For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

I found this devotional in the Oct. 2004, In Touch. Any comments added by me will be in this red script.

God gave Israel the Old Testament to instruct the nation and to offer her hope.

I feel the Old Testament is so significant for us today, as it records the ‘personal history’ of the saints, giving us insight into their lives, struggles, and challenges. For me, it helped tremendously in understanding ‘God’s grace.’ As you read the Old Testament, you will find they too were saved by grace—–not performance. (The Law became the visible standard declared by God for righteousness, but it was ‘their belief’ that made them to be declared righteous in the eyes of God as illustrated in Genesis 15:6 in His relationship with Abram.) The Old Testament also reveals Israel’s corporate history as a nation——and how they were blessed when they were obedient to God, and to the moral principles of God, and how they were punished and suffered the consequences of their rebellion and sin against Him. I feel today so often we do not spend enough time in the Old Testament to gain from it the sweet insight of God’s personal relationship with Israel and His saints of that time. It gives such an insight to the revealed nature of God. He left the Old Testament for us today too.

The Father’s commands were designed not to ruin His children’s fun, but rather to help them avoid harm.

In Deuteronomy 8:19, in fact that whole chapter is so powerful, but especially starting with verse 11 through 20, it really speaks to us—–but we see that God holds believers accountable: He will bless and protect them, but if they turn away, they can expect His hand of judgment. Were He to operate in any other way, He would be permissive and unreliable. But we can count on God to do exactly what He says because the Bible records that is just how He interacted with His beloved nation of Israel. In fact, their history was a continuous cycle of blessing, waywardness, judgment, repentance, and blessing. If God deals with the ‘apple of His eye’ this way, what can we expect?

Although our country was not created as a Christian nation, the Founding Fathers did structure our government on biblical principles. As a result, we have experienced abundant blessing. But as we drift and turn a deaf ear to God’s instructions, how can He continue to pour out His favor? The principles of Scripture work whether or not people heed them. God’s law is absolute truth. We cannot ‘break His laws, but we can be broken when we trespass them.’

The Lord is longsuffering, but if we as a nation reach a certain stage of moral depravity and cross a ‘divine line,’ we can expect His judgment. Is it too late? Second Chronicles 7:14 encouraged believers of that day to humble themselves, pray, seek God’s face and turn from wickedness. We must do the same. Only then will God hear from heaven and heal the land.

Bill Watts

(Ephesians 4:11-16) Especially verse 14: As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming.

Most of the following is taken from a series of devotionals from In Touch.

Our Christian beliefs form a mental grid through which we determine the validity and usefulness of what we hear. We know a filter with large holes isn’t very successful at keeping out impurities and unwanted material. The same is true of our mental filter—-it must be tightly woven with scriptural truth in order to separate out ungodly values, unbiblical opinions, and erroneous thinking.

Remember how the Adversary has made our minds his battlefield? He wants to create holes in the helmet of ‘biblical thinking’ that protects us. If we allow our mental grid system to include worldly thinking as well as scriptural truth, then there will be weak spots or openings the Enemy can penetrate with his deception. Satan fooled Adam and Eve by disguising lies with partial truths, (Gen 3:1-7). He tries to deceive us in this way too. The more we understand God’s character and plan, the quicker we will recognize error, no matter how it is camouflaged.

Our beliefs also protect us from fear and intimidation. By being well-grounded in the Scriptures, we can stand firm when our convictions are aggressively challenged.

It is essential that we know what we believe and that our faith is based on God’s truth alone. How well protected is your mind?

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Does being saved by grace, and knowing one’s eternal security in the Lord, that ‘once saved always saved’ seemingly conflict or give a person ‘free license to sin?’

Does the teaching of the gospel (salvation by grace through faith) permit or even encourage sinful living?

A modern version of this argument is as follows: “You say that men are saved by grace through faith, apart from the law. But if all you have to do to be saved is believe, then you could go out and live in sin.” According to this argument, grace is not a sufficient motivation for holy living. You must put people under the restraints of the law.

In this, it is my hope that I can give you some good mental stimulus to understand what I feel is God’s truth.

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This is not written to ‘convince you’ nor to ‘preach to you,’ rather to stimulate your heart and mind to search God’s Word for the truth, and for your own relationship to Him in Christ. I am a sinner saved by grace.

My personal belief is, ‘there is no new revelation’ from God — either Scripturally or in person by a revelation or communion or special messenger. The Bible is complete. However, with that said, I do believe a person can have ‘new illumination’ through the Holy Spirit to ‘understand Scripture’ in a more meaningful way. However, that can never be from God’s Holy Spirit, and be contradictory to Scripture.

I hold the Bible to be totally authoritative (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:21, Matt 24:35; Psalms 119:89; Heb. 2:1-4) — and when someone begins ‘interpreting it’ they can demonstrate their fallibility — even though they might hold themselves up as scholars or experts—–and even have a certain following of those who they lead. Thus, ‘responsibility’ is a huge factor as the word of the Lord is preached. Each of us is also ‘responsible’ to search the Scriptures to see if what ‘we hear’ is the truth.

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