When We Miss the Mark.

Sometimes because of bad information, we can miss the mark of what truth really is and then we have to deal with the reality of what we have come to depend on. Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. We can allow wrong teaching to influence how we live our lives if we are not careful to follow the standard of God's Holy Word. We listen to a person's impression about something and instead of testing it with what God shows us we fall off into following what they think completely. This is dangerous because their thoughts are often subjective to what they are going through, which will probably not apply to you because of the way God deals with us as individuals, who are fearfully and wonderfully made, by the way.

I have a Toyota Tacoma and it has a temperature gauge that shows the outside temperature. I have come to realize that my temperature gauge shows just about 4 degrees hotter than it actually is outside. My way of getting to the true temperature is I subtract 4 degrees from what it shows to get the "true" temperature. I noticed a bank nearby was about 8 degrees hotter than reality, and I didn't even believe it when I saw the temperature on their digital gauge. My truck is close, but not correct, and the bank is "way off."

To fix my truck's temperature gauge and get it to the point where I believe it is reliable I need to take it to the dealer and have it readjusted to read the proper temperature. In other words, reset it, and get the dealer to use their tools to make this happen. Then I will be able to trust it when it says it is a certain temperature outside. I want to be able to trust it, but until I get it fixed I am going to have to make my own adjustments to get the correct temperature.

Sadly, we believers get into a habit of "missing the pure truth" because we have made adjustments in what we have learned from God's Word to fit our reality, and we "hedge" what the Bible says to fit that reality. Point in case: As a young minister I was hungry for the Bible and I studied at a feverish rate and consumed the Word with an eagerness that only the Holy Spirit could prompt. In studying God's Word He has shown me truths that were a little hard to swallow, but I learned to accept them and live my life by those truths. Many times I would read about the need to be much more conservative about a certain thing than what others believe and then I had to come to a conclusion for my life direction, even though others did not believe the same way. My way wasn't better, but it was very different. My convictions about those things needed to be in line totally with the teachings of the Bible and there could not be any hedging in that belief because I felt like it was "hedging" the whole thing.

The great thing about being open to what God's Word taught was it caused me to study even deeper and then God opened up more truth that made total sense in the overall picture. Had I gone along with others, I would have missed the big-picture truth that God was wanting to show me. But I needed to let God fine-tune my reasoning by submitting to His Word and what it was saying to me. This kind of put me on an island by myself and I continue to feel uncomfortable being on this island. This doesn't mean God has given me a truth that is better or more reliable than someone else, but it does mean I trust what His Word is saying to me without having to be spoon-fed this truth by another Christian.

In the midst of God showing me this I need to be willing to let God adjust my thinking and not get so deep in my impressions that I am longer willing to let Him stretch me. God is all about stretching us and drawing us closer to Him at every turn in our lives. When Jesus would teach His disciples I can almost see the curious looks when He showed them a deeper lesson than what they were thinking. In Matthew 7 Jesus "blew their minds" in a good way with this strong message about what to build our lives on. Matthew 7:24 “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. 25 Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. 26 But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. 27 When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 for he taught with real authority—quite unlike their teachers of religious law.

"Build my very life on Jesus?" Even today we have believers who have a problem grasping the importance of this 100% commitment to Christ, so they "hedge" this truth to fit their life journey and it lessens the truth of the teaching of Jesus. Jesus said 24 “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. If you want to be that wise person, then you need to do what He says and your life will stand the test of time and storms. In other words, no matter what comes your way, at the end of the storm, you will still be standing. To me, that is an easy teaching to trust and follow and the read on that life temperature gauge is spot on. If we just follow a little bit of Jesus and a little bit of the world that gauge will definitely be off every time. And thus, your walk with Christ will be a little off as well.

Long for the pure milk of the Word. Peter said it this way in 1 Peter 2:1 So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech.2 Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment,3 now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.

Follow God's Word. His whole Word, and you will hit the mark every time.

The Pilgrimage Continues

David Warren