September 16, 2004

[Rev. Doc]

Biblical Power

"For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."
Hebrews 4:12

One of the most dramatic examples of the Bible's divine ability to transform men and women involved the famous mutiny on the "Bounty." Following their rebellion against the notorious Captain Bligh, nine mutineers, along with the Tahatian men and women who accompanied them, found their way to Pitcairn Island, a tiny dot in the South Pacific only two miles long and a mile wide. Ten years later, drink and fighting had left only one man alive--John Adams. Eleven women and 23 children made up the rest of the Island's population. So far this is the familiar story made famous in the book and motion picture. But the rest of the story is even more remarkable. About this time, Adams came across the "Bounty's" Bible in the bottom of an old chest. He began to read it, and the divine power of God's Word reached into the heart of that hardened murderer on a tiny volcanic speck in the vast Pacific Ocean--and changed his life forever. The peace and love that Adams found in the Bible entirely replaced the old life of quarreling, brawling, and liquor. He began to teach the children from the Bible until every person on the island had experienced the same amazing change that he had found. Today, with a population of slightly less than 100, nearly every person on Pitcairn Island is a Christian.

Prayer: Ask God to unleashed His living word in your life and the lives of those around you.

"I am a man of one Book."
~John Wesley.

[Galant]

Ah how I love the power of God which works within me even in spite of myself.

I remember a prayer at the start of university which when I reached the end of my course I found myself pondering. I was about to start thinking about how I'd wasted time, messed up and dashed my own hopes, when I realised I started to see in myself the things I'd asked God to build within me. How He did it I don't know but He is faithful to Hiw will and His people, even when they are unfaithful to Him.

"And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Saviour's blood?...
Bold I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown through Christ my own."