This coming year is going to be one of the most important years of our lives and the world. As I began saying years ago, every election in the U.S. from now on will be more important than the last one, because we are entering times of such intensity. I think we can say this has been accurate so far, and believe it or not, even though the 2010 elections will not include a Presidential election, they will be even more important than the 2008 election. Because of the intensity of the times, our choices will have magnified consequences—this is true in the nation, the world, and our individual lives.
Even though the decisions we make will have magnified consequences, we also will be given less and less time to make them. That is why the most important decision we can make by far is to seek the Lord first above anything else, getting to know Him and His ways better, and walking with Him more closely. The true Christian life does not just know accurate doctrines, but is a life of following and obeying the Lord. As the Lord made clear, we can know all doctrines well, but if we do not obey Him, then it will not be good for us on that great Day of Judgment, and it will not likely go well for us in this life either.
There are two aspects to following the Lord and doing His will. One begins with loving the truth enough to seek it in His Word. The other is to know His voice. Even under the Old Covenant, we see repeatedly that Israel was required to obey His commandments and to heed His voice. This has not changed. We need to know and heed His written Word and obey His voice, as is declared throughout the New Testament, which we will cover.
Therefore, a goal of this year in our Word for the Week study will be to know His written word better, and to know His voice better. As we are told in II Thessalonians 2:10, just because we know the “truth” does not mean that we won’t be deceived in these times—we must have a “love of the truth.” If we truly love the truth, we will pursue it diligently. Obviously, you are in pursuit of truth or you would not be reading something like this Word for the Week. Let us all resolve to excel more and more in our pursuit of the Lord and His truth.
Those who excel in any field are inevitably those who do the basics the best. The best will be found with a devotion to continually reviewing and practicing the basics. The stronger we are in the basics, the stronger all that we build upon them will be, and the greater what can be built upon them can be.
As we have discussed, studies have shown that about 80 percent of Americans claim to be Christians, and a large percentage of these claim to be born-again Christians. Yet less than 10 percent have a biblical worldview. Our worldview is how we see the world. The Bible was given to us so that we could view the world and life as God views it. To see the world in any other way than how the Lord sees it is a basic deception. A basic goal of the Christian life must be to walk in truth.
What has shaped our worldview? The news media? A secular education? The opinions of other people? Our own opinions? The Bible? Sound teaching from a good and knowledgeable pastor? Our worldview can be a combination of these, but our main concern is that it is true. It is only going to be true to the degree that we view the world as God does.
The true Christian life is to be a disciple of Christ. This means that we should learn of Him and His ways, and by this, we should also view the world through His eyes. If Jesus, who was The Word, would take His stand on “it is written” when challenged, how much more should we have to do this? Therefore, one of our basic devotions as a disciple must be to know the Bible. Without question, this is a daunting task, but so is following Christ. He never said it would be easy—He just said it would be worth it.
Reading through the Bible can be very helpful, and I recommend that every Christian do this. An overview of the whole plan of God is crucial for understanding the different aspects of it, including the times in which we live. I have read through the Bible several dozen times, and I am yet to find a single contradiction in it, yet unbelievers constantly declare it to be filled with them. Granted, some things can appear at first to be contradictions when we take it out of context, but when we start to see the whole picture, it all fits together. In fact, the clarifying of some things that appear to be contradictions to those with superficial knowledge is done with such a profound wisdom that it is no doubt beyond human wisdom.
The Bible is also filled with prophecies that have come true exactly as stated. The coming and life of Jesus was prophesied by dozens of people over a four thousand year period, and He fulfilled them all. The life of Buddha was not foretold like that. The life of Muhammad was not foretold like that. No one else in history has ever had such credentials. Without question, Jesus is the One who was foretold to come. He accomplished all that He came to accomplish, and there is no one else in all of history whose message we can trust more. Knowing Him and His message, and thereby becoming His witness, is the most important endeavor we can have in this life.
Our primary devotion for this study this year will be the following: knowing the Lord and His message and being able to apply them better to our own times—establishing, and/or strengthening our biblical worldview. From this perspective, we want to be able to discern the times and to be able to better accomplish our own purpose in them. For this reason, we will also address some of the major current events and forces in our times.
