Apples of Gold
Radio Script for October 27, 2008
“But What Does the Scripture Say?”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
I went to the altar in the summer of 1984.
It wasn’t a tearful event. I didn’t hurl myself down and confess all my sins.
Instead I prayed one simple prayer. “God (if you are real) I’m going to start reading the Bible, and I ask that you make it real to me. Make it clear. Let it just jump off the page to me.”
And that was it.
And I started reading the Bible. Now I had read the Bible before, but just didn’t get a lot out of it.
But after that trip to the altar, something was different. I read the Bible and it started making sense. The truth and the light started jumping off the page to me.
And over 20 years later it still does. I open the Bible, start reading, and pretty soon I’m slapping myself in the forehead and saying, “Wow! Look at that. That is awesome!”
Sometimes I have to push it away, saying, “Oh Lord, that is too much.”
Sometimes I bow my head in repentance. I’m challenged. I’m encouraged. I’m strengthened. Crooked priorities are made straight. And through it all runs a red strand of God’s love.
What happened to me 24 years ago reminds me of those guys in Luke 24:45. It says, “Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.”
See, people can read the Scriptures all day long, but it just doesn’t make much sense until God opens your mind.
It’s like what it says in First Corinthians 2. Spiritual truths are spiritually discerned, revealed by the Spirit of God.
So do you find it hard to read the Bible, hard to understand what it’s saying? Then ask God to reveal it to you.
Yes, God will reveal it to you, but it doesn’t do away with the need to study and to learn. Second Timothy 2:15 talks about correctly handling the word of truth.
Our goal should be to be like Apollos, who is talked about in Acts 18:24. It says he was “a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures.”
That’s what I want to be. I told my wife the other day, “Some men are pounding economic facts into their brain, or political facts. Some are full of sports facts. But you married a guy who is memorizing Bible verses.”
One thing I like is that all those other facts change like shifting sand. But the Word of God is unchanging. You learn something from the Bible and it’s good for life.
Galatians 4:30 starts with a question: “But what does the Scripture say?”
That is a question we should ask ourselves about everything. Yes, I see the circumstances. Yes, I hear what the world is saying. But what does the Scripture say?
In Matthew 21:42 Jesus said, “Have you never read the Scriptures...?”
In Matthew 22:29 Jesus said, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures…”
Second Timothy 3 says that the holy Scriptures make us wise for salvation, and are useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.
Romans 15:4 says that the Scriptures were written to teach us, encourage us and give us hope.
Some say, “Ah, it’s just another book written by man.” But Second Peter 1 says that the prophecy of Scripture came from God to prophets “as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
“But Doug, can’t I just listen to my pastor? Do I have to read the Bible for myself?”
Well guess what. Sometimes pastors get it wrong. Sometimes Bible teachers make mistakes. And sometimes they flat out distort the Scriptures. Second Peter 3:16 says that some people distort the Scriptures, “to their own destruction.”
Instead of just taking someone else’s word for it, we need to study the Bible ourselves. We need to be like the people in Berea that we read about in Acts 17. The Apostle Paul came and taught them, and instead of just taking his word for it, verse 11 says they “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”
The Bible is no ordinary book. It is full of spiritual truths that must be spiritually discerned. But the Holy Spirit is ready to discern them for you, ready to teach you all things found in Scripture.
So pray that simple prayer, “Lord, I’m going to read the Bible. Please make it real to me. Help me to understand it and to live it.”
Then dig in and start studying.
Then when you face a situation in life, don’t ask what your friends are saying or what the world is saying. The most important question you can ask is, “What does the Scripture say?”
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
© 2008 The Arrow’s Tip
To subscribe to your own daily “Apples of Gold” e-mail, write dougapple@wave94.com.
If you want to be removed from this e-mail list, simply click reply and type UNSUBSCRIBE on the subject line.
If you want to catch “Apples of Gold” in its original audio format, go to www.wave94.com
To search through the large archive of past articles, go here: http://www.wave94.com/modules.php?name=Stories_Archive
If you have trouble reaching me at my main e-mail address, try this one: douglas_apple@msn.com
(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL 32315
(850) 926-8000
-vi-
No comments:
Post a Comment