About the Bible as God's Word

If the Bible is just looked on as physical ink on paper and bound with leather, then it falls apart upon examination. A step further than physical ink and paper, bound, is literal interpretation--that is, just observing what it says--the images it paints, the stories it tells. This, too, will fall apart upon examination. But the Bible is more than paper, ink, and binding. It is more than a series of words, divided into paragraphs, telling stories (that at times, seems so irrelevant). The Bible is a living book.

A living book is supernatural. I know in this day and age of rationalism, people tend to shy away from things supernatural but I am irked by that. We have a God who is supernatural. His children, us, witness the supernatural as we focus on Jesus as we live our lives. The supernatural happens! The Bible does much more than protect a pastor from a stray bullet (if he is carrying one in his breast pocket). It can save many people's lives.

There is an attitude of humbleness and contrition that is needed in order to receive the miracle of understanding and application that is available in the Bible. An atheist picks the Bible up and laughs and scorns it, before shrugging his shoulders and walking away. He is not interested in spiritual wisdom and already knows that it doesn't exist. Someone on the fence may pick up the Bible and begin to read it, but seeing so many "begats" (genealogy), they put the book down in frustration. "I thought it would be easier to read," they may complain. They may claim to be a believer but they are not well-grounded in God's Word and are easily swayed by the world (which has winds blowing in the total opposite direction of God's Word). There is no quick fix for appreciation of God's Word. If you don't have a hunger for it, you might try praying that God give you one.

People tend to get caught up in controversy, bogged down by the battles that must be fought, the wars that must be won. They may complain that the Bible is violent, but so is our world. This violence has roots that go very deep into the consciousness of us all. It is not "out there" only. Nor is it on the pages of the Bible, only. Its roots reach all the way down to our hearts and are embedded in the very core of all of us. The battles in the Bible, therefore, reflect the battles in our hearts that we fight every day. Have you noticed that the humble and worshipful warriors (even if they have a very small army) tend to win the battles?

God sent a Savior. He lifts our burdens. He fights our battles, if we will allow Him to. If we refuse to believe in His sovereign nature, His power, and in an eternal reality beyond this temporal physical world, we will miss the wonderful, applicable guidance that comes from God's Word. Without a repentant, contrite attitude and a down-on-our-knees worship of God, our faith will be weak and our lenses (our eyes) will not see how this Book reflects our heart and gives us a map enabling us to navigate this world successfully--because Jesus did this already. The words in this Book will fly right over our heads, crashing to the floor behind us, unless we can get our walls torn down so that we can come to God's Word empty--allowing God to fill us up with the truth--residing beyond appearances. If we already know, there is no room inn our minds for the birth of the Christ child. When we decide to follow the Star, Jesus, we become wise indeed with many gifts to give the world.

It is a strange thing that God requires our faith FIRST before He reveals Himself to us. The more faith we can muster up, the greater His revelation will be. People who come to God's Word with the attitude that it must prove itself to them before they will believe, have got the cart before the horse. Contrition, humbleness, a child-like sense of wonder and awe with a sense of expectation--all make up the most favorable fertilizer to enable you to embrace God's Word--and God's Word will then embrace you. Unfortunately, it doesn't really happen the other way around. The Word says we must reach for God and then He will reach for us. Jesus says, when addressing Thomas who doubted His resurrection until he could actually touch Jesus' wounds, "Blessed are those who can believe without touching." Isn't that us today?

You can access 1000's of inspiring talks all based on God's Word (just about every verse in the Bible is expostulated on) and you will be absolutely amazed at what an inspired man(or woman) of God can get out of God's Word. Go to Blue Letter Bible and choose audio/video. Some of my favorite pastors on this site are Damien Kyle, Bob Davis, Chuck Smith and Ray Steadman. Click on a name. Click on a book of the Bible. Then choose any of the talks for a treat. The wonderful depth of God's Word is unparalleled.
 
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A living book is supernatural. I know in this day and age of rationalism, people tend to shy away from things supernatural but I am irked by that. We have a God who is supernatural. His children, us, witness the supernatural as we focus on Jesus as we live our lives. The supernatural happens! The Bible does much more than protect a pastor from a stray bullet (if he is carrying one in his breast pocket). It can save many people's lives.

.

Amen!
If we take the supernatural out of it, thats not the God of the Bible. Even for Him to save us is a supernatural
act. No one can change a heart except God.

The Bible is our Father's love letter to us, to reveal to us His heart and will.
 
Amen!
If we take the supernatural out of it, thats not the God of the Bible. Even for Him to save us is a supernatural
act. No one can change a heart except God.

The Bible is our Father's love letter to us, to reveal to us His heart and will.

