Back to the Basics

By Pat Hodges –

The other day I was listening to Christian talk radio and a caller called in. I immediately noticed two things. First, he misquoted scripture and then he misapplied it in his conversation with the radio show host. The radio show host never challenged the caller on the misquote or challenged him on the misapplication of the scripture. I could understand this happening once, but this has happened numerous times on this radio program. The sad thing about is, the radio host claimed to be a minister of the gospel and claimed to be a pastor of a church.

In a day and age when most Christians rarely take the time to open their Bibles, let alone read them except on Sundays, we’ve learned to subsist on Bible “bytes.” A Bible “byte” is much like a sound byte. It can be easily manipulated and twisted to fit whatever we want it to say and mean.

Have you ever heard someone quoted, knowing the quote was totally twisted and taken out of context? It’s happening more and more in some media venues. That’s what can be done with a Bible byte and it seems to be happening more often than not. This is not just limited to the Bible, but it often shows up in our prayer lives to. We give God little snippets of prayer in our hurried chaotic lives. I find myself guilty of the same. God is looking for relationship, true relationship. Not a snippet of a prayer life that was once flourishing and is now withering on the vine.

Now is the time to come back to our First Love and rediscover the simplicity and joy of a prosperous devotional life and prayer life. This is the time to bring it back to the basics, and begin to rediscover who He really is, slow down a bit, and let Him really speak to our hearts, rather than wait for a sound byte from Him. Go ahead. Take the plunge of rediscovery.

Prayer: “Father, I thank you that you’re always present with me, but more than that, I thank you that you are so interested in me and my life that you honestly desire to be an integral part of it. I thank you for giving me the grace in the midst of my hurried chaotic schedule to take time out with you and for giving me a listening ear for what you have to say to me. In Jesus’ name, amen.”