Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
A new “Adult Sabbath School Study Guide” lesson quarterly for our second quarter of 2020 titled “How to Interpret Scripture”. This may prove to be a good study for us in this post-modern time. As the principal contributors state in their companion book to our quarterly of the same title, statistics “has shown that 49% of ‘elders’ and only 24% of millennials read their Bibles once a week”. No wonder our culture pulls on us with such success. Without a daily, vital connection with the Living Word through His Written Word, we are no-match for the pull of the “world” outside of us, nor the pull of the “world” inside of us. Immanuel, God with us, is the only power sufficient to overcome the “world”. It isn’t that our active connection with God moves Him to run to our aid. Actually, God is ever with us. But has He found a home with us? Is He welcomed? Our daily connection is because we want to know Him. And this is the primary purpose of Scripture.
In our spiritual infancy, we may turn to scripture to find all kinds of truths. The truth about the Sabbath, the truth about our origins, the truth about the state of the dead, the truth about the Law, the Gospel, the nature of Christ, the 2300 days, the time of the end… and on and on. Is all this in scripture? Of course. And it is so appealing to know the truth of these things. It may have been what attracted us to Seventh-day Adventism in the first place. In an age full of sinful human speculation and interpretation, knowing the truth of things is so helpful. And Adventists have a reputation for deciphering the “Word”. Yet in all this investigation, we can miss the “Living Word”. The primary purpose of Scripture is for you and me to know God. And God’s Holy Spirit that inspired the writers of Holy Writ to write, will inspire our understanding of God as we read.
All of Biblical history is a backdrop upon the stage of God’s interaction with His creatures. In Scripture we see God as He interacts with us… in various ways over long periods of time under diverse circumstances. In this, we see and learn of love in action. In this, we come to love Him more and more. In this, as we read, we allow God to speak to us today, even as we read of His loving actions thousands of years ago. As we read, His Spirit guides us to see Him relating to us even as He related to those persons thousands of years ago. His Spirit still speaks and leads now, even as He led then.
As you read His Word, it’s like doing electrical wiring in an old house. As you handle electrical cabling and devices from 100 years ago, all of a sudden you realize that the electrical current still surges through that antique cabling. And the electrical current still has the power to illuminate the home. Still has the power to shock you and to being you to your knees. The passage of time has not minimized that electrical potential. And so with His “Word”. Though thousands of years old, it still has the power to illuminate you, and bring you to your knees, too. Humble you with the truth of who God really is, who you really are, and the love relationship that the two of you can share… if you will.
As we study this quarter, let us not just read for information. Let us read to know Him aright. All of us are sinners. All of our opinions are colored with our sinful perceptions. It is your privilege to relate to your God personally. To know Him for yourself. To have that unique relationship due to your own uniqueness. It is our birthright… the right given us at birth. As John tells us, Christ is “the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world” (John 1:9). He is already yours. Won’t you welcome Him as He is… revealed in His word? If not… if you relate to Him only from your own conceptions, your own ideas from your own head without truly reading His chosen means of revealing Himself (His Written Word), then you are likely not really relating to Him at all. If we have not read His Written Word to see Him, then we really haven’t related to the Living Word, either. So let us read… each day… study each day. As we read, we are letting God speak to us intimately. The Scriptures are His love letter to you and me personally. Why spurn God’s love?
With brotherly love, Jim.