Thoughts on Christ and His Word

In his book Primal , Pastor Mark Batterson writes about the inseparability of "knowing" and "doing".  Enjoy this excerpt: The Bible is not an end in itself. In other words the goal of knowing the Bible isn't Bible knowledge. The goal of knowing the Bible is knowing God. Anything less is bibliolatry. One of the great mistakes we've made in Christendom is equating spiritual maturity with knowledge acquisition; butt head knowledge never has been and never will be the litmus test. The truth is that most of us are already educated way beyond the level of our obedience. We learn more and do less, thinking all the while that we’re growing spiritually. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But the man who looks intently ...

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. Genesis 6:8-9 Why did Noah find favor in the eyes of God?  Of all the people on earth only Noah found favor in God`s eyes. What made him different? He was righteous and blameless. But how did he become righteous and blameless?  The key is that "he walked with God". I love walking with my dad.  Every time we get together for Thanksgiving in my sister’s house in Palm Coast we take early morning walks around the block.  We walk around two or three times. We catch up on life and people, we say jokes, we talk about God and politics, and share some of what’s on our hearts. Walking with God is similar.  It implies a growing intimacy. We develop a fatherly friendship with God. When we "walk with God" we talk with Him in prayer, we share our most intimate thoughts, we may laugh or cry, bu...