I think we all have had those times that we have needed to get ahold of someone and just could not do it. I have faced many of those times in my life. It could be getting ahold of my wife, or one of my kids, or someone in our church. The Bible reminds us that the Creator has made a huge investment in speaking to you!
We had a situation, actually several, but I will share one of a need to get ahold of someone immediately. The situation was our new church building was to be installed. Imagine the multitude of workers here to move the new Worship modulars (four units) into place. They were under a time crunch as a result of factory delays due to covid. We were also hustling to beat an anticipated December rain storm. The task was to unwrap the 4 units and move them onto the foundation. We thought that everything had been coordinated but there was one oversight. A special clip that was supposed to be installed into the concrete foundation to secure the new structures had got missed. What was discovered at the last minute is that traditional tied down j-bolts were installed instead. The protruding bolts would obstruct the sliding of the modular units in place. It required a crisis meeting of those involved to resolve the problem. Yet the change had to be cleared by the engineer and a county inspector. I was one the phone calling everyone I could to get through to the inspector while the site manager was on his phone to speak to the engineer.
Our current series “Knowing the Unknown” has us working through interpreting the Bible. This week we looked at seven different types of literature that the Creator used to communicate his message to us. What stood out to me is the investment the Lord made to help you understand what He wants you to know. In case you have not thought about this, He communicated using two type of legal, six types of narratives, eight types of poetry, wisdom, Gospels, two types of logical discourse (instruction/application) and prophecy.
David offers us a power perspective in Psalm 119 of the importance of the Bible. The focus on Psalm 119 is on God’s Word. If you have ever tried to read this Psalm in one sitting your know that it is long, 176 verses long. David penned 22 sections with 8 verses that all begin with the same Hebrew letter (There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet). I need you to think about this for a moment. It is a monumental work, but also a power statement on the importance of God’s communication to you and I. And it is in Psalm 119:130 that we read, “The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.” If I could rephrase this, it is saying that God wants to help you! He want to unfold the challenges of life and He does this through His communication to you. The result is that the “simple,” a description of a person lacking intelligence or common sense, are given insight and wisdom for life’s challenges.
I cannot think of one human situation in 28 years of Pastoral ministry and in 40 years of following Jesus that the Bible does not speak to either directly or indirectly. And it is God’s use of these seven different literary styles that reminds me how much God has invested to help you get His truth into your life. Think about this, he could he have given us a cryptic Ikea type instruction pamphlet to help us build our lives. No, He used our forms of communicating to speak into our lives. This Sunday we will be looking at the different ways in which the Lord uses language to speak to us.
I hope you are getting the idea that God has a message for you and He is doing everything He can to get a hold of you. Let me encourage you to pick up your Bible and read it today! Let me know what he had to say.
-Pastor Joe Parkinson