Finding Jesus
Someone asked me today why I bothered to study the Bible. She said the Bible is full of just stories written by fallible man. There are so many writers and versions. How did we get the Bible? Our little conversation went in circles.
For some time I had lost the discipline or I should say more truthfully, I lost the love I used to have to study the Bible. Life happens. But in recent years, that love has returned and in increasing measure.
2 Timothy 3:14-17 says it well for me is. The writer Paul reminded his apprentice Timothy: 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it…
Since my teens I had the joy and privilege of learning from people who were not just Bible teachers but who had become nurturing mothers and fathers to me in the faith.
15 …and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. The truth of the Bible was how I came to trust in Jesus. How I lapped up everything I learned in my youth!
Even though God used human beings to write the Bible, it isn’t just stories written by the whims and fancy and imaginations of human beings. The apostle Paul said, 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God… It is the inspired, inerrant (without error) word of God. Just as at creation, God spoke and the world came into being, so God breathed into the Scripture and gave it life.
Scripture is …profitable for teaching, it shows me how to live and the path to take
for reproof, it scolds me when I go off that path
for correction, it tells me how to get back on track
and for training in righteousness, and it tutors me on how to be right with God and man
17 that the man of God may be complete, it makes me whole and not lacking
equipped for every good work. It provides me with what I need and strengthens me for everything I need to be good and to do good.
Why do I study the Scriptures?
Because in searching the Scriptures, I find Jesus.
The Bible is made up of 66 books written by 40 authors over 1,500 years. There are many themes weaving through all 66 books. That’s why there is no end to the study of God’s word. It is shallow enough for children to drink from without fear of drowning and yet deep enough for scholars to dive in without ever touching the bottom.