We’re halfway through our series “Making Sense of Scripture” and from last week, if your brain didn’t melt trying to follow the post, you remember that the Bible, as the Word of God, points us to Jesus.
We discussed the Bible being like the manger, as Martin Luther said, having a few crooked nails and a few warped boards, but holding the perfect Christ.
I love this analogy. It gives me so much hope! I mean, think about it– despite being swaddled in a manger, smelly, dusty, cold, and wobbly, Christ still did his thing.
and by “thing” I mean, you know, everything.
Do you see where my hope comes from in this? Isn’t it possible that God can still do his thing despite the vessels He now has to work with? (ahem, us.)
Despite our flaws, our mistakes, our human-ness, God will still do his thing. He will use us to accomplish his will.
Are you up for that?
Let’s come back to that question in a minute and get back to the first question I asked, where did the Bible come from?
The answer is two-fold. On one hand, the Bible is God’s book, through which God accomplishes divine purposes. This book points us to Jesus, the Lord and Savior of all creation. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible points us to Jesus.
On the other hand, the Bible is a very human book, written by inspired witnesses in a particular time, to a particular people, and for a particular purpose. The Bible is the gathered writings of ordinary people just like you and me who were so gripped by their experience of God that they had to share it with others.
In its human sense, the Bible is the faithful confession of ordinary people of their extraordinary experience of God.
In its divine sense, God used these confessions of faith to draw people to Him.
Divine and human, both.
That’s what the Bible is. That’s where the Bible comes from. God worked through humans, despite our flaws, to create a book that leads us to Him.
and you know what? He’s still doing it. He’s still working through humans to lead us to Him.
Back to that second question I asked earlier, are you up for that?
I’ve mentioned Bill Hybels’ book Just Walk Across the Room before. Despite how much it intrigues me, I don’t find time to read it often. My latest reading included something that I have to share, related to being open to God using us for His will.
Hybel writes,
I realize some of you believe that unless the plan of salvation gets explained, it’s been an unsuccessful conversation, spiritually speaking. And some of you probably put yourselves through an exhaustive self-deprecation routine unless you extend an invitation to your church each time God opens an evangelistic door. Still others might say that everything is A-OK on your evangelistic value meter as long as you give your personal testimony- all four volumes of it- at every opportunity.
This begs the question, who are we working for here? When sharing the love of Christ with others, are we doing it for our own personal satisfaction or are we doing it for God?
If you are sharing your testimony, inviting people to church and explaining the plan of salvation because you feel it tips the scale more toward the right, adding more weight on the “good deeds” end of the spectrum, you’ve got the wrong idea.
No matter how much we do, we will never be good enough for God. But, He didn’t leave us without hope! Jesus died and so paid for every bad deed we will ever do. We’ll spend eternity with Him because he loves us.
Therefore, we don’t need to play the obligatory “God card” in awkward situations. We do not neet to force Jesus down anybody’s throat. Leading others to Christ isn’t up to us. It’s not our gig! See, when we allow God to work through us to bring others to Him, we are allowing His spirit to guide us. We wait, we listen, and if He doesn’t tell us to act, we don’t. If he opens the door of opportunity for us, we go! (Oh, and it’s usually not easy, but more on that soon.)
And so, what I’m saying is the Bible is still very much alive today. God is divinely using our human actions to bring glory to His name. Pray, listen, respond. The relationships you build with people are the biggest tool in pointing them to faith.
Quest 2819 