Trivial Pursuit

The prince of Grenada, an heir to the Spanish crown, was sentenced to life in solitary confinement in Madrid's ancient prison called "The Place of the Skull." The fearful, dirty, and dreary nature of the place earned it the name. Everyone knew that once you were in, you would never come out alive. The prince was given one book to read the entire time -- the Bible. With only one book to read, he read it over hundreds and hundreds of times. The book became his constant companion.

After thirty-three years of imprisonment, he died! When they came in to clean out his cell, they found some notes he had written using nails to mark the soft stone of the prison walls. The notations were of this sort: Psalm 118:8 is the middle verse of the Bible; Ezra 7:21 contains all the letters of the alphabet except the letter j; the ninth verse of the eighth chapter of Esther is the longest verse in the Bible, no word or name of more than six syllables can be found in the Bible."

When Scot Udell originally noted these facts in an article in Psychology Today, he noted the oddity of an individual who spent thirty-three years of his life studying what some have described as: "The Greatest Book of all time" yet could only glean "trivia". From all we know, he never made any spiritual commitment to Christ, but he became an expert at Bible trivia.....

What a shame! The prince knew all about the book, but He did not know the author. The problem? He was looking for trivia; he wasn’t looking for the Lord.

Have you read His Book lately? Perhaps you already know a lot about the Bible. But, do you know the author?

The theme of the entire Bible is the salvation of man through Jesus Christ our Lord. Yet, many read the Bible and never see Jesus, the central Character. Jesus said, "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to me that you may have life" (John 5:39-40).

God has promised: "You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29:13). Therein is the key to knowing God and His will for our lives. The Scriptures reveal Him to the genuine seeker (1 Corinthians 2:9-13) One can learn of His great love for man from His Word. The magnitude of His love is evident in that He sent His Son into the world to die for our sins (1 John 2:2).

The Scriptures also teach us how to respond to the love of God: through faith (Hebrews 11:6), repentance (2 Corinthians 7:9-10), confessing Christ (Rom 10:9-10), being baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38, Galatians 3:27), and following Him faithfully -- for the rest of our lives (Revelation 2:10).

It is time to put an end to trivial pursuits of Bible facts. It is time to pursue a knowledge of God and HIS will for our lives through a diligent, sincere study of His Word.

Our salvation depends upon it!



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