Handling the word

Alright, We are continuing our series on / / Being a Living Sacrifice.

The first week we looked at this idea that God desires obedience rather than sacrifice. If you are following our Daily Bible Reading you would have read yesterday Proverbs 21:3, / / The Lord is more pleased when we do what is right and just than when we offer him sacrifices. Over and over again scripture reaffirms this thought. God desires relationship and obedience and so being a living sacrifice is more about the living, less about the sacrifice.

Then last week we looked at the invitation to grow in maturity. The writer of Hebrews describes it as drinking milk like an infant, only being able to digest easy things, and then being able to eat solid food, the meatier, or deeper things of God. Hebrews 5:14 says, / / Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.

So we’re invited into being trained, to grow in our maturity, so that we can become skilled in the word of righteousness, having discernment to know what is right and wrong, what to do and what not to do. So we can be obedient. So we can be a Living Sacrifice.

That brings us to today. We are learning to be obedient, and we are training to develop skill in doing what is right. But where does that come from? How can we know what is right or wrong? How do we know what to be obedient to?

A lot of people in the world today would try to suggest to you that our morality comes from within ourselves, but that’s simply not the case. There are two places you are going to get knowledge about obedience and doing what is right.

/ / The written word of God. Which we are going to look at this week.

The spoken word of God. Which we will get into next week.

So, this week I want to talk about / / the bible. I love the bible. The bible is good for you. And God speaks through the Bible. If you aren’t reading the bible I can’t encourage you enough to start. We’ve made it easy. Honestly. I went through the entire bible page by page and spaced out as best I could based on the amount you would read each day to give the easiest and most consistent time requirement possible. 15-20 minutes is all it takes to sit and read through our bible reading program.

Is it about getting through the bible in a year? No

Is it about some sort of requirement for reading every day? No

Is it about legalism or works based righteousness and God loving us because we’ve been good? No.

It’s because / / If we love God we’ll want to obey his commands and to obey his commands we have to actually know what they are!

But here’s the thing about the bible. The Bible is not just the story of God, but it’s also the story of humanity. And the Bible itself says that it is as sharp as a two-edged sword, which means we need to treat it with care, reverence and respect - we need to learn to handle it rightly. Because if you don’t know how to use a sword you can easily cut yourself or someone else unintentionally.

We are also talking about the entire bible, OT & NT. And I want you to understand that the story of Jesus is not just the New Testament, but the Old Testament as well.

Sometimes people get fixated on the New Testament because it’s the story of Jesus incarnate. Incarnate simply means God in human form or embodied in flesh. And so we can think, “OK, this is where we want to pay attention. We are followers of Jesus and this is where Jesus, the Son of God is speaking.” Your bible might even have his words typed in red. And there’s no red letters in the Old Testament.

But listen to how John describes Jesus in the first part of his gospel account. John 1:1, 3-4, 14 says, / / In the beginning the Word already existed... God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created… So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

Jesus has always been. God is eternal, meaning he lives outside of time and space. He has always been, and will always be. And Jesus is not a created part of God that came to exist at some point in time, but is God and has always been God and will always be God. The trinity is not three separate beings in our understanding of beings, but one being with three separate entities. If that seems difficult to understand, it’s ok. There really is nothing in our world that you can compare the Trinity to to make it easy to understand. You can maybe say, water which is always water but can be liquid, solid and gas, or maybe an egg, which consists of a shell, the yolk and the egg white, each distinct, but together make one thing. But really, it is what it is. God is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit and we might just have to wait until heaven to understand that fully.

So, like I said earlier, when Jesus says he is the way and the truth and the life, he’s not saying he’s the new way, he’s saying, I’ve always been the way, always been the truth, always been the life. It was me your ancestors were following in the dessert, it’s me asking you to follow me now.

I want to make a strong statement, but I believe it to be 100% true. / / You will not move forward in your life with God the way you should if you do not make reading the bible a part of your life. And I don’t mean that legalistically. I don’t. I’m not saying God demands you read the bible before he gets close to you. Not what I’m saying. Because the Bible says in James 4:8, / / Come close to God and God will come close to you. But you wouldn’t know that unless someone read the bible.

This is what I believe. / / The bible is our best description of who God is, what He does and how He acts. And if you want to be able to identify God in your life, what He’s doing, who He is and how He is leading you, then scripture has got to be your foundation. Without it you won’t have a foundation at all.

