Lots of people will get a new device, will take the
thing out of its packaging, and will start trying to use it without knowing
what the thing is capable of or how the thing does what it is supposed to do.
We will buy a new camera and will immediately start trying to take pictures,
and when we can’t figure it out, we get frustrated. We will buy a washing
machine, and will immediately pile it full of dirty clothes, only to be
confused by all of the buttons and switches on the front of the machine.
I actually once bought a car, and after driving it
around for a couple of years, a warning light started showing on my dashboard.
I looked at the light and, thinking that I knew what the light represented, I
took the car to my mechanic and informed him that I needed a new alternator
because the light was on. The mechanic was an honest man, and after checking
the car, he told me that my alternator was fine and that I had no problems. I
saw the light and insisted that something was wrong. The mechanic told me that
he didn’t see a light telling me that the alternator was faulty, but I insisted
and demanded that he replace it. The mechanic did what I requested and, after
spending around $200 on the repair, drove away with a new alternator, only to
have the light come on again after I had been driving for about an hour. At
this point, I decided to go to my glove compartment and look in the owner’s
manual to see what this light meant. What I found was that my car was low on
anti-freeze, and the reason that the mechanic didn’t see the light was because
the car was sitting still, so the fluid was not moving around and causing the
sensor to react. So I went to an auto parts store, spent $15 on a gallon of
anti-freeze, filled up the reservoir and the light went out and stayed out.
Knowing that there was no way that I could get a refund on the alternator, I
looked at the situation as a $200 lesson, telling me that I should have
consulted the instruction manual before going off on my own.
The bible is the word of God, and is the instruction
manual for our lives. The bible tells us what we need to do in order to live
according to how God desires us to, and it also tells us what will happen to us
if we do not obey. Just like the instruction manual for the device tells us how
to make the device work, it also tells us what things that we should not do,
and what to do if certain things go wrong, because the manufacturer knows that
these things could go wrong. When we get saved, like the bible says in 2nd
Corinthians 5:17 “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation”, and as a new
creation, this means that we have a new instruction manual.
To read the rest of this passage, pick up a copy of
Things That I Learned from the Word @ Amazon.com (goo.gl/nj7ywA)
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