Getting the Most Out of the Bible 5

[HKHaugan]

There was a person we knew in New Hampshire that came up with the expression ‘Think Snow’ and started the bumper sticker craze for skiers. The idea was to get people to think about all the things that snow offers; the thrill of skiing, having a skill and developing it to look good, the beauty of nature, the pleasure of fellowship around a nighttime fire and spirited beverages, the possibility of meeting someone for an alluring relationship. To ‘Think Snow’ is to make one season the pinnacle of the year, the consuming day dream around which is built a temple of expectation, time, money, special equipment, finding like-minded people to share skiing with and to use everything else in life, job, education and contacts as the secondary means to build the foundation for the experience. It has all the earmarks of a religion. It demands worship, being a disciple, building a fellowship and making it life’s mission. It has an unwritten legal and sacrificial system, a relational system and a language all its own. It has its saints and heroes. Its liturgy is the après ski ‘drinks-and-au d’oeuvres’ communion and fellowship time after a day’s skiing. I know. I’ve been there. Compare this with what else the world offers and how its distractions can sabotage our humanity, the image of God in each of us.

Summary
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light ‘day’ and the darkness He called ‘night.’ And there was evening and there was morning---the first day (Gen.1:1-2).”

“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule…(Gen.1:26).”

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. The light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not comprehended it. (John 1:1-4).”

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse (Rom.1:20).”

From this point on we see there are two dimensions, the invisible and the visible. The Bible gives us the context for understanding and living in both. It is based on the premise that 100% of everything we see, say and do is based on what we can’t see. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. It is the invisible that determines how the visible is used by the ‘image and likeness’ of God.

“By faith, we understand that the universe has been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which are visible (Heb.11:3).”

Genesis 3 gives us the problem of sin and what is known as ‘The Fall’ which opens us to the need for a Savior and Lord. Adam and Eve lost spiritual contact with God. We need to be born again, born of the Holy Spirit. Gen.6:5, “Every inclination of a man’s heart is only evil all the time,” thus the Old Testament is based on the God’s question to Adam and to each of us,
“Where are you?”
Paul declares the same theme that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom.3:23)” thus the New Testament is based on the Lord’s question to Peter and us,
“Who do you say I am?”
Paul answered Jesus’ call to Him and declared Jesus “was delivered over to death for our sins and raised to life for our justification (Rom.4:25)” and “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2Cor.5:21).” “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God (Eph.2:8).”

The Bible then is the faith manual that sorts out the good from the evil in the unseen dimension. That is the Bible’s work. How do we sort out for instance, the good from evil when we deal with lifestyle concepts and practices in religions, psychological movements, social movements, intellectual movements and political movements. How do we know when to retreat or be aggressive in the world around us?

Basically what we have done in the last four sessions is to open the Bible to the Holy Spirit and asked, “Open our hearts that we may see the hidden secrets of the Kingdom revealed in the Lord Jesus.” This would run parallel to Paul’s prayer far more eloquent prayer for the Ephesian believers, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for those who believe (1:18).” The operative word here is heart. The Bible is a heart manual not a religious book. It is meant to be personal, spiritual and relational.

Its key is to think spiritually. Think personally. Think relationally. This is its purpose. This is Jesus’ aim. John 17:17--- “Father, sanctify them by the truth, your Word is truth.” Relationship replaces religion. The Body of Christ replaces institutional tradition.
When He says seeing Him is seeing the Father, that seals it.
When He talks about the Holy Spirit bringing His teaching into the heart, that seals it.
When He prays to the Father to sanctify believers by the Word of truth, that seals it.
When He calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of truth, that seals it.
In the prophets promising the gift of the Spirit and Jesus delivering His life in the Spirit, He has shown us that His ministry is the ministry of the Holy Spirit, a personal, relational and spiritual ministry. It’s the ministry and mission He has bestowed on us.

