FOOD FOR YOUR JOURNEY
19 August
THE WORD
Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
Psalm 119:105
Thy Word is true from the beginning: and every one of Thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.
Psalm 119:160
It never ceases to amaze me how many people utterly trash the Bible when they have never read it and certainly don’t have the first clue of what it’s about. They will try to appear knowledgeable when referring to the myths of Adam and Eve, Noah’s ark and the flood and Mary having a baby who ends up being the Saviour of the world. Their claim is that a loving God would not send anyone to Hell and that most if not all of the Bible is a collection of stories handed down from father to son and over the years these stories have become distorted and exaggerated beyond belief.
I have never forgotten an encounter I had with a fellow soldier when we were on patrol protecting the borders of our beloved country many years ago. We had stopped to pitch camp for the night and were crouching with the rest of the patrol, in an all round defence formation during one of the most dangerous times of the day – just before sunset. It was a time when terrorists would frequently attack a patrol because visibility was at its lowest. After receiving the signal to stand down we made ourselves as comfortable as we could, lying on the hard ground, and tried to get a little sleep before it was our turn to go on guard. As I bowed my head in prayer to ask God to watch over us and protect us, my friend enquired as to what I was doing, and I answered that I was praying. He was silent for a few moments and then asked me if I was religious. I told him that a few years earlier I had accepted Jesus into my life and that I was a Christian. He launched into a long story about how he did not believe there was a God and that the Bible was not true. I waited for him to finish and asked him where he thought his soul would go to if he was shot and killed tonight and where did he think he would spend eternity. At this point he started to cry and with tears rolling down his cheeks, he asked me to pray for him. I gave him a small leaflet which outlined what he needed to do to be born again. I saw him reading the leaflet some days later and over the next six weeks we lost touch with each other because he was posted to a different part of the country and I to another section. He told me some years later that he had thought about what I had said and started to read the Bible for himself, which ended up with him giving his heart to the Lord. It was then my turn to shed tears! I have never forgotten how God used the occasion and a few short words to bring someone to Salvation.
When I received the following list attached to an email from a dear friend of mine, it reminded me of my brief encounter with this soldier and how a conversation of few words changed his life for an eternity! Although the email is thought-provoking and somewhat humorous, it does sum up what man thinks of as important, and it puts into perspective how few words God uses when He tells us what He thinks is important.
WORDS – JUST WORDS!
If there was a shred of doubt that the world is totally insane, this will remove it. Only Divine intervention can restore us to sanity:
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Archimedes’ Principle – 26 words.
- Pythagoras’ Theorem – 33 words.
- The Ten Commandments – 73 words.
- The Lord’s Prayer – 74 words.
- Gettysburg Address – 271 words.
- The United States Declaration of Independence – 1,332 words.
- The United States Constitution with all 27 Amendments – 7,818 words.
- European Union Regulations on the sale of Cabbages – 26,911 words.
The Word of God
- Is given in life.
- It will be opened at the Judgment.
- It will be remembered forever.
- It involves the highest responsibility.
- It will reward the greatest labour.
- It will condemn all those who trifle with its contents.
- It is the Word of God which will stand forever.
It is my earnest prayer that you will take this message to heart and witness to those around you. We are surrounded by folk everyday who do not know Jesus as their Saviour and who will spend an eternity without Him. A few words from you could change that and their lives forever!