“Well, Jesus is my foundation.”

And what does that mean? Who is Jesus? And How is he your foundation?

“Well, I just pray and believe in God.”

Wonderful, what about God? How does that dictate what you do, how you act, what you believe?

Larry Randolph, a prophet and teacher, says it this way, and it’s a perfect example in whether we are led by the Spirit, or let’s say the presence of God, and whether we are led by the scriptures, God speaking through the bible. He said the word is like a train track and the spirit is like a train, one without the other is incomplete. If you try to run a train without a track you will simply spin and maybe flop around a bit, and if you are only laying track without a train you’ll never be propelled to the destination that they lead to.

Paul gives a warning not to get tied up in the law, scripture, but to be led by the spirit. But we have to remember that Paul, before he was Paul, was Saul, the Pharisee. He knew scripture inside and out. And so for him the temptation was always to be led by the law, to be forced back into this rigid form of living that led the Pharisees and other religious leaders to kill Jesus.

But when Paul encounters Jesus and begins to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God he makes the connection beautifully between word & spirit. In Colossians 3:15 he says, Let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. Ok, that’s all feeling, experience. Filled with the spirit. Galatians 5:22, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace… But then in Colossians 3:16, the next verse, he says, / / Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives.

The ESV says it this way, / / let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Miles Van Pelt says this connection is incredibly important because / / the more we allow the word of Christ to dwell in us, the more we will experience the peace of Christ. And as I said, John has clearly defined for us that Jesus is not just a New Testament story, but that He has always been. So the word of Christ is not just the NT. Think about it, Paul didn’t have the New Testament - He only had the Old Testament. None of the New Testament had been written or defined as scripture.

Last week we read from Acts 28, where Paul quotes the prophet Isaiah - he was in Rome and had called the local Jewish leaders to meet with him and wrapped around what we read last week it says, Acts 28:23-24, 30-31, / / So a time was set, and on that day a large number of people came to Paul’s lodging. He explained and testified about the Kingdom of God and tried to persuade them about Jesus from the Scriptures. Using the law of Moses and the books of the prophets, he spoke to them from morning until evening. Some were persuaded by the said, but others did not believe… For the next two years, Paul lived in Rome at his own expense. He welcomed all who visited him, boldly proclaiming the Kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ.

So Paul is using scripture, what we call the Old Testament, to reveal who Jesus is and that Jesus is the Messiah.

Alright, let’s look at another moment where the OT scripture is used at length, WITH the presence and power of the Holy Spirit to bring revelation about Jesus Christ. And this one is from Jesus himself. After Jesus has been murdered and buried and raised from the dead, Luke 24:13-34 tells the story of two of Jesus’ followers walking from Jerusalem to a town called Emmaus. It’s a seven mile journey, so, how long does walking seven miles take? A few hours, right? They aren’t in a hurry, it’s not a marathon, they are just walking and talking. It’s mode of transportation, not exercise.

Luke 24:14 says, / / As they walked along they were talking about everything that had happened. (that is everything that just happened to Jesus) As they talked and discussed these things, Jesus himself suddenly came and began walking with them. But God kept them from recognizing him.

Ok, so this is resurrected Jesus, and they get in a conversation and they’re like, “oh, we hoped Jesus was the Messiah, but they killed him. It was just 3 days ago, how do you not know about this? the whole city knows about this. And then this morning some of the women in our group said that his body is missing from the tomb, but who knows...”

Luke 24:27 says, / / Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

They get to the town they’re going to, they invite him in for dinner, and at the dinner table he takes the loaf of bread, blesses it, breaks it and hands it to them and boom, God lifts that veil that was keeping them from knowing it was him and they realize, oh my goodness this is Jesus, alive and vs 31 says, And at that moment he disappeared!

So they rush back to Jerusalem, this time probably running that 7 miles as fast as they can! And Luke 24:32 says, / / They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?”

Jesus, revealed through scripture.

All of that to say, the whole bible is good. The whole bible is good for you. It is the story of God. It is the story of our humanity. It is the story of grace. It is the story of failure. It is the story of love. It is the story we need.

So, I want to give you some practical thoughts on scripture this morning. Things that will help you in your journey of reading scripture. And you might think, I But honestly, I think the church at large has done a disservice to people by not explaining two major things.

