Genuine Leather Bible

I sat listening to the missionary’s testimony in church tonight and was saddened, but not shocked, at his experience at church. He grew up going to Sunday school and church. He continued attending through high school and even after he got married. But eventually he and his wife stopped making church a priority. The soon fell away from church attendance.

Several years passed and they were invited to visit an adult Sunday school class at a Baptist church. That particular weekend they did not have anything to do since they were stuck in a hotel room waiting to move into their new house. Instead of sitting in the hotel they decided to visit that Sunday school class.

The missionary said that he learned things that Sunday morning in church and Sunday school that he never knew were in the Bible. He attended church until he was an adult, yet he was never taught, or at least had not learned, what was in God’s Word. He did not say what type of church he grew up in, but it really could be any church.

Many churches teach about the Bible, which is good and necessary, but it is also vitally important that you teach the Bible itself. Don’t teach only the moral to the story without teaching the story. Sadly many people are taught what the Bible is about without learning what is actually in the Bible.

People are hungry for the Word of God. If you will teach it clearly then people will eagerly learn.

Are you in a church that talks about the Bible but never teaches its contents? Talk with your pastor and see if he will help you learn God’s Word. Start reading the Bible yourself.

If you are a teacher in a church, be careful to teach the contents of the Bible. Don’t assume everyone knows the stories. Don’t be guilty of saying, “you know in the story of …” The people you are teaching may not know that story. Take two extra minutes and read the verses in the Bible so that everyone knows what the Bible says. Then you can make your application much more effectively.

Last week I was privileged to sit under the teaching of one of my favorite preachers. Since he is my medical doctor and not a pastor, he will probably not be remembered as the great preacher that he truly is.

He was preaching to a group of pastors and missionaries and the title of his sermon was Communication in Marriage. These seven points were only a small portion of the whole message. I hope they are an encouragement to you as they were to me.

Seven Steps of Communication

Try to understand your mate

Men and women communicate differently. Men, when you come home from the office and your wife is sitting on the floor crying, it is important to her that you sit on the floor with her and cry before you pull out your list of steps to solve the problem. After you cry together, then she is willing to listen to your 4 point outline.

When men have a problem, they are looking for solutions. It can be frustrating to him to hear his wife say, “I understand the problem” without offering a solution.

Learn how to communicate in their language. (The above illustrations are generalities. You need to learn how your own mate communicates.)

Learn to talk

Talk through your problems and don’t retreat to past arguments. Don’t get historical. Some people remember an argument from decades ago that they are still holding over their mate.

Learn to attack the problem not the person

If you feel you are only 10% wrong and your spouse is 90% wrong, then be willing to admit your 10% failure. It will usually result in your mate admitting theirs. However, if you hold on to the one or two things you have right and ignore your own faults then it escalates the problem.

Don’t fight with your mate. Fight with the problem and find a solution together.

Give your partner a chance to save face

When negotiating in business there is usually a way for a company to back out of a deal honorably. When one company uses strong-arm tactics and forces another to do their bidding it is an unhealthy partnership. Don’t become the bully or monopolistic person in your marriage. When you make blanket statements and make your mate feel like they have no power to negotiate, they are going to go into survival mode and find any way out—even if it is violent and unhealthy.

Don’t let the sun go down on your wrath

Ephesians 4:26 admonishes us to keep short accounts with those around us. Work through problems and don’t let them build up. You have already ruined one day with your problem. If you try to sleep on the problem you are at risk of ruining the next day because of poor sleep. Work through the problem and move on.

Don’t allow for a way out of your relationship

At the wedding you promised to stay with your mate and work through whatever problems you might encounter. Don’t go back on your promise. Even if you just threaten divorce, those words will never be forgotten. You and your spouse may patch up all the problems and have a wonderful marriage, but the scar of threatening divorce will be impossible to forget.

Don’t fail to exalt Christ

Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. —Psalm 127:1

Keep Christ the center of your relationship and He will strengthen you through each other. If Christ is not currently being exalted through your marriage and family, then work to give Him the place He deserves. His promise is that He will strengthen and build your relationship.

Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: —Ephesians 4:26

Hebrews 12:1 and 2 say that we should run the race that is set before us. Each one of us has a personal race that God wants us to run. But that does not mean He sends us out on the race course without a map.

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

—Hebrews 12:1, 2

Map — The Bible

God has given us His Word to be a guide to us and help us know which direction we should be pursuing in our daily lives. Doing God’s will is equivalent to obeying His Word. If you won’t obey the Bible, then you aren’t doing His will.

It is amazing to me the number of people who say they want to do God’s Will, but yet they won’t obey His written Word. I had a friend in school who told me one day that he wanted to serve God and do His will, but he didn’t think church was important and that he would not congregate with other believers. Whatever your opinion is on organized religion, you can’t deny that God says we should not forsake assembling with other believers (Hebrews 10:25).

Endurance — Run With Patience

Doing God’s will requires that we patiently endure the race that is in front of us. If you have ever run(or even just watched) a marathon, you can appreciate the great endurance that is required. No runner will do well in the race if he runs as fast and hard as he can during the first mile. He will fizzle out or quit long before the race is over. When doing God’s will it is required that we have patience that will last a lifetime. You have to banish the thoughts that say, “I will commit to doing God’s will for the next 3 weeks and then reevaluate after that.” No, you need to make a commitment that you will follow and serve for the rest of your life.

Example — Jesus Christ

These verses say that we can look to Jesus as an example to follow. We should not look to other men and women and try to emulate them. While they can be great encouragement for us, we need to remember that people may fail at times. Be careful of putting people on a pedestal and basing your desire to serve God on their life and actions. Our example should be Christ who finished His course just as God planned for Him.

For doing God’s will, we have a map obey, a command to endurance and an example to follow.

I was doing research for an article on how to get a free Bible. There are several websites you can visit which will give you a Bible for the asking. However, the easiest way I have found to get a free Bible is to just go to a church and ask for one.

A local church which teaches the Bible is interested in people having a copy of God’s Word. You can get a Bible from a church without having to pay taxes and shipping costs. You also get the Bible immediately.

The church we recently worked with in Argentina would automatically give a free Bible to anyone who attended 3 Sundays in a row. These were new Bibles of pretty high quality. However, I can’t imagine any church denying a free copy of the Word of God to anyone who walked up to them and said that they were searching for the truth and would like a Bible to read. You may not be given a brand new one, but the precious words of God are not diminished because someone else has read them.

If you are in need of a free Bible, then take a stroll to your local church and ask them for one. One of the bigger difficulties is finding someone at the church when there is not a service going on. That’s OK. I assure you that if you walked in during a service and sat in the back until church was over, there would be someone there who can help you obtain a copy of God’s Word.

Philippians 4:6-9 gives a short outline of how to obtain the peace of God and have the God of peace present in your life: Pray, Think and Do.

6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

9 Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

Pray

Don’t be full of care, but pray in every thing. Those are the words of admonishment from verse 6. When you do that, then verse 7 promises that you will have the peace of God which passes all understanding cover your mind.

Think

When your mind is full of the peace of God then you have the ability to think on the right things (vv. 7, 8).

Do

When you culminate the praying and the thinking with proper action, then verse 9 says that you will have the God of peace present with you. We know that God is present with us at all times. However, we don’t always sense His presence or acknowledge that He is with us.

Pray for God’s peace. Think properly (it will be easier to do when you are praying properly). Act out those prayers and right thinking and you will have a keener awareness of God’s presence.