proverb that says: "As a twig is bent, so will it grow." And when we seriously consider this, we know it is true. But it is so easy to forget this lesson. For parents, Solomon expressed the same principle when he said, "Train up a child in the way that he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22:6).


Parents, remember, you are bending that twig. One way or the other, to the right or to the left, for better or for worse, you are determining the course of life which that child will take. Be careful, lest you bend it in the wrong way!


Paul commanded parents to "Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4). This includes:


1) Train your children in morality--in clean thoughts, words, and deeds. "Wild oats" (corruption) that is practiced in childhood and adolescence cannot be productive of purity later. If you complacently watch their immodesty in childhood, you can expect to see impurity in adulthood.


2) Train them in honesty. It is still the best policy! Help them to regard truth and fidelity as precious qualities. Show them, by word and by example that half-truth is only a lie and that a man's word should be as good as his bond.


3) Train then to respect authority, always - the policeman, the teacher, the parent, and the Lord. If they do not learn to respect the first three, they will hardly respect the Lord either.


Your children deserve the best you can give them. They did not ask to be born, and their destiny is not really theirs alone, but in your strong or weak will. And the best you can give them is not just measured in education, culture, financial security, etc., but in character which you produce in them.


Yes, you are bending that twig. Be sure you bend it right.



—Leslie Diestelkamp


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OUR DUTY TOWARD TRUTH


WE MUST LOVE THE TRUTH (2 Thess. 2:10). Before truth can have a positive effect upon one’s life, he must have a love for the truth 

that he might be saved. This will insure that our motives in approaching God our pure and that we are able to discern truth from error (John 7:17). Those who do not have a love for the truth will be deceived by Satan''s lies and perish (2 Thess. 2:10).


WE MUST KNOW THE TRUTH (Jn. 8:32; 1 Tim. 2:4). God's word is truth (Psa. 119:142; Jn. 17:17), and He has revealed His truth for  man's good (Deut. 29:29). Therefore, unless one would believe God to be cruel and malicious, we must accept that God’s word can be under-stood and known by all who desire such knowledge (Eph. 3:3-4; 5:17). Jesus said "ye shall know the truth" (Jn. 8:32). God desires that "all  men ... come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4). 


WE MUST BELIEVE THE TRUTH (2 Thess. 2:12-13). Believing God is not a blind leap in the dark. His truth is a presentation of            evidence designed to bring men to belief (Jn. 20:30-31). Each individual is responsible to weigh the evidence, determine it credible and         conclude it believable. Those who disbelieve do so because they do not choose to consider the evidence

properly (if at all). Instead, they have pleasure in unrighteousness.


WE MUST OBEY THE TRUTH (Gal. 5:7; 1 Pet. 1:22). Because God has given commands, His truth demands an obedient response on    our part. Truth is not a spiritual smorgasbord of options for us to pick and choose from. The sum of God's word is truth (Psa. 119:151, 160). Everything He has revealed on a subject constitutes the pattern to be obeyed (Rom. 6:17). Therefore, we are responsible to "handle aright the word of truth" (2 Tim. 2:15). To neglect just one part of it constitutes sin by which one will perish eternally (James 2:10).


WE MUST WALK IN TRUTH (2 John 4; 3 John 3-4). This Bible reference to "walk" has reference to one's manner of life. The righteous will incorporate God's truth into his life and walk therein. Whatever the circumstance, he will not compromise it (Prov. 23:23). It will be a    "shield and a buckler" for he who takes refuge in God (Psa. 91:4). And, it will be the standard by which he worships God (John 4:23-24).


—Dan Richardson



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