If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannon be nullified).
Message: Embarrassed by the Bible
Time: John most likely wrote between A.D. 85 and 90. John's purpose in writing was, "that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name (John 20:31)."
What the Lord is Saying: Dr Sproul once said, “You are required to believe, to preach, and to teach what the Bible says is true, not what you want the Bible to say is true.” This reminds me that I am to speak of the Bible ever in my conversations. I need to make it more prominent in my speech and as I speak to people, I need to be strong in speaking it and applying it to my life.
In this statement, sometimes I find this to be hard especially when others come along and say that the Bible is not saying what I am saying. It is hard to reconcile sometimes who is true and what is the correct reason behind Scripture. As I grow older I find it becomes harder and harder to not let the preconceived ideas I have of things not train me for how I am to think about God's word.
In my ministry online I speak to all sorts of people and many have very different ideas of these scriptures. For some, I can tell they are uncomfortable with the text and they want it to be something different than what it is saying. I think even as Christians we can at times adapt the scripture to the times. For instance, in the last 20-30 years views towards advancing gay people, and encouraging women to preach in church have become more common place in our culture, and so many have Christian leaders and denominations have adapted traditional beliefs to this. And so those of us in denominations that still deny these views, I notice many are not being clear in speaking about them. We are avoiding the controversy, sidestepping it. We are rarely bringing it up. I wonder at times if we are doing this to succumb or we are doing it to possibly not make it a big issue when trying to help someone understand the true meaning of the gospel.
I wonder at times if I do these type of things when I am sharing my faith others. Like if I am speaking to a JW, I often will not be prominent in my speech about the Trinity, thinking I guess that once they hear those words they immediately put up a wall of separation and don't even listen to anything else because they are so opposed to that thinking. It seems this happens when speaking to Muslims as well. I can defend this at times and yet I don't know if that is correct. I mean, in the process am I limiting the true message of the gospel.
For others though, they state conclusions about the text that are often different from the last 2,000 years of Bible interpretation. I think for me this is what I go back to continually - not only what I think but what have many scholars and people consistently thought about these truths over time.
What I need to make sure I do is to not hold back, but to keep speaking and keep speaking in a strong manner.
Prayer: God, you have given me freedom in You and saved me from any wrath in the future. You have saved me from the Law and the notion that my goodness amounts to Your acceptance of me. This is not the way it is, you save your people because of who you are not because of who they are. You are holy and you are to be revered and respected. I am to rightly divide your truth and make you known always. Lord, give me wisdom on speaking my mind. When given opportunities, help me to be true to Your Word. You know me Lord, I tend to adapt to people rather than the truth of what I believe your word is saying. Lord, redirect me to be true always to Your words.
