Information or Instruction?

 

Marleen and I have been reading thru the Bible using the Bible Recap app.  Tara-Leigh Cobble said something interesting Monday.  She said, “Some things in the Bible are for information and some things in the Bible are for instruction.”  An interesting contrast in words.  When I talk with my daughter in Cedar Hill, Tennessee, she gives me newsy tidbits about my 3 grandchildren.  She relates to me what they have been up to.  That’s information … good to know.  But when Marleen gives me a list of items to get at the grocery store, that’s for supper and that’s on a totally different level.  If I neglect what she says, my supper is in jeopardy.  So that’s instruction.  I’d better listen if I want to eat.  The Old Testament is full of information about Israel.  About Abraham, about Moses and about Gideon.  The New Testament, however, is full of instruction for me.  How to live my life … what to do and what not to do.  And if I neglect what God says, my eternal reward is in jeopardy.  Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

The Inside

 

About fifteen years ago I was driving home at night and I needed a snack.  It was late, so I drove through Krystal’s and bought two Krystal Chicks and a sweet tea.  I bit into the first one and thought that I tasted mayonnaise.  That was curious.  I didn’t think that Krystal put mayonnaise on their sandwiches.  So, at the next streetlight, I looked at the sandwich and noticed that the chicken was raw on the inside.  Now I can handle a medium rare steak, but I can’t handle raw chicken at all!  The chicken fillet looked fine on the outside, but it was cold and raw on the inside!  Bakers use a toothpick to test the inside of their cakes.  A cake may look done on the outside, but it must be done on the inside too.  Hey, what about your spiritual life?  You may look like a fine Christian on the outside, but are you a fine Christian on the inside too?  Jesus said in Matthew 23:28, “… ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”

Jack Mattox Recreation Complex

 

Sunday morning. I needed to go to church early because the falling leaves would be all over the church sidewalks, and someone (me) needed to blow them off.  On the way, Marleen and I passed the Jack Maddox Recreation complex.  At 8:30 on Sunday morning the parking lot was full of cars!  Ball players of all ages (and their parents) packed the ballfields on a gorgeous Sunday morning.  But nearby, there were only two cars at Philadelphia Baptist church.  And they, like me, were preparing for church.  I Timothy 4:8, “For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”  And in 100 years, please remember this post.  And if you happen to be in heaven, please stop by my mansion and we’ll have a chat and reminisce a bit.