Monthly Archives: July 2025

JOHN’S GOSPEL… THE SOURCE OF LIGHT – 3

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John 1:3-9 NLT
[3] Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
[4] “The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. [5] The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. [6] God sent a man, John the Baptist, [7] to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. [8] John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. [9] The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.”

Genesis begins with “In the beginning…”, describing, in verse 2, the condition of the earth before God began to work on it… darkness! Then in verse 3, He speaks light into the darkness without disclosing its source. The Bible only introduces the source of visible light in verse 14.

Genesis 1:4-5 NIV
[4] “God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. [5] God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.”

Genesis 1:14-18 NIV
[14] And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, [15] and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. [16] God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. [17] God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, [18] to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good.”

So, what was the light that lit up the dark earth? John fills us in. It was Jesus, the Aleph and Tov of Genesis, who was both Creator and the source of light (illumination) before the physical lights began to expose what the darkness of the corrupted earth had hidden, and to function on the earth to sustain life.

There is a correlation between physical and spiritual darkness. Just as physical darkness conceals the objects in a dark room, so spiritual darkness is the condition of humans that hides the corruption in the heart. No one can understand how evil the human heart is until the light of Jesus reveals what is inside.

So, John endorses Jesus’ signature in Genesis 1, the identity of the Aleph Tov, the One who was not only present but is both active in the preparation of earth for its human inhabitants, and gives and sustains the life He has given us. We need physical light to see our environment and spiritual illumination to understand our connection with and disconnection from our Creator.

However, light is not only the source of illumination but also the source of life. Without light, nothing can continue to exist. Light is the energy that powers the earth, all plant, animal, and human life dependant on its life-giving properties.

The second person of the Trinity, who became the Jesus of history, was God’s agent in creation. God spoke and the Word acted. John identified Him as the personification of God’s words, and the subject of all Scripture.

Psalms 33:6 NIV
[6] “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.”

John 1:3 NIV
[3] “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”

As mysterious as this may seem to us, this is the declaration of the infallible Word of God. Among the many official titles given to the Son of God, this one emerges as the title of His functions, wisdom clothed in words.

The Word was God’s wisdom, present at creation…working with the Father.

Proverbs 8:27-30 NIV
[27] “I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, [28] when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep, [29] when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth. [30] Then I was constantly at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence”…

The Word created the universe and restored the corrupted earth.

John 1:3 NIV
[3] “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”

The Word is at work in His creation…

Hebrews 1:3 NIV
[3] “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word…”

Through the Word, we are saved.

Romans 10:17 NIV
[17] “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.”

Through the Word, we are born from above.

1 Peter 1:23 NIV
[23] “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.”

The Word will judge all people at the end of time…

John 5:22 NIV
[22] “Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son…”

…who will judge by His words…

John 12:47-49 NIV
[47] “If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. [48] There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day. [49] For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken.”

The Word will conquer and destroy all evil.

Revelation 19:11, 13, 15-16 NIV
[11] “I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war…
[13] He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God…
[15] Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. [16] On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: king of kings and lord of lords.”

Jesus is the light that reveals all of God’s work… His plans for creation, redemption, and restoration, all centred in Him…

He enlightens us concerning our condition…

John 3:19-20 NIV
[19] “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. [20] Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.”

… our plight…

John 3:18 NIV
[18] “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

… and His solution…

John 8:12 NIV
[12] “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Let this be our story…

John 3:21 NIV
[21]” But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”

The outcome is out of this world…

1 John 1:7 NIV
[7] “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”

John, therefore, connects and explains both the story of Genesis and the story of Jesus by his statement, “In the beginning…” From this starting point, he moves into the unfolding of his theme, Jesus, the Word of God in eternity and in time.

JOHN’S GOSPEL…THE WORD WAS WITH GOD -2

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John 1:1-2 NIV
[1] “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] He was with God in the beginning.”

If we don’t pause to think, for a minute, we will miss the significance of the little word “with”.

Why did John write, “The Word was with God”?

“With” can have the simple meaning of “in the presence or company of …” or it can mean something more than that.

To be “with” another person can mean that one person is “in full agreement and participation with” another. We have examples of this meaning in Scripture where God gave His full support, with favour and power, to His servants…

Genesis 39:2, 5 NIV
[2] “The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master…
[5] From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field.”

God’s presence “with” Joseph had major consequences – favour and blessing on all his endeavours in Potiphar’s household. Likewise, while he languished in prison, Joseph was blessed and elevated to a position of authority because God was “with” him.

