We got to talking in my Sunday School class a few weeks ago about the times in scripture where crowds of people stood listening to a reading of the law... for hours at a time. And how a few hundred years ago people would listen to the reading of the Word for long periods of time. Why don't we do that today? Why does that sound so far fetched to us?
I have several thoughts about it.
We have the written scripture in our hands and homes. Back then the people didn't. That reading of the Word of God was the only access they had, and I imagine that they were hungry for it. We can read the Bible whenever we want... and I think perhaps that makes us take it for granted. There are several instances in scripture where the people listened to a reading of the law... that would have been at least the first 5 books of the Bible... how many Believers have read that on their own recently? Bibles are so common place that we take them for granted. How many Christians read their Bibles on a regular basis? How many have read it all the way through even once? How many actually study Scripture? I don't want to know the answers to those questions; I know the answers will be dismal.
Then you add in the bent toward entertainment in our culture, which is infiltrating our churches. It has to have flash and glitter and glitz to keep our attention. And our attention spans are so short. Today's society is ADD and a drug is not going to fix it. We have to learn to focus our attention on purpose, by ourselves; not wait for something on the outside to capture our attention. People, you have to take control of your own mind, your own attention. And we must teach this to our children. The winds of this world are going to blow us around like a hurricane if we don't.
Take control of your thoughts and focus your attention. It can be done. It must be done.
Take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ Jesus...
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