A Pastor’s Perspective

“Time to Read” by Mike Hill, pastor of Calvary Chapel Aberdeen (mjhill@ida.net)

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 Do you remember “Let’s Make a Deal”?  Imagine Monty Hall walking up and offering you the items behind door number three.  The catch is that you’ll have to trade your house and life’s earnings to obtain it.  Who would do that?  To give away thousands of dollars for something you aren’t sure of.  That’s foolish.  With regard to any purchase, you have a right to know what you’re buying.  Simple logic, wise spending. 

Whether you are Democrat or Republican, in favor of the stimulus package or against it, you have to agree that spending a large sum of money on something you aren’t sure of is not wise.  Apparently this simple wisdom was not applied to the stimulus package that was frantically rushed for approval.  The package costs us billions and billions and billions...almost a trillion dollars, but are we aware of its specific contents?  Was anyone prior to the vote?  Scandalous and shocking!  One of our representatives courageously cried, “Foul!”  He boldly declared, “Here we are with 1,100 pages. 1,100 pages that not one member of this body has read!  Not one….I don’t know how you can read 1,100 pages between midnight and now…  Not one member’s read this.  What happened to the promise that we’re going to let the American people see what’s in this bill for 48 hours? But no [he drops the large quantity of paperwork onto the ground with a loud noise] we don’t have time to do that.”

What motivated the representative to bravely “go against the flow”?  How did he find the strength to speak the truth and risk ridicule, resistance, and rejection?  Perhaps he was aware that he is accountable.  He is accountable to the American people to faithfully fulfill his role.  He is accountable to the government authority he represents.  He is accountable to God.

What’s more shocking to me is how people can walk through life without understanding the contents of the Bible.  I’m fond of saying that the B.I.B.L.E. is the Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.  Do you understand its contents? Do you dig into the Word on a regular basis?  Or would you respond, “I just don’t have time to do that”?

When we get too busy to spend time with Jesus, listening to His Word and applying it to our lives, our priorities are misdirected.  If something or someone is more important in our lives than Jesus, it is an idol.  Jesus asked, “How do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process?” (Mark 8:36 NLT).  Do your soul some good and spend time today in the Bible.  It’s more costly to ignore it than to simply and wisely open it up.  You’re accountable to God for its contents.  “Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him” (Luke 8:18).

If you buy into the lie that the words of Jesus can be neglected and ignore biblical truth, you will eternally suffer “buyer’s remorse” of the worst kind.