First is Jesus warns, count the cost. I think in their zeal the church has done whatever they can to get people “saved” by any means necessary without actually introducing them to the life and the way of Jesus. So people realize their need for a savior, they invite Jesus into their heart, and then someone tells them, “oh ya, he also said that we have to obey his commands and he wants to change your whole life.”

“Wait, I didn’t want that. This feels like more than I bought into.”

But I said this last week, in the context of moving from drinking milk to eating solid food like Hebrews talks about. Trust me, you’re going to love this meal. To commit to Jesus wholeheartedly and follow his ways may not always be easy. In fact he said as much, the road is hard and the gate is narrow that leads to life, but he also said, if you’re burdened, if you’re tired, come to me because my yolk is easy and my burden is light. How so? Because it’s not a rule book for the sake of a rule book, it’s a journey with a friend, a savior, He is God himself.

The second way I think we’ve failed, or done a disservice in is with the Bible. No one ever told me growing up that I would read things in the bible I would have to wrestle with. I don’t remember anyone telling me that I would come across things that just didn’t make sense, that didn’t feel right, or how to process those things.

And whether this is what was said or not, I walked away from my upbringing with this as my understanding. The bible is the word of God and if you struggle with that you are denying the word of God. Which isn’t helpful.

So, I want to give you some encouragements in reading scripture. These aren’t guidelines you have to follow, and they aren’t warnings because in my opinion there isn’t anything bad about scripture, it’s all in how you read it and look to it.

And there are things that matter, and things that don’t. I’ve said this before, RT Kendall said it best when he said, We have to major on the majors and minor on the minors, but all too often we major on the minors and minor on the majors. Meaning, don’t get distracted by the small things, focus on the big things and walk with God and pursue knowledge and understanding and the small things will either get worked out, or they won’t matter. It’s the big things that truly matter.

/ / 1. God speaks through Scripture

We read it earlier, / / …didn’t our hearts burn within us as he opened up the scriptures?

The bible is like no other book. It’s powerful. It just feels alive. And the reason that is is because the Spirit breathes on it as we read it and we feel the breath of life. We call it the ruach, the spirit, the breath of God.

There’s are only two inanimate objects in scripture that are said to receive the breath of God and come alive.

The first is us. Right? Genesis 2 says that God formed Adam from the dirt and breathed life into him. So what’s the difference between you and me and a pile of dirt? The breath of God. All other creation was simply created. But humanity was created from the dirt and the breath of God is what made us come alive.

The second is scripture. Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16, and this is the ESV, / / All Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Scripture comes alive because of the breath of God!

I can’t count the number of times I’ve read scripture and it’s been the thing I needed. God spoke to me through it. It was life to me.

In my opinion it is the easiest and best way to hear God speak, because how hard is it to sit down and pick up a book and read? For some you might say, “do you realize how difficult that is for me?” I get it. I haven’t always loved reading either, but I’ve actually made it a daily habit in the last year and I’m absolutely shocked how many books I’ve completed in the last few months simply by taking the time to sit and read everyday for a bit. I read one chapter of a book a day, that’s it. Depending on the length of the chapters of course. If it’s too long I read half. And reading books is good, but reading the bible is critical.

Remember last week we read 1 Timothy 4:8, Paul encouraging Timothy, he says, / / Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better.

Hebrews 5:14, / / Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.

You gotta train if you want to grow! So, God speaks through Scripture, but I don’t want you to get confused.

/ / 2. Not every word in scripture is God speaking

Let me explain. This might be a difficult one for people to hear because like I said, it was drilled into me that the bible is the word of God, and there were no caveats to that, no explanations, no guidelines. So, let me explain.

When we hear something like, “The Bible is the Word of God and it is infallible, without error, carries all authority.” then when we read things we don’t understand, or that clearly aren’t God, it can become confusing.

Another commercial for Daily Bible Reading. Get it. Do it. And if you already are, you’ve now read the first 41 or 42 chapters of Genesis, if you’ve read today already. There’s some stuff in there that is pretty heavy. I don’t mean to offend anyone but Genesis 19 is pretty much a dumpster fire. Let’s just use it as an example for both this point and my next point and we’ll talk about them together through Genesis 19.

/ / 3. We have to handle scripture correctly

Let’s read Hebrews 4:12, / / For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.

