The Bible is God’s Word and is spiritually inspired. The Bible is a work of literature with the power to drastically change a person, and I really needed to change. Let’s look at Matthew 16:24,25.
Matthew 16:24,25 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” [NIV]
You are probably wondering what this section of verses has to do with the importance of the Bible. Bare with me and I will explain what it means to me. I think many people look at this statement Jesus made and cringe. Is he asking me to die? I didn’t become a Christian to be a martyr. No, I don’t think that is what Jesus is saying; though I do believe we should be glad to lay down our life for Jesus. It is like the difference between adding a new room to your house and simply buying a completely different house. You can’t simply make Jesus an addition to your life. You must make Jesus your life. I know that we all get comfortable in our old houses, but the new one is so much better. What are we going to use for the foundation of this new home? God’s Word! If you don’t want Jesus’ sacrifice to be in vain you must use this gift to it’s fullest. Lose your life! Move out and move in to a better life with the foundation of God‘s Word. (see Luke 6:46-49) It was hard for me as well. I had to lose friends who wouldn’t join me on my journey, I couldn’t frequent some of the old hang out spots, and there were definitely activities I couldn’t participate in anymore. Trust me when I say that I got over it when I finally felt the new life growing within me and around me. The Bible is one of the ways God speaks to us. So don’t ignore God to your own demise. (see Hebrews 10:39 it’s one of my favorite verses) That brings us to the final piece of the gift of communion with God. Ladies and gentlemen, I present the Helper. The Holy Spirit will help you to discern between good and evil, truth and lies, wisdom and foolishness, as well as giving you the power to perform God’s will. Acts 1:8 is a very simple statement and I love how it tells us the most basic truths about the Holy Spirit. Acts 1:8 breaks it down Barney style.
Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
You are a believer in Jesus Christ and therefore will receive the power of the Holy Spirit, and then you will use this power to perform the will of God. The will of God, of course, is to bring his creation back to it’s natural state of communion with him. Which brings us to one of the most wonderful tasks that the Holy Spirit helps us with. You could read the Bible and look over a simple verse like this and never think much about the great meaning it has. The Holy Spirit helps us to discern the wisdom hidden within God’s Word. In Luke 8:8 Jesus finishes telling the parable of the sower and then calls out to the crowd, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Then in verse 10 Jesus is speaking to the apostles and quotes the prophecy from Isaiah 6:9, “ ‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’ While we are in sin we are spiritually dead, and can not perceive the wisdom of God. When we show God our love for him by following his teachings he will come