Shoot for the bullseye

2 Tim 2:15-16
15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 16 Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. NIV

A few weeks ago our son-in-law received a traffic citation in the mail for failure to yield at a stop light. In the envelope were several pictures of his car including positive proof of him as driver and a clock to show he did not come to a complete stop. The citation was in the amount of $446! That is a gigantic amount when you have just married, trying to shift your gears to the financial adjustment of living on your own and to provide for an additional person. None the less, he still had to pay the huge fine for what seems like a very trivial offense since he did slow to almost stopping and he did look to make sure the way was adequate to enter into traffic, but the law said STOP! There is only one way to interpret this command.

Many times in the Scripture, God’s commands are crystal clear and very understandable. But other times we must see extra guidance and counsel to properly interpret God’s commands toward us. As believers we have the individual responsibility to search the Bible for truths. Many times the answer we are looking for is not underlined and highlighted but it is in the obscure synthesization of the whole intent of the Scripture.

When I was a sales representative for a large carpet manufacturer I would go to great lengths to close a sale. Many times I would alter company policies, nothing illegal, in order to close the sale. Most times it would have to do with shipping times or discount percentages or time periods. But the most convenient thing about all of this was that I was new to the company and even though I was very fluent in company policy I often found it was easier to ask forgiveness than permission.

I am afraid the church operates very much the same way today. The tweaking of Scripture to help alleviate the pressure of living by Biblical standards, when those standards seem to leave room for us to follow our personal desires, is much too common in the church today.

The desire of the believer should be to absolutely stay in the line that God has laid before us. We should do the best we can and go to any and all lengths to live a life that is pleasing to Him; searching every crevice of the word to be sure we are living with the mind of Christ.

Oswald Chambers in the book “My Utmost for His Highest” reminds us that “Every bit of your life physical, moral and spiritual, is to be judged by the standard of the Atonement.” When we constantly compare our lives to the life offered by Jesus we may still find it hard to make the desired choices but it will not be because we have not exhausted every appeal to “correctly handle the Word of truth.”