2 Kings 22:8 – And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.

2 Kings 22:9 – And Shaphan the scribe came to the king, and brought the king word again, and said, Thy servants have gathered the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of them that do the work, that have the oversight of the house of the Lord.

2 Kings 22:10 – And Shaphan the scribe shewed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king.

2 Kings 22:11 – And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes.

Hello readers, hope you’ve had a great week! Weekend is here, and it’s new blog time today. I hope you are blessed by reading this today, and pray every blessing from God on my readers. Are we on the same page? How do we get on the same page? I’ve met and had to do with a lot of different types of Christians in my life. I work at a place where there are all sorts of Christians and other beliefs as well. And one thing that always amazes me (although not really as well given what the Bible says but anyway) is how everyone’s got their own version of Christ and Christianity. They’ve got their own right and wrong, thoughts, ideas, beliefs, opinions, the lot.

Noone’s on the same page about just about anything really. We can say we are, but we’re not. Often I’ve talked to people and they say “we essentially believe the same thing”… but we don’t let’s be honest. And hence this blog about getting on the same page. But to get on the same page, you have to realize we aren’t on the same page to begin with…

When you’re on the same page as someone, you are said to be in agreeance with them. The Bible says in Amos 3:3 – “Can two walk together except they be agreed?” The answer of course is that you can’t. Being in agreeance is necessary to get along and walk together with others in life. The problem is, many people find an agreeance not in the pages of scripture… but in compromise, wickedness and error. I’ve played a lot of sport in my life, and down at the sports club they are in agreeance and they get along. They drink, they sleep around, whatever. They do the same thing, and because they do, they get along together. Agreeance is massive.

You can find agreeance in many things, and maybe you’re on the same page with the people that matter to you. It doesn’t mean you’re on the right page, on God’s page though. Many people agree in sin, but it doesn’t make sin right. This world agrees on all sorts of things that are completely antiChrist.

Christians need agreeance, having agreeance determines if there will be fellowship. Think about the word “fellowship”. Are we on the same boat together? There’s many Christians that try walking the tightrope of some kind of faith and agreeing with the world. That’s called trying to find a compromise. When a Christian marries a nonChristian, there is trouble ahead. Because what you believe directly will impact what kind of marriage you have, how you make decisions, how you raise your children and so on. So when you literally or figuratively get in bed with someone, making that bed with someone who is not on the same page as God and you is bound for disaster.

As a Christian, our fellowship is (or should be) based on Jesus Christ and his word. Our commonality is based on having him and his word in common. That’s what unifies us. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 4 that a threefold cord is not quickly be broken. You, me, God’s word… that’s a threefold cord that won’t be broken. In this blog we’ll see that we must be on the same page as God to be on the same page with others. 1 John 1:3 – “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.”

So while our commonality should be based on God’s word, many Christians commonality is based on commonality of compromise. They all compromise on God’s word together. They’re on the same page, but it’s not based on being on God’s page. People in order to all “get along” and walk together are willing to compromise massively on what is true in order to have that “fellowship”. Even though such fellowship is worthless, because true fellowship is based on truth.

For instance, if I have Mormon friends, I’d have to compromise on what the Bible says about Jesus Christ being God in order to get along with them. He is either God or not, both positions can’t be true. But many Christians today compromise on the truth, and that’s also because the truth is polarizing. See, it was when Jesus Christ started preaching that people started disappearing on him. It’s a strait gate and a narrow road that leads to life… there’s not many on it. If your security is numbers, you’ll find the broad road suitable company for yourself.

When you hold to what the Bible teaches about hell, judgment, wrath, who God is… you are going to lose friends, not make them. That doesn’t bring money in though does it. That doesn’t make you popular and well loved and spoken of. Thus in order to make Christianity more “world” friendly, you must forsake being on the same page as God to be on the same page with this world and worldly Christians. In order to get along with Christians in error, you must partake in their error.

We are going to look at a couple verses in 1 Corinthians, and Paul in the first letter did a lot of rebuking. There was rampant sin and error in the church, and he wanted it straightened out. People were divided, people believed different stuff… and Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:10 – “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” That doesn’t mean we are all clones, but it does mean we must be on the same page of God’s word, where it matters. There are non negotiable of the faith. There is no negotiation to be had..

