Category Archives: Bible Reflection

God’s Decisive Action

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I read this earlier today and thought it was a very good insight and worth passing on. From an article entitled, “One of the Most Important Principles in Reading the Bible” Dr. John Piper writes:

Sometimes readers of the Bible see the conditions that God lays down for his blessing and they conclude from these conditions that our action is first and decisive, then God responds to bless us.

That is not right.

There are indeed real conditions that God often commands. We must meet them for the promised blessing to come. But that does not mean that we are left to ourselves to meet the conditions or that our action is first and decisive.

Here is one example to show what I mean.

In Jeremiah 29:13 God says to the exiles in Babylon, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” So there is a condition: When you seek me with all your heart, then you will find me. So we must seek the Lord. That is the condition of finding him.

True.

But does that mean that we are left to ourselves to seek the Lord? Does it mean that our action of seeking him is first and decisive? Does it mean that God only acts after our seeking?

No.

Listen to what God says in Jeremiah 24:7 to those same exiles in Babylon: “I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.” Continue reading →

Playing Marbles with Diamonds

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Does your Bible Study offend God? Did I get your attention?

What!!? God can be offended when we study the Bible?

Yes, if we’re talking about the average Bible Study that takes place today. Let me explain:

Jesus, in the preamble to quoting a verse from the Old Testament said, “…have you not read what was spoken to you by God…” (Matt. 22:31). The testimony of Jesus and of the Bible is that “All Scripture is God breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16). Therefore, when we open up a page in our Bibles, we are treading upon holy ground. The Bible, although a book, is also unlike any other book. It is not simply a book giving facts about God. The Bible is a book written by God. Certainly, human writers were involved, but the text of Scripture is inspired or breathed out by God Himself.

Just having this concept in place would greatly help us in our Bible studies. What do I mean by that? Well, many people view the interpretation of God’s Word as “no big deal” really. To them its nothing more important than the reading of any other book, at least in their methodology. Continue reading →

There’s Good News and Bad News

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The book of Romans is the most comprehensive statement of the Gospel in the pages of Scripture. It starts with these words, “Paul, a servant (or slave) of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.” (Rom. 1:1) Each word is significant, but one that is normally overlooked is the little word “of” in the phrase “the gospel of God.” Here, the word does not mean “about” as in the gospel about God. The word “of” here speaks of possession. The gospel of God is the gospel belonging to God, or God’s gospel.

This little word “of” then has tremendous implications. It speaks of the fact that God is not only the author of the gospel, but that He owns exclusive rights to it. The gospel is His Gospel, and we as proclaimers of that gospel have no right to alter it, modify it, or shave off its rough edges in an effort to make it more palatable. Continue reading →