The best way to live
Applying the Bible to our lives
These days many of us get our sense of right and wrong from movies. Although some of our superheroes may act like a self-sacrificing Messiah in battles to save the world, the lessons in movies are usually determined by ungodly people who want to entertain us.
When I googled “How to live”, there were 20 billion results on the internet! If I took five seconds to read each one, it would take over 30 years of reading continuously! How can we know which is the best way to live our lives? These are all the subjective opinions of many people. We can save wasting a lot of time by following the objective opinions of the God who made the world and who knows all about us. And it doesn’t take years to find because He has communicated to us in the Bible. The Bible is often called “God’s word” or “the word” because it’s a message from God. (more…)
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Three Steps to Spiritual Revival
God’s Word is the Key
In Old Testament times the Jews were God’s special people. He promised them many things, but some of these were conditional on their obedience (Ex. 15:25-26; 23:25-26; Dt. 7:12-16). If they worshipped idols, they were told: “The LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will drive you” (Deut. 4:27NIV). Because the Jews were unfaithful and followed idols instead of the true God, they were overrun by the Assyrians and Babylonians and Jerusalem was plundered and destroyed.
However, after 70 years of captivity in Babylon, some returned to their homeland. This journey of about 1500 km took them 4 months to travel (Ezra 7:8). They returned in three phases: Zerabbabel rebuilt the temple, 80 years later Ezra led a spiritual revival, and 13 years later Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. Although there was opposition from the surrounding nations, they persisted and there was a spiritual revival when they turned back to worshipping the only true God. Let’s look at the key steps in their revival.
The main character is Ezra, who was a devoted student and a teacher of the Scriptures (Ezra 7:10). He was instrumental in a spiritual revival after Nehemiah rebuilt the city walls. One day all the Israelite men and women gathered together and Ezra “read it (the books of Moses) aloud from daybreak till noon” (Neh. 8:3). The people listened for 5-6 hours! That’s a long time! Thirteen Levites helped by “making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read” (Neh. 8:8). As Aramaic was the language at the time, they probably translated it from Hebrew into Aramaic. On the next day Ezra taught the leaders, priests and Levites from the Scripture (Neh. 8:13). When they discovered that they had not been celebrating the Festival of Shelters, they celebrated it with joy. On every day of this 7-day festival, Ezra read from the Scripture (Neh. 8:18).
Three days later the people gathered together to confess their sinful ways. They “read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for 3 hours, and spent another 3 hours in confession and in worshiping the LORD their God” (Ezra 9:3). They prayed one of the longest prayers in the Bible, which traces God’s faithfulness across history despite the Jews unfaithfulness (Neh. 9:6-37). After this they wrote a binding agreement that they would obey the Lord and follow the Scriptures (Neh. 9:38 – 10:39). So the sequence of events was: they read the Bible (Neh. 8), they confessed their sins (Neh. 9), and they obeyed the Lord (Neh. 10).
This pattern is similar to the Jewish revival under king Josiah. After he was informed of God’s message in Scripture, “he tore his robes” and wept in anger and sorrow acknowledging their disobedience, and then promised “to follow the LORD and keep His commands” and acted to remove all the idols in the land of Israel (2 Ki. 22:8 – 23:20; 2 Chr. 34:14-33).
Read the Bible
What can we learn from this? Revival begins with God’s word. Did you notice how often they read the Scripture? The Bible showed them how they had failed. The bible is our spiritual food: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16). It helps us learn God’s perspective on our world including what is right and what is wrong (“teaching”); where we are on the wrong track (“rebuking”); how to get back onto the right track (“correcting”); and how to live a godly life (“training in righteousness”).
Confess our sins
After they read the Bible, they felt guilt and shame. This led to confession of sin in prayer to the Lord; they were honest with God. After God speaks to us in Scripture, we need to respond in prayer. This is necessary to keep in touch with God: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1:9). Although the penalty of our sins has already been paid, they affect our relationships in the family of God. If we confess our sins to the Lord, He promises to forgive them and enable these relationships to be restored. If the sin is against another person, we should confess to them so that they in turn can forgive us (Lk. 17: 3-4; Jas. 5:16).
Follow the Lord
After they confessed their sin, there was repentance and obedience; they acted to get back on track. Signs of being in fellowship with the Lord and with believers in the family of God are that we “keep His commands”, obey “His word”, and “live as Jesus did” (1 Jn. 2:3-6). This means obeying Christ’s teachings, doing what pleases Him, and letting Him live His life through us. Paul said, “I follow the example of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). Christ left an example for us to follow, and said “learn from me” and “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Mt. 11:29; 16:24; 1 Pt. 2:21).