People usually have a desire for fellowship and to get along and to be accepted over what the Bible says. They aren’t willing to pay the cost of discipleship. Most people are willing to sacrifice truth and what the Bible says in order to reach a compromise with others. We live in a pluralistic, post modern society where people think all truths are equally valid and legitimate… but that’s craziness. For instance, Jesus can’t be both God and not God. He can’t have risen from the dead and not risen from the dead. One is true or the other, they can’t both be true.

I’ve found with people in life that my Jesus, my spirit, my gospel… he’s different, and it’s different from theirs. There’s a lot of people claiming to be Christians out there, but they all have such different beliefs, distinctive and points of difference. But how can that be so? Honestly. If there’s one God, one Bible, one salvation, one faith, one Spirit, one Jesus… how can there be such a diversity of belief and way?

The problem is that we are not on the same page. Before we can understand how to get on the same page, we need to establish the fact that we are not on the same page. So we are not on the same page. That is evident. Why is that? Because one of us, or both of us are not on the same page as God. We are not on God’s page. And because we’re not in and on God’s page, we are not on the same page. Have a look at this, this is Jesus Christ…

Luke 4:17 – And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,

Luke 4:18 – The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

Luke 4:19 – To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

Luke 4:20 – And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.

Luke 4:21 – And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

So Jesus Christ says this, and it ends up with them trying to chuck him off a cliff. They weren’t on the same page as Jesus Christ. Many people and many religious people at that are not on the same page with God. They weren’t on the same page with Jesus Christ. They weren’t in agreeance at all. It didn’t change the truth though, just the truth didn’t suit them. That’s why people don’t get on the same page as God… because they’ve got problems, sin problems.

It’s amazing how not being on the same page as God flows into all other areas of life. They’re trying to shove him off a hillface because he told them the truth. They were on the same page with each other for sure, the whole synagogue got mad at Christ. Because they weren’t on his page, they were against him. And they’re trying to murder him. Not being on the same page caused a terrible attempted murder.  If you’re not on the same page with God, that’s going to flow into how you live, think, and speak. They thought they knew better than Jesus… but they didn’t. They were religious, they even had the book… just they didn’t believe it.

Today we really live in a time where everybody is just making up their Christianity as they go. The book of Judges is such a relevant book for the time we live in. And ironically so, as we live in a “judge not” generation. Yet there is the book of Judges, and it was judges that God raised up that delivered Israel. The lack of judgment was what was hurting Israel. There was none, people were just doing what was right according to them and even tacking the Lord’s name to it as we do. It was a time in Israel’s history where they were enjoying the freedoms that a previous generation had gotten for them. Doesn’t this sound like us? And they’d grown apathetic and indifferent and weak. Yeah, this is us today.

God raised up a few judges who delivered the people, and they won some great victories against impossible odds. But the nation wasn’t on the same page as God, only a few were. Deborah was on the same page as God, that’s why they went to her. Because she’d encourage them to follow and obey God. God wants to win some great victories today. But you can’t have any victories when there’s no foundation, no basis for your Christianity. God’s word is what puts us on the same page as God… that’s why we have been given the Bible, to give us a foundation to build our lives and service to God upon. Paul would write in 1 Corinthians 3 about the judgment of Christians… and that many would suffer loss and be ashamed in that day, because everything they built upon the foundation of Christ would be burnt up. Imagine there being nothing to show for your life’s work all because you weren’t on the same page, just as this Corinthian church wasn’t. They’d gotten way off the page as you read on, all sorts of stuff was going on in this church.

Because Christians aren’t on the same page there is a lot of strife and division. That’s what happens when you’re not on the same page. When you’re not on the same page as God, you won’t be on the same page with others. Abraham and Lot got off the same page… why? Because Lot wasn’t like Abraham, they were going different directions with different agendas in life… and see how that turned out. Paul opens his first letter to the Corinthian church and says in 1 Corinthians 1:11 – “For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.” There were problems in the church that needed sorting out. It was hurting testimonies and witness and people having the power of God in their Christian life. First chapter, and he’s hitting the divisions and strifes and contentions head on… with many a sharp rebuke coming.

