"As the Scripture Hath Said"

(a repeat from 2014)

"As the Scripture Hath Said"

"He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of His belly shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38).

    It is more than possible to believe in a "Jesus" who bears little or no resemblance to the glorious Christ proclaimed by the Bible.  In his second epistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul speaks of those who preach "another Jesus" (II Corinthians 11:4).  Thus, we must determine to know the true and living Lord Jesus Christ in the terms He set forth - "as the Scripture hath said."  As we do, our innermost being becomes a fountain of flowing spiritual life.  Conversely, if the Christ we know bears little or no resemblance to the Biblical Lord of Heaven, we will misrepresent Him to our world.

   This presents the ongoing challenge: are we thinking rightly - Biblically - about the Lord Jesus and His involved presence in our lives?  No Christian is beyond the possibility of deception or distraction in this most vital of matters.  We must seek to be as precisely accurate as possible in our understanding of His person and work.  Who is Christ?  What has He done for His Father's glory and our benefit?  What is He doing?  And what will He do forevermore as the Son of the Father and the Savior of the church?  To the degree we walk in truth regarding these great questions of our existence will be the degree to which we serve as the tributary for living waters to abundantly flow to our needy sphere of influence.  The fish in our little pond, as it were, must see the Lord Jesus exemplified in our attitudes, demeanor, actions, and relationships.  When opportunity arises to speak of Him, we must be ready to confess Christ as He truly is, again, "as the Scripture hath said."  Such outpouring of life, His life, begins with our determination to trust the living Word of God - the Lord Jesus - in accordance with the written Word of God - the Bible.  "In Thy light shall we see light" (Psalm 36:9).

    No aspiration of life compares with the holy purpose of knowing the Lord Jesus.  Our hearts, minds, and being were made by Him and for Him.  "Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (II Corinthians 3:18).  Again, do we know Him as He truly is?  No believer can make the claim of absolute perfection in our understanding of the Savior.  Thus, we set forth in this day and forevermore in the holy pursuit of discovery.  As David declared, "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple" (Psalm 27:4).   We do well to join our brother of old, and in the completed Bible he did not possess, we have far more means to behold and inquire of Christ - as the Scripture hath said.

"Thy Word is truth."

(John 17:17)

"When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face, my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek" (Psalm 27:8).  

(Psalm 27:8)    

Weekly Memory Verse

   The hope of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall perish.

(Proverbs 10:28)