My son-in-law, Drew, asked me to teach a group of twenty-five young adult interns on hermeneutics, Bible interpretation. The first thing I did was to read a love letter I had given my wife some years ago:
“WHY I’M GLAD THAT I MARRIED YOU:
- You love me and you always have.
- You were beautiful when I married you—and you still are.
- I trust you that you will always be faithful” (and about seven more lines). I asked if they had problems understanding any of it. “Not a word,” they responded.
So I held up the Bible and said, “I want to dismantle two myths, 1) that the Bible, God’s message of love, is hard to understand, and 2) that it is boring. It is neither. If you make either one of these assertions, it is revealing nothing about the Scriptures and a whole lot about you.”
But let’s face it: we’ve all had times, perhaps many, when it was dry, difficult to understand, and frankly boring. However, we get past that glitch quicker when we acknowledge the Word of God to be what it is—powerful, transformational, breathing with life, and exciting!
- C. Sproul was asked by the president of a Christian College to come and teach the Bible, adding, “We really want you to make it come alive.” R. C. fought back the words, “Did I miss something? Has it died? Did anyone attend the Bible’s funeral?”
We don’t to make it come alive. It makes us alive. Peter wrote, “You have been born anew, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, by the living and abiding word of God” (I Peter 2:23). When that seed is planted in us, it abides for decades, doing its powerful work.
“The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, joint and marrow, and it a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). I don’t read the Bible; it reads me. I don’t stand in judgment of the Word. It stands in judgment of me. I do not scrutinize the Scripture; it scrutinizes me, revealing where my thoughts and actions are not aligned with the Word and will of God. How powerful is this book. It changes those who surrender to it.
As a single man I spent a week in a cabin in Colorado. I hardly saw anyone the whole week. I lived in the book of Philippians, saying it over and over during the day. One night as I went to bed, I raised my hands. I felt that I could almost touch Christ, but it was too sacred to try. I had lived for days in the Word, and it seemed to make the Living Word, Jesus Christ, almost tangible. How grateful I am for the Word of God. It builds me up, holds me in check, and reveals the greatness and goodness of God to me.
“Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Deuteronomy 8:3).
Job declared “I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food” (23:12).
“The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple” (Psalm 19:7).
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105).
“It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I speak to you, they are Spirit and they are life” (John 6:63).
“All scripture is God-breathed…” (2 Timothy 3:16). Let it bring you life—today!
Dare To Dream 