So the Bible is the key to open our hearts to allow the Holy Spirit to transform our lives. In it is the reclamation project begun in the Old Testament and its consummation in the New. Every verse, chapter and book is a key to its inner rooms where the Lord reigns. The Bible is the Father’s design to engage the mind, to touch the heart and to motivate action through belief, trust and faith in Jesus Christ in that order.

The greatest warning in the Bible is against idolatry. We take an idea of God, separate it from Him and make it our ideal and then it becomes an idol note---idea> ideal> idol. The following list gives us examples of the invisible dimension and how the devil and his spirits can distract us and we slip into idolatry.

Sentimentality, nostalgia, tradition, ethnicity, class, bloodline, the magic of the moment, the romance of life, the thrill, chasing your dream, competition, physical development, emotional satisfaction, getting to the top, success, political thinking, following your bliss, pride, thrill seeking, appearance, religiosity, making an impression, acceptance, wealth, fitting in, these are common to us all. They are in themselves not bad. Their influence in our lives depends on “Where are you?” in them and “Who do you say I am?” in them. Without the Lord and His Word each of them makes us vulnerable to the devil’s exploitation with his spirits.

The Bible has three balancing objectives:
First, to see the person of Jesus as God the Son revealing the nature of the Father.
Second, to experience the Holy Spirit as the gift and ministry of Jesus.
Third, to accept its testimony as the final inerrant, infallible source to understand God, His Creation, His purposes and His plans.

“During his last evening with the Twelve in the upper room Jesus astonished them by saying: 'It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you' (Jn. 16:7). In what ways was the ministry of the Spirit better than that of the Son? In two ways. First, the Holy Spirit *universalizes* the presence of Jesus. On earth the disciples could not enjoy uninterrupted fellowship with their Master, for when they were in Galilee, he might be in Jerusalem, or vice versa. His presence was limited to one place at one time. But no longer. Now through his Spirit Jesus is with us everywhere and always. Secondly, the Holy Spirit *internalizes* the presence of Jesus. He said to the disciples: 'You know him [the Spirit of truth, the Counselor], for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you' (Jn. 14:17-18). On earth Jesus was with them and could teach them, but he could not enter their personality and change them from within. Now, however, through the Holy Spirit Christ dwells in our hearts by faith and does his transforming work there (John Stott, Authentic Christianity, 1995).”

If we are going to get the most out of the Bible it is digging into it, milking it, mining it for the nutrients that wait within it. There are ways to do this. Let’s take three.

First, ask the Bible questions. For instance when looking at a passage, a story, a parable, a Psalm or even just a verse---
What does it say about God?
What does it say about the world?
What does it say about me?
---and in that order.
The two ways this can be done is individually in self-reflection and in a group by sharing with one another the answers each has. This requires risking what is going on internally in a world that conditions us to hide.

Second, teacher led Bible study groups provide another way to unpack Scripture. Real teachers don’t know it all. Their task is to lead a believer to the material they need to become open, first to God, then to themselves and then to others. They may share the way the Bible has influenced them but only as an example of what their journey has opened up for them. It is always the Holy Spirit working in the larger Body whose heritage is the shared experience He has given them that is the final authority. The Apostles are the final word about the Word.

Third, another approach is to pray the Scripture. When you read a passage or a verse, sense the theme and then pray as you are led to use it in prayer. It is praying in the Spirit. If you’re praying Scripture you are praying in the Spirit. Col.3:16 is helpful here as it calls us to “sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to the Lord.”

Let the Scripture work as you look at the world around you, the physical structure of Creation, people, attitudes you see, world events, your reaction to them and apply Scripture to your reaction.

“How do people come to acknowledge the divine-human person of Jesus? The apostolic testimony is necessary, but it does not compel assent. It is only by the Spirit of God that anybody ever confesses that Jesus is the Christ come in the flesh (1 Jn. 4:2).”---John Stott, Authentic Christianity. 1995