Monday: In the Word
More than six billion Bibles have been distributed worldwide, but how many are viewed as the Word of the living God? How many are read with a sincere heart open to know truth?
Image © Lars Justinen from GoodSalt.com
Proper Bible study directs our spiritual compass and enables us to navigate a world of falsehood and confusion. The Bible is a living document of divine origin (Heb. 4:12), and as such it points us to truths that we cannot get anywhere else. The Bible is Christ’s road map for daily living, and it educates us by expanding our intellect and refining our characters.
Read John 5:39, John 14:6, and John 20:31. The Bible, specifically the Gospels, gives us our most authoritative information about Jesus. What do these specific texts in John say about Him and why He is so important to us and to all that we believe?
We study the Bible because it’s the ultimate source of the Truth. Jesus is the Truth, and in the Bible we find Jesus as we can know Him because of how He has been revealed to us there. Here, in God’s Word, the Old and New Testaments, we learn about who Jesus is and what He has accomplished for us. We then fall in love with Him, and commit our lives and souls to His eternal safekeeping. By following Jesus and obeying His words, as revealed in His Word, we can become free from the bonds of sin and of the world. “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36, NKJV).
Read Romans 8:5-6. What are we being warned against here, and how can the study of the Word of God help us in this struggle over our minds?
The love of the world, especially the love of worldly possessions, can easily draw us away from God if we are not careful. That’s why we must keep ourselves in the Word, which points us to the eternal and spiritual realities that are so crucial for the Christian life.
Love of worldly things never elevates the mind to spiritual morality; instead it replaces biblical principles with greed, selfishness, and lust. Love, as revealed in the Bible, builds relationships by teaching us the importance of giving of ourselves to others. In contrast, worldliness is all about getting things for ourselves, which is the opposite of everything Jesus represents.
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The lesson states "...in God’s Word, the Old and New Testaments, we learn about who Jesus is and what He has accomplished for us" which leads us to fall in love with Him and commit our lives and souls to His eternal safekeeping.
In light of the 3 verses mentioned (Jn 5:39; 14:6; 20:31), what is it precisely/specifically that Jesus has accomplished for us that actually leads us to respond in love and commitment of our lives and souls to Him?
Jesus has overcome sin! And He has died for us, thus we can be saved just by believing in Him! We can also achieve eternal life by living His example and trusting in His merits! He has accomplished this because He loves us. If we fully understand that we can responder in love tio.
While we were still sinners Christ died for us...Romans 5:8. The beauty of the gospel
Christ's death at the Cross purchased eternal life for us, and our obedience to His commandments is expected on our part in response to such magnificent love.
Phil Van Der....In light to your question, the statement says, "The Bible, specifically, the Gospels, gives us our most authoritative information about Jesus". It did not say, 'specific to the scriptures quoted', but; the scriptures states that there are persons who testifies about an encounter with Jesus and in believing in these testimonies, in knowing Him [Jesus]is having a relationship with Him we can accomplish eternal life. He came in the form of flesh to show us, to instruct us, to teach us, to guide us on how we should live and follow His example so that we are pointed to know him deeper and in so doing, we know His Father and once we believe through faith, we'll find/gain eternal life.
In Monday's study "In the word" - I can see that only in the bible can we find the truth about Jesus, who Jesus is! Because the bible is nothing but the source of truth. (Jesus, the living word and the bible - the written. So when we read the bible, we are reading or learning about Jesus!
Bible*
How can a man fall in love with Jesus who is also a man? Men not only fall in love with Jesus but also are married to him. Isaiah 54:5 says that the lord is our husband. The Bible is a Love letter from our husband. The devil hates the Bible. He doesn't want us to know more about our husband so that he can lure us with material things and commit adultery with us.
You raise a good point Gachoka. If we look at biblical 'love' through the eyes (and language/concepts) of what we commonly know as the world's kind of 'love' - we can definitely run into some misconceptions. 'Falling in love' is a good example of that.
Biblical love is primarily a principle - worldly 'love' is primarily an emotion.
He die to give us eternal life! We are married by Baptism by immersion, He is our "husband" spiritually!
The Bible is plain about the 'word ' to mean Scriptures testifying about Jesus Christ. And, it's through the word we find Christ as the truth -John 14:6.A friend of mine says that if God speaks at all, then He does so through different religions. Each religion has facets of truth that come from particular experience that followers of these religions have.So,the holy books of Hinduism,Christianity,Judaism, Islam, Taoism etc contain truth ,and for this,there's no truth universally accepted by all because there's no such thing as absolute truth, truth is relative!!!!.Where's the common ground in this issue?
I read about comparative religion at a tender age - while my peers were still reading Donald Duck comics. It came as a great surprise to me that the major world religions had so much in common. One of the thoughts that crossed my mind is that for me, growing up in an essentially Christian country, converting to one of the other major religions would be pretty near impossible, and I wondered then about the salvation of those people in other religions who had no chance ever of even hearing about Christianity. Since then I have lived for a short period of time in Thailand, which is essentially Buddhist and have experienced some of the kindness and seen first hand Buddhist compassion. I learned that while we Seventh-day Adventists lay claim to "knowing the truth", we still have a lot to learn about "living the truth".