Genesis 39:20-22 NIV
[20] “Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in the prison, [21] the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. [22] So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there.”

David experienced the same favour because of God’s presence “with” him.

1 Samuel 17:37 NIV
[37] “The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”

1 Samuel 18:14 NIV
[14] “In everything he did he had great success, because the Lord was with him.”

2 Samuel 5:10 NIV
[10] “And he became more and more powerful, because the Lord God Almighty was with him.”

So, of Jesus, Peter could confidently proclaim…

Acts 10:37-38 NIV
[37] “You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— [38] how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.”

In the Godhead, the relationship between Father and Son is reciprocal. As the Father is “with the Son”, so the Son…the Word…is with the Father.

John 10:30 NIV
[30] “I and the Father are one.”

Says Google…

“Yes, the New Testament, particularly the Gospel of John, presents Jesus as being “one with the Father,” a statement understood by theologians to signify unity in essence, purpose, and power, and a core concept within Trinitarian theology. This declaration in John 10:30 led to accusations of blasphemy by the Jewish leaders of the time, who perceived Jesus as claiming equality with God.”

Jesus often claimed oneness with Father as a testimony to His opponents of His identity as the Son of God, challenging them to find anything that would refute this claim.

John 8:29, 42, 46 NIV
[29] The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.”…
[42] Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me…
[46] Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me?”

For the Word to be with God, as John proclaimed, meant a relationship far closer than mere casual acquaintance or association. This was a declaration of unity so deep that the Father and the Son, as the Word, the visible and spiritual expression of the Father, always acted together in perfect harmony.

Hebrews 1:1, 3 NIV
[1] “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways,
[3] The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”

As the visible representation of the invisible God, Jesus was simultaneously in the presence of the Father and in the world, representing Him by word and action so that the people in the world would believe in Him and return to the Father through Him.

JOHN’S GOSPEL…IN THE BEGINNING – 1

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Of the four gospel records of Jesus Christ’s life and death on earth, John’s gospel was known, in the early church, as the “spiritual” gospel. Why the spiritual gospel?

John doesn’t only present the story of Jesus’ life on earth. He also weaves into the story his understanding that Jesus, the man, was far more than a man. He was God incarnate, clothed in a human body, fully God and fully man, with all the attributes of God and man, yet completely submitted and obedient to the Father as a son.

Each of the four gospels tells the story of Jesus from a different perspective and for a different purpose. Together, they present a comprehensive picture of Him as the king of Israel, (Matthew), the Servant of Yahweh, (Mark), the Son of Man, (Luke), and the Son of God, (John).

Each story begins with and at the point of its purpose. For Matthew, Jesus was born to be king of the Jews. For Mark, as a servant, Jesus’ origins and birth were not recorded. His story begins with His arrival on the public scene to carry out His servant role. For Luke, as the Son of Man, Jesus was fully human, the son of Mary, with all the attributes and characteristics of a human. Yet, He was more than human. He was the Son of Man, the Messianic figure of Daniel 7.

However, to John, Jesus was first and foremost, the Son of God, existing eternally with the Father before time. He was sent from the Father to live as an obedient Son, always connected and accountable to Him, doing the Father’s will, revealing the Father’s true nature to His people, and fulfilling His mission as sacrifice and redeemer.

So, John begins to write… “In the beginning…”

John 1:1-3 NLT
[1] “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] He existed in the beginning with God. [3] God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him.”

In the beginning…the beginning of what? Echoing the first words of the Bible…

Genesis 1:1-2 NLT
[1] “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. [2] The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.”

John presents Jesus’ presence as the bridge between the Father and His creation. In a perfect expression of the unity between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Three persons function together to produce the universe in all its splendour and detail. Assuming that the triune God created everything, the story of Genesis begins, not with nothing but with an earth that was created, then corrupted. This planet needed intervention to prepare it for human habitation.

In the Genesis 1 account of this process of restoration, the writer slips in two Hebrew letters, “aleph” and “tov”, in the middle of the first verse which are both untranslatable and seem to make no sense. The same two mysterious letters reappear many times throughout the original text of the Old Testament. The ancient rabbis, despite years of study, could not find a solution to the puzzle… until John reveals its secret to his readers.

Google says…

“In some interpretations, particularly within Messianic Judaism, the Aleph Tav is seen as a divine signature or placeholder, indicating the presence and authority of God or Yeshua throughout Scripture. This is often linked to passages in Isaiah and Revelation where God declares Himself to be the First and the Last.”

