I once counseled an individual...
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I once counseled an individual who had a very technical mind. He had spent over thirty years in the field of chemistry. He would tell me that understanding a formula was an easy thing for him to do. Two plus two equals four. A plus B minus C equals D. These he had no problem with whatsoever. But reading the Bible was a difficult thing for him to do. There are obvious contradictions in the Bible. A good Bible student knows that the gospel accounts of events in the life of Christ are not always presented exactly alike. I tried to tell my friend that the giants of the Christian faith did not always agree on what the Bible said. They, too, struggled with the plan of salvation. Some made it simple; others made it difficult. Humankind has devised far more ways to explain salvation than are necessary. In John 3:16 we are told "whoever believes" will have eternal life. How technical is that for the mind to grasp? Then I remembered another friend from my past. Myrtie Howell was 91 years old when I met her for the first time. She had been a faithful servant of our Lord for over fifty years. Her conversion came after some of the most difficult experiences a person could go through. Death claimed her husband and two children in a span of two weeks. Lacking formal education, she had to go to work in a factory simply to subsist. She began to wonder where God was in all of this. "I could hardly read and had the Bible been more difficult than John 3:16, I would never have made it," she said. Both of my friends are believers. The Word of God has spoken to their hearts in different ways. Nicodemus asked Jesus, "How can a man be born again?" Good question.
-- Shearer
-- Shearer
