Kept. I briefly mentioned this idea in a post recently as I wrestled with the writing of it. In truth, Sunday’s blog post was one I hoped I would never need to write, and I almost didn’t. But it was a starting point. It was the culmination of so many things God has been teaching me about His sovereignty in the midst of heart-choked “whys”. It was a response and acknowledgement that even in the hard, God is good. God is to be trusted. More importantly, His Word is to be trusted. Why? Because my feelings are anything but trustworthy, especially in the midst of suffering.
Which brings us to the starting point of this idea of being “kept.” We can’t fully grasp, we can’t fully begin to understand how God keeps us unless our foundation is the unshakeable, inerrant and true Word of God. What do you mean by inerrant? For great reading on that definition, you can visit The Gospel Coalition here or MacArthur’s ministry, Grace to You, here. Understanding inerrancy, as a starting point, is kind of a big deal. Why? Because trusting God’s Word to be truth must be where we start, or nothing else will matter, nothing else will make a hill of sense. Not grounding, anchoring sense anyhow.
Our world is broken. People everywhere are looking to make sense out of so much today. Take for example the recent and sudden passing of RHE. It saddens me she passed, absolutely. Death is tragic, there is no other way to describe it. But even more tragic to me is that RHE passed with misguided ideas about the Word, about God, about what truth is. She herself, in a twitter statement called the inerrancy of the bible entirely theoretical. Her public writings and teachings often reflected this step away, but that didn’t stop how popular they were and continue to be. In fact, sadly, they were probably more so. Church, we need to wake up! I’ll say that again. We need to wake up.
But please, please don’t misread my firmness here.
Words can do a lot but they fail sometimes to reflect empathy, compassion, and concern. If you were sitting across from me you would see, you would know, that I plead and weigh those words with a lived-in, walk-in, shoe tattered knowing that this world is severely lacking in answers. Popularity does not define truth. Social and cultural moralism does not define truth. Moralism is not truth. Feelings do not define truth. Politics do not define truth. Your circumstances, good or bad, do not define truth. God’s Word does. God anchors.
So God’s Word must be our starting point.
This world’s twisted and broken view of truth will fail to “keep” you in hard times. It just will. It can not and has not saved you. Only Christ can do that. The psalmist declared in Psalm 119 that “the sum of your Word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.” He was also quick to acknowledge there are false ways in v. 128 and he stated that he hated them. Hated them. Every one of them-HATED. We don’t really “like” that word though do we? It’s easier to just “like” and embrace instead, irregardless of if the way is false or not.
So, as a starting point, as we look to be “kept,” do we firmly and unequivocally believe and have confidence in God’s Word? Do we TRUST in God’s word with our whole heart? I have had to ask myself that question recently, when rubber hit the road, when death came and hopes crashed. TRUST must be where we start.
Trust in God’s Word, in who HE is, not who we make Him out to be, should be where we start.
God’s Word, His living, TRUE Word, does the keeping friends.
Nothing to say but “amen.” I hope to see RHE in heaven…but once we begin to play any kind of game with God’s Word there is nothing firm on which to stand…she swung too far to the extreme (from extreme fundamentalism). Once one begins to “discern” which parts of God’s Word are “actually” God’s Word they may as well toss the whole thing out. Maketh no sense to me…