(First Friday guest post from Paul Merrill)

In many churches now, you hear very little regular teaching or preaching from the Old Testament. I would urge you to open that part of your Bible and read.

When he was talking to his apprentice Timothy, Paul wrote this: “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right” (2 Timothy 3:16).

Notice the word at the beginning of the verse: “all”.

There are lots of great stories before Matthew. Many tell how God brought his people back to himself even though they messed up over and over.  (I can relate to that!)

Page after page is devoted to meticulous instructions on how to do things the way God wants (and avoid doing things that would displease him). Some of that is based on the realities of that time – certain foods were to be avoided because they could cause diseases. That may not be the case for similar foods from today’s supermarkets.

But there are great lessons through all those rules about how God wants all of us – not just the parts everyone sees. He is concerned about the details. We should be too.

A great way to approach parts of the Bible that you don’t understand is to ask God to open your eyes, before you start reading. You might be surprised what God will show you!

As Paul said above, “It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.” We need that outside viewpoint of life  to give us the right perspective on our actions and thoughts. Even though the world is constantly changing, God’s truths provide the standard to measure ourselves.