The
legendary Vince Lombardi coached the Green Bay Packers, arguably the best team
to ever set foot on a professional football field. Once, after his Packers lost to a very
inferior team, Coach Lombardi said nothing after the game. The next morning these monstrous men who had
spent most of their life on the gridiron, sat in silence, fearing the wrath of
the coach who demanded so much from them.
When Lombardi entered the room he spoke softly. He said, “Men, today we go back to the basics.” He then held up a football and said emphatically,
“Gentlemen, this is a football.”
There are
many times as I watch the church flounder to be the glorious church that God
has called her to be that I went to hold my Bible high into the air and say, “Today we go back to the basics. Church,
this is a Bible.” ”
The truth is
that the church today seems to be more biblically illiterate than ever
before. I think there are several
reasons for this. One is all of modern
electronics we have today in our entertainment world. Between the television, DVD’s, movie
theaters, IPODS, video games, computers and the internet, we have very little
time left for the Bible.
Another
problem is the disintegration today of absolute truth and the bent there is
toward critical thinking that has caused us to spend more time questioning the
Bible than learning the absolute truths and convictions that allow Scripture to
change our lives. Now don’t get me
wrong, I think we should all be able to know more than a recitation of a creed. We need to not only know what we believe but
why we believe it. But the need is to
start first with what we believe. I was
able several years ago to have breakfast where the President of a well-known Bible
College spoke. He said very clearly that
incoming freshmen know less about the Bible today than ever before.
When I
taught my Contemporary Issues class at Grace College, the very first thing that
I would do on the very first day of class is to have the students take out a
piece of paper and from memory list the 66 books of the Bible in order and
spelled correctly. In seven years of
teaching, I had less than five students that could do it without any errors.
Folks,
listen, why don’t you give it a try?
Without looking in your Bible, pull out a blank sheet of paper, number 1
to 66 and see how close you can get. Can
you list the books of the Bible in order?
Can you spell them correctly? My
guess is that many (perhaps most) cannot do both. So, let’s go back to the basics! Is there really anything more basic to the
Bible than knowing the books of the Bible in order and how to find them when the
pastor says, “Let’s turn to…?”
Why not make
the determination right now to tackle this one no matter how long it
takes. You may be able to do it in a
week. It may take a month. For some, it may take a year. That’s okay.
Learn three 3 books a week and in just 22 weeks you’ll be finished.
2 comments:
excellent... but with my spelling and my memory, i can't even spell my own last name right all the time... I miss a "t" :-)
What a fantastic challenge for all of us! Thank you. Let's get busy Church!!!!
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