Are Picking and Choosing?

         Most restaurants have a menu. It is something that tells you what is available to eat at that particular place and is only good at the establishment. We recently walked into a restaurant for dinner and the waitress gave us a menu for us to pick something for our dinner. There was also another option at that place of business. It was a huge salad bar with well over 50 or more items. You could also make that as your primary choice for the meal. With so many items on the salad bar, there was no way you could eat all of them, so we got our plate and began to pick and choose which items we wanted and which ones we didn't want. Restaurants of all types give you a choice of what to eat. Psalm 119:105 says,”Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path”

        The Bible pretty much covers any event that is going to take place in your life. The Bible tells you much about God and how you can know Him and how you can find out what you should do in various situations that come up in your life. It tells you how to deal with anxiety, depression, discouragement, anger, and pretty much every other emotion that comes up in your daily experience. It tells you how to love. It tells you which things to shun. It tells you what is important in your life and what is not important. It tells you how to get to heaven. It tells you which things are going to be roadblocks in your life and what to do when they pop up here and there. Unfortunately, many regard the Bible as a cafeteria. That is, they desire to pick and choose which things they are going to apply to their lives and which things they are going to avoid. Many like to listen to the verses that they like to hear and avoid the verses that speak of a sin that is in their life. Instead of following those passages of scripture, they avoid them or try to rationalize them away by saying they are there in a different culture in which we live. I have even heard some say that a certain teaching was a “pet peeve” of the Apostle Paul and doesn't really apply to us today. Paul made a statement to the church at Ephesus that is recorded in the following passage from the book of Acts. Acts 20:27 says, “For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.” Paul taught everything that thee was in regard to the Bible and the lives of those that heard his message. Sometimes the impact of a message by a preacher is given at the glory line at the front door when a person says, “Great message, Pastor.” It must not have touched anything close to home in that person's life. There are others that might say, “Ouch” as they leave the church building. Paul spoke the whole counsel of God when he taught from house to house in the city of Ephesus and the school of Tyrannus. People have long clung to the verses that show the love of God and shun the verses that speak of judgment. Countless people speak of God's eternal love and heaven and refuse to believe that anyone would ever spend any time at all in a place of eternal judgment. Many choose the verses that speak of the blessings of God and refuse the verses that speak of shunning sin such as covetousness and fornication. In the end, we can say that the Bible indeed contains the whole counsel of God and that it is not a giant cafeteria line of Bible goodies that can either be taken or ignored. When the Holy Spirit pricks you heart in the days to come, and He will, you may find that you need to say “ouch” as you leave the door of the place of meeting. It could have been at a traditional church service, online, or even in your morning devotion when God's work spoke to you. Praise God today that He speak to us through the complete counsel of His Word.