Okay…confession time. Who reading here today would be willing to admit of doing what I have been guilty of doing in the past, when it comes to reading Christian books, devotionals, study guides, etc., written by your favorite author(s)? You find yourself totally engaged reading every page and every chapter, marking those profound statements made by the author. You might even share your favorite quote by that author on social media because it made such an impression on you.

But as you are reading through that book, you’ll come across numerous paragraphs that are actually portions of scripture straight out of our Bible, and usually printed in italics to make it stand out; and yet we tend to do a funny thing when we come across those passages. We skim over them so we can hurry and get back to what our favorite author…is saying.

[Me, sheepishly raising my hand as I admit- “yep, I’ve done that before.”]

We ‘believers’ have a funny love/hate relationship with God’s word, if we’re honest enough to admit it. We have no problem boldly declaring that we believe the Bible is God’s infallible word to His people. We’ll raise those leather-bound Bibles up in the air at the prompting of the preacher and make our declaration of faith kown, agreeing how powerful and mighty and enduring the word of God is. And yet, even despite the prompting by Peter for us to ‘desire the pure milk of God’s word that we may grow thereby’ (1 Pet. 2:2)…we’ll find so many other ‘menu options’ throughout the day to feast on that offer no spiritual nourishment or growth; unless of course we need to cram for a midweek Bible study we’re scheduled to attend.

Now some of us, on the other hand... will take great comfort in reading regularly, lengthy portions of text in our Bibles, even memorizing various passages. We might have little ‘sticky-notes’ with verses posted on our bathroom mirrors and other places around the house. And yet for all this professed love we have for God’s word, what is an easy trap many can fall into, which only leads to self-deception, as James points out in his letter (1:22)? We are simply hearers (readers/quoters) of it…and not ‘doers’ of it.

And then there is of course, as we have looked at the past two days…those who sense ‘something’ rise up within their hearts when they come across various passages found in our Bibles, but they don’t ‘fit’ with our previously taught/learned doctrines; some even taking offense to those verses. What is that all about?

I’d like to share a simple ‘word picture’ with you now, that 'came to mind' a few years back, that explains another ‘trap’ we can easily fall into, illustrating why we find ourselves actually rejecting God’s word instead of embracing it. And remember…anytime you find yourself refuting or rejecting God’s word…who in reality are we rejecting? John 1:1,14 will provide you with that answer.

Suppose you live in a small town that has four established churches in it, representing four different ‘denominations’. And every Sunday, the members of those four churches gather together to worship and fellowship and to hear the preaching of God’s word. And every week, the pastor dutifully opens up the Bible and expounds upon it from his teaching notes.

Now here is where the word picture comes into play. Let’s imagine we have a jigsaw puzzle that has 1000 pieces in it. The picture on the cover is an all-encompassing scene that includes a clear blue sky in the upper left hand corner that expands over a scenic range of mountains. Further down in the lower end of the puzzle, lies a thick forest of evergreen trees with maybe a lake or two in the middle of them. Then, off to the far right of that scene lies a small town dotted with various homes and streets and cars and buildings, etc. Now here is where it can get interesting, as the puzzle pieces are divided/separated into four sections. One box gets all the ‘blue sky’ pieces, another box has all the brown/black pieces depicting the mountain ranges. Another box has collected all the green tree/forest pieces while the fourth box has all those pieces that include the townspeople and surrounding buildings and infrastructure, etc.

These four boxes represent the four ‘denominational beliefs’ of those four churches in our hypothetical town we are looking at today. And every Sunday, each respective preacher stands up in their pulpit and opens their ‘box of 250 pieces’, which represents those different ‘doctrinal beliefs’ each church adheres to and promotes, as the members of those four respective churches continue to be ‘indoctrinated’. The pastor may expound on the beauty of those pieces, maybe give historical lessons on how those pieces ‘came to be’, then throw in for good measure clever and entertaining stories that tug on our heart strings and make us even laugh (or cry) at times as we get sentimental about those lovely pieces. And then, at the close of each service, those pieces are put back into the puzzle box and set aside until the following Sunday when we join together once again and repeat the process.

But something odd happens midweek. Several members from those different churches get together for lunch, or a round of golf, or a leisurely walk, and then find themselves talking about what they heard taught in church that past Sunday. One member from the ‘blue sky piece’ church shares a portion of truth they came away with after hearing the message. But the person who attends the church with all the ‘green tree pieces’ seems confused, because they heard nothing along those lines of ‘clear blue skies’, as they were taken in by the moving lesson on thick lush forest pieces.

Meanwhile, the member who’s church gathers around the pieces that has all the cars and homes and buildings and streets... wrinkles their brow in confusion, and decides to remain silent because clearly…those two people are in error of some sort, because their church believes nothing like that. And then there is the brother from the ‘mountain pieces’ church who feels a tad lofty and wants to set them all straight based on what ‘his church’ confidently knows all about.  Oh, did I mention that none of those churches seem to have the 'picture cover' found on most puzzle boxes, that shows what the overall scene should look like when all the pieces come together?

Does anyone see the problem with this scene?

Interesting… how it was Satan who came to Jesus tempting Him to change rocks to bread, during a time of testing; and Jesus responded by saying: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by EVERY word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Matt. 4:4).

Is it any wonder we all seem to be preaching ‘different gospels’…while all claiming to ‘have the truth at our church’.