Wandering In the Dark - John Alan Turner

Wandering In the Dark
Most people I know — probably most of you reading this blog — own a Bible. But do they know what it is? Do they know how many people literally gave their lives to secure the availability of Bibles to common people? More importantly, do they even bother to open them up and read what they say?

In the Bible, God has provided a gigantic feast of blessings, promises, warnings, hopes, assurances, encouragements, guidelines, principles — pretty much everything we need to know in order to navigate the rough waters of life. But most people I know are all too willing to just make life up as they go along. We get into a jam and, rather than consulting the wisdom God provides for us, we just “wing it”.

Maybe we trust our gut and don’t realize the wisdom and clarity of God’s Word. Or maybe we have a pretty good idea what we’d find if we cracked open the Bible, and we’d rather just do what we feel like doing. If we don’t read it to find out for sure, we can always claim ignorance and ease our guilty conscience.

The Bible is called a lamp (see Psalm 119:105), but — like any other lamp — it has to be turned on to be of any use. If we want to allow God’s Lamp to illuminate our darkened path, we have to open it up and shine it in the direction of our problems.

So many lamps; so many wandering around in the dark. Do you suppose they prefer the dark? Or do you think they don’t realize what exactly the Bible is and how it could be useful for them? What do you suppose the problem really is?