The most dangerous numbers in America are not the nuclear codes.
They are not the daily financials of the Stock Exchange.
They are not the deficit or the debt.
The most dangerous numbers in America are spiritual in nature and I’m not talking about 666.
The most dangerous numbers are that only 42 percent of professing Christians in America regard reading the Bible as essential to being a Christian. This number is in accordance with a Pew Research study referenced in Faith and Trends.[i]
Yes, you read that right - 42 percent. If this study is accurate it means almost 60 percent of professing American Christians think the Bible is irrelevant to their daily lives.
Maybe the study is off a little. Maybe its 38. Or 45. Either way this must be changed or the church (and our nation) is in deep and abiding spiritual danger. As a pastor for many years, I was not shocked to read this number. I should be, but I’m not. The reason I’m not shocked is because I saw it happen. I don’t know what the numbers were when I started in ministry almost four decades ago, but it was nowhere near that dire. It’s not my cause here to try to figure out why (I certainly believe I know the answer, but I’ll leave that discussion for a later date, perhaps). It is my cause to be a part of the solution, the change, the revolution to move the needle the other way, in the direction toward 100 percent.
Why does this matter?
Because it matters to God.
If successful it would ignite the greatest revival in history because it would unleash in this nation the undiluted truth of his word onto this nation and this world.
My premise is that the Bible is God’s inspired word and it is his message to us, his kids. God pursues us in self-revelation and it is his desire to provoke a radical response from us to that self-revelation.
If it weren’t for God’s radical self-revelation through his creation, his Son and his Word, we would know nothing of him. We can’t really pursue God, but we can, in actuality and ultimately, respond to his self-revelation, and our response to him is our pursuit of him.
God wants us to read his word and of course study it, but it is clear that he wants us to memorize it as well. Memorizing scripture is a lost art today, which is at the core of the spiritual disciplines for believers. There is a grammatical device used in scripture that underscores God’s desire that we read and also memorize his word. This device is known as acrostic poetry.
Acrostic poetry in the Hebrew Old Testament is based on the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In Psalm 119, an acrostic poem, for example, there are twenty-two stanzas with eight verses each. Each verse of each successive stanza begins with the successive Hebrew letter. Although the acrostic aspect is obviously lost in translation, the other benefits of Hebrew poetry can be translated – such as parallelism, which is the rendering of a similar thought in a different way. There are various types of parallelism. I tend to think of it as “rhyming thoughts instead of words” although some forms of parallelism include opposites and other characteristics as well. The main purpose of acrostics seems to be its value as a mnemonic aid. It is also fascinating that this device in scripture makes it easier to memorize, which simply adds to the inference that God desires us to be fully engaged in his word. Acrostic poetry has, then, as its greatest blessing its value as a memorizing aid – which tells us what?
It tells us that not only does God expect and want us to read his Word, that process includes memorizing portions of it!
It is equally fascinating and refreshing that the great inference we may draw with this grammatical device is that we are literally committing into our mind words that originated in the mind of God, his words and truths that he intends for us to know.
I have intentionally singled out the grammatical devices of Hebrew parallelism and acrostic poetry because these mechanisms within Scripture are so incredibly unique, beautiful and effective in communicating the truths in Scripture. They are an example of grammatical structure itself communicating the transcendent truth: “Learn this well, memorize this!”
The first step is simply to open his book and begin. If you already do read his word then recruit someone else to read, study and memorize his word.
This is the only way to change the most dangerous number in America.
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[i] Pipes, Carol, editor-in-chief, Facts and Trends, Volume 63, Number 4, Summer 2017, by LifeWay Christian Resources, p.11. Source is PewResearch.org.
* Portions of this blog article have been adapted from Ben's new book The Divine Chase: Responding to a Pursuing God. Westbow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson and Zondervan. Bloomington, IN, 2017.
©2018 by Ben Bounds. All rights reserved.
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We can come to know Christ through confession of our sins and repentance (turning away from sin). Let me encourage you to do this by talking to God through prayer. Here is an idea of how you might do that:
"Dear God, I believe your son Jesus Christ died in my place on the cross and rose from the dead on the third day following his death. I confess my sins, all of them, to you now with a humble heart. I repent of those sins and ask you to empower me with your Holy Spirit in overcoming further sin. Amen”
If you prayed this or a similar prayer committing your life to Christ and becoming one of his followers, let me encourage you to find a good, Bible-believing church. If you live in the Weslaco/Rio Grand Valley area of Texas, let me invite you to the church I attend, Mid-Valley Assembly (www.midvalleyassembly.com).
Begin talking to God in prayer and reading the Bible daily. A good way to begin to read the Bible is to start with the Book of John in the New Testament.
Feel very free in connecting with me if you need any further help in your walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. You can do this via the above email or facebook page or this web page.
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Mercy Road Ministries was founded and now led by Ben Bounds. Ben has pastored churches across Texas for over thirty years and is an ordained minister with the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA). He holds a BA in Pastoral Ministry and Biblical Studies from Southwestern Assemblies of God College and did graduate theological studies at the BMA Theological Seminary.
Ben's first book, The Divine Chase: Responding to a Pursuing God, was released on 12.08.2017 through Westbow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson and Zondervan. It is available in paperback and hardback through your preferred bookseller (Mardels, Barnes and Noble, etc.) and paperback, hardback as well as ebook through online book retailers (www.christianbook.com, www.cokesbury.com, www.amazon.com, www.booksamillion.com, www.barnesandnoble.com, etc.).
Ben is the host of Staying in Bounds, an on-air Bible devotional broadcast multiple times daily on KWJV 103.7 FM Weslaco, TX which can also be heard worldwide online at www.kwjvthestar.com. Ben and his wife, Linda, together have four adult children and nine grandchildren. They live in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
Ben can be contacted for preaching engagements at benbounds695@gmail.com or 903.441.3279. Ben can also be contacted via his website @ www.benbounds.com, which is also his blog and contains more information about his ministry.
Follow Ben @ https://www.facebook.com/mercyroadministries/ and this website www.benbounds.com.
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