BIBLE-RELEVANCY
The Bible is
alive; it speaks to me. It has feet; it runs after me. It has hands; it lays
hold of me!
By
definition, the living Word is dynamic, not static. Just as John described
Jesus as a living…human organism whom people could touch and feel, the Word of
life continues to be fully alive among us through the presence of the Holy
Spirit. If we believe anything less, we make Jesus Christ an artifact of
history and his Word a static truth of limited contemporary value. Neither is
true. For those who believe, the living presence of Jesus Christ and the
relevance of his Word is as real today as when he
walked and talked on earth. Eternal, final, alive, and relevant – these
adjectives describe the living Word.
How to Read a Christian Book, 2001, p. 17. Used by permission of Baker, a division of Baker Book House Company.
Christians
need no other reason to be avid readers of the Word of God. Realizing that Scripture is "God-breathed"
is motivation enough. Immediately, we see a connection between the living Word
and the written Word. Just as Jesus Christ the living Word is an ever present
and dynamic reality, the written Word is equally alive and active through the
mind of the Holy Spirit. Every time we open the Scriptures, we should expect a
personal encounter with the God-breathed Spirit of the living Word. This is
reading at its very best. When the mind and spirit of a biblical author
interact in vibrant dialogue with the mind and spirit of a reader, the highest
purpose of the inspired Word is fulfilled.
We should soar every time we read the Word of God.
How to Read a Christian Book, 2001, p. 18- 19. Used by permission of Baker, a division of Baker Book House Company.
A Bible
that’s falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t.
The Bible has
been my guide in perplexity, and my comfort in trouble. It has roused me when
declining, and animated me in languor. Other writings may be good, but they
want certainty and force. The Bible carries its own credentials along with it,
and proves spirit and life to the soul. In other writings I hear the words of a
stranger or a servant. In the Bible I hear the language of my Father and my
friend. Other books contain only the picture of bread. The Bible presents me
with real manna, and feeds me with the bread of life.
Author Unknown
The
Scriptures teach us the best way of living, the noblest way of suffering and
the most comfortable way of dying.
Scripture
needs no updating, editing, or refining. Whatever time or culture you live in,
it is eternally relevant. It needs no help in that regard. It is pure, sinless,
inerrant truth; it is enduring. It is God’s revelation for every generation. It
was written by the omniscient Spirit of God, who is infinitely more
sophisticated than anyone who dares stand in judgment on Scripture’s relevancy
for our society, and infinitely wiser than all the best philosophers, analysts,
and psychologists who pass like a childhood parade into irrelevancy.
John MacArthur
Truth
in a World of Theory from Our Sufficiency in Christ, 1991, Crossway Books, a
division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org. p. 85.
[The Bible]
presents a most plausible understanding of the universe and the existence of life It presents a
God who creates. That makes more sense than believing that everything came out
of nothing – that nobody times nothing equals all things – which is essentially
what the theory of evolution says. I have an easier time assuming that
everything was produced by someone. And the Bible tells me who that someone is:
God.
You Can Trust the Bible, Moody Press, 1988,
p. 8.
Even though
[the Bible] is an ancient document, every person in every situation in every
society that’s ever existed can find in this book things
that endure forever. Here’s a book that never needs another edition. It never
needs to be edited, never has to be updated, is never
out of date or obsolete. It speaks to us as pointedly and directly as it ever
has to anyone in any century since it was written. It’s so pure that it lasts
forever.
You Can Trust the Bible, Moody Press, 1988,
p. 21-22.