In the book of Revelation, which of course, John also wrote and which presents all of history as the unfolding story of Jesus, Jesus identifies Himself, at the beginning and the end of the book, as the Alpha and the Omega.

Revelation 1:8 NLT
[8] “I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,” says the Lord God. “I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.”

Revelation 21:6 NLT
[6] “And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life.”

Revelation 22:13 NLT
[13] “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”

The writer to the Hebrews, likewise, presented Jesus as the initiator and completion of our faith, the Alpha and Omega…

Hebrews 12:2 NLT
[2] “We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith…”

So, the secret of the “aleph” and “tov” is hidden in plain sight.

Jesus, the main character in the Bible story, was present and active in creation, directing the preparation of God’s people in history, and active in redeeming His people from the consequences of their rebellion. His signature, “Aleph Tov” puts Him in the centre of the book as the driver of the story.

Jesus was a Hebrew and would have spoken, in the main, in Hebrew. The Hebrew equivalent of “apha” and “omega”, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, are “aleph” and “tov”, the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. John wrote in Greek, the common language of the Roman world. He would, therefore, have written aleph and tov as alpha and omega.

The implication is huge. Jesus’ signature, “Aleph Tov”, is repeatedly written into the pages of Scripture, reassuring God’s people throughout the ages that it He who is both author and subject of the book.

So, with confidence, John could begin his gospel record with the indesputable truth that the Jesus of history is, first, the God of creation. He was present and active with the Father and the Spirit, bringing forth the universe and shaping the earth to be the stage on which He played out the glorious plan of redemption.

The second person of the Trinity in eternity became the Son of God in history to put into action in history what the Trinity had planned in eternity.

WORSHIP THE LORD

Apologetics, ,

I sometimes wake in the morning with nothing on my mind, like turning the page of my life, waiting to record the day’s thoughts and activities. At other times, my clean page already has a heading…

“Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.”

My earliest memories of church are of people gathering in an old church building, probably built in the 1800’s, with long, uncomfortable wooden pews, and a choir stall in the front, opposite to the raised pulpit…all the trappings of a conventional “church”.

Across the front wall, above the platform, were emblazoned these words on an ornate cement scroll… “Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness”. Although I did not understand their meaning then, I woould gaze at the words throughout the long sermon, tracing each letter over and over with an invisible finger to occupy my mind until the church service was over.

This verse, taken from Psalm 96:9, was a silent reminder to the congregation of our solemn duty to worship the Lord whenever we gathered in that building on a Sunday…or was it?

Had we then, and do we still now, relegate worship to a once-a-week ceremony on a Sunday? We have, in the latest dispensation of doing church, come to view our gathering on a Sunday as a “worship service”.

These ideas are so deeply engraved into our thinking that we hardly ever stop to evaluate what we are doing? We are “holy” during that brief time in church but for the rest, we get on with living our ordinary lives. We relegate worship and the spiritual feelings we enjoy, to a Sunday, satisfied that we have been faithful to God’s requirements.

Am I being harsh in my thinking?

Jesus had a conversation with a woman outside a village in Samaria, an unlikely situation for a Jewish man. He was on His way to Galilee. She was fetching water in the middle of the day. They met at the well.

Jesus kicked off the conversation by asking the woman for a drink of water. She was startled by His words because Jewish men don’t talk to Samaritan women, but Jesus didn’t care. He broke protocol because He was thirsty and she was lost.

Carefully, Jesus unpacked her need in their conversation, guiding her to the point where He revealed God’s dream for all humanity. Worshippers! The Father wanted worshippers!

John 4:23-24 NIV
[23] “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. [24] God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

True worshippers…in spirit and in truth? What does this mean? Did my verse, painted on the front wall of the church, somehow hold the secret to God’s dream?

Worship…what is worship? In its simplest meaning, to worship is to prostrate oneself before a superior person, not necessarily God. So, for example, Joseph’s brothers fell down before him after their father had been buried, when they thought that he would have his revenge.

Genesis 50:18 NLT
[18] “Then his brothers came and threw themselves down before Joseph. “Look, we are your slaves!” they said.”

However, to worship the Lord means far more that prostrating ourselves before Him. In that action is enshrined an attitude, as Google explains…

“In the Bible, worship encompasses more than just religious rituals; it signifies a deep, reverent devotion and heartfelt response to God, encompassing both outward expressions and inward attitudes. It involves acknowledging God’s worth, submitting to His authority, and expressing love and adoration through various means.”

Can you see, then, how far short our modern concept of worship falls before this definition?

Our verse continues…

” …In the beauty of holiness.”