The reason Christians aren’t on the same page… is because they’re not on the same page. It might sound like a smarty pants statement, but think about it. Christians aren’t on the same page because they’re not on the same page. People weren’t on the same page in Corinth. There was a diversity of allegiances, practices and lifestyles. Many Christians today are just like this Corinthian church, who were carnally minded, divided, in error and in sin. They got straightened out by the apostle Paul. If the generation that saw Jesus Christ needed straightening out by John the Baptist, if Corinth needed straightening out by Paul… so do we.

How do you get on the same page? And what page is that? The page we need to be on is the Bible. When we get on the Bible page, when we agree with God’s word (not him agreeing with us, but us agreeing with him), that’s when we get on the right page… and the same page with other true believers. The Bible is the page we need to be on in life.

When the people of Corinth got back to the Bible, it set all their sin and issues in order. We, like they, need to be in agreeance with God in his word. But many Christians today are not in the Bible, and when they are, they’re all in different Bibles. How can you have different Bibles and not have a different faith? How can you have different Bibles and not have a different Jesus, a different spirit, a different gospel? How can you not have different doctrines and teachings?

See, we thought we could trade our dusty old book in for something cooler, or easier to understand… and it wouldn’t matter, it wouldn’t change anything. But we were a bit like the children of Israel in the wilderness. They got sick of the manna, they loathed it and wanted flesh. Christians today did the same. They got sick of God’s word and wanted something a bit more flesh friendly.

We thought it wouldn’t really change anything. But look what it’s produced. Vastly different Christianity to the faith that was once delivered unto the saints. Look at churches and Christians today and they’re more worldly, carnal and fleshly than worldly people. Changing the manna for flesh was a pretty poor upgrade in the desert, and it’s been a similarly poor upgrade for Christians.

It’s had massive consequences. See, the first thing we learn about Satan is that he is subtil… and his subtility has once against triumphed over man. Eve traded in God’s word for a “similar” and better version of God’s word according to her and Satan… and she and her family and the whole human race have paid for it ever since. She chose agreement with Satan rather than God… she and Adam couldn’t have both. And neither can you. There’s a saying that the devil is in the detail. It’s because it is. The devil was in the detail in Genesis 3, what makes you think that’s changed today? The roaring lion is still in the devouring business.

We need to get back on the same page as God. Only then can we reclaim the salt and light we were supposed to have. There’s a wonderful Old Testament picture of national revival which was based on the nation getting back on the same page with God. So we go back to 2 Kings 22 quoted above, and a king called Josiah who is like an oasis in a dry and dusty desert when it comes to reading through the many sorry accounts of other kings in the Bible.

Josiah was a king that got on the same page as God, and got the nation on the same page with God as well. He read the book and discovered they were not on the same page with God and it caused him to rent his clothes. They were in violation of God’s word! Wrath was promised and coming. All because he rediscovered the Bible to the nation. Do you need to rediscover the Bible? That forgotten book? That’s our foundation, that’s the page we need to be on, so we can on the same page with God and each other.

Josiah got the book back central to life in Israel. He was actually king of Judah, the kingdom was divided… it had been divided by the stupidity of Solomon’s son who listened to his contemporaries, his mates he’d grown up with, over the old men who knew better. See, he went with the new crowd, and he split the kingdom with his utter foolishness. Christians went with the new Bibles, and it’s divided Christians, and a house divided against itself cannot stand.

What we see in Christianity today is endless division but also a needful division between true Christians and the worldly ones, between those in truth and those in error, between the sheep and the goats. When Christians went with the new Bibles, they went from on the same page to not being on the same page. Now everyone’s on a different page… literally and figuratively.

Make no mistake about it, the Holy Bible is the foundation and cornerstone of the Christian faith. We have nothing if we don’t have the Bible. That’s why most Christians have nothing, and there’s nothing to their supposed faith, they sold out, they’re like Samson shaved of his power. You’ve been shaved of your strength, and you’re weak and powerless and blind. The Bible is the tangible thing we have from God. Yes, he’s given us the Holy Spirit to who believe, but he can’t be seen, and he works in perfect accordance with God’s word. Indeed it’s the spiritual armament by which we navigate the unseen spiritual world. The Bible is the proof, it’s the evidence, it’s the testament God has given to us. Everything we know and believe is founded upon the book. If you change the book, you’ve changed the foundation. People traded in the foundation of rock for the shifting sand… and that’s what these new Bibles are. Endless revisions and endless changing.

