30 Days in the Bible, Day 6: Isaiah 55:8-11

This passage is appropriate for a day in which our area has been hammered by one of the worst snowstorms we’ve ever had. We’ve got over a foot out in the yard right now, and some forecasts say we could get two feet here. Such a large amount of snow is a nuisance, making travel impossible, requiring removal from sidewalks and driveways, and creating risks for power outages.

Yet snow is beneficial in the long run. As it melts, it replenishes the water in the ground, and snow pack can bring needed water to our rivers, streams, and reservoirs come spring. It also can be beneficial to businesses that need snow and cold to operate, such as ski areas. While I’m sure I’ll be grumbling while I dig out my car tomorrow, I recognize that snow is a gift from God which blesses our earth.

Isaiah points this out in our passage today. Rain and snow come down from the heavens, and create conditions by which people can be fed and provided with drink. I don’t think the phrase “come down from heaven” is an accident; Isaiah may have used it to stress the ultimate source of these benefits as God.

Rain and snow have a purpose created by God. This purpose is used as an illustration of how God’s Word also has a purpose for which God sent it. The Bible has a power and purpose that makes it effective in bringing about God’s will. While many may read the pages of Scripture with no intent of believing what it says, or even to find problems and issues they think they can exploit, the Word can change them as they read.

There are mission organizations whose goal is to make the Bible more readily available to people. These groups believe in the power of the written Word of God. Whether by distributing Scriptures or translating them into indigenous languages, the people involved in these ministries show a confidence in the purpose of God’s Word when it is presented to those who need to know Jesus.

If we have that same commitment, we will both make use of the Word in our own lives and seek to share the Word with others. Never underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit when using His inspired revelation to point people to salvation through the Jesus Christ. The Word will accomplish the purpose of God and bring about changes in human lives for His glory.

30 Days in the Bible, Day 5: 1 Corinthians 1:17-28

Christians are often thought by those in the world to be somewhat simple and foolish. While others chase after what “science” tells them, or search for some new and novel way of thinking, or pursue new combinations of ideas no one else ever thought of, Christians rest in a faith that is thousands of years old. While every generation finds new ways to apply the truths of the Bible to their contemporary lives, and seeks new ways to present the eternal truths of God to those around them, the core elements of the Christian faith do not change.

Or perhaps I should say those truths should not change. There are many who call themselves “Christians” who have abandoned the Word of God, orthodox teaching, and even Jesus Christ as the incarnate Son of God. They prefer the acclaim and appreciation of those in their world to the approval of the God who wrote Scripture. Many would rather follow the current thoughts of a sinful world than be thought of as “narrow-minded” or “old-fashioned” in their faith.

To our world, the truth of God is seen as foolishness. Paul encountered this already when he wrote to the Corinthians about AD 54-55. Christianity was only about 20 years old when it was attacked for its “foolish” teaching about the cross of Christ. To the cultured Greco-Roman world, a dead criminal could hardly be considered any kind of a god, much less the ultimate God above all gods. The wisdom of the Greek philosophers didn’t have any place for a teaching such as this.

Sadly, our own world thinks of Jesus in much the same way. The death of Jesus is accepted, but the Resurrection is not. Thus the cross is just the way a good man and great teacher died. The idea that Jesus was and is truly God is rejected out of hand. The world wants to put Jesus in a box which people can understand, and make him into something with which we are familiar, rather than accepting Him for who He really is.

Even inside of the church, people try to make Jesus acceptable to the world. A recent controversy involving a prominent evangelical college found a professor at the school claiming that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. She overlooked the fact that Muslims reject the divinity of Jesus, and so do not worship Him as God. Sadly, other teachers at the school sided with her, and urged she be kept on the faculty! To them, it was more important to be seen by those outside as tolerant and open-minded than to remain true to Christ.

If we hold fast to the Bible, and to the Savior revealed there, we will be seen by the world in a negative light. Our own intellect and wisdom will be called into question. The questions we must answer is this: are we more interested in pursuing human wisdom, or the wisdom of God? Do we want a Jesus that the world applauds, or one who judges that world? Are we willing to be thought fools by those who think they are wise, so that we might gain the true wisdom that comes through Jesus Christ? The way you answer will show where you believe wisdom lies.

30 Days in the Bible, Day 4: Hebrews 4:12-13

Our passage today has a curious phrase that describes the penetrating power of the Word of God. The Word is said to penetrate “even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow.” The pairs in these phrases have been subject to much interpretation and speculation over the centuries. The fact that there is no consensus on what they mean seems to indicate that there is something else the author intends to convey by using this phrase.

I think the point made here is that the power of the Word penetrates to the most intimate parts of the human being. It drives into the immaterial, spiritual part of our selves, and it even affects the inner life of our body. Modern medicine has shown the connection between the body and the spirit. (Of course, many deny the existence of a spirit, and just talk about the “mind.” They leave out just what the mind is if there isn’t any spirit.) The Word of God can and does disturb us to the very depths of our being.

This is what verse 13 teaches us. Everything we do, no matter how secretive we may be, is known to God. Whether we act with our physical bodies or within our spirit, God uncovers all we think, say, and do. The Word shows us what God’s standard is, and we realize as the Word confronts us just how far short of that standard we fall.

If it wasn’t for the forgiveness available to us through Jesus, the Word’s penetrating power would leave us spiritual and physical wrecks. That very disturbance, however, shows us our need for salvation, and the Bible also reveals to us the way to that salvation, the person and work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. Even more, Scripture reveals to us that we have forgiveness of all of our sins, even those we commit after salvation, through the blood of Jesus. Our hopelessness is turned to hope through Him.

