Word Picture

 While in college taking a child psychology class my teacher made this statement; she said that we remember 10% of what we hear but we remember 90% of what we see. That has a been many years ago now but I still remember what she said to this day and have found it to be true, a person will remember more of what they see than what they hear. As I read my Bible I see that it is no more than a book full of pictures; I understand that there are no visual pictures in our bibles. I am not talking about pictures which are drawn by pen, pencil, or brush, or seen by the physical eye. I am speaking of pictures drawn on the canvas of our mind and memory, which I call word pictures. This book we call the Bible is a book painting a picture of one person, Jesus Christ.

John 5:39  Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. Our pictures are wonderful memories of days gone by; the pictures of our children when they were small are priceless and cannot be replaced. Many that have lost everything in a fire have said it was the pictures and other memorabilia that couldn’t be replaced that they would miss the most.  Now think for a moment; if the Bible is an unveiling of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the only pictures we have of Him are the word pictures recorded in the Bible then we should understand why there is an attack upon the Scriptures. Way back with Adam and Eve we see the first attack. Satan disguised himself and came with an innocent request for information. He simply asked.

Genesis 3:1  Now the serpent was more subtil (clever, crafty) than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? What did God mean when He said, “Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? “ Do you see the word picture?  A serpent talking to a woman but also a woman talking to a serpent; notice what they are talking about it’s about what God said. With the disguise and the deception that the serpent used we see Eve being deceived. Now what can we learn from this picture? We must be careful about the way sin is disguised or the way it is packaged. Sin can be packaged in a way that it is made light of with some added humor and we laugh at it. Then before we really realize what has happened we accepted the deception as part of life and we have been deceived over a period of time. Think about what I just wrote and use your great mind that God has given each of us and think about what is going on around us. Have you ever asked yourself how did things get like this? Drugs and shootings down at the school house, robberies at an all-time high, abortions, high school drop outs and on and on. I went by a drug store the other night which had what is called a “red box” I understand it’s a vending machine that you can rent movies. What caught my attention was that people were standing in line to rent a movie from it in the rain. You may say that I came by at a busy time, to which I probably would agree but I came back by there an hour later and there was another line of people at the same box standing in the rain. Now what would they be viewing when they began watching those movies? Probably acts of adultery, nudity, with profanity, violence, killing and more?  These types of things didn’t happen overnight but over a period of time little by little we have just allowed it and have accepted it as normal. Is this really normal behavior? I personally don’t think so; I know I am stuck in the Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best Days. I don’t care to hear profanity; I had rather have a larger vocabulary more like Father Knows Best for really my Heavenly Father does know best. If I am going to paint a word picture I sure want it to be one that everyone can view; don’t you? God painted word pictures after word picture for our viewing don’t allow the enemy to come and rob you as he did Eve. Have a blessed week is my prayer for each of you.