Shalom Aleichem...
Reflections is a weekly Christian Teaching Ministry. Each week we will talk about the Bible and lessons we can put to use in our daily life. We will try to, on a weekly basis, provide to you stories, thoughts, and just easy ways to live your life on a straight path.
THIS WEEK'S TEACHING....September 20, 2021
Lets continue our journey through understanding how to read and use God's Word.....
THE ELOQUENCE OF THE BIBLE
Psalm 46:1 contains an example of the eloquence God uses to teach you of His love. It will stir your desire to see what else He has to say to you.
This week, I want to show you a passage of scripture that illustrates the eloquence of the Bible.
God’s word is the most beautiful, meaningful, and wonderful message ever given to man. It is as applicable today than it has ever been to real life. Yet it is so often ignored and taken for granted by believers.
One of the most often used excuses given by people for not reading the Bible is this: “It is too hard to understand.” This is an excuse and is simply not true. This morning’s passage is beautiful and powerful and will show you that using only simple means, anyone can see the deeply meaningful, life-changing message of scripture. I want to stir up your hunger for the Bible by showing you God’s eloquent promise to you.
Turn to Psalm 46:1. We will read this together and plumb its depths. This is an incredible picture of God, promise of His faithfulness, and blessing to carry with you through the issues of life. Every word of this verse is filled with the wonderful power and person of God. This should not surprise us since the Bible says about itself: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable…” 2 Timothy 1:7. Every word of it is specifically chosen by God for its meaning and depth.
Let’s take a minute and look at each word more closely. Here is a better definition of each word. Each of these comes from simply using a concordance such as Strong’s and a bible dictionary such as Vine’s.
GOD – The word is the Hebrew name for God Elohim. It is plural and this speaks of the Trinity, the fullness of God. It also speaks of His power as the Creator and as all powerful. This I the first name of God used ion Genesis 1:1 “in the beginning God”. He is so powerful that He simply spoke the world into existence.
IS – This says plainly that Elohim is our refuge and strength Himself. He does no simply provide these things to us, but is instead those things Himself in His person.
OUR – This was written to the children of Israel. They are His covenant people. This is a song of worship for His people to sing praises to Him because He has made a covenant to be their God and protect, provide, and guide them always. Notice also that He is to be praised because He made this covenant. He keeps it whether we keep our side or not because He judges Himself by His own faithfulness and not ours. He is our God by His choice and by His grace. We are His covenant people in the New Testament through the blood of Jesus. “This cup is the new COVENANT of my blood which is shed for you.”
REFUGE – This is a big word. It includes several concepts according to every Bible dictionary that you might use. It includes trustworthy, hope, shelter. Let’s translate it as “trustworthy shelter that gives the promise of hope.”
STRENGTH – This word means “mighty power.” This fits in with the use of God – Elohim. His omnipotence is His mighty power!
TROUBLE – Let’s skip for a moment to the word trouble. This is a word picture meaning “in a tight spot.” This is what we mean when we say that there is no where to turn but up. This is the situation tat the children of Israel were in when they were at the banks of the Red Sea with Pharoah’s army behind them, the Sa before them, and mountains on either side. There literally was no where to turn but up.
But in those circumstances, Elohim God is Himself, by virtue of His covenant with us, our “trustworthy shelter that gives the promise of hope” and omnipotent mighty power. The question next becomes – “always?”
DID YOU EVER WONDER???
The latest of the challenges we are going through as a people is Covid19 and the new Delta Variant. We seemed to be coming out of the darkness a little while ago and then, DELTA came. So the obvious question is.....
How should Christians react to the Covid19 Delta Variant Pandemic?
Many unsaved people are watching how Christians react to Covid-19 Delta variant. Do they see us having peace about this or do they see us living in fear like much of the world?
Pandemics
Many unsaved people are watching how Christians react to Covid-19 Delta variant Pandemic. Do they see us having peace about this or do they see us living in fear like much of the world? Many have asked, “Is Covid-19 a plague sent from God?” Before answering that, we are told to be “Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Pet 5:7). Worry has never solved anything that I know of. It may seem like the end of the age, but we must remember, it’s been far worse than this before. Almost 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population died from flu, with over 50 million deaths in the 1918 Spanish Flue pandemic. Will Covid-19 and its variants ever end? Scientists suggest it may never go away…simply modifying or varying itself. It’s possible some strain of the Covid-19 may never go away or become immune to the vaccines we now have, so how do we as believers react?
