Acts 17:10-11
That same night the Lord’s
followers sent Paul and Silas on to Berea, and after they arrived, they
went to the Jewish meeting place. The people in Berea were much nicer
than those in Thessalonica, and they gladly accepted the message. Day
after day they studied the Scriptures to see if these things were true.
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
This
morning, I shared with Greg a political headline that I had read
online. “Sounds like a joke to me,” he commented. I did some
investigating…and sure enough, it was a satire piece, written by someone
who also writes very thoughtful and serious articles. We all need to
keep Snopes.com* bookmarked! We also need to keep our Bibles handy!
The
sentence in this verse that we need to grasp is the last one…”Day after
day they studied the Scriptures to see if these things were true.”
While this is critical to developing a strong Christian discipleship, we
must also seek out the facts in other arenas. Too many people are
readily accepting the word of someone else on everything from whether
their kid got a “good” teacher or not…to who said or did what to whom…to
matters of national importance.
It’s time for us to go the
second mile…to “get the facts, ma’am!”…to dig deeply and find the TRUTH –
not just in God’s word, but in our daily barrage of information! We
have grown complacent – in all areas. Too often, we trust someone else
to tell us what we should think and believe, rather than dig into God’s
word, ask a couple of questions, or do a few minutes of searching on the
Internet to get to the heart of the matter. We are swayed by the
opinions of others, rather than the facts. Sometimes, fitting in
becomes more important than being correct…perhaps too important at
times!
The people in Berea heard what Paul and Silas had to
say…but they checked the facts to make sure it lined up with God’s
word. How often are you checking the specifics – about anything – these
days? Have you grown comfortable with taking others’ word for it, in
matters great and small? Isn’t it time we stepped up to the plate and
acted responsibly as Christ’s disciples…and verified the details of what
we are hearing and reading?
I pray that we will come together
as brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ and declare that we will no
longer assume that the information we are receiving is “gospel”…that we
will dig deeply and study both God’s word and the incredible bank of
information that He has provided us on all subjects. Let’s get “the
whole story” before we draw conclusions...and thoughtfully – and
prayerfully – make our comments and decision based on these
particulars. And let’s begin today.
©2016 Debbie Robus
*http://www.snopes.com
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