Did You Hear This When You Were Growing Up?

​Luke 11:27-28 - While Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, "Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed." 28 But He said, "On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it."  NASU 

• This Is What I Heard From Others 

I didn't grow up going to church and certainly never read a Bible. I remember hearing others say the reason they didn't believe in the Bible was because it is full of contradictions.
 
Well, there you have it. I believed the Bible was filled with contradictions because another person said it was and I had never read it for myself. Wow! That sounds really stupid now that I have stated it that way.
 
If I might make a suggestion to you if you are ever in a conversation with someone and they say the Bible is full of contradictions, politely say to them, "Name me one." If you have your Bible with you, hand it to them and say, "Show me where."
 
Chances are they are repeating what they heard someone else say. 

• There Are Not Any Contradictions In The Bible 

When I first became a disciple of Christ this was one of the first things I said to God in one of my prayers. I said it something like this, "God, I have heard the Bible contradicts itself. I am going to read it from cover to cover and if I find one I am out of here."
 
It has been 47 years since I started reading the Bible and I still have not found any contradictions. 

• The Day I Thought I Found A Contradiction 

I remember when I thought I found a contradiction in the Bible.
 
I was reading the book of James in the King James Version. James 1:13 says, "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:  KJV
 
I remember saying to myself, "Wait a minute that is a contradiction." I remembered reading in Genesis where God had tempted Abraham. It says in Gen. 22:1- And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.  KJV
 
Well, I thought I had actually found a contradiction in the Bible.
 
Can you see how much reading I had done to find that one?
 
I had read from Genesis all the way through the Old Testament (39 books) and in the New Testament from Matthew to James (another 20 books), and I finally found one, or so I thought.
 
I remember going to Dave Berresford, a preacher, where I was worshipping God at that time and showing him my find. As I recall he let the air out of my sails with a lot of Christian grace.
 
He showed me in the Hebrew the word "nacah" can actually be better translated "to test".
 
God wasn't tempting Abraham to do evil. God was actually giving him a test to become stronger in his faith.
 
God still gives us "tests" to strengthen us in our faith. 

• Conclusion 

1 Thes. 2:13 - For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.  
 
Let God's Word continue to perform its work in you. You will be glad you did.
 
Think About These:
 
Poverty is no disgrace, but ignorance is.
 
It is not necessary for some people to put out the light to be in the dark.
 
The only thing more expensive than education is ignorance.

Stay Pumped,

Gary A. Serago

​Minister of God's Word