The Word of Men or The Word of God
The way we receive the Bible makes a lot of difference. We can receive it as the word of men, simply a human book, or we can receive it as the Word of God, a divinely inspired book. The people of Thessalonica received it as the Word of God, and the truth changed their lives.(I Thessalonians 2:13) The same thing will happen today for anyone who truly hears the Bible as God's Word.
I know there has been a lot of criticisms of the Bible shared by many people over the last 2,000+ years. Frankly, I would expect just that. Not everyone wants to hear from God. Many people want to do things their own way, so hearing from God makes them feel guilty. Also, it is difficult to understand how God used those 40 men of different cultures and languages to write down His words, instead of writing their own words. The Bible calls it "inspiration," because the Holy Spirit breathed it into them, so that they wrote with their own vocabularies and what came out was the exact, inerrant Word of God. However, anyone who reads the Bible has to realize that it is far superior to the words of men, because the writings agree with each other, even though they span 1,500 years. There are so many prophecies that have come true just like they were written, and the archaeologists have found no proof against any of it. That just could not happen, if it was the words of fallible men.
I hope you read the Bible every day. I pray that you receive it as God's Word. Then, I would ask you to look back over the time you have been receiving it that way and see how it has worked effectively in your life to bring you to Christ and to help you grow in Him. What a blessing it is to have the Word of God!
Tomorrow, I intend to read I Thessalonians 4-5 and II Thessalonians 1.
I know there has been a lot of criticisms of the Bible shared by many people over the last 2,000+ years. Frankly, I would expect just that. Not everyone wants to hear from God. Many people want to do things their own way, so hearing from God makes them feel guilty. Also, it is difficult to understand how God used those 40 men of different cultures and languages to write down His words, instead of writing their own words. The Bible calls it "inspiration," because the Holy Spirit breathed it into them, so that they wrote with their own vocabularies and what came out was the exact, inerrant Word of God. However, anyone who reads the Bible has to realize that it is far superior to the words of men, because the writings agree with each other, even though they span 1,500 years. There are so many prophecies that have come true just like they were written, and the archaeologists have found no proof against any of it. That just could not happen, if it was the words of fallible men.
I hope you read the Bible every day. I pray that you receive it as God's Word. Then, I would ask you to look back over the time you have been receiving it that way and see how it has worked effectively in your life to bring you to Christ and to help you grow in Him. What a blessing it is to have the Word of God!
Tomorrow, I intend to read I Thessalonians 4-5 and II Thessalonians 1.