What constitutes beauty in this requirement?

Again, Google helps us…

“The phrase “beauty of holiness” refers to the intrinsic attractiveness and desirable quality of being set apart for God and living a life that reflects His holiness. It encompasses both an inward purity and an outward expression of that purity in actions, attitudes, and worship.”

We ascribe beauty to the Lord, not in any physical way because God is spirit, but in the comeliness of His attributes and actions. Just as a beautiful sunset calls forth feelings of pleasure and delight, so God’s beauty lies in His being and doing that delight us and draw from us expressions of satisfaction and pleasure.

So, God desires that we express, in our worship, that beauty, “attractiveness”, in our ways that brings Him pleasure and delight.

What is the holiness that must accompany our worship? What is the holiness God requires that allows us access to Him and qualifies us to “see” Him?

Again, we turn to Google for help.

“Holiness, in essence, is being set apart, consecrated, and morally pure, primarily associated with God and His divine nature. It signifies a state of being entirely devoted to God and separated from sin and the things of the world. For humans, holiness involves striving to reflect God’s character through obedience, righteous living, and a growing relationship with Him.”

2 Corinthians 7:1 NIV
[1] “Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.”

The holiness of God’s people is not only beautiful to us…
It’s beautiful to Him, the lives of His people

So, the verse I stared at every Sunday sets out clearly the desire of God’s heart that we, His people, should approach Him with clean hands and a pure heart and worship Him in spirit and in truth.

Psalms 24:3-4 NIV
[3] “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? [4] The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god.”

Before I end this short meditation, why is it so important that we worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness? What difference does it make to us if we do or do not worship the Lord in this way?

God had a plan for people from the beginning. Like the intimacy between two people in a marriage relationship, their union produces new life. God uses the picture of marriage to illustrate the union within the Godhead that produces life…God’s life that continually perpetuates and sustains all life.

God has called us into partnership with Himself to fulfill His purpose to restore the life on earth that sin has destroyed. Through the intimacy of prayer and worship, He impregnates our spirits with His “seed”, His Word through which He carries out His will.

God has entrusted to us His promises, His declaration of intent, to which we agree and add our “AMEN!” which is far more than simple assent. Our “AMEN” implies our willing participation with the Father in the execution of His will on earth.

2 Corinthians 1:18-20, 22 NIV
[18] “But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.” [19] For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silas and Timothy—was not “Yes” and “No,” but in him it has always been “Yes.” [20] For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. 0
[21] Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, [22] set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”

Can you see, then, how God has graciously involved us, in participation with Him, in fulfilling His will in earth? He impregnates us with His Word and gives birth to His purposes through us…and all this through the intimacy of true worship. His purpose is not possible outside of true worship, our hearts and lives at one with Him.

Hence the profound simplicity of Jesus’ prayer…

Matthew 6:9-13 NIV
[9] “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, [10] your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. [11] Give us today our daily bread. [12] And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. [13] And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’”

“Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” in not a call to worship for a few moments on Sunday morning in a building we call “the church”. It is a rallying call to all God’s people to exalt and honour Him in every part of our everyday lives, giving glory to Him in the mundane as a witness to His Lordship over us as the supreme authority in our lives in everything.

THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD

Apologetics, ,

Why did God bother to write a book, preserve and protect it through centuries of human attempts to destroy it, have it published in almost as many languages as are spoken on earth, and make it freely available at no cost, on the World Wide Web, to the whole world? Is this book so important and so valuable to the world that He took the trouble to do all this for us?

The answer is “Yes,” and “Yes”! The Bible is the only source of information about God, us, and His world that makes sense, is true, and can change our lives and destiny forever.

The marvel of the Bible in our digital age is that it is freely available in a variety of translations and versions online and free of charge to anyone who owns a smart phone. This gives nearly the whole world access to the Word of God and its message.

Why is this so important?

The Bible is the story of John 3:16…

“[16] For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

The story of this book is the one and only thing that stands between heaven and hell, the eternal destiny of those who read it and believe it and those who don’t read it and don’t believe its message.

That’s one great reason the Bible is the greatest story ever told!

The Bible answers, in a simple story, the problem of evil. Evil is a reality in the world. Despite the insistence of those who punt evolution as the origin and process of the universe and our world, evolution cannot answer the issues of psyche, morality, and ethics. Their origins are a mystery apart from a Creator outside of time and space, who created humans in His likeness. How did evil happen on earth? God gave humans the power of choice. With free will came the responsibility to remain connected to the Creator and live functionally or to disconnect and enter the realm of chaos and dysfunctionality. What we have now is the result of the choice the first pair made.

