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There is an enormous resistance these days to the diligent study of the Bible. God sees it, and His heavy hand of discipline rests upon us because of what He sees. This country was built by people who used the Bible as a basic primer in school. It is now run by people who couldn't tell you what Paul's doctrine of salvation is to save their souls. But those of us who do not run it are not exempt from God's heavy hand of discipline. The foolishness of the O.J. Simpson trial is bleeding the pocketbooks of all of us. The nonsense of government bureaucracy and the national debt is ruining us all in the false name of compassion. Everywhere we turn people are whining about everything, suing about nothing, and generally living in the great depression (the emotional condition, not the historical financial one). Why? Because God sees.
The most foolish thing that He sees are churches who ignore the Bible in order to attract members. The blindness is so great that even many of those who think they are studying the Bible are really doing nothing more than reinforcing their pet views by selective proof texts from various pages in the Book. God sees, and He is not unmoved.
The True Church of Jesus Christ is indeed difficult to find these days because it does not exist in some exclusive denomination or self-appointed dogmatic organization. Instead, it exists as the composite unity of all those who love and believe the Word of God as it is--not as they would like for it to be.
I heard once of a certain church who wanted a new pastor. They sought out resumes and applications from pastoral wanna-be's. One they had returned included a statement in which the applicant said that he believed in obedience to Jesus' teaching in Matthew 18 regarding the discipline of errant members. He was rejected as a viable candidate because his view was too radical. This was a so-called evangelical church which wanted the Bible taught in its pulpit. It just didn't want certain parts of it taught. God sees, and He is not unmoved.
Today in our county there is a host of people going about their routine. Many of them consider themselves sufficiently religious to satisfy the loving God upstairs, but most of them don't know how to find the truth of the Gospel in the pages of the book God has taken enormous pains over the centuries to preserve. God sees, and He is not unmoved.
We have the most precious commodity in the universe between the covers of the Book. It is the wisdom of God and it shows us what God is like and how we can have Him as our real, personal, loyal Father. And we let it gather dust, or, worse, we read it perfunctorily so we can say that we are Bible students. God sees, and He is not unmoved. When the next disaster comes, ask yourself: would this have happened if the people involved had been walking with God in harmony with the teachings of the Bible? When God's heavy hand of discipline is apparent, wise men seek answers in the Bible.