Ever wondered why Christ is referred to as the Rock? Rocks don’t change, rocks last. How are we meant to be lively stones in the sling of Jesus Christ to destroy the enemies of Christ if we’ve forsaken the Rock? If God gets his sling out, would you be a stone that could be used for him? Smooth stones are what David chose from the brook when he went to face Goliath. What smoothed those stones out was the water action, taking away the rough edges. We all have rough edges and we are all odd shapes, it’s the water of God’s word that makes us fit for service in the sling of the Lord. It was the water action that made all those stones suitable for service. God’s word will get us all in shape fit for the Masters use. Don’t miss your shot in life because you weren’t on God’s page.

The Bible says in Psalm 11:3 – If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? When the foundation of God’s word was knocked out, when we got off God’s page, and it became about our wisdom, philosophy, opinions and ideas… we lost our power and strength and usefulness. The Bible says where the word of a king is, there is power. When Christians forsook their King James Bible… they lost their authority, they lost their power, they lost their salt, they lost their light. They were no longer useful, they were good  for nothing, just as Jesus Christ said would happen.

By the way, “new Bibles are much easier to understand”. Do you know that statement in and of itself just tells you what the problem is? The problem isn’t with the old book, the problem is with the reader. If you’re not repentant, if you’re not saved, if you’re not born again… of course the old book is going to be hard to understand. If you’re in sin and pride, of course it’s going to be hidden from you. God resists the proud. And he resists you, and that’s why you swapped out. The Bible is s a spiritual book and it can only be discerned by the Holy Spirit in you. It’s not designed to be subject to the intellect of man. The reason why people couldn’t understand it was they weren’t humble, they had failed of the grace of God, they were full of lust and pride and self… and they were resisted by God’s word. So they changed the spiritual book to a fleshly book, something that would suit their carnal minds and fleshly wisdom and understanding.

Let’s go back to the example of Josiah. Josiah’s dad wasn’t a good man. He was an evil and wicked man. He led the nation into sin, and conditions had so vastly deteriorated that he got murdered by his own servants in his own house. How do you fix the nation this young boy inherited? Josiah was EIGHT years old when he began to reign. He’s a child and he’s ruling a real nation with real people with real lives that have real needs and real problems. And he does a better job of it than just about any king they ever had. It just goes to show wisdom does not come with age… yes it can correlate with getting older and growing in the faith… but you can be a stupid old man and a wise child. Why did God speak to Samuel and not to Eli? Because Eli had grown indifferent to God’s word, he was apathetic and weak. God didn’t speak to him no more.

So you read the story in 2 Kings, and you’ll see that Josiah wants God’s temple fixed, he knows the way to fix and order the nation starts with addressing the spiritual condition it’s in. He starts with God. Repairing your relationship with God is where revival out of ruin begins. The way to fix our nation isn’t through reforms and legislation and elections, it starts in churches.  Josiah knew that. He would fix Judah by getting God back central to things. We must restore God to where he is and belongs in our minds and heart. He is the most High God, we stopped minding him, and that’s why we are in a mess.

The Bible says that judgment must first begin at the house of God. If the Christians got right with God, that would flow on into the rest of the nation. Think Josiah had that wisdom? The reason we are in such a state is because the Christians are like those in Judah at the time, full of sin and rebellion. Why do you think the temple was run down? Why did the book need to be rediscovered? It wouldn’t be this strange alien thing and need to be rediscovered if it was central to your thinking and doing. If you fix God’s house, if you get right with God, get God back central to our thinking and living and doing… everything else will be set in order. Josiah had more wisdom at eight than we do in adulthood.

Keep in mind what we’re seeing here is Josiah getting on the same page as God, and his nation will with him. Guess what, the high priest found a book and said hey you, give this to the king. Maybe you need to rediscover that discarded, unused old book.  How would Josiah get the nation on the same page as God and then himself? He’s inherited a mess, but then in his reign he we see that because he read the book, he was able to lead his nation into repentance and restoration, and they kept the Passover like noone did before them. How could this happen? How could all the division and strife and contention and MESS be sorted out? Don’t think it’s not a mess. It was. When the previous king is killed by his own servants, safe to say, it’s a mess, and there’s strife and division and contention in the kingdom.

