I’m sitting here looking at a picture of a very pretty lady. There is just one problem. It’s a picture of a tree with three birds flying to the upper branches. One bird is the lady’s eye, another her nose and the third her lips. It is really well done. I would post it for you to see but I fear I would be violating a copyright law. We all have seen pictures like this. The most prominent lesson learned from these pictures is we sometimes are so sure we have seen something and we didn’t. I have heard people say, “Don’t tell me what I saw. I know what I saw.” It is difficult to admit that we cannot trust our own senses. We want to be confident. Sometimes we say, “I know what I know.” The challenge is we don’t know what we don’t know. Thus no one can be president of the United States until they are 35 or older.
We can also be confused when we are reading. Reading isn’t as straight forward as we might think. Words are loaded with history and nuances do not mean the same thing to everyone. Thus we have one Bible and hundreds of churches, each with their own set of doctrines. Each group is sure they are the one with God’s message. What is grand about God is we are not saved by being correct. We are saved by grace. We do not have to march in mental lockstep with others to be loved by Jesus. The next time you are drawn into a Bible Battle back out. You are not going to win and neither is the other guy. So don’t waste the emotional energy. If someone genuinely wants to know, a Spirit filled Bible study is just what the doctor ordered.
Written by Roger Bothwell on April 17, 2014
Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org