Scary Stats

A Call to Biblical Fidelity

If I were to ask you what does 38% mean to you, what would you guess?

Several people in the congregation guessed it was the percentage of people who had a Bible. Want to know the real answer?

Its the percentage of people who don’t read the Bible! That’s 102 million people!! This is a problem. I want to be part of the reason that stat changes, don’t you?

What would 20% signify then? Well, guest Pastor Roy Samuel told us that its the number of people scripturally engaged. 52 million. That means 140 million don’t even look at their Bibles! (Pastor John is still in Africa)

Several passages talk about being immature in our walk like a baby still on milk.

Fidelity is defined as the quality or state of being faithful.

Hosea 4:6-9

God has been speaking to the Israelite priests saying, “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as priests;because you have ignored the law of your Gid, I also will ignore your children.”

1 Corinthians 3: 1-2

”Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly-mere infants in Christ.”

“I gave you milk, not solid food because you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.”

The priests were supposed to be teaching the congregation how to read the Bible and how to follow God’s laws. God called them out and said His people were suffering die to lack of knowledge.

In our modern times, there is no excuse for this. How many of us own a Bible? How about several Bibles? How about cell phones? That means we all have the means, but are we using them?

Once you have the Holy Spirit indwelling inside of you, you feel a hunger for the knowledge the Bible provides. That’s how it is with me, anyway. Don’t despair! Don’t stop learning. That is what it means to mature in your walk.

It takes effort. Going to church on Sunday is good, but like I’ve said in the past, it isn’t enough. Just because you put your faith alone in Christ alone doesn’t mean you’re “off the hook”. We have to be faithful followers of God.

Not only do I use the resources I just spoke of, but I subscribe to other religious publications (some on Substack) and have seen my own growing! Now my publications aren’t Christian per say, but that doesn’t mean I don’t craft stories that might be, or share other publications that are.

Its another way we grow as Christians is to share the word! We blog about what we are studying, or we share other people’s stories and testimonies.

Point 1

Ignorance of God’s word is no excuse. You will be held accountable for your knowledge or lack thereof.

1 Corinthians 11

”When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”

point 2

Growing in the knowledge of God isn’t optional, its expected!

Theology is the study of God. All believers are theologians. We don’t live on milk, we live in solid food!

Hebrews 5-13-14

“Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.

But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”

3rd point

Growing in the knowledge of God requires effort because maturity doesn’t happen overnight!

Biblical fidelity enables us to communicate the gospel more effectively. That is the first “why”.

If we don’t stay in the word daily, we wont be armed for battle with the enemy. I’m still not ready, although I’ve read and studied the entire New Testament and I’m plowing through the Old, I cannot quote scripture yet.

But I have been studying the word long enough to claim that I am “eating solid food.”

Will you answer the call? The call to Biblical Fidelity?

Some good resources are the Bible app, the Verse-by-Verse Ministry app, and the Blue Letter Bible app. (another good point is if you don’t like to read, the Bible app reads to you!)