How to fix this broken nation? By getting on God’s page. And that’s what got them on the same page in the same book. You see them reading from the same page from the same book. It’s not he made them clones of himself, he just got one book, THE book, back to being central for everything they did. He brought God consciousness back into society, because the fear of the Lord and minding the Lord is what would fix the nation. His father tried ruling the nation, but MADE it a mess. So man’s attempts failed, this young king was wise because he looked to God, and he ruled according to the book, and because of that, he was a king like no other in Judah’s history.

While the nation had gone into sin, that had directly correlated with the decline of attitude to God and his word. The book was forgotten and the temple in disrepair. That’s why their nation was cooked, and it’s why our nation is cooked. Our society is like it is because God has been shoved out, and people traded in their Bible for something better. They upgraded from the book, they thought they knew better, they got hip and contemporary… and the nation is in ruin. And now they’re lost on how to fix it! Oh no! How do we solve all these problems in society oh no! They don’t know where and why and at what they’re stumbling. Because the stone the builders rejected principle. They didn’t want the stone of God’s word, of truth…. oh no. They rejected that stone in building their nation and society. We don’t need that stone. People build their lives without God’s word, and as Jesus said… they build a house on the sand… and GREAT was the fall of it.

By the way, few supposed preachers, pastors and teachers today are like Hilkiah the priest. They’re unable to get people on the same page, because they’re not on the same page as God. But Hilkiah said… go and give this book to the king. I’ve found something that we’ve forgotten that will be the real help. God’s word. The other kings had tried ruling in their wisdom and understanding and opinions and ideas… but hey, let’s get back to God being a number one. When the priest… when the preacher and teacher finds the book… then he can help others by giving them the book. You go to churches today, and they don’t have a reverent attitude to the Bible. Oh they say “Bible” here and there, but it’s a veneer and a sham. There’s never been a Christianity more disconnected from God’s word surely than today.

So today… are you on the same page with God? To get on the same page with God, you must get on God’s page… his word, his Bible, the word of truth. He’s not changing, you are the one who must change. And when you’re on that page, then you can be on the same page with other true believers. Oh, you won’t be on the same page as compromisers and this world… but you can be on the same page with who matters… with those who are seeking to honour and obey God in their lives. Look at these verses…

Judges 7:16 – And he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers.

Judges 7:17 – And he said unto them, Look on me, and do likewise: and, behold, when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so shall ye do.

Judges 7:18 – When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon.

Gideon’s got his small army, and it’s him versus the innumerable host of Midian. But look how he and his men were on the same page. Look on me, and do likewise. As I do, so shall ye do. Gideon was on the same page with God. He was obeying God’s word. And he and his men were on the same page. They blew their trumpets together. And look what they cried out. The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon. Can you say that? This is God’s word, and this is my word. People put down that old book, that old sword… they got off God’s page, they got out of touch, out of sync and they’re seeing no mighty deliverances today.

We need to get on the same page as God, we need to get in his word. It’s our trumpet, it’s our light, it’s our sword. What can you do without the word of God? Nothing. The Bible says when Samuel was a child that “the word of the Lord was precious in those days”. It is the same today. There is a time of famine. God’s word has been effectively taken away from Christians with all the new Bibles. There is a persecution of God’s word, just not with violence, but with the subtlety and deceit of the devil. He’s disarmed Christians, and they’re like Israel being oppressed by the Philistines who disarmed them so they had no swords to fight.

How do we get on the same page?  Recognize we are not on God’s page, and we are not on the same page. If you’re not saved, you’re not on the same page as God, you’re in trouble with God. Eternal trouble Get on God’s page. Get in his word. Believe it and obey it. Get saved. Trust his word with your life. When we’re on God’s page, we will be on the same page with other believers. I love the story of Josiah, because I can see Shaphan the scribe coming with the book… here read this king! We’ve found the book! That’s why my blog is all about… here, read the book! Find the book today, get in the word of God, the tried, tested and true word of God… and get on God’s page for your life. Get on the same page with God, and you will get on the same page with the true believers and chosen of God today.

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