Bible as user manual

Psalm 119:18

Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.

People think that there are lots of dos and don’ts in the Bible and if they start following everything that is written in the Bible then their life would be insipid. How immature their brain is?. The Bible is a user manual given to us by our creator so that we may live a righteous life. People who follow the Bible and its teachings and live their lives with the Bible as their yardstick not only flourish but get blessings from God in abundance. We all know how Daniel was steadfast in his faith in God and how even in toughest of times he didn’t abandon God’s teachings. We all can learn from the life of Daniel and can implement that kind of faith and dedication into our life. God’s law which has been given to us may feel demanding at times but eventually, when one keeps on walking in faith he gets deliverance from God. Once the law gets into our body we feel enlightened in our spirit, and then you start rejoicing in Lord. Therefore to understand God and his laws it is imperative to study the Bible.

Have Patience in GOD

Matthew 24:13

But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

Now, this is the problem all of humanity faces; lack of patience. Whatever we want we want it right now. But let me tell you that we don’t get what we want as per our time but we get as per God’s time. Patience and endurance in Jesus will lead to success and eternal peace. You can’t put your trust and faith on due date/expiry structure. Our love and faith on Jesus should be beyond the boundaries of time, i.e. it should be everlasting.

Jesus is our Light

2 Corinthians 4:6

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

“Let light shine out of darkness” how powerful this line is let alone the message. We all are born in God’s image but somehow we drift away from the one in whose image we have been created. Now, darkness simply means the Satan who deceives us and engulfs us to do what God doesn’t like. But through Jesus, God gave us the light to navigate in that darkness and to come out of it.  Jesus is the light which pierces all the negativity around us and opens up a whole new world of opportunities and avenues. He is like a torch for nomads like us on a dark night walking in desert.

God's Number

Jeremiah 33:3

Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.

Jeremiah 33:3 is also known as God’s phone number by Jeremiah 333. Whenever we are in trouble or in an emergency you can dial Jeremiah 333 and God will answer you. Our God is a God of love, compassion, and mercy, he doesn’t want his people to be in affliction and pain and that is why he says “call unto me”. We forget to call and seek God’s advice in distress, instead we listen to people around us. Are they capable enough to guide us or to solve our problems? The answer is no (Psalm 118:8). We humans are not equipped to turn affliction into joy only; Jesus our savior has that power and authority. If we try and take anyone’s help other than God, we would only be inviting trouble because it would be like an invitation for satan to interfere in our life and take control of it. Which in the hindsight would be catastrophic.

Every day, everyone goes through a rough patch and that is why God has instructed through this verse to come to him and not to go astray in troubled times. With God, everything is possible (Matthew 19:26). He has the power and dominion over everything but because of his love towards mankind he gave us the freedom of “will”. And with that will we have the choice of choosing our creator as our “savior” or the one who deceived mankind in beginning (Adam and Eve). Choose carefully and dial the right number.

Learn from Jesus

1 Peter 4:1

Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin

Main reason for not letting go of sins is our comfort and luxurious lifestyle. We simply aren’t willing to forgo it. We just keep on clinging to it because letting go of luxuries in life are extremely tough. Helping the needy in scorching heat seems a difficult task these days because we are spending our precious time in comfort of air conditioners; aren’t we?. We are more concerned as to who tagged or poked us on facebook and whose message we have received on WhatsApp rather than knowing the condition of a poor who hasn’t had food for days. We turn a blind eye to them or we causally sympathize with them thinking in our heart what miserable life they are living. But, people forget it’s written in Bible that apart from faith our deeds are equally important (James 2:1). Jesus suffered for us, for our sins. Can’t he be our role model apart from being our God? Aren’t we willing to learn from his life, aren’t we supposed to help the deprived one’s so that their faith would also increase because they would presume that their prayers have been answered by God through us. When will we show to the world our faith in Jesus through our deeds? Jesus himself said that if we want to follow him we will have to take up our cross alone (Matthew 16:24) and here by the cross, he wanted to convey the pain/suffering he took for humankind. Like he carried the burden of entire mankind similarly we should try and take others burden and help them to reduce it. When God blesses us with something, he actually wants to use us for others. What is the use of earning money and not using it for philanthropy? What is the use of your education when you can’t impart your gained education to an underprivileged child who doesn’t have means to get himself educated?

So, always remember Jesus has taught us to be altruistic and we should learn that lesson from him and implement it.  

Have your eyes and ears on God

Mark 8:18

Having eyes, see ye not? And having ears, hear ye not? And do ye not remember?

We all have eyes and ears but still fail to understand the Love of God. We fail to see his love and compassion for human beings which is everlasting (Psalm 103:17), we fail to listen to his voice even when we have ears. Remember how “Eve” got deceived and surrendered her will to the serpent and ate that fruit from the tree (Genesis 3). God had instructed both Adam and Eve not to eat from that tree; but what they did?, they did exactly the opposite of it. Similarly, we even after having eyes to see; and ears to listen to commandments of God miserably fail to adhere to it. We don’t remember the story of Adam and Eve, we forget the story of Samson; and how they got deceived and paid the price of it. Why? Why don’t we remember and understand God’s love and glory?

Samson was a blessed child of God and had the capability to destroy his enemies alone but he too fell into the trap of a woman and gave away his powers given by God to his lustful desires. Now, those lustful desires were nothing but satanic desires which bypassed the commandments of God and tempted Samson to get deceived. We are no different from Samson. We have eyes to read Bible yet our haughty eyes gets deceived, we have ears but they only want to hear “self-praise” and eventually falls in the trap of evil and gets deceived. So, Jesus here is trying to remind us that from the very beginning we have everything required to focus on God but we forget what gifts he has granted to us and fall into the trap of lucifer.

Power of Cross

1 Corinthians 1:18

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

Power of Cross!! What an expression.  Whole of Christianity revolves around incident of Jesus getting crucified on the cross and being resurrected on the third day.  Gospel without Jesus being sacrificed on the cross for our sins is nothing. The whole teaching of Bible is about “God giving his only son for our sins so that we could be saved and have eternal life as God thought for us (John 3:16) while creating Adam and Eve. It was only because of Adam and Eve that sin entered our blood (Romans 5:12). They were got deceived by satan (Genesis 3:1-7) and ultimately paid the price for it  by getting banished from “Garden of Eden” (Genesis 3:23).

Only through Jesus sacrificial death for humankind could we be redeemed of our sins (Ephesians 1:7) and that is what good news of gospel is all about. The power of God can be felt and experienced when we accept Jesus as our savior and understand in totality as to why he died for us. People engulfed with demonic powers still don’t consider and understand the power of the cross and they mock the people who believe in it.

Eventually, people who have faith in Jesus and power of cross are being assured of things they hope for (Hebrews 11:1) and  are being shown the way to heaven where our “Heavenly Father” awaits us.

Jesus as Light

John 12:46

I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.

Isn’t that a powerful statement. We all live in darkness before accepting Jesus in our life. We are being misguided by worldly things and we assume that living lavish life is our purpose of existence. Darkness engulfs us and we are being surrounded by satan and we keep committing sin.

Only when Jesus comes in our life we understand the power of light that he brings in our life. Gravitas of his presence can only be felt when we come out the dark world i.e. worldly life. John 14:6 is a vindication of what Jesus talks about in John 12:46. Life of darkness is life full of sin whereas life with Jesus is full of love and compassion and ultimately attaining heaven. We all are sinners and we needed that savior in our life to save our souls and for the very same God gave his only son to us (John 3:16) so that God’s own beautiful creation “man” (Genesis 1:27) can be saved from disastrous life in hell. Once a man sees that light which is Jesus he will come out darkness and experience happiness and satisfaction on earth and a place in heaven.

Beware of False Prophets

1 Timothy 1:7

Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.

Lot of us have experienced this attitude by so called “elders/preachers”. New Testament has warned us again and again to be vigilant of false teachers/preachers and prophets. In Jesus times Pharisees and scribes tried to outscore Jesus by trying to instigate him and trying to trap in his words (e.g. Matthew 22:23-46, Mark 12:13). But every time they tried they failed miserable (e.g. Mark 12:17). Similarly, these days number of false teachers and preachers are on rise. They try to twist the verses from Bible and interpret them as they want to for their own materialistic benefit. Of course they will have to pay for their sins in hell but remember they are doing the damage while living. When we stop reading Bible and having interceding with God, we easily fall in the trap of these satan powered preachers.

God through Bible has warned us time and again to be circumspect of these false prophets because as Bible says “they come to us in sheep’s clothes but inwardly they are ravaging wolves” (Matthew 7:15). Whatever elders and preachers preach check it with Bible whether the message falls in the line of Biblical teaching or not. There is no harm in cross checking as you will get double sure that only Bible teachings are being taught to you and not satanic teachings. 

Work Hard And God will take care

Proverbs 28:19

He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough.

Who says that Bible only teaches on faith and not on hard work. God will bless those who really do work with dedication and honesty. People who make excuses for not doing their work will ultimately bear the brunt of it. Along with faith in God, one must remember that our Lord likes people who aren’t lazy. Our Heavenly Father will bless us abundantly if we continue to work sincerely. We would never be laggards in our particular field.

Indolent people would always blame God for not getting rewards but they forget that by being sluggish they disobeyed God in the first place. Why would God ignore the prayers of a hard working person who obeys him by doing his work whole heartedly? Once we toil hard in our particular field we surely would be blessed and yield good results (Proverbs 14:23). For a student to get good grades he has to work hard, merely by sitting and thinking that God would help him won’t fetch him good grades, for a farmer to get good harvest he has to put in his labor in field, for a service person he has to work hard in his office to get promotion and similarly every person in his field has to put in best effort for getting rewards.

So next time you think about being getting lazy think twice and read Proverbs 28:19.