A Nugget from New Life Network
Scripture for the Day (March 29,2018)
For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. (Romans 11:25)
When the Apostle Paul was writing to the Christian believers in Rome, he told them he did not want them to be ignorant of a specific mystery. He goes on to say being ignorant of the mystery would make them wise in their own conceits (Romans 11:25). He was telling them not to give up the wisdom of God and try to substitute it with the wisdom of man.
Many times in Scripture, Paul made the statement that he did not want his followers to be ignorant (Romans 11:25; 1 Corinthians 12:1; 2 Corinthians 1:8; 1 Thessalonians 4:13). The root word of ignorant is “ignore.” By ignoring something, you become ignorant of that subject. If a student in school ignores algebra, then they will be ignorant concerning algebra. Likewise, if you ignore the mysteries of God by quenching the Spirit and having an “it really doesn’t matter anyway” attitude, then the Scriptures will not be revealed to you and you will be susceptible to false teaching.
We have seen this over and over in the church world. There are certain sections of the church world that are totally ignorant when it comes to the things of the Spirit. They refuse to even study certain sections of the Bible because some Pastor or teacher has told them that it doesn’t matter or that the gifts of the Spirit have passed away.
Here is the way I look at that. I did not give my life to the Lord until I was 35 years old so I lost a lot of time finding out who He was and what He wanted me to do. I was therefore determined to read the entire Bible several times and find out for myself what this new life in Christ was all about. I was working in federal law enforcement at the time and I had seen a lot of fraud and slick dealings and I was determined to know the truth and not be hoodwinked by some slick preacher. That is just the way I looked at it.
The other thing that I have always been very concerned with is when I stand before Jesus and He asked me a question about why I did not accept something He had made available to me through His death and resurrection. That would bother me greatly and it should you also.
When a federal law enforcement officer goes before a judge to give an account of a crime he had better know everything that transpired in that crime. He had better know the statute that he was using to charge an individual with. You never want a judge to ask you a question about an arrest or charge that you have no clue about. That is bad!!! You therefore make sure you know everything about this case because ignorance will not fly with a federal judge.
As an example, what are you going to say to Jesus when He asks you why you did not accept the Holy Spirit that He sent to be your helper? Are you going to say your Pastor told you the Holy Spirit and all His gifts passed away with the Apostles? I submit to you, that is not going to fly either. Jesus is going to come right back at you and ask you if you ever read the Bible. Did you ever study the subject, or did you just ignore it? You don’t want to have that conversation with Jesus and you don’t have to if you just read the Word. If you ignore it, you will be ignorant. If you read it (all of it) you will not be ignorant and you will not be misled.