The Bible tells the story of the nations…how they came from one pair, why we have nations who speak different languages, how the nations were divided and scattered across the globe, where the nation of Israel originated and why Israel is the cradle and environment of the story.

The Bible is the story of one man, told by many over several millennia, who came from heaven, entered earth as a human baby, and lived, died, and rise again, here. He came to rescue humankind from the plight humans created for themselves through their rebellion and disobedience. Despite the Creator’s patience and longsuffering, the story of God’s own nation continued into disaster, punishment, exile, and return. This was, all a preparation…of God’s nation and the nations on earth, to receive His man for the hour.

After the interlude of His life on earth, this man’s intervention resulted in the radical transformation of thousands of His followers. In fact, this global movement, as it came to be, was initially called “The Way”. Spearheaded by the few men who were His close associates and were witnesses to His resurrection, despite fierce opposition from the Gentile government ruling vassal nations and the fanatical religious Jews, the movement spread around the known world.

Over a period time, manuscripts recording the story across centuries, were collected and evaluated by godly and wise men as divinely inspired. They were gathered into two volumes, first the Tanach, the Jewish Scriptures, then the stories of Jesus, and interpretations of His life, death, and resurrection, in the form of letters, called the New Testament.

Finally, these two volumes were joined together to become one story and entitled “The Bible”. The entire process, involving the minds of many godly men applied to their sacred task, was God-inspired and God-directed. It was a partnership of God and man to prepare and preserve God’s story which presents the only way for humans doomed to eternal destruction to be reconciled to a holy God.

The marvels of this story are many…

Although written in human language using a variety of letters and words, this book has power to transform the lives of those who believe its message. Its power lies both in and beyond its words.

2 Timothy 3:16 NIV
[16] “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…”

1 Peter 1:22-23 NIV
[22] “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. [23] For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.”

Hebrews 4:12 NIV
[12] “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

No other book on earth has the power to transform, not reform, people from rebels to sons, and to guide and teach those who believe its message into peaceful and godly living.

No other book has garnered so many enemies and survived so many efforts to exterminate it from the earth. Why do people fear this book so much that they want to rid the earth of its presence? It had been burned and banned, and yet it lives on. It is both loved and hated by miliions.

Those who believe this book have deeper understanding of what is written than those who don’t. Its message makes no sense to unbelievers for one reason…

1 Corinthians 2:13-14 NIV
[13] “This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. [14] The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.”

This is the only book that, through its story, brings God into human lives and human history. Without the Bible, we have nothing to tell us about Him and lead us to Him. Without the story of the Bible, we would be lost forever, and we would never know the reason.

There are many other marvels about this book but here is its conclusion.

God has entrusted this book to us, His people. Jesus’ blood brother, Jude, called it…

Jude 1:3 NIV
[3] “.. the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.”

This book is a body of truth entrusted to God’s people. We have a sacred trust to…

  1. Guard it from contamination.

We are to guard “the faith” by keeping it intact.

This book has been contaminated by additions and subtractions that do not come from God. There are dire consequences for those who dare to tamper with its truth.

Deuteronomy 4:2 NIV
[2] “Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.”

Revelation 22:18-19 NIV
[18] “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. [19] And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.”

Peter warned of some unscrupulous people who twisted God’s Word out of shape.

2 Peter 3:15-16 NIV
[15] “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. [16] He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”

  1. We are to live by its truth.

3 John 1:3-4 NIV
[3]” It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. [4] I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”

David’s prayer is our prayer.

Psalms 86:11 NLT
[11] “Teach me your ways, O Lord, that I may live according to your truth! Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor you.”

Jesus prayed for His disciples…

John 17:17 NLT
[17] “Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth.”

  1. We are to pass on this deposit, intact, to the next generation.

2 Timothy 2:2 NLT
[2] “You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others.”

Psalms 102:18-22 NLT
[18] “Let this be recorded for future generations, so that a people not yet born will praise the Lord. [19] Tell them the Lord looked down from his heavenly sanctuary. He looked down to earth from heaven [20] to hear the groans of the prisoners, to release those condemned to die. [21] And so the Lord’s fame will be celebrated in Zion, his praises in Jerusalem, [22] when multitudes gather together and kingdoms come to worship the Lord.”

Truly, this book can never be anything else but the greatest story ever told because of its author, its content, its power, and its outcome. This book is God speaking through men to tell the world of His love so that we need never perish but enjoy eternal life with Him. Its worth believing!