What If?

“How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your Word. With all my heart I have sought You; do not let me wander from Your commandments. Your Word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You. Blessed are You, O LORD; teach me Your statutes. With my lips I have told of all the ordinances of Your mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, as much as in all riches. I will meditate on Your precepts and regard Your ways. I shall delight in Your statutes; I shall not forget Your Word.”
Psalm 119:9 - 16

I believe too many take the Word of the LORD for granted. Too many having become complacent in reading, studying, and meditating on God’s Word. I believe that too many Christians today think, “My Bible is right where I always keep it. If I need it, it will always be right there.” For the most part, I too think, “My Bible will always be there.” I had a dream this week that I opened my Bible and the pages were blank. God’s Word was gone. Later I thought, what if that were true?

What if:
- What if you were unable to see any longer?
- What if you were unable to hold your Bible to read it?
- What if your Bibles were confiscated?
- What if the Government forbid the sale or possession of God’s Word?
- What if there were dyer consequences for possessing the Word of God?

Oh, Pastor Marty, here you go again thinking the sky is falling. You are nothing more than “Chicken Little.” You maybe saying to yourself, the first two “What ifs” could happen to somebody (not me though), but the last three, well, that is never going to happen here. Not in the United States of America. And to be honest with you, you may be right. BUT, all I am doing is asking the question, “What if?” If the pages were blank, is the Word of God gone?

Do we treasure God’s holy Word in our hearts, that we might not sin against Him? To treasure God’s Word, we have to read it, we have to know it, we have to be exposed to the preaching and teaching of it. Otherwise, the Word of God becomes just a collection of words in a book on the shelf or laying on the table.

What if we didn’t have access to our Bibles? What if the pages become blank, and we no longer can see them? Have we read enough, memorized enough, that God’s Word would remain in our hearts, in our thoughts? Would it fade quickly in its absence because we never really found it important enough to read and meditate on? This is my fear, that many today, if their Bibles were taken away, would loose any memory of God’s Word and life would become only about survival and not about Him and life with Him.

None of us know what the future will bring. The world I live in today is much different than that of my childhood. Yes, some things are better, but from a Biblical World View, so much is worse. Frankly, it seems to deteriorate more and more every year. So what do we do to combat the “What ifs” in our Christian walk?

We do what the Psalmist says he would do. We: seek after the LORD; we treasure His Word; we ask the LORD to teach us His ways, His statutes, His commandments. When we mediate on His Word it becomes part of the very fiber of our being. Then you will be able to answer the question. What if ... and your answer will be, “I never want that to happen in my country or to me, but, if so, I know Him and have studied His Word and I shall not forget His Word.” (verse 16)

I will tell you as you do what the Psalmist calls us to do, you then will rejoice in the ways of His testimony and know that whatever this world throws your way is nothing compared to the riches in glory the LORD has in store for you. Thanks be to God for His Word!

Just a few “What ifs” for you to ponder today!

Blessings my friends,
Pastor Marty.

Worship, Grow, Serve.