Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
During the last conversations I had with Bob Jones he reminded me about our need for the Spirit of Truth. In the last couple of years, Bob shared about his belief that many believers were unknowingly embracing the “spirit of compromise” because they were drifting from God’s word. He felt the spirit of this age was having more influence in the church than the Holy Spirit.
Bob would often remind me of the three things we are to be rooted or grounded in: love (Eph. 3:17), faith (Col. 1:23) and truth (1 Tim. 3:15). We have majored on love for years now, which I think is right because God is love (1 John 4:8). Faith is always important because it is connected to our relationship with the Lord and is the means of receiving great rewards (Heb. 11:6). Truth, like grace, is the very nature of our Lord (John 1:14).
We can actually receive a love for the truth (2 Thess. 2:10). I think that is where we begin. Ask the Lord to give you a love for the truth. When you love someone you give them honor and a special place in your life. You want to please those whom you really love. I believe a love for the Scriptures is really a fruit of loving the Word Himself.
I think it is vital that we view and approach the Scriptures properly. We all understand that a mechanical, legalistic or intellectual approach is not the answer. In fact that will only discourage and ultimately turn you away from the Scriptures. The only way to truly understand and appropriate the Scriptures is with the help of the Spirit of Truth (John 16:12-15). Ask Him to help you. He loves and so desires to help us. Jesus called Him the Helper (John 16:7).
One of my spiritual heroes is Richard Wurmbrand. He had been imprisoned and tortured for 14 years in Romanian Communist prisons during the 1950’s and 60’s for his faith in Christ. I actually got to hear him speak as a young believer back in the 1970’s. I will never forget it. He had to sit when he spoke because he had been beaten with rubber hoses on the bottom of his feet many times while in prison. He spoke softly and with much gentleness, but even in my carnal, immature state I knew I was hearing truth that had been refined in a great fire.
He wrote an article titled, “The truth about the Truth” that captures the heart of what I believe a “love for the truth” is all about.
“God is the Truth. The Bible is the truth about the Truth. Theology is the truth about the truth about the Truth. A good sermon is the truth about the truth about the truth, about the Truth. It is not the Truth. The Truth is God alone. Around this Truth there is a scaffolding of words, of theologies, and of exposition. None of these is of any help in times of suffering. It is only the Truth Himself who is of help, and we have to penetrate through sermons, through theological books, through everything, which is ‘words’ and be bound up with the reality of God Himself.
We knew Psalm 23 – “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want… though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death….” When you pass through suffering you realize that it was never meant by God that Psalm 23 should strengthen you. It is the Lord who can strengthen you, not the Psalm, which speaks of Him so doing. It is not enough to have the Psalm. You must have the One about whom the Psalm speaks. We also knew the verse: “My Grace is sufficient for thee.” But the verse is not sufficient. It is the Grace which is sufficient and not the verse.”
Many Blessings, BW