BBD 10.17.16 Search the Scriptures (Classic)
Posted by: theburningbushdevotional <theburningbushdevotional@...>
Classic from 2009
Burning Bush Devotional
17 October 2016
Search the Scriptures
Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea.
When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more
fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all
readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things
were so. Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks,
prominent women as well as men. - Acts 17:10-12 NKJV.
In Elkhart, Indiana while searching an apartment during a drug raid officers found
a handwritten recipe for manufacturing methamphetamine in an unusual place. The
meth recipe was written in a Bible on the last page of the Book of Revelation. Two of the residents
of the apartment were arrested and charged with possession and manufacturing
charges. Several months ago a methamphetamine lab actually blew up in the same
apartment building. I guess what I find most strange about this is that one of
the officers took time to read the Bible during the search! Probably, something
drew the officer’s attention to the Bible, and they may have been searching for
something other than drugs which would have required a more intensive search. I
do, however, think that it is a wonderful thing that these officers were
searching the pages of the Bible - searching the Scriptures.
In the comparison of the Bereans and Thessalonicans we see a stark contrast.
Many of the Thessalonicans were hard-hearted, and close-minded toward the
Gospel; they were unwilling to even listen to how the Scriptures could have been
fulfilled through Jesus Christ. They had their story and they were sticking to
it. They were just mad that anyone would have the nerve to even suggest that
the Messiah had come, and they had missed Him. Their attitude is somewhat
similar to the Muslim world’s harsh persecution of Christians today. If a
Christian has the audacity to share their faith with a Muslim they risk being
put to death. However, there are still Christians today with the same courage
of the Holy Spirit spoken of by the apostle John as he says in Revelation 12:11, “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by
the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”
The attitude of the Bereans was an attitude of seeking the truth. The Bereans
realized that they could possibly have missed out on something spiritually. In
other words, the Bereans did not think that they had arrived spiritually and
knew all there was to know about God and the spiritual world. They were willing
to search the Scriptures to see if these things that Paul was saying could
possibly be true. As a result of their study of the Scriptures many of them
believed in Jesus Christ.
Even though we have the New Testament readily available to us today we still
need to search the Scriptures. There are those today that would love to sell
you their own personal religious philosophy based upon their spiritual
experience. We must be careful to search the Scriptures to make sure that the “experience” is verified by the Word of
God. As we prayerfully search the Scriptures does the Holy Spirit verify that
these things are true or not.
If you are reading these words today, and you are not a Christian I want to
challenge you to do as the Bereans did. Read the Bible beginning with the New
Testament and ask God to reveal the truth to you as you search the Scriptures.
Copyright © 2009-2016. Ed
Wrather. The Burning Bush website has been online since January 31, 1998. On
June 8, 1998 the email version of the Burning Bush Devotional was first sent.
Ed Wrather began writing devotionals in the early 1990s. The distribution of those
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Requests:
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