I saw a funny movie the other night about someone from the future who had unearthed a book from our time about love. It seems they had no concept of romantic love in their society, having developed a clinical, impersonal system of life, with reproduction being managed by labs and test tubes. His curiosity aroused, the hero managed to go back in time to find out about love. His insatiable desire to learn about it and experience it for himself made for an entertaining story, at the end of which he fell in love and decided to stay in the 21st century.
Thinking about the imaginative story line reminds me of our Bible Study last night, which dealt with developing a close relationship with God. The emphasis was on reading the Word, committing it to your heart, living by it and knowing God through it. Just as the fictional hero had his interest piqued by reading the book, so reading the Bible awakens our desire for knowing God more deeply. In speaking of the righteous, Psalms 1:2 says, “But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.” He can’t get enough, and is always hungry for more.
John 1:1-3 tells us that the Word (Jesus) was there in the beginning with God, and was God, and that all things were made by Him. Verse 4 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” The very essence of our life is Jesus! His life lights up our life in a way that no earthly relationship can. One man at the meeting last night said he appropriated that verse as also to mean sickness (darkness) had no place in his life and could not exist, just as darkness cannot exist with light!
In our study the Word was likened to a treasure. We are told in Luke 6:45 that it is out of the treasure of our heart that we bring forth good or evil, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. If we don’t store up the Word of God and its precepts in our hearts, what will come out of our mouth?
Also, in Colossians 3:16 the Bible says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord.” That is another way to reinforce the knowledge and love of God in our hearts and to share with others.
The Bible is often referred to as a mirror. Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 3:18,“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” The more time you spend with someone, the more like them you become. You will probably get to where you even sound alike! The character in the movie may have come back in time to find out about love, but Jesus, who transcends time, was Love come to Earth to teach us how to love and be loved.
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