Cutting it Straight

            I suppose you can get a tractor with a GPS on it now and now worry about that first furrow. I have mentioned this before but the principle is important in the life of the believer. Before the GPS, I was instructed to go out into the field with the tractor and plow and cut the first furrow. That was going to be the most important one because what you did on the first furrow is going to be repeated time and time again. The Farmer said to pick out an object at the end of the field while sitting on the tractor at the far end. I was to focus on that object and not to take my eyes off it for a second until the tractor reached the other end of the field. If I was obedient, the furrow would be as straight as an arrow. A glance to the left or the right would result in a little “blip” that would become magnified in every furrow thereafter. There are some professions that require “straight” lines or cuts. Second Timothy 2;15 says, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 

           This is another famous passage from the Bible that is used in many Bible Colleges or other schools that teach religious training. Paul was a tent maker by trade and certainly knew how to cut the fabric in order to make a tent. The term “rightly dividing' has the meaning of “cutting it straight.” The term refers to how you handle the Word of God. In the days of the early languages of the Bible, there were no punctuation marks. The letters just ran right nest to each other with no separation between words. Sentence structure had to be determined by the case and tense of nouns and verbs. It was a tedious process but was done accurately through great care and by those who were involved in translation of the Scriptures from Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic. Now, we can trust the copy of the Word of God that we have in our own hands and in these days on probably every electronic device. Paul's initial passage began with the word “Study.” We are to be “diligent” in our handling of the Word of God and not to be haphazard in our reading as to what we might think it says. Study of God's Word is certainly profitable to the life of every believer. The Scriptures admonish us to hear, to read, the study, to memorize and to meditate on the Word of God. There is no better thing to fill your mind with than the Word of God. Hearing it once a week or on “special” occasions will not be sufficient to know what the Bible says. Some may say that they are not educated in the languages of the Bible and so leave it up to the “professionals.” The Scriptures were written at such a level that even a “fifth grader” can understand it. The little song goes, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” You don't have to be a linguist or a rocket scientist to understand what it says. Praise God today for His Word and the message of salvation and hope for the world.