Plagues
Pandemics are not new to human history or in Scripture. God send plagues to Egypt, saying, “For this time I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth” (Ex 9:14), so God has and can use plagues as part of His judgment. The Black Plague killed about 25 million people in Europe, which was about a third of the population, but another plague is coming. The Apostle John wrote he “saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished” (Rev 15:1), so plagues may well be part of the end times.
God’s SovereigntyThe sovereignty of God might be one of the most reassuring doctrines. That’s because whatever happens will work out according to His purposes and for our best (Rom 8:28). Many in Jesus’ earthly ministry had diseases of all kinds, but notice what Jesus does: “In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight” (7:21). So despite what you are seeing, God is still on His throne. We must simply obey God and put our trust in Him through all this. I, for one, am glad humans are not really in charge and that “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases” (Psalm 115:3).
Conspiracy Theories
I’ve heard one Christian arguing with another Christian over getting the vaccine, saying, “You’re getting the mark of the best if you take that shot. The government wants to kill us all.” Clearly, God’s Word says we should “avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless” (Titus 3:9), so it is best to “avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness” (2 Tim 2:16). God admonishes the church leadership to “Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers” (2 Tim 2:14).
Did you catch that? These kind of debates or useless and they do lead to the ruin of the hearers. In fact, these things make matters worse by destroying, or at least straining relationships because of differences of opinions.
I think it’s best to “Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels” (2 Tim 2:23), and have “nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness” (1 Tim 4:7). These admonitions should cover all the conspiracy theory debates out there. Scripture tells us “Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble” (Psalm 119:165). Does that “nothing” include our disagreements over those who receive the vaccine and those who don’t? In short, yes!
On His Throne
God is not up in heaven wringing His hands over this like many are…and yes, even Christians. We should we be anxious over something we have no control over? We can do our best to prevent its spread, but there is nothing created that can ever separate us from God again (Rom 8:38-39), so we shouldn’t live in fear over Covid. God is not like man, thinking, “What’ll I do now?” No, He already knows the end from the beginning and it is all part of His sovereign plan. God is not the author of evil, but He does allow evil, but it is always for His best (Gen 50:20) and our best too (John 3:16; Rom 8:28). Remember that Satan needed God’s permission to inflict suffering on Job, but Satan was limited by God. For example, he could not take Job’s life (Job 1:12). God was still on His throne when Satan was allowed to cause Job to suffer and take away just about everything he had except for his life (Job 1:12), so even here, God had Satan on a leash, showing our Lord’s still in control of this world.
Conclusion
The Bible commands us to speak the truth in love, and true, godly love warns sinners of the coming wrath of God. Unless the wrath of God is revealed, the mercy of God is not relevant. The lost person wouldn’t think they needed rescue (salvation) without the wrath of God revealed, so we can’t use our garden hose and dampen the flames of hell. It must be the whole counsel of God. If there’s a mist in the message, the sinner’s in a fog. Jesus introduces the gospel by saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). Today is the day of salvation (2 Cor 6:2), for our Lord may return at any moment…and then that day will tragically pass.
BOOKS OF THE BIBLE...A TEACHING
Here is a subject that we often hear but do we really ponder and get into what it means....
What Do We Mean When We Say the Bible Is the Word of God?
One of the most important reasons Christians believe that the Bible is the Word of God is because it makes that claim about itself. But that doesn’t prove anything, does it? After all, other books, such as the Qur’an, claim to have come from God.
But in the Bible’s case, there is a lot of evidence to support what it says about itself, and in the next two chapters we will look at some of this evidence. Meanwhile, in this chapter we will explore what it means for us to say that the Bible is the Word of God.
The most straightforward claim about the Bible within the Bible itself is found in the first phrase of 2 Timothy 3:16: “All Scripture is God-breathed.” Other versions, such as the New American Standard Bible, translate this verse, “All Scripture is inspired by God,” making it one of the main verses that supports the Christian belief in the inspiration of Scripture, or the Bible. But the NIV translation is quite literal, as the Greek word precisely means “God-breathed.” This word is only found here in the New Testament, so it is possible that Paul coined it to say what he wanted to say about the nature of Scripture.