As we become aware of our sinfulness, and as God’s Word reveals His standards and His provision, our very core is shaken and remade. The penetrating power of the Word shows us our need, and shows us our Savior. When we come in faith to Jesus, we are reborn and remade, and our life at every level is changed forever.

30 Days in the Bible, Day 3: 2 Peter 1:16-21

There are so many theologies and philosophies around today that it can be overwhelming. I think one of the chief motivations behind people who hold to some kind of relativism is the desire to avoid thinking about and evaluating the truth claims of all those systems. If we pretend that they all are somehow equal, maybe even the same deep down, we don’t have to examine them and decide which are true and which are false.

This can’t be held for long, however. There are contradictory claims made by different thinkers, and these contradictions can’t just be swept under the rug. For example, Christians believe that Jesus is God, while Jews and Muslims do not, and atheists don’t believe that there is any God. All of those groups cannot be correct, no matter how much wishful thinking we engage in.

Peter is emphatic here in today’s passage that the followers of Jesus have a solid foundation of truth for their faith. There are two solid foundations for the beliefs we hold. The first is that Jesus’ life was seen by many eyewitnesses. Some of those witnesses wrote about Him themselves, while others received their information directly from eyewitnesses. Unlike the myths about gods in human form in Greek or Roman mythology, those who were alive at the time of Jesus saw Him as He lived, taught, and performed miracles, and the stories about Jesus were told by those who saw Him.

The second solid foundation is the Word that is inspired by the Holy Spirit. The authority of the Bible does not rest on the wisdom and genus of human authors, but on the God who inspired them to write. We aren’t reading the opinions of people, but the revelation of God. I enjoy reading early Christian writings, and I admire the wisdom and thoughtfulness of many authors from the first centuries of the church. However, I don’t mistake their wisdom for God’s Word. They themselves used the Scriptures to make their points, and relied on the power of the Word rather than their own minds to teach the truth.

If we want to know the truth, we need a reliable source. As we read the inspired Word of God, and we see what those who saw Jesus have to say about Him, we can have confidence that He is the Way to the Father, and that He is the Wisdom we need for our lives today.

30 Days in the Bible, Day 2: John 1:1-14

Any discussion of God's Word has to begin with the Person who embodied that Word, Jesus Christ. John applies the Greek word "logos" to Jesus four times in the prologue to his gospel. While he may have borrowed the term from Greek philosophy, John gives it a much different content. "Logos" isn't just a philosophical construct, or even some sort of archetype which may have a reality beyond our world. The "Logos" in John is a divine Person, eternally existent with God while also being God Himself.

The doctrine of the Incarnation is one that goes beyond anything we can imagine a finite human beings. How can Jesus be both fully God and fully human at the same time? I don't pretend to have an explanation of it, but I think that the revelation of God as Triune and the revelation of Jesus as the God-man are meant to stagger us. If we believe the Word of God, and if we believe these teachings of the Word, we have a God who we can't fully comprehend, who is beyond us not only in power but in His very being. If God is like this, then He is isn't a simple God we can grasp and manipulate for our own purposes.

Jesus, as the living Word, pointed the way to the Father in His teachings. The Word gave us His words, and those words have been passed along to us by those who heard Him speak. Although Jesus certainly said much more than we have in Scripture (as John himself points out in John 21:25), what we have is what He wanted us to know. The Holy Spirit inspired the authors of the gospels (and the rest of the New Testament) to write down the teachings of and about Jesus that were needed for all generations.

We, of course, did not see or hear Jesus while He was here on earth. Yet we still have access to the Word through the Word. The Bible reveals the truth about the living Word, Jesus, to us today. All of Scripture speaks about Him; Jesus even made that point Himself (John 5:39). May the written Word of God guide us to the living Word every day as we read and study it for His glory.

30 Days in the Bible, Day 1: 2 Timothy 3:14-17

The inspiration of the Bible is a critical teaching for the Christian. If the Bible is merely the spiritually motivated work of human beings, it may have some value, but we can pick and choose what still applies today. If it is truly God's Word, however, then it has authority over us no matter where and when we live.

While there is power in all that the Bible teaches, Paul points out its supreme value to Timothy in verse 15. He states the the Scriptures are "able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." (NIV) There is a reason that we need a special revelation from God Himself. As much as we can learn about Him through creation and conscience, we cannot learn His purpose for us without hearing from Him.

The central theme of the Bible is Jesus. Whether you are in the Old Testament or New, what we read is pointing us to the accomplishment of our salvation through Jesus' death and resurrection. We might be able to learn the historical facts about these events through those who witnessed them and wrote about them, but we would not know just what they meant without the inspired Word. 

When we read God's Word, we are confronted with the immense love that Christ had for us, the tremendous sacrifice He made for us, and our need for faith in Him to be forgiven of our sins and made right with God. Through the Holy Spirit, we respond to Jesus in faith, and we are saved. It is then that the four functions of Scripture listed in verse 17 will have an impact on our lives: teaching, rebuking, correction, and training in righteousness.

We cannot have a genuine faith in Jesus Christ without knowing what the Word teaches us about Him. It is the Bible that reveals who Jesus is, what He has done for us, and how we can come to Him. The Bible is story God tells to us, so that we might be restored to Him through His Son. As children of God, we should seek to spend time with our Father's revelation so we may understand how we may please and honor Him.

30 Days in the Bible: Introduction

At my home church, we are going through our annual "30 Days in the Bible." We give out a devotional that people can use for 30 days to spend time in the Word and to be inspired to study the Bible. (A draft of this guide in PDF format may be found here if you would like to use it.) I will be adding some additional observations about the passages on certain days here on this blog. Each post should be a stand-alone devotional of its own. Even if you aren't following the "30 Days," guide, I hope you will still find the comments here helpful.