The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"The Devotional and the Doctrinal"
The Christian life involves both the devotional and the doctrinal. We minimize either to our peril.
The devotional refers to our living and personal relationship with God given by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in salvation, and by the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit in our hearts. As vital as doctrine is, we could have the entire Bible memorized, and even well interpreted, but apart from personal fellowship with our Heavenly Father, we would be merely students rather than sons and daughters. He desires the fellowship of our hearts far too much for our knowledge of Him to be merely academic. "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3).
The presence and working of God's Spirit in our hearts that makes our knowledge of Him personal must be formed and informed by the doctrinal. "Thy Word is truth" declared the Lord Jesus, who calls us to know Him "as the Scripture hath said" (John 17:17; 7:38). We will inevitably descend into the worship of what the Apostle Paul termed "another Jesus" if we seek to know and understand our Lord apart from the Bible (II Corinthians 11:4). Spurious notions, capricious emotions, and variable sensations will influence our attempt to walk with Him, as opposed to the propositional foundation God provides: "Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock" (Matthew 7:24-25).
God made us with both hearts and minds. Thereby, "they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth" (John 7:24). To know the living Word, the Lord Jesus, and to understand the written Word, the Bible, defines genuine relationship with God. Fellowship with our Father through Christ leads us to the Scriptures. The Scriptures lead us to fellowship with our Father through Christ. Walking with God ensues from such "spirit and truth." Danger lies ahead and is already at hand if we neglect either blessed gift given by the Father who made us for the devotion that fills our hearts, and the doctrine that illuminates our minds. The Apostle Paul prayed accordingly for the Ephesians, and we close with the intercession for personal knowledge and doctrinal understanding we do well to adopt for fellow believers and ourselves…
"Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power."
(Ephesians 1:15-19)
Weekly Memory Verse
Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock.
(Matthew 7:24)
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