Lessons for us
So let’s read and meditate on the Bible and apply it to our lives. This is the key to the three steps of spiritual revival: read the Bible, confess our sins, and follow the Lord.
Written, June 2011
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Refresh Your Mind
For the New Year
At the end of a year we tend to look back and review what is now history. And at the beginning of a new year we often look forward to what lies ahead. Peter wrote his second letter just before his death, so he could look back over his lifetime and look forward as a help to the next generation (Jn. 21:18-19; 2 Pet. 1:14). Let’s look at an important reminder that Peter left for all believers.
Remember And Obey
He wrote in the first and last chapters of this letter (2 Pet. 1:12; 3:1) that he wanted to rouse them by way of a reminder. The two Greek words used in these verses are “diegeiro” – which can mean “to wake” or “to stir up from sleep” but is used metaphorically to mean to rouse their minds – and “hupomnesis” – which means “remembrance that is prompted by another.” Peter’s objective has also been expressed as to “refresh your memory” and to “stimulate you to wholesome thinking.” It is important because our actions and behavior flow from the attitudes in our mind.
We are forgetful and can easily become preoccupied with aspects of life. Like the battery of a mobile or cell phone, we need to be recharged from time to time. Peter knew this and his goal was to continually recharge and refresh their memories by reminding the Christians of that time how they should live (2 Pet. 1:12-15). In fact, he wrote this down so that we can be reminded of these things today.
Of course, today we can refresh our memories through reading the Scriptures and putting them into practice by remembering what they say and by obeying them.
A Message From God
People refresh their minds in many ways: rest, recreation, meditation and holidays. As batteries need to be recharged with electrical energy, Christians need to be recharged and refreshed with God’s spiritual “energy.” Our minds should be occupied with God’s message, which is reliable since it was written by eyewitnesses, such as Peter, and directed by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:16-18, 21). The Bible is sometimes called the Word of God, because it is God’s message to us. In fact, its words in the original language were given by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 2:13; Heb. 4:12).
The message of the Bible is like a “light shining in a dark place” – it can illuminate and enlighten our thinking and help to keep us alert. And Peter exhorts us to pay close attention to its message (2 Pet. 1:19; 1 Th. 5:5-6). It can only be understood by the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit who indwells all believers (1 Cor. 2:14-16).
We are to pay close attention to this message until the end of the Church age, which is illustrated as the dawning of day (Rom. 13:12; Heb. 10:25). This is until Christ comes to take all believers to be with Him in heaven, which is illustrated by the rising of the morning star – Christ being the morning star (1 Cor. 15:51-57; 1 Th. 4:16-18; Rev. 22:16).
Are you reading and meditating daily on God’s message in the Bible?
A Renewed Mind
Our mind is controlled by either the sinful nature or the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:5-8). Christians have a new attitude in their minds (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23). This renewed mind is linked with eternal life and peace – it thinks according to God’s perspective (Col. 3:1-2; Rom. 8:6). But if Christians do not refresh their memories, they have unfruitful minds (1 Cor. 14:14). As those who spent time with Christ had their minds opened so they could understand the Scriptures, this is also possible for those controlled by the Holy Spirit (Lk. 24:45).
On the other hand, the unbeliever has a foolish and depraved mind; and foolish thinking leads to foolish behavior (Rom. 1:21-32). A sinful mind is hostile towards God and cannot please Him (Rom. 8:8). It is blinded because it can’t see the light that comes through Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:4). Such a mind is only occupied with earthly things; it is totally sinful and corrupt (Phil. 3:19; Col. 2:18; 1 Tim. 6:5).
Do You Remember?
As the disciples were to remember the words that Christ spoke to them, we should remember the words that God caused to be written for us (Jn. 15:20; Jude 17). Do you remember “what you have received and heard” (Rev. 3:3) from the Scriptures? God promises to help us remember His words when we need them (Lk. 12:11-12; Jn. 16:4). The Bible has many examples and principles that can help us in our journey of life (Lk. 17:32). Most of all we need to “remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead” (2 Tim. 2:8).
So let’s endeavor to love and serve the Lord with our minds over the year ahead, and continually remind each other of these things (Mt. 22:37; Rom. 7:25)
George's Journal 
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