Thank you, GodSpeaks. I'd like to invite you and others to a free podcast project I just completed which is entitled "How to Avoid Positive Stinking." I pray it is a blessing to you! Although Podiobooks.com primarily appeals to the sci-fi, thriller, horror enthusiasts, I have been steadily adding my Christian books (both original and public domain) over the past months. Again, no cost to enjoy.

Podiobooks.com is a podcast and you can subscribe to each book (or just download the files) and listen to them while commuting, etc. This one (just published last night) is 13 teaching vignettes, each with a strong Biblical theme.

My wife and I feel strongly that all inspired teaching from God's Word should be available for free.
 
Personally I never use the term "supernatural" it implies something that is not a part of reality. The Lord never asked us to believe in the "supernatural". What He asked us to do is trust Him to reveal to us the "unknown reality". That part of reality mankind knows nothing of - yet.

People try to divide things into reality and the supernatural where in truth it is all one reality. Truth is really just another name for reality. Jesus is the way, the REALITY, and the life. The mistake people make in reading the Bible is not to do with literal interpretations but to regard it as "supernatural" instead of understanding the REALITY of what it is actually saying. Much of today's "Christian" mindset has been influenced by the FANTASIES of Rennaissance painters and sculptors who, having devised fanciful images from their own imaginations, successfully implanted those images in the minds of others.

The Bible is not a metaphore to be reinterpreted into the reality we THINK we know, it is an education in the true nature of the REALITY we actually live in. The problem is people do not really believe the reality of which it speaks so they try and interprete it in a way that makes it appear to say what they are prepared to believe. The truth is much of the christian community does not actually believe the words of the one they profess to believe in.

Just a few coins into the "kitty".
 
Personally I never use the term "supernatural" it implies something that is not a part of reality. The Lord never asked us to believe in the "supernatural". What He asked us to do is trust Him to reveal to us the "unknown reality". That part of reality mankind knows nothing of - yet.

This is a semantic issue, but a good one. I believe we should all think this way. It isn't "supernatural." It is natural above and beyond what we currently can believe (based on appearances). It takes eyes of faith to be able to "see" beyond the current physical/natural laws scientists are so readily telling us about. Thank you, mistmann, I appreciate your POV.
 
If the Bible is just looked on as physical ink on paper and bound with leather, then it falls apart upon examination. A step further than physical ink and paper, bound, is literal interpretation--that is, just observing what it says--the images it paints, the stories it tells. This, too, will fall apart upon examination. But the Bible is more than paper, ink, and binding. It is more than a series of words, divided into paragraphs, telling stories (that at times, seems so irrelevant). The Bible is a living book.

A living book is supernatural. I know in this day and age of rationalism, people tend to shy away from things supernatural but I am irked by that. We have a God who is supernatural. His children, us, witness the supernatural as we focus on Jesus as we live our lives. The supernatural happens! The Bible does much more than protect a pastor from a stray bullet (if he is carrying one in his breast pocket). It can save many people's lives.

There is an attitude of humbleness and contrition that is needed in order to receive the miracle of understanding and application that is available in the Bible. An atheist picks the Bible up and laughs and scorns it, before shrugging his shoulders and walking away. He is not interested in spiritual wisdom and already knows that it doesn't exist. Someone on the fence may pick up the Bible and begin to read it, but seeing so many "begats" (genealogy), they put the book down in frustration. "I thought it would be easier to read," they may complain. They may claim to be a believer but they are not well-grounded in God's Word and are easily swayed by the world (which has winds blowing in the total opposite direction of God's Word). There is no quick fix for appreciation of God's Word. If you don't have a hunger for it, you might try praying that God give you one.

People tend to get caught up in controversy, bogged down by the battles that must be fought, the wars that must be won. They may complain that the Bible is violent, but so is our world. This violence has roots that go very deep into the consciousness of us all. It is not "out there" only. Nor is it on the pages of the Bible, only. Its roots reach all the way down to our hearts and are embedded in the very core of all of us. The battles in the Bible, therefore, reflect the battles in our hearts that we fight every day. Have you noticed that the humble and worshipful warriors (even if they have a very small army) tend to win the battles?

God sent a Savior. He lifts our burdens. He fights our battles, if we will allow Him to. If we refuse to believe in His sovereign nature, His power, and in an eternal reality beyond this temporal physical world, we will miss the wonderful, applicable guidance that comes from God's Word. Without a repentant, contrite attitude and a down-on-our-knees worship of God, our faith will be weak and our lenses (our eyes) will not see how this Book reflects our heart and gives us a map enabling us to navigate this world successfully--because Jesus did this already. The words in this Book will fly right over our heads, crashing to the floor behind us, unless we can get our walls torn down so that we can come to God's Word empty--allowing God to fill us up with the truth--residing beyond appearances. If we already know, there is no room inn our minds for the birth of the Christ child. When we decide to follow the Star, Jesus, we become wise indeed with many gifts to give the world.

