The Bible: Real to You?

We find some challenging teaching by Jesus in Matthew chapter 10, where we see essentially his charge to those whom He was sending out.  Beginning in verse 32, we read:
32"Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.33But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
Now, let's jump down to verse 38 - he says:38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.39He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.

I think it is very telling that He uses the word, "cross", here, because He is teaching these disciples to deny themselves, to die to self, and follow Him.  He would later die a brutal, physical death, which sends a powerful message to us about the surrendered life which we should be willing to live, rendering ourselves as dead to sin and alive to Christ, crucified with Him, so we could experience new life.  We are called to live in the reality of the resurrection.  This takes more than just mental assent or mere verbal agreement that we are a Christian - He calls us to walk by faith, so that His life is expressed through us.

In Acts 17, we see a brief account of the Christians at Berea, who are marvelous examples to us of people who embraced and emulated the reality of Christ:
10Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.11These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.12Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men.

Calinfornia Pastor Caleb Kaltenbach made an alarming discovery recently when he noticed a Simi Valley Costco had labeled all its Bibles as “fiction”. A Religion Today piece stated that after several unsuccessful attempts to report the matter with store employees, the pastor snapped a photo of the Bible display and sent it to his congregation.

The story quotes Kaltenbach as saying to Fox News that, “People are pretty shocked and upset...We are supposed to be living in an era of tolerance, but what Costco did doesn’t seem too tolerant.”

Costco headquarters initially attributed the event to human error at the warehouse, but declined to comment further.  Reaction to the incident has been varied. Some Christians have responded with outrage, while others have asked that this not become a major incident. Other viewers have used the incident as a springboard to express their disbelief in religion, while still more have stepped forward to defend their faith.

When interviewed by Christian News, Costco had this statement:  “’Costco’s distributor mislabeled a small percentage of the Bibles; however, we take responsibility and should have caught the mistake. We are correcting this with them for future distribution,’ the company stated. ‘We greatly apologize for the error.’”

As for Kaltenbach, the pastor told CBN News that he believes the error was an honest mistake, though a very telling one.

"’I totally believe them," he said. "I believe it was a mistake. I don't believe there's some kind of evil genius behind the scenes, but I do believe it is telling where our nation is spiritually.’"

I agree - this is not an incident that should contribute to the narrative of our religious rights being disregarded. Some would say that it shows a lack of respect for Christianity, but I tend to think it was a matter of mislabeling.  However, I'd like to know if all the Bibles have been relabeled or removed from the shelves.

Well, we know there are some in our society today that believe the Bible is fiction - simply not true.  And, as we have opportunity, perhaps we can relate the truth about God and His Word to them.   The Bible tells us to be prepared to share the reason for the hope that we have, and as we trust in the Lord and as we have experienced His work in our lives - through the new birth and through ways that He is evident to us on a consistent basis - we can share our own personal story with those who do not know Him, who think the Word of God is fiction.  And, on an intellectual level, we can also have defenses for our faith in hand and mind in order to engage in discussion about the evidence for God.

Then you have others that say they believe the Bible, but act as if they do not.   And, that's a dangerous place for anyone.   I want to challenge each of us today to examine our lives - our behavior, as well as the thoughts and intents of our hearts - by the way that we act, do we confirm or deny that we believe the Bible is true?   Could you say that the Bible is actually fiction - for you?  If we adhere to the truth contained within the Scriptures and if God is alive in our hearts, then our lives will reflect the evidence of His presence. If our actions contradict the faith we say we have, then we have to make the choice to bring those two realms of faith and action into a place of consistency with one another.  Because God is real, then the reality of the risen Lord will be expressed through us - we can release the power of the Holy Spirit to transform every area of us - the regeneration of our spirits, the renewal of our minds, and the realization of the spiritual in the physical realm, in our bodies.