The first implication of this word is that the Bible begins with God. He is the ultimate source of what is written in it. This word also contains the imagery of breathing out, which implies speaking or communicating. Therefore, the Bible finds its source in God and is the result of God’s decision to communicate with people.
Another important text is 2 Peter 1:20–21, which speaks of the process God used to communicate his written Word. Verse 20 says, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things.” (The Greek word translated interpretation in the NIV is used only in the New Testament, and is therefore challenging to translate.) In light of the next verse, Peter rules out the idea that the prophets came up with the messages on their own: “For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (v. 21). The New English Translation has “No prophecy of Scripture ever comes about by the prophet’s own imagination” (v. 20), and The New Living Translation puts it this way: “No prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God” (vv. 20–21). The origin of Scripture is once again confirmed as God himself. Having decided to communicate, he did so through the Holy Spirit, the divine author of Scripture, who caused the human authors of the Bible to write what they wrote.
Based on these two important texts regarding the nature of the Bible (2 Timothy and 2 Peter), the Christian doctrine or teaching regarding the inspiration of the Bible can be summarized like this: God took the initiative to communicate to the people he had created. He did so through the work of the Holy Spirit, who empowered the human authors of Scripture. The result is that what the human authors wrote was in every sense the Word of God.
There is one drawback to referring to this great truth as inspiration because of the way we use words like inspired, inspiring, and inspirational in everyday life. It is common to hear someone mention how inspiring a pastor’s sermon was, or how inspired a poet was when she wrote a touching poem, or how inspirational a Bach composition is. But what these comments imply is usually that the pastor, poet, or composer has produced a remarkable product that is very meaningful in some way. These are merely excellent human works of literature or art. Unfortunately, this meaning has also been attached to the idea of the inspiration of Scripture—it is only a great human piece of literature. The problem, however, is that this drains the supernatural dimension from the Bible.
This is not to deny the significance of the human authors and their ability and artistry. We should affirm what is called the “dual authorship” of Scripture—it is both a divine and a human book. Notice how these two aspects appear in the opening verses of Deuteronomy: “These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel.… Moses proclaimed to the Israelites all that the Lord had commanded him.… Moses began to expound this law, saying: ‘The Lord our God said to us at Horeb …’ ” (Deuteronomy 1:1–6). Therefore, even though the Bible is genuinely a human book, the ultimate source and author is God himself.
Sometimes the inspiration of Scripture is mistakenly understood to mean that God simply dictated these words to the authors, reducing them to human word-processors. This is certainly true in a few cases, for example, the Ten Commandments and the other Old Testament laws. But for the most part, God worked through their intellects, experiences, and styles of expression in such a way that what they wrote was exactly what God intended.
There is mystery here in terms of how this worked; nevertheless, the Bible clearly implies that the very words the authors used were the exact words God chose for them to use. For example, God told the prophet Jeremiah, “Tell them everything I command you; do not omit a word” (Jeremiah 26:2). Later, Jeremiah himself declared, “The Lord has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing” (Jeremiah 26:15). God said to the prophet Ezekiel, “You must speak my words to them” (Ezekiel 2:7).
The New Testament expresses an equally high view of the Scriptures as God’s words. When Jesus dealt with unbelieving Jewish leaders, he constantly did so based on the “Scriptures” (Matthew 21:42; 22:29). And in 1 Corinthians 2:13, Paul wrote, “This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit.” We also see that the New Testament writers also considered the books of the New Testament to be of the same nature as the books of the Old Testament (1 Timothy 5:18; 2 Peter 3:16) and equally authoritative (2 Thessalonians 3:14; 2 Peter 3:2).
So one reason we believe that the Bible is the Word of God is because it makes that claim for itself. This claim is validated by other evidence, which will be explored in the following chapters.
Based on the Greek word in 2 Timothy 3:16, which literally means “God-breathed,” maybe Christians should switch from using the word inspiration to exhalation to describe how God gave us the Bible.
HAVE A SAFE AND BLESSED WEEK:)
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