| Good morning everyone, Our theme for this month: “Hearing from God” Our Bible verse for today: “These things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our instruction …” 1 Corinthians 10:11 (CSB) Our thought for today: “God speaks through the scenarios recorded in the Bible” Right now, on Sunday nights at Oak Hill Baptist Church we are studying the parable of the Prodigal Son. It’s a deep-dive into the intricacies of the parable and we’re learning a lot from it. When telling a parable, Jesus took a spiritual truth and He laid it alongside a scene or example from everyday life to help illustrate how the spiritual truth is lived out in the situations of our lives. The parable paints a picture or describes a scenario that is typical in life and through it, God speaks truth that we can then apply to our own lives. God does that all throughout Scripture – He creates scenarios or He records for us scenes of His people involved in the things of everyday life, and from those scenes we receive guidance for living our own lives. The parable of the Prodigal Son is one example of that. We see another example of God using a scene or scenario to speak to us in Acts 2:42-47. There we find the early church in Jerusalem gathered for worship, prayer, and fellowship. They were united in purpose, they were generous with their resources, they were taking care of each other, and there was a powerful spiritual dynamic at work among them. Through this scene God is speaking to us about the attributes He wants us to be cultivating in our own church life. In Numbers 14:1-4 God shows a negative scenario that He intends for us to avoid. In that case, the people of God disobeyed His clear command to go forward and take possession of the Promised Land. In that scene we see the psychological phenomenon known as “groupthink” at work among God’s people. “Groupthink” is a dysfunctional decision-making process whereby one influential person convinces someone else of something; then the two of them go to work on a third person; and then the three of them convince others; and soon, everyone is coming to the same flawed decision. But they’re doing so because they have been influenced by others and the more who come into agreement, the more powerful the argument seems because so many others agree with it. In a church setting the group will usually conclude that “this is obviously the will of God because we are all in agreement.” (There is actually an easy way to avoid this, and we will discuss it in an upcoming devotional.) For now, the lesson for us here this morning is that God speaks to us through the scenarios recorded in the Bible. We can learn both positive and negative lessons from how God’s people conducted themselves in those situations. Tomorrow we will conclude our thinking about how God speaks to us through the Bible. We will consider some ways to search the Scripture for the answers we need in specific situations. God bless, Pastor Jim (If you like what you’re reading in these daily devotionals, and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00 – in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville) |
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