Contents | Home |
I view it as God's love letter to me. Think of the one you love the most. Surely you want to talk to that person, to send an email, to send a text, do you not? And naturally, you assume that the one you love will listen to you and to read everything you write. If they don't respond to your text in five seconds, you just might wonder if they are OK. Isn't that how it is?
Well, if you have this kind of love in your heart, would not the One who created your heart have even more love? When I say love, I mean the kind of love that wants to communicate. Yes, God communicates. If there really is a God, if He did create the universe, if He did create Adam and Eve, the first humans, if He created language so that Adam and Eve could talk from day one, if He talked with them daily in the Garden of Eden, if all this is true, then it's only natural that He would want to communicate to you and me.
The universe communicates His power, the resurrected Jesus communicates His person, His Spirit speaks to your heart, and the Bible explains all of this.
So now, if God loved us enough to cause the Bible to be written, and if He cared enough to preserve it down through the ages, then it's up to you and me to dig into it and see what it's all about.
Proof? The Bible has it's own power of proof. Look at the power in the universe. Look at the power in the resurrection of Jesus. The same God, the same power, resides in His Word. Read it and see it.
Try this suggestion. Start reading in the book of John. There you will find various people in various stages of belief and unbelief. I am sure that you can identify with one of them. You will find that the Bible is a mirror. You will say, "Oh! That's me!"
That reminds me, you may open the book of John in order to test it, to prove it wrong or right. But as you read, you will notice that Jesus is testing hearts. He reads our hearts, and He is proving us, whether we truly believe or not.
I suggested above to read the book of John. Here is a small sample of what the apostle John wrote:
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
May I ask you to expand your view for a moment and look at this from God's point of view? The passage quoted above says that "whosoever" believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The word "whosoever" shows that God's arms are wide open. He leaves no one out of His wide open offer.
Who else, besides Jesus, came from heaven, enlightened us with words from heaven, returned to heaven, and will one day return again from heaven? Who else in the whole world has done any of this? Who else even claims to be the Savior of the world, much less willingly gave His life for us and rose again to back up that claim? Well, it turns out that the name most taken in vain is the only name with such a claim.
Looking for another way? This is the other way. It's far more wide open than the path you're on now.