Is That In The Bible?

The following are found in the Bible... True or false? Answers are found at the end of this entry...

i. Help thy brother's boat across, and lo! thine own has reached the shore.
ii. A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city.
iii. Behold, how good it is for brethren to dwell together in Zion.
iv. Am I my brother's keeper?
v. Whoever degrades a brother degrades me, and whatever is done or said returns to me.
vi. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store
vii. He who blesses most is most blessed.

In the age where the world deems truth as something that is self-defined, Christians have the privilege of knowing the one and only truth to live by. And yet, this truth that we all know as the word of God, the Bible, is often degraded to something that is simply mentioned by our pastors and cell leaders, while often forgetting that we have direct and personal access to this truth, the Bible. I am trying my very best to sound as un-judgmental as possible, as I have been guilty of committing this at times; not knowing where certain verses are from, but just telling others that 'my pastor says so'.

I think that there is totally no wrong in putting trust into our pastors and cell leaders, for they have been placed in such positions as authorities over our walk with God, and they most certainly have a greater knowledge of the Word than ourselves.

But the danger is in over-relying on them, and their words become a primary source of knowledge of God, to an extent when the 'God' that had been pictured in our minds may not necessarily be the one and only true God. And this is most often not due to a misinterpretation of the Bible on their part, but our innocence and perhaps ignorance which assume everything they have said, including emotive words and figures of speech, as the truth. And beware, this can be extremely subtle. I can't be naming examples here...

So I urge us to be discerning and always check against the Bible, for we have direct access to Jesus.

Answers:
i) F, it's from a Hindi scripture
ii) T, Prov 18:19
iii) F, Psalm 133 has a similar verse but mentions 'unity' instead of 'zion'
iv) T, Cain's response to God when asked the whereabouts of his brother Abel
v) F, this is from 'Song of Myself', a poem by Walt Whitman
vi) T, Deut 28:5
vii) F, from 'Lines for the Agricultural Exhibition' by John Greenleaf Whittier