Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.
-Matthew 24:35
All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls,but the Word of the Lord remains forever.”
-1 Peter 1:24-25
Back in the dark ages, when telephones were stationary, tethered to the kitchen wall by annoying cords and limited to antiquated analog dialing devices, people needed a way to know how to get in touch with others. The solution was simplistic and effective. Phone books were created, published and distributed to everyone who had a phone line. It was the solution that made life easier and connection more available. As the jingle went, you could let your fingers do the walking. Useful, even vital information was at your fingertips, all arranged in alphabetical order and divided into the white pages containing personal phone numbers and the yellow pages which were reserved for businesses and organizations.
However, an issue became apparent. People move, new businesses open, old ones close and the information in the beloved phone book would quickly become outdated. At that point, it became rather useless, except for acting as a booster seat or an effective interrogation tool.
As with all evolving technologies, a solution was quickly implemented. Phone customers would get a new, revised and updated book every year. If you lived in a thriving community, each year your phone book grew, even to the point of needing two phone books. The ever expanding phone books even became a main advertising tool for businesses. Designed with the ability to catch your eye, companies competed to have the best phone book presence, even choosing names that would appear first in alphabetical order. Once again, an ever changing layout was needed based on what businesses could afford. As exciting as the yellow pages looked, the white pages were the simple and pragmatic counterpart. However, the same problem persisted, once printed they were essentially outdating themselves. If not careful, it was easy to become inundated with phone books especially if you didn’t throw the prior years away.
As temporal as the world is, God is eternally the same yesterday, today and forever. So is God’s Word. As a result, the biggest problems caused by the shifting sands of this world are countered by structure and stability. Unlike a phone book, the Bible never gets outdated. The original information is the same relevant information that mankind is in desperate need of right now.
The Bible contains the revelation of Jesus Christ and the Father’s plan for humanity. How confusing and tragic it would be if we were presented with a new Bible every year. Because God’s Word is permanent, we are able to study and memorize it. The effective application of God’s Word in our life is constant and consistent in our lives year after year. Within this context, the confidence we extend to God and His truth only increases.
Sometimes I miss the good old days when phones were attached to walls and phone books seemed like the oracle of public information. But then I remember the disappointment and frustration that came with dialing the seven digits only to hear, this number is no longer in service.
When we dig into Scripture and offer our prayer up to the Lord, aren’t you glad that you will never hear, this number is no longer in service?
Tag: Bible
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PHONE BOOKS
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I READ IT IN A BLOG, I SAW IT ON A PODCAST
It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise, than to hear the song of fools.
-Ecclesiastes 7:5
We live in an age of information overload. Within seconds, our fingertips have the ability to pick and choose what we want to hear, what aligns with our opinions and what justifies our thoughts and feelings. Now if all the information available was reliable, truth based and trustworthy, we could celebrate this modern advancement of mankind. However it seems people in general are rapidly degrading in their intellectual aptitude. Why? Could it be that when information is readably available, when we can simply listen to others who claim to be experts, when we no longer need to dig in and figure it out ourselves, our brains actually become lazy and out of shape?
Not all available information is detrimental, much of it is healthy, necessary and has the benefit of leading us in the ongoing process of learning. But as with everything, in the presence of boredom, the people will seek out anything to stimulate their entertainment.
No longer do we need to commit to reading a whole book or do our own research. No longer do we need to tax our brain through critical thought and trial and error. We don’t even need to personally experience new things, because after all we can simply experience these things through others.
Again, not all, but more and more of the content that is available is easily posted with relatively no boundaries. The most overt issue here that should glare at us with deceptive eyes is that there is no accountability for content creators. This means they can write, video and post whatever they want with no responsibility to truth or accuracy. At best, content creators are only challenged by… other content creators. Inevitably when clicks are the ultimate goal, content follows popularity, controversy, fear or lust. That is what our human nature craves. The result is blogs and podcasts full of false information enticing us away from truth. Even more detrimental to the Christian follower is the over abundance of false theology. If you think about it, this is nothing more than manipulation. We are being manipulated to like and follow. As a result, content creators bring in the mighty dollars or Bitcoin if they are really trendy.
God’s truth on the other hand offers something very different. Hope, wisdom and eternal life. The Bible contains everything we need, but there are a few other reasons we can count it superior to anything else. First, it is the inspired Word of God. The original Content Creator is the only One who can be fully trusted because He possesses all truth and wisdom. Second, God’s Word is alive through the illumination of the Holy Spirit. That means when we study and meditate on Scripture it actually talks back to us. Third, the motivation of God’s Word is eternal, not monetary. Unlike continent creators, God truly wants the best for us. Inherently the best, most important, most impactful message we can ever hear is the Gospel of Christ Jesus. This is intended to be a personal revelation from the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we can go directly to the source, our Bible. Fourth, God’s Word does not need to be filtered, fluffed or repackaged by a third party. This includes content creators as well as authors, experts, pastors and Popes. If anyone discourages or impedes you from going to Scripture yourself, deeply consider their intentions.
Though not all content available to us is malicious, self-serving or manipulative, as with all things in our life, it should all be measured against the truth of Scripture.