Is my Bible a Pinto or a Viper.
Good morning every one . I have a question for us today . I want you to grab a hold of your Bible and look at it . Hold it in you hand and look at it and ask your self is this a Pinto or a Viper ? Is it a miser that is only brought out when needed or am I getting into this and getting everything out of it Father wants for me ?
Let’s examine these questions in a few minutes but first I want us to look at our Bible for a second . A Bible is a book , although to the faithful it is the breathed word of God but for a little while let’s look at it in it’s makeup and substance . The Bible is a book , it has paper pages , a binding , a outer cover sometimes made of leather or cardboard or paper , and it has a print on all the pages . It is a book . We can go to the book store and get many more books made the same way and other than the words printed inside them they are the same .
Now lets look at a Pinto and a Viper . They both are cars , both are made the same way , they both have 4 wheels , a motor , a transmission , seating for the occupants , and both serve a specific purpose . The Pinto is a gas saver , everyday driver , sedan . The Viper is a high performance , high gas user , sports car . Now both of these cars can be used for same things just one will do better on some things and the other better on others . Both depend on how you drive them and how much you get to know the limits of what they can do . I mean you wouldn’t expect to drive 20 miles into town on a gallon of gas in a Viper and you would drive in the 24 hours of LeMans race in a Pinto . Neither one of these are designed to do this type of task . And , depending on how you use your Bible , you will be the same way in your effectiveness in using the Word for your life .
Now let’s look at your Bible . It is both a Pinto and a Viper with a Caravan and Town Car thrown in . It will get you from point A to point B or from here to Heaven but depending on how you use it will make the difference on how effective it will be in your life .
A Bible is useless unless we get into it and apply what it has in it’s pages onto our life and a car is useless unless we get into it and learn how to drive it and perfect our skill for it. How we use our cars is a lot like how we use our Bibles , some are everyday drivers in normal everyday cars like the Caravan . Driving while answering cell phones , eating lunch , multitasking while going somewhere . No real attention to driving the car just moving along like everyone else . Then there are others that are misers , the Pinto , very fuel efficient but only drive the car when it is needed and although they get the most out of the car as a piece of transportation that is just enough to get them along in life . Then there is the Town Car , a luxury car . They drive this car with care careful not to dent it , not to drive to fast , to be seen in such a nice car especially when going out . It is a car that spends more time parked than driven and when driven it is driven to the finest places . Now we come to the Viper , oh what a fine sports car , one who use these are ones who want to drive this car to it’s limits , it is designed to go fast both in strait lines and on curves . These are high performance cars meant to be used , giving the driver power to win in a race , to stop and steer when upsets come onto the path of the driver . These are cars that when you drive , it is to be used and used to it’s limits. There is no radio , no distractions to take you away from the road ahead . People sometimes with plenty of practice and many hours spent behind the wheel of these Vipers , become pros and race them in competitions , and some win.
Now a Bible is the same thing . It has the potential of being like a high performance race car or a energy efficient , sustaining grocery getter. It’s all on how you get into and read it . For some they can read just a verse or two , the Pinto , but take hold of that verse and truly get the meaning of it and hold it in their hearts and get the most out of it , others can read a chapter a night while listening to the tv , and cook dinner at the same time . Although they may be reading more they are like the Caravan , they are multitasking . They don’t get much out of the word because of the distractions around them. They get some of the fundamentals of the drive but no substance . They are just moving along like everyone else . Then there those that show off their Bibles , the Town Car . They may have a really pretty one or two on the coffee table , brought out when company comes over . They bring their Bibles to church but from the dust on them it shows that they are rarely if ever used . Then you have those that open the Word , read it , understand it , take it to heart , use it , and proclaim the Word on their lives . These are the Vipers , they take every word to heart . A verse here and there is not enough for them they must have every bit of the word . They take what they read and dwell on it . Think about it’s context , and learn how to use this verse for their lives . They have faith in every verse , they trust every verse to be relevant and put it to work . There is no distractions when they read the Word . There is no one else in the room , the cats are out and the dog is too. The phone is off the hook or the ringer is turned off . They want nothing to come between them and their reading of the Word .
These are the ones who when they open the pages , they let it speak to them . They let it tell them what they can do with the Word . They test it to the limits of the power of the Word , they use the power of the Word to heal the sick , to raise the dead , to forgive sin , to do the things Jesus has told us to do when He was on this Earth and walked among us . They do this but only after getting into the Word and letting the Word be their motivation and guide their direction in life . Reading His Word with total concentration and passion are you going to learn the Word and get anything out of it . Now whether that is 5 min. a day or 12 hours a day it’s not the amount of time that is important, it is the devotion of your heart to His Word that will allow you to both understand it and apply it to your life . Anything less and you wont get out of it what God has for your life .
Rev. 4 :15-16 “15, I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either
one or the other! 16, So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit
you out of my mouth. “
So I ask you what is your Bible . Is it a Pinto , Viper , or something lukewarm and in between ? If you are trying to just get along in life with a casual reading of His Word or if you only open His Word when company is around or at church then you are not taking the Word given to use to use . How can you find out what God has in store for you if you don’t read His word to us . How can you expect to receive if you don’t give your heart to His Word . His Word is not only a book it is His guidance , His power , His love for us . If you have a bible that you can’t understand because of the language then get one you can understand . What good are instruction if you can’t understand them . A good friend and mentor for me once said that the Bible stands for , Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth . That is so true I thought when he told me that and since then it has remained imbedded in my heart that this Word that my Father has given me is His Word or instructions on how to live , how to have faith , how to trust , how to love and forgive , and how to become the man He want’s me to be . The Bible more than a book , it is the Word of God applied to pages in print for us to take and read not with our eyes but with our hearts .
May you go out today and take hold of your Bible , read it , learn it , and apply it to your lives . God Bless
