Last night in our devotional, I mentioned some interesting (as in depressing) facts about most Christians and the Bible. Overwhelmingly, people who identify themselves as Christians believe that the Bible is the word of God. Underwhelmingly, most of us who identify ourselves as Christians don’t read the Bible for themselves. A Barna study in 1999 found that only 35% of self-identified “Born-Again Christians” read the Bible during the week. This is not read the Bible as in “daily Bible readers.” That is read the Bible as in “read the Bible during the week at all." A Gallop Poll several years ago found that 64% of those who identify themselves as Christians can’t name any of the four Gospels and 12% of them said that they believe that Noah’s wife was Joan of Arc! You think there may be a connection between nor reading the Bible and not knowing basic facts about the Bible?
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Thy Word
I had a teacher in grad school that like to say (often) that “Christianity is the religion of Biblical authority.” Everything that we know about God beyond what Paul calls His “invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature” (Rom 1:20) is revealed through the Bible. The Bible tells us about Jesus, the cross, salvation, heaven, hell, the church, God’s moral order and everything else we know about God’s presence in the world comes through the Bible. Yes, God's Spirit lives within us to empower us and groan with us in our prayers... but we wouldn’t even know that if it were not for the Bible.
God’s word lights our path and leads in obedience-- David says “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path I have taken an oath and confirmed it, that I will follow your righteous laws” (Psalm 119:105-106). Knowing scripture gives us power to resist Satan’s temptation— “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11). Paul told Timothy that the inspired word of God in scripture was useful in our spiritual life to prepare and equip us to do every good work. This Bible we are privileged to possess “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, NLT).
So the reason we don’t read it for ourselves is… what? Are we too busy to carve out 15 minutes or so a day for God’s word? Could it be that the more stuff we have going on in our lives, the more we need the Bible? Let’s all do better this year reading the Bible for ourselves.
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4 comments:
I don’t know Greek or Hebrew and I have enough trouble with English. I greatly appreciate E-sword (google it is free) and any word in the bible can pointed to and you will get the definition of the original word that was translated.. It really opens up the original meaning of the scriptures. I often depended on a (pastor) or (preacher) to understand Greek and Hebrew as they go back to the original, look it up and help us understand the indented meaning. Details sometimes get distorted when we read from translations as when we study alone without such aids as a good Greek and Hebrew dictionary (that is free with Esword) it is nice to have a few very good men who can help with this and Tuck is one of them who can explain how we got the bible and what words got translated from what Creek and Hebrew words and what it all means to us today. Some people have the ability to memorize verses and some are even able to research, memorize and explain the meaning of what we read in the bible. It our life manual and authority, those who understand it are a great resource and should not be ignored. We should all read the bible for ourselves and don’t be afraid to look up those words. I know it takes time but we should all put forth our best effort to understand it and don’t be afraid to ask for help from those who have been schooled in Greek and Hebrew. They are willing and able to help you and you will be able to teach others as you understand more.
It is true that we are not to add to or take away from what we are taught from the bible. It is evident there is no biblical authority for the use of electro-mechanical instruments that are seen and heard in nearly all assemblies during “worship service”. The reason they are made available to a select few is because those select few are very good at what they do as they demonstrate to us how to sing and mark time, (that is their talent) (don’t be jealous of them) if you can not sing with them, just enjoy the instruments as they play the lifeless microphone and speakers when the system is well tuned it come to life through them, it is beautiful is it not. At least they don’t bring violins into the building that would be wrong would it not? Let’s all read the bible for ourselves and not add things or take away from others that we should not unless everyone gets one like song books (we could project the words up onto the for every one to be assisted. Just some food for thought!
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