Lessons Learned

Deuteronomy 31:12-13a “Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the Lord your God and carefully observe all the words of this law, and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live.”

 Did you know that the word Bible itself is simply a transliteration of the Greek word “bíblos” (βίβλος), meaning "book"? So, the Bible is, quite simply, a holy book, but “The Book”, the sacred Scriptures of the Word of God; the statutes and standards to live a righteous life before the eyes of the Lord, your Creator and heavenly Father God. Th Apostle Paul writes is 2 Timothy 3:14-17, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 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.

Psalm 119:5-7 “Oh, that my ways were directed to keep Your statutes! Then I would not be ashamed, when I look into all Your commandments. I will praise You with uprightness of heart, when I learn Your righteous judgments.”

Before coming to Christ by faith, I was flying by the seat of my pants, winging it, and making it up as I went, as far as defining “good” and “bad or evil”, “right” and “wrong”, “holy” and “unholy”, “virtue” of “sin”, because I had a limited point of reference and no real teaching resource besides parent teachings, life experience, school rules, ten Commandments, a Lord’s Prayer and a conscience. I believed in God, my sovereign Maker. It was easy to walk with God by faith, but it is difficult to walk rightly with the Lord that I did not fully know His statutes. Statutes by definition are laws commanding or prohibiting that owe their binding force to a positive command or declaration of the supreme power. The wise words of Romans 10:14 ring true, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” Unchurched, I had never been taught or learned the teaching of the Lord, let alone understood the righteous statutes of God for life application.

 Isaiah 1:16-18 “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; Seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. “Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”

I finally made the connection when I started going to church, herd the Gospel preached and the Word of God taught. What 2 Timothy 3:16-17 said was true, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” By reading and studying the Bible, listening to and reading godly instruction, and having a digital seminary worth of resources at my finger-tips. dots were connected and missing pieces were filled in; and continue to be still today. You never stop learning more and you never graduate as long as you live, but the truth shall set you free.

Romans 15:4-6 “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Lesson learned. In Christ, Brian