All of this is pertinent to our notion of relative and absolute truth. If we get the idea that absolute truth is a static set of fundamental knowledge and that we have by careful Bible reading stacked up a body of absolute truth, then we have taken a wrong turn somewhere. Truth is a dynamic experience and it grows by living it. We stroke our own egos when we claim we have the truth and by inference everyone else is wrong.We should accept that we are on an experiential journey of discovery, learning, growing and living. There is no such thing as static absolute truth. When Jesus spoke of himself as the truth he said:
He was not talking about a static truth. Note the careful linking of truth with "Way" and "Life".
And thinking back to my Buddhist friends working in an HIV hospice in Thailand, they had learned the life of selfless compassion, and I thought that even though they had not heard the name of Jesus, they had met him and were living like him. It was a challenging lesson for those of who claim to be Christian but who live selfish lives.
Maurice, I may need further explanation of what you mean by "there is no such thing as static absolute truth". I can understand that my experiential knowledge and understanding of truth grows (and will keep on growing throughout eternity) - but it seems to me that there are fundamental truths of reality and of God are static (unchanging) and absolute (their reality is not an artifact of perception).
For example, that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life would seem to me to be an example of a static and absolute truth - though how that truth is manifest/expressed in an individual's life may vary. For example, some will be saved knowing the name of Jesus as that Way, others will be saved not having known the name of Jesus but still having been part of that Way via their co-operation with the drawing of the Holy Spirit - thought they didn't know it as such.
Perhaps I should have been a bit tighter in my terminology. Our perception of what we regards as absolute truth is often partial and incomplete.
Thanks. I absolutely agree with your clarification.
Maurice, my simple understanding is that God's truth is purely static, absolute, and immutable. What changes over time in my opinion is the person's perception of this truth. We keep on learning, even on this forum, many of us get new concepts of God's truth, recently unknown to us. I however fully agree that we christians sometimes go overboard in theoretical truth, sometimes even preaching on without first attempting to live what we preach. I stay with some chinese colleagues where i am at school and i can confess that i am amazed at their kindness!They are some of the best people i have ever stayed with in my life.They confess that they are not religious but when I invite them to church on Sabbaths sometimes we go together and the only thing that they like at church are songs.....Such people honestly, i believe they are living a Christlike life despite the fact that they have not yet known him.
Psalm 119:139 states the entrance of your words gives light it gives understanding to the simple.The bible itself gives instruction and impart information.without the bible evolution would have succeded .let us be in the Word knowing that all scripture is given by inspiration of God 2 Timothy 3:16
Maurice,if I can hear you well, do you think Christianity has failed by religionizing the truth? So, it means there's a ray of truth in each religion, a thread that runs through the ages that will ultimately be made known to their faithfuls?
Where we have failed is that we convince ourselves that we have the truth rather than accepting the invitation to grow into the truth more and more. I have been married for 49 years. When we signed the church register and the marriage certificate, the truth was that Carmel and I were married. But the journey has been 49 years long and still going and I know I still have a lot to learn. That is the dynamic of truth. Likewise when we gave our hearts to God and were baptized and read our baptismal vows that was only one small step in our spiritual journey. Christianity is much more than the 28 fundamentals.
Regarding other religions, I cite Jesus own words on this: "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." John 10 16
I do not presume to know the detail, except to say that God's love is extended to them. That does not absolve me from "preaching (living) the Gospel, but it does offer hope to all those who hve never heard of Christianity. It does stop me from being arrogantly egocentric about my Christianity, in the presence of others.
The LOVE of money mars the character and being of an individual. It is not wrong to be rich but it is wrong to do wicked actions to get money. In JEHOVAH's Word it states that we are not to love the world or the things that are in the world to the extent of evil and unrighteousness. It is normal to want to pay off a bill or buy a new car but not to use blood money or stolen money to do it - the way we treat other people - JEHOVAH wants us to prosper and be in good health always as our soul prosper in righteousness.
In the second to last paragraph the author under-states the danger of love for the world and worldly possessions. Even if we are "careful", we will me at enmity with God. See James 4:4
On the issue of the word of God, we need to nurture our children to read the bible while they are still young. To develop in them a reading culture. We need to indoctrinate in them at a tender age; the wonderful stories of the bible. Our children will only develop a bible reading culture if we encourage them to do so.
I agree wholeheartedly. And not only read but explain what it means in their own words. I think we could use a better word than "indoctrinate" because it carries the notion of brainwashing. However
you are right. I did not think about the real definition of indoctrination! What was in my my mind was teaching them biblical doctrines and ensuring they understand fully. Thanks for the correction.
Kevin as Christians we are no longer adulterous(which can also mean love of possessions), Christ set the example of what we should do. "As long as I am in the world I am the light of the world." John 9:4.