It is a strange thing that God requires our faith FIRST before He reveals Himself to us. The more faith we can muster up, the greater His revelation will be. People who come to God's Word with the attitude that it must prove itself to them before they will believe, have got the cart before the horse. Contrition, humbleness, a child-like sense of wonder and awe with a sense of expectation--all make up the most favorable fertilizer to enable you to embrace God's Word--and God's Word will then embrace you. Unfortunately, it doesn't really happen the other way around. The Word says we must reach for God and then He will reach for us. Jesus says, when addressing Thomas who doubted His resurrection until he could actually touch Jesus' wounds, "Blessed are those who can believe without touching." Isn't that us today?

You can access 1000's of inspiring talks all based on God's Word (just about every verse in the Bible is expostulated on) and you will be absolutely amazed at what an inspired man(or woman) of God can get out of God's Word. Go to Blue Letter Bible and choose audio/video. Some of my favorite pastors on this site are Damien Kyle, Bob Davis, Chuck Smith and Ray Steadman. Click on a name. Click on a book of the Bible. Then choose any of the talks for a treat. The wonderful depth of God's Word is unparalleled.

The HOLY BIBLE contains the "living word" of GOD that represents Him.

Just as we cannot separate the SPEAKER from His WORDS, and there could be no WORDS without the SPEAKER; that is how I perceive JESUS CHRIST through these "inspired words" in the SACRED SCRIPTURES.

As the "living word of God" the message thereof is aptly put by the prophet:

* Ecclesiastes 1:9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

* Matthew 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

* Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

Of course the TRUTH in the foregoing can only be perceived by "God's revelations of His words" and NEVER NEVER with human wisdom with the use of the "intellect, senses, and feeling."
 
The HOLY BIBLE contains the "living word" of GOD that represents Him.

Just as we cannot separate the SPEAKER from His WORDS, and there could be no WORDS without the SPEAKER; that is how I perceive JESUS CHRIST through these "inspired words" in the SACRED SCRIPTURES.

As the "living word of God" the message thereof is aptly put by the prophet:

* Ecclesiastes 1:9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

* Matthew 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

* Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

Of course the TRUTH in the foregoing can only be perceived by "God's revelations of His words" and NEVER NEVER with human wisdom with the use of the "intellect, senses, and feeling."



HUMAN WISDOM, the use of the "intellect, senses, and feeling," has caused this sordid or disgusting state of pure CHRISTIANITY founded by CHRIST in the 1st century.

Today, more than 3000 sects and denominations have dominated the kind of CHRISTIANITY purportedly man's perception of GOD'S "way" to SALVATION. Look!

Who believe "trusting another person" in spiritual matters is a curse?

* Jer 17:5 Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.

Who do not profess "trust in God," but look!

* Prov 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
Can anybody believe this in religious matters?

* Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
 
HUMAN WISDOM, the use of the "intellect, senses, and feeling," has caused this sordid or disgusting state of pure CHRISTIANITY founded by CHRIST in the 1st century.

Today, more than 3000 sects and denominations have dominated the kind of CHRISTIANITY purportedly man's perception of GOD'S "way" to SALVATION. Look!

Who believe "trusting another person" in spiritual matters is a curse?

* Jer 17:5 Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.

Who do not profess "trust in God," but look!

* Prov 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
Can anybody believe this in religious matters?

* Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Your quote was...............
Jer 17:5 "Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD."

This show your lack of Biblical study. The Hebrew word in this verse "trusteth in MAN" is literally from the original "STRENGTH".

Christians do NOT have faith in "another person "my friend and we do not have STRENGTH to save ourselves. We trust in almighty God.

We have faith in Jesus who is God in the flesh, 100% God yet 100% man. He is the God Man and He saves us from the penality of sin whic is death.

You said.........................
"Prov 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
Can anybody believe this in religious matters?"

Self explainnitory! TRUST IN THE LORD for His ways are not our ways. That is simple is it not???

Then you said.................
"Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it".

I am missing something here. What part of that do you not understand?

That is why we need a Savior!!!!!!!

Romans 3:23
"ALL have sinned and come short of the approval of God".

Everyone is born with a sin nature. WE are ALL sinners and apart from the grace of God's redemption. lost and bound for hell.

My friend........Are you saved? Have you ever placed your trust in the Lord Jesus for the remission of YOUR sins?? You are just like me ..... A SINNER. If you have never trusted Christ why not do it today?? What is keeping you from asking God to cleanse your soul of sin????
 
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