Bible For Foreigners

Learning From the Word

The Lord teaches us by His Word, or His Book, the same

way teachers teach their children in school, by the book. The word

"chastise" in the Greek usually denotes “to train children.” It suggests

the broad idea of education by correcting with words, reproving,

admonishing and instructing. When we can grasp this,

we can then know that God is not the author of evil, but it is our

wrong decisions that produce evil and its consequences. If we are

walking defeated Christian lives, it is not God’s fault. He made a

way for us to overcome by obeying His Word. When the trials of

life overwhelm us and we are defeated, it is because we did not

pass the test. In school, when a child fails a test, we do not blame

the teacher, as the fault lies with the child who did not do his

lessons and homework well. However, when Christians fail the

tests in life, may times it is God who is blamed. He gets the blame

for taking little children’s lives in accidents, for sending sickness

upon His children, for burning down houses, for earthquakes,

storms, etc. Could it be that if we did our homework by praying

and studying the Bible, that many of these things could be prevented?

Yes, they could; the lack is ours, not God’s.

We believe in the motto, “Prayer Changes Things,” yet how

much quality time do we spend in prayer? How many hours do

we devote to Bible study as compared to the hours we watch TV

or devote our time to other time wasting endeavors? Yet, when

something bad happens in our lives, we do not take the blame to

ourselves because it is so much easier to blame God. God gave us

mighty weapons in His Word to overcome the devil and defeat

him at every turn. Is it His fault we are not aware of these weapons?

We have the book that tells us how to be an overcomer. That

book is the Holy Bible. I would say few people reading this would

not have access to a Bible. The Holy Spirit is our teacher and His

operation manual for living in this world is the Bible. If we have

Him in our hearts and read His manual, there is not one problem

that we cannot overcome. We find few overcomers because we

find few apt students. We find a lot of people that know the Word

of God but they do not apply it to their lives. In school we must

apply what we know to pass the exams. If we do not know our

subject, we are doomed to fail from the start. That is why we

must know Him first, for in Him is all knowledge and wisdom.

If we are walking with the Lord, the Holy Spirit will always

do His job of reproving us for sin. (John 16:8: And when he

(the Holy Spirit) is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and

of righteousness, and of judgment....) Sometimes we suffer under

Satan’s false accusations when we are not guilty at all. How can

we determine when it is the Holy Spirit that is convicting us and

when it is the enemy that is condemning us? When the Holy Spirit

convicts us of sin, He always shows us the way out and always

extends to us pardon. When the devil is condemning us, he never

leaves us a way out, he accuses us, and he condemns us to failure.

He would whisper to us, “You will never change; you can never

overcome this weakness. God is angry with you and He will punish

you for this. You might as well go back into the world. God’s

way is too hard. You are doomed to hell, anyway. Why, you have

committed the unpardonable sin, etc.” These are a few of the lies

Satan tells us when we have failed and sinned, and every one of

them brings condemnation and fear. God always lifts us up and

helps us when we have failed Him, and shows us there is a better

way. He enables us to overcome if we do it His way.

If we forsake evil and turn to Him, we are never condemned;

but if we continue to sin, we are condemned along with the world.

John 3:18-21, He that believeth on him is not condemned:

but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he

hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of

God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the

world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their

deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light,

neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds

may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. If we

judge ourselves, we shall not be condemned with the world because

we are a part of a “new world.”

The Lord gave a parable in Matthew 5:25-26 that gives us a

guideline as to how we can judge ourselves and remain free from

Satan’s condemning lies. Agree with thine adversary quickly,

whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary

deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee

to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto

thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast

paid the uttermost farthing. The Amplified Version of the Bible

makes this even a little easier for us to understand. Come to terms

quickly with your accuser while you are on the way travelling

with him, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and

the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison; Truly, I say

to you, you will never be released until you have paid the last

fraction of a penny. We know that Satan is our accuser and our

adversary (Revelation12:10), so when we are walking with him,

or keeping company with him by sinning, and he accuses us of

that sin, we are to agree with him. If we have lied, and he says to

us, “You are a liar and all liars go to hell,” we are to agree with

this statement, when guilty. We must not stop here, however; we

should then ask God’s forgiveness and tell the devil, “Yes, I have

sinned, but I have asked God to forgive me and His Word also

says, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive

us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1

John 1:9). If we do not confess our sin, then we come under the

judge’s jurisdiction. We find that the judge is the Word of God,

and the Word of God does declare that all liars end up in hell.

(Revelation 21:8: But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the

abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcer30

ers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the

lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second

death.) So the judge (God’s word) takes us to the officer or

the guard. The guard is representative of the Holy Spirit, as He

guards the Word. If the Holy Spirit does not know us, then we

must pay the price for our sin.

By agreeing that we are guilty and asking the Lord for forgiveness,

we can avoid the condemnation and the penalty. When

Satan then accuses us, the Holy Spirit will have pardoned us because

Jesus paid the price for our sins so that we do not have to

pay it. Praise God! Even as Christians we can come into bondage

and be held prisoner in our bodies, our emotions and our minds if

we fail to ask for forgiveness of our sins. Satan has a legal hold

when we have unconfessed sin in our lives. We should also ask

the Lord to forgive us for those things that we do not, as of yet,

recognize as sin, even as David did in Psalm 19:12: Who can

understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.

The more of God’s Word that we know, the more we shall be able

to recognize our sin and be cleansed of it. Ephesians 5:26: That

he might sanctify and cleanse it (the church) with the washing

of water by the word... Yes, the more of God’s Word we

have in our hearts, the more we shall be able to prove and test all

things. To know and understand the Word of God is to know the

truth, and in knowing the truth we indeed shall be free.

We then, being free, will not have to stand before God’s judgment

for sin. What is God’s judgment on sin? It is the penalty for

broken spiritual laws. This penalty is brought on by our own sins

(unless we receive Jesus, as He took the penalty for us on Calvary).

The judgment of God can be averted by repentance and

prayer. Disasters come to cities, and most of the time it is spoken

of as “the judgment of God” coming upon the people because of

their wickedness. If Christians were praying for their cities and

asking God to be merciful and to deliver and touch the people of

that town, we would see fewer disasters. Christians should be in

prayer daily for their communities, seeking God on behalf of the

city officials and praying for truth and peace to reign in their local

areas. We, as Christians, have been failing, thus allowing Satan to

bring disaster to areas because there are no interceding Christians.