Monday, March 14, 2011

The Word of God is Right

I love the chorus, "The Word of God is right, hallelujah to the lamb." In Psalm 33:4 the Bible says, "...The word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth." Again in Psalm 138:2 the Bible states that God has "magnified" His Word above all of His name! How important is God's Word?  Let me answer that question with another, how important is the name of Jesus to you? If Acts 4:12 states that "there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved," then to the Jesus name baptized believer in Jesus Christ, God's Word is of the utmost importance.   I well remember on the day of my conversion at age 23, after I told the Lord Jesus if He would help me, I would serve Him all the rest of the days of my life.  (You can read my testimony at http://www.thepentecostalpreacher.net/) Two things happend virtually simultaneously, God immediately cleansed my heart and mind of the filth that had plagued me for so long, and He said to me, "read my Word and start in Matthew." I then resorted to the Word of God. I can testify that from that day to this, (I am now close to 70 years of age) Jesus has been my help.  Too often the Word of God is taken for granted or misquoted. How many times have we heard someone say "the Bible says...," and then proceed to misquote what the Bible says.  Oh, I know, I have done it myself.   And because of this fault, I have tried to read from the Bible in preaching so I get it right.  One example of Scripture that I have heard and read over the years that is misquoted is found in Proverbs 23:7, "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he..." This is often misquoted "as a man thinketh in his heart so is he." The Bible is here talking about when you sit down to eat with a ruler be careful in your conduct because although the ruler may say "eat and drink" yet "his heart is not with thee."  Verse 8 seems to indicate you might have to eat your words! God's Word here is not talking about the power of thinking positive!!! Another, more serious misquote, is found in Genesis 3:3 when Eve misquoted what God had said to Adam about touching the forbidden tree. (God never said Adam couldn't touch it) The devil, in the form of the serpent then (purposefully) added to what God had said to Adam.  What God told Adam in Genesis 2:17 was, "...of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." The devil added only one word to what God had said, "not." To paraphrase the serpent, "go ahead Eve, eat of the tree God said not to, "thou shalt not surely die." And as the late Paul Harvey used to say, "...you know the rest of the story!" God's Word gives the same admonition in the Old Testament and in the New concerning His Word. In Deuteronomy 4:2 and 12:32 Moses said, "Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it," and in Revelation 22:18-19 God's Word says, "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book."  BTW the second verse of the chorus is "It makes me walk upright, Hallelujah to the Lamb," and finishes with"Hallelujah to the Lamb.

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