I’ve always read that in the most positive of senses that God uses the word to bring light to things in our life. True. 1000% true. But this week I read that scripture in a new light for the first time. If the word of God can be used to cut because it’s sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, then we need to be very careful and very skilled in how we use it. And that was something I have not ever heard anyone say to me.

Nobody likes to talk about how the church has messed up, I don’t. It’s not fun, but we would be ignorant if we didn’t realize that the church hasn’t always done things right, and when we slap that label on ourselves as “the church” we unfortunately get a stigma and stereotype attached to that.

Some of you in this room and online with us are with us because you left a church you were hurt at. Listen, as long as people are involved the church will not be perfect, until Jesus returns again. This is why I keep preaching Healthy Community. We need to grow together, work things out, commit to the process of relationship and being the church community, the body of Christ.

Unfortunately, the bible as called the word of God has been used by people to cut other people by taking it out of context, by using it to control, manipulate and even segregate. The word of God has been used for pure evil. The word of God has been used to hold people back, hold them down and hold them hostage.

The word of God has been used to endorse sin. The word of God has been used to endorse hate.

How can any of that be good? It’s not. But it’s sharper than a two-edged sword, and handled improperly it can cut and cut deep. Hear what I’m saying, I’m not saying the bible, or the word of God is cutting people. People are cutting people and using the bible to justify their actions, which is one million % wrong.

Now, for you, for me, as an individual reading the bible, we also have to be careful that we don’t cut ourselves with this very sharp instrument. Let me explain by looking at Genesis 19 and this will also explain my second point, Not every word in scripture is God speaking.

In Genesis 18 Abraham has a conversation with God. There’s two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, and they are incredibly evil. As the story goes God says he can no longer allow the evil to flourish like this and so he is going to destroy the two cities. Abraham says to God, What if you can find 50 righteous people there, would you stop? God says, “yes”. Abraham keeps going, 45? yes. 40? yes. 30? yes. how bout 20? yes. Don’t want to push my luck, but 10? yes.

Why is Abraham pushing so hard here? Because his nephew Lot lives there with his family.

Ok, that brings us to Genesis 19. There are not even 10 righteous, in fact, I’m not sure there is 1. Here’s why I say we have to be so careful with scripture. Reading this, knowing Lot is Abraham’s nephew and living in the city, and Abraham has advocated for him to be saved, God sends two angels to the city to get them.

This is not a family friendly story. It’s not PG, it’s not PG-13, it’s not even AA-14. Do you have that here? We had that in Canada. Adult Accompaniment - 14 years old. I mean, it was like, ya, somewhere between PG-13 and R. Anyways. this story is intense.

I’m gonna try to PG it for us. These two angels come to Sodom, the men of the city come to Lot’s house in a riot and say, “Send those two men out here so we can have our way with them.” Now if that’s not weird enough, Lot says, “no no no, don’t do such a wicked thing....here, take my daughters instead.”

Hold up, what?

So, let’s get this straight - Lot is not righteous. Lot is messed up. What happens is that the time comes, there are no righteous in the city, and so the angels are urging Lot to come with them, and Genesis 19:16 says, / / When Lot still hesitated, the angels seized his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters and rushed them to safety outside the city… Lot was so attached to the sin, so engulfed by it that the angels had to force him out of the city.

If you read that thinking God saved Lot because he was righteous then things get pretty confusing.

If you read that and think, why did God destroy all of those other people and not Lot who was clearly just as bad, things are going to get pretty confusing.

And as I read this last week in our Daily Bible Reading I realized, for the first time, the foreshadowing of Christ through the action of Abraham. We don’t have time to get into the destruction of the cities and life lost, let’s get together or a coffee and wrestle that one out. But listen - God saved Lot for 1 reason. Abraham advocated for him.

We are saved by one thing.... Jesus Christ advocating for us. 1 John 2:1 says, / / …if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous.

/ / God might not find any righteousness in me, yet for the sake of Jesus Christ and HIS righteousness I am made righteous.

Scripture breaths life, but not all scripture is the story of God. Sometimes it’s the story of humanity that is so messed up that it needs saving. Sometimes the bible is the story of how we got it wrong. How we heard God wrong. How we lived our lives wrong. How we are so damaged and reckless that only God, in His infinite mercy, could save us.

We have to learn to handle scripture rightly, so that we don’t cut ourselves, so that we don’t cut others, but we allow God to use it to cut away from us the things we should not carry, so that he can transform us into His likeness.

/ / 4. Don’t get caught up in silly arguments.

If you want, you can also apply this to social media. It’ll save you time and energy.

But, as I said, RT Kendall says don’t get hung up by making minor things more than they are.

We tend to believe things based on what we have been taught. And not everyone was taught what you were taught in the way you were taught it. There are some huge differences in what people in the Christian church believe sometimes.

Did you know, not all of the Christian church, for 2000 years now, reads Genesis 1 literally? What do I mean by that. I mean, there are differing viewpoints on how to read Genesis 1. Is it literal? Meaning God create the world and all the things in 6 days - literally. 6 x 24 hour periods of time. And then He rested for 1 x 24 hour period on the seventh day.

If we look at time and the history, all the names the bible gives us and all the ages that they lived and died, you get to about 4000 years from the time of Adam to the birth of Jesus. So, when did dinosaurs live? We have their bones, where did they come from? Where did they go? If you interpret Genesis as literal - you have what is called Young-Earth Creationism, the belief that the world is somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 years old.

And then you have what’s called Old Earth Creationism that says through scientific dating methods we can determine that the age of the earth is around 4.5 billion years old and the universe is 14.6 billion years old.

Here’s my point, not that you have to believe one or the other, literal or not. But that this is not important enough to get into arguments over. And here’s the real deal - it does not change the truth of the gospel, and it does not change the authority of scripture.

I wholeheartedly believe this. / / The Bible is accurate, authoritative, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and applicable to our everyday lives. And whether the world is 6,000 years old, or 4.5 billion years old does not change that at all. I believe 1000% the account of creation. But I wasn’t there, and neither was Moses when he wrote it 2500 years after Adam was alive. We taught this last week in KidsConnect. On the first day God created the heavens and the earth. That is truer than true. God created this universe, this world, and all that is in it. When? matters much less than the fact that He did.

Same goes for the end of the book. The other most hotly contested topic. When will the world end? Will it end? When Jesus comes back, is it an apocalypse? Will we be here, will we be in heaven, when will it all happen?

Again, interpreting scripture gives us multiple avenues for this and some people will argue with you until the cows come home about their point of view and understanding of scripture being the only possible way.

Here’s my comment on that. Having a viewpoint is great. In fact, studying enough that you believe a viewpoint shows you care deeply. That’s amazing and should be all of us, that we study that deeply what scripture says. But here’s why it doesn’t matter enough to argue over it, because in talking about the future and events to come Jesus himself says to his disciples in Matthew 24:36, / / “However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.”

And his point was this, Matthew 24:42, 44 / / “…you…must keep watch! For you don’t know what day your Lord is coming… you also must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected.”

What matters more than when and how it will happen is that you’re ready for it when it does, and the only way you do that is by following Jesus, giving him your everything.

Let me just say here quickly. I am not saying don’t debate. You should. We should have engaging and difficult conversations. We should wrestle through scripture. You are allowed to say this doesn’t make sense, and, this is what I think about this, and, I read this about this, what do you think? We HAVE to be a community that does not shy away from difficult conversations.

There is so much that can be said about the Bible. I love the Bible. I love scripture. I love reading it. Even the hard parts. Even the things that don’t make sense. Even the challenges.

Those things actually make it MORE enticing to me because of how it was put together. I don’t know how you could get this book without God being involved. You can’t. For the same reason it can be difficult, it is wonderful.

Listen, the Bible is massive:

If you grabbed our large print version at the back it’s 1004 pages long

it’s written by more than 35 people

over 1600 years

covering a history of more than 4000 years, PLUS what is says about the future

more than 10 books we don’t even know the authors of

And yet, the entire OT is the story of God loving humanity and it points to a Messiah through prophecy

Jesus fulfills an unreal number of those prophecies and is undeniably the Messiah who came to save us - because of the Love that God has for the humanity He created.

It’s the most beautiful book there ever was and ever will be.

The more I wrestle with the bible the more I fall in love with it. But I also want to say that for all of those reasons I just listed, it’s ok that today we don’t understand it all. It’s ok if you are confused. It’s ok if you have questions.

/ / Questions do not mean doubt or a lack of faith, they are the starting point for an encounter with God!

We don’t have time to get into it, but read the story of Thomas in John 20, specifically verses 19-29, but the whole chapter will give you context. The short story, the disciples see Jesus raised from the dead, but Thomas isn’t there. When they tell him he says he won’t believe until he sees Jesus. I don’t think that was him not having faith, I think He was so committed to following Jesus that he wanted to see Him again, to touch his hands, his side. And Jesus encourages him, not chastises him, “Here, touch me and believe… you don’t ever have to doubt again.”

And I want to give one last point here.

/ / 5. Don’t read alone

I mean this is two ways. This is most definitely the most valuable, important and critical point you need to hear when it comes to reading the bible.

First and most importantly - / / Invite Jesus to be with you and to breath the Spirit of life and reveal the love of the father through scripture into your heart.

I am convinced - I said it earlier and I am saying it again, you will not move forward in your journey with God without embracing scripture. You need the bible. Not just what you hear on a Sunday morning, or a podcast or a teaching, but the bible, in your hands, through your eyes, or if you really have a hard time reading, there are some great audio bibles out there. There’s a audio bible that is a whole production, it’s got the animal sounds in the background and everything.

/ / To be a living sacrifice we must become mature in our faith and to become mature we must train ourselves in the word of righteousness.

And this is the second part of this not reading alone, and I extend this invitation to you again, if there is anything you do not understand, or you are struggling with, do not stay silent. Ask someone. I’m here. I can’t say that enough. And my response might be, “I don’t know, let’s find out together.” But don’t stop reading it because it gets difficult. Don’t stop reading it because you have unanswered questions. But don’t just leave the questions unanswered either. Write the question down, ask the question, seek for the answer, and continue to read it.

But back to the more important aspect, I want you to invite Jesus Christ, who John says is the Word of God itself, into your time of reading Scripture. Look again at what Luke 24:27, 32 says, / / Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself… and their response is...“Didn’t our hearts burn within us as HE talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?”

This is my desire for my life, and it’s my desire for your life, that as you read scripture the spirit of God breathes on it and you hear the voice of Jesus Christ bringing revelation to you through Scripture so that you burn with passion for following Him. What do you think that experience did for those two followers of Jesus? It changes their lives, they ran back to Jerusalem to tell their friends.

Jesus is talking to a group of Jewish leaders and says this in John 5:39-40, / / “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refused to come to me to receive this life.”

Notice that Jesus doesn’t say the scripture gives life, he says the scriptures point to him and they refused to come to HIM to receive this life. Words on a page can’t bring life, but with the breath of the Spirit and the revelation given by Jesus, they will produce life!

Our reading of scripture will never be complete if we miss this point, that Jesus Christ is in the entire story and we have to read it through the lens of His saving grace. It’s the only way the OT will actually make sense, is if you read it through this lens.

Did not our hearts burn as HE revealed....as HE explained… as HE opened up scripture to us...

You are being invited into a journey to follow Jesus, but not blindly. Yes, Jesus said you have to count the cost, but He wants to walk you through the process step by step, so that you understand the cost is worth it. Whatever point you are at in your journey to following Christ. Maybe you haven’t even really made that decision. Maybe you haven’t counted the cost fully. Or maybe you signed on the dotted line before fully understanding what that meant. Maybe you feel like you were hoodwinked into it, coerced by a turn or burn message, get your heart right or you’ll be lost forever. Maybe you’ve studied the bible for years, you are long time Christian, mature in your faith. Whatever that place is, Jesus wants to reveal the truth of who HE is to you through Scripture.

If you haven’t made that decision to follow Him, you can, today, right now. You can decide that this Jesus who said to the Jewish leaders, “you could have come to me for life...” is worth coming to. Maybe you have counted the cost and you are ready to be all in following Jesus. I don’t want to coerce you, I don’t want to manipulate you, but I do want to invite you, just as Jesus invites us all, to follow Him. And it starts with saying yes.

Yes, I will follow you.

Yes, I will commit to your teaching, to your example and to your ways.

Yes, I will commit to learning, to training, to being led by your Spirit of truth.

Yes, I accept that I haven’t done this thing called life all right, and if your promise is life, then I want that life.

If your promise is peace, I want that peace.

If your promise is a clean conscience and a clean heart and mind, I want that!

No greater decision can be made, and I’m more convinced today that I make that decision every day. I’m right there with you. Waking up saying, “I commit to following you. Reveal your life to me. Reveal your truth to me. Reveal your way, your path so that I can follow it. I choose to deny my own impulses, my own desires, and give way to your desires, your will for my life.”