Bible thoughts & present opinions

A person can become bored rather quickly during a Pandemic Shutdown plus having feet of accumulated snow on the ground. So, on this day, I got bored, took a short nap with my wife, and got alone with my thoughts.  Should you read this; Welcome to my world!

It is Sunday, February 21, 2021.  It is 5:00 pm, EST here in Kentucky.

What bragging rights does a person have if they have managed to read a King James version of the Bible, cover to cover during any span of time?  OK! Perhaps they read it in one week.  That would be worthy, I guess.

The point I am making here is that simply reading a book of any length doesn’t add much to one’s character or knowledge.  IMHO – hereafter to mean – In My Humble Opinion. 

I do suppose one could gain in certain areas of fact retention or, as I so often put it, “in my vast storehouse of knowledge.”

I do lay claim to being a self-made man, in that I learned so very little while attending public school for 10 years. What knowledge I accumulated came from simply living life as it carried me along in its’ currents. I was paying attention!

Back to my goal in this writing.  To learn anything of value concerning The Bible, IMHO – One must think about what they have read, or better yet, study it with a group of other individuals of similar ilk.

I had my own personal salvation experience when I was 43 years of age.  I am 80 at the time of this writing, so I’ve lived what passes for “The Christian Life” for 37 years. For 14 of those years, I was a participating member of “The Sharonville Bible Study Group.”  We gathered together every day we were at our place of employment. Our study group was authorized by our employer at a location on company property we referred to as “The Upper Room.”  We gave it that name because it was physically located inside the plant’s walls, up over the current Boiler Room, on the concrete slab that served as its’ roof.  It had stairs up to it and the area was large enough to accommodate a large picnic table with enough seating for 12 individuals. We had an hour for Lunch, so we took advantage of the time by studying scripture and eating at the same time.

For a long time, we maintained a membership of eleven persons. I was always hoping that we would gain a twelfth member.  That was just me, thinking about a perfect state of religious relativity.  Today, I believe that the situation existed so that from time to time, a visitor could stop by to see what we were all about and that made for a place for them to sit.

We would begin with a prayer, prayed by any volunteer present.  If no one felt like doing it on a certain day, we could always count on Clyde Martin.  He was our only ordained Minister and always felt obligated to serve in any related capacity.  YES! We took up an offering every time we met.  With it, we would purchase flowers for someone that experienced the death of a loved one and we also purchased a case of small Bibles to give to anyone expressing the need for one. I’m sure there were other reasons we approved of expending funds from our meager coffers but I can’t recall them now.

Place holder 5:45 2/21/2021.

9:35 am   2/23/2021 Entering Pondering mode.

Our little group was made up of varying religious belief backgrounds.  There was plenty of doctrinal differences to allow for flare-ups in thinking or opinions, but I cannot remember any of substance. Catholic and Pentecostal doctrines have great chasms of distance between them.  They might have been holding back verbally during discussions about the translation of scriptural knowledge and versions of biblical text they were accustomed to presenting for discussions or reference. Terms such as “The Holy Ghost” caused a raised eyebrow or deepening furrows in certain foreheads when spoken out loud.

We attempted at times to encourage “Personal Salvation experiences” but most of our members were not forthcoming about their own.  I saw some confused looks on faces the day I quoted one of my favorite scriptures and received a couple of “AMENS” from others.  John 3-3 “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” KJV

It is surprising to hear the reactions of a few when you ask certain questions.

E.g. Do you believe in miracles?  If you do; Have you witnessed any personally?

Do you ever offer to be a “Witness” to others?  You know; share with them how you came to know Jesus and how your life has been changed since it happened?

Have you ever seen grown men cry while telling their own salvation experience?

Were you “MOVED” by the experience, if you did? 

If you lay claim to “Knowing The Scriptures” how did you reach that outstanding ability?

If you are the kind of Christian that regularly spouts scripture, can you also inform someone what your favorite ones truly mean should they ask?

The Great Unwashed Multitude knows little, if anything about Holy Scripture, just as they know little or anything about God, Jesus, or The Holy Ghost/Spirit.  How will they learn if we who claim to know Him and the WORD OF GOD do not freely share?