One of the verses I pray for the suffering church is Acts 16:25 ~ But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them; so, I pray that my brothers and sisters who are in prison will pray and sing hymns of praise to God, that the other prisoners would hear them, and be encouraged and/or saved. I've prayed this many times, but today as I did, it came to mind that even though Paul wrote this verse some 2,000 years ago, it didn't expire. It can be, and probably is, as applicable today as it was then. Of course, this is true of most verses in the Bible, but it just hit me today in a way it hadn't before. (Don't you just love it when He does that?)
We're used to lots of things having an expiration date on them...food, prescriptions, hmmm...what else? But the Word of God never expires. It never has and it never will. Hebrews 4:12 (one of my favorite verses) says, "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." God is eternal and so is His Word. Indeed, John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." So the Word is as eternal as He is, for the Word is with Him and IS Him. Wow...that's utterly amazing, don't you think?
Our present culture is defined well by two words: 'instant' and 'disposable.' We have become used to having most of what we want NOW! And, when we tire of it or use it up, we just throw it away. There is rarely much more thought given to it. We just buy a replacement. I grew up before life became so much that way and the generation before me grew up at the end of the depression. Therefore, they threw little away unless there was absolutely no value left in the item. Many never learned to throw anything away, as they'd had to do without a lot that we've since taken for granted .
How much of this have we applied to other things that we should not have applied it to? How about human life? If you 'accidentally' get pregnant, you just toss it away and conveniently call that unborn baby a 'blob of tissue.' This helps ease your conscience. If you meet someone you're very attracted to, why wait to get married? You can go ahead and have sex now! Why wait? After all, why should we have to wait for anything? We're so special!
We apply it to the Word of God as well. Sadly, many of today's believers are unfamiliar with the Old Testament. So, if you use an Old Testament verse to exhort another believer with, they'll often say, 'That's Old Testament, so it doesn't apply today.' It is true that you need to look at the context of the verse, yet I find that many verses written to Israel (in the Old Testament) also have application to the Church of the New Testament. This is getting lengthy, so I won't give too many examples, but let's take Proverb 8:33 "Heed instruction and be wise, And do not neglect it." And how about Isaiah 55:8 "“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD." How about Isaiah 30:18 "Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him?" Do you really think these are not for the Church as well as for Israel? I do. Let us not put an expiration date on that which has none!
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