Taking Ownership of What We Take For Granted

This past week showed me some of life we often categorize as the Good, Bad, and Ugly.

If you think about it and pay attention to the world around you, these categories show up every day. Some days are full of one or the other, but every day has an abundance of each. We moan about the bad and ugly but take good things for granted.

We should take ownership of all of it because it represents our lives. Every single day.

Today, I focus on how we take God’s Word for granted. The Bible. Often, it’s that dusty tome sitting on a shelf or at the bottom of a stack of books we promised ourselves we would read someday. It looks daunting. It takes planning to spend some time with this book. Shrug. We allow it to continue collecting dust until a better day.

In the early start of his ministry, and probably throughout every day, Jesus proclaimed his platform in what we lovingly call “The Sermon on the Mount.” Without fanfare, microphone, or podium, Jesus sat with his disciples and began teaching them his focus of thought. There were no notes or computer screens. There was no shakedown for money or fame. He simply taught his framework of life.

Jesus already had crowds following him, so I assume his audience was not just his twelve disciples. But that’s who he is said to have focused on at the beginning of his sermon. The last verses of Matthew 4 spoke of him already having crowds and attention. When I look at the last of Matthew 7, I assume the audience was bigger than just his disciples.

And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings,
that the people were astonished at His teaching,
for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
Matthew 7:28-29 NKJV

Notice the point? We often take it for granted. Jesus was not merely reciting what the scribes wrote. He taught as one who had authority. In these three short chapters, Jesus shows us insights into the Word of God that impact us today. We take these words for granted. We want something new and challenging, but these words are the bedrock of the ministry of Jesus.

Don’t Take Them For Granted

When we need prayer to recite, we turn to the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew but often ignore the one found in Luke. We take these words for granted. Perhaps if we took them as a model of how to pray, we would call it The Disciples Prayer. If you want to understand how Jesus prayed, turn to John 17 – the entire chapter is a model of praying at the start of a crisis (Arrest, Trial, Cross, Death.)

There come plenty of times we need help with a major decision, so we turn to the Gospels to see how Jesus dealt with the weight of the world resting on his shoulders. The Rich Young Ruler could not follow Jesus because he had great wealth and perceived the cost as too high.

Or, we know we’ve been given a talent and don’t know what to do with it. That comes right after his teaching on the 10 Virgins waiting for the Bridegrooms’ call. Five were ready, and five were not. Connect those two thoughts, and maybe you can understand Jesus is warning against not being ready or doing something of value with what we have given. Why? Judgment day is coming.

For that reason, it’s good to have the Holy Spirit active in your life!

It’s good to know the Fruit of the Spirits is referenced in two places of Paul’s writings, with Galatians being his most likely first letter. Galatians and Ephesians. (Click on the links if you want to read the scriptures!) The Gifts of the Spirit are also noted by Paul, but Jesus laid the foundation. Peter preached it at Pentecost and realized the Spirit was available to all in Caesarea.

When we focus on the Good things, life can be handled much better!

This Can Take Some Time: Is it worth it?

I asked a friend the other day, “What would it be like if we all knew as much about the bible as we do about cars?” We were at a car show with 3,000 entries that probably represented one billion dollars of value.

What if we studied the word more than we studied the statistics of sports, which, by the way, do us no good in the eternal wave of life! Or, recite recipes and understand conversions between metric and standard? What if we could number and name all the constellations of space?

Would any of it matter?

Could it be that if we lived the Word in everything we did, the world would be a totally different place to live?

There are benefits with eternal value if we spend more time learning about God’s Good Word than focusing on the Bad and the Ugly sensational news of the day?

I know an old chorus; accordingly, I can share it with you since it is in the Public Domain. You don’t have to click to find it, but there is a reference if you should want to look deeper into the song.

I have a wonderful treasure,
The gift of God without measure;
We will travel together,
My Bible and I.
[Source]