Many people are against reading because they say that you go crazy and believe anything. Others say that the letter kills but you know, where I live I don't have friends and one day I discovered what I have are potential enemies because of my faith.
When I moved to another city, my friends abandoned me, my family despised me when they disagreed about who, for many, was an idol who, like the Catholics, with Mary and their "saints", if I am referring to Bertucci, and that led me to read the complete New Testament about 4 or 5 times, I met a Jesus that I had never met, I met a gospel that I had never known because I only knew the cool Gospel and the half-idiotic Jesus that many modern pastors present.
I met my family that I had never met (If they were Christians they are my family), people like George Withfield, Martin Luther, Peter Cartwrite, a very beautiful family of mine called Susana Wesley and I met their beautiful children who changed the history of the church, I met Spurgeon aka the prince of preachers, Charles Finney, Evan Roberts, the beautiful lady Mary Woodworth-Etter, Jonathan Edwards, the martyr John Hus, the long-suffering man of faith George Muller, Dwight L. Moody, the controversial Calvin, the visionaries William and Catherine Booth... Their successes, mistakes, mistakes, super blunders, I suffered with them, I became impatient with them, I prayed and cried with them...
I got excited reading about the revivals and the history of the church and I often wondered why (and I still wonder) why in many churches they do not teach these things that although some are not the Bible, it is our history, it is our family . I think we all like to know about our history and the history of our family. Martin Luther King said "He who does not know where he comes from does not know where he is going."
In reading and in prayer I took refuge and discovered wonderful things and people and I even discovered many lies that are preached by taking verses out of their context, that is why I will never accept that reading is bad or that it can drive me crazy. My older brother Jesus once said "Search Search the Scriptures; for you think that in them you have eternal life; and they are the ones that testify of Me; (John 5:39)
And I understand that there are people who read to read and others to show off their knowledge. I remember a guy who knew a lot of the Bible and I think he even knew how Spurgeon's feet smelled, but how sad, I would have liked him to pray like the books say Spurgeon prayed, who was recognized as "the prince of preachers" for his effectiveness. who was when preaching said that he would rather teach one person to pray than a thousand to preach.
This man I speak of knew a lot about the history of Jonathan Edwards and Charles Finney but he was an idiot when it came to praying and the books say that the prayers of these men were passionate like cries of desperation for souls.
These types of people like the one I mentioned above should not be the majority. I read about how Spurgeon prayed and compared it to the Bible and I was moved and I still struggle to pray the way Spurgeon, Finney and Edwards prayed.
I don't want to read the Bible to beat you in an argument, I don't want to read books and history to know more than everyone but to live what I read more than everyone.
But because people read and read not to live but to show off, I cannot say that reading is bad, I love the family of mine that I met reading and I want to talk about them, I am excited to talk about revivals even though I have no one to talk to about them. That's because even though I could spend hours talking about what failed in Asuza or what happened to William Booth in his attempts to reach more people, it turns out that some find it boring "because the lyrics kill" but for me it has nothing to do with the letter but what letter and what you do with the letter.
I remember that while I was reading the books about the generals I made a table in Excel (like a good computer scientist) where, among other things, I placed columns with the successes, failures and what led them to make those mistakes so that I would not make them in my life if God came to me. call the ministry.
I think it's not the what but the how and why. I remember that when I read the New Testament 5 times I had heard many preachers talk about what Jesus was like, how he taught and what the true gospel was and there were so many things that I said to myself "I myself want to discover what the gospel is and what Jesus was really like", well from there I had to give up ideas that I had for more than 30 years about Jesus and what the gospel was.
Something good that I advise and that anyone who wants to study the Bible should have is this: I told him "Sir, I am going to study the Bible but I am not holding on to any prior knowledge, I am open to learning as if I didn't know anything." That prayer changed everything. For example, when reading the New Testament I realized that it is true what those of sound doctrine say that covering with blood is not biblical and even though I had been doing it for 30 years, I accepted it because the prayer I made to God was that I wasn't holding on to anything.
Today he decided to write this, I still don't have a title, let's see how I end up titling it.
Have a good day.
Kisses
elprofebubba
No comments:
Post a Comment