Last week, we began our new Community Training class, “Introduction to the Bible”. We began by considering the fact that trusting and understanding the Bible is essential to our mission of glorifying God by declaring and demonstrating the gospel. Jesus’ statement in John 5:39 ought to stop us, and cause us to consider.
John 5:39, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”
Apparently, we can search the Scriptures, and miss the point. It isn’t good enough to just say you trust the Bible, or even to just read the Bible. We have to know the Bible. We have to know where it came from, and what it’s all about.
This Sunday, we will continue our discussion on this topic by considering the important question of authority. How do you go about determining what is true and authoritative for your life? When you are trying to evaluate something, to what do you measure it up against? We all live our lives based on some ultimate authority, the question is, what do you trust and acknowledge to be your authority?
As Christians, it is proper to say that the Bible is your ultimate authority. Ding, ding, ding! That is the right answer! But why? How do you know? Do you ever have doubts about that? And beyond that, if you say that the Bible is your authority, how many of the decisions that make up your life are actually based on the Bible? Do you find it easy to live functionally as if the Bible isn’t really authoritative, even though you say it is? These are hard questions, and if you struggle with them, you are not alone. I hope that you will join us on Sundays at 9:40 as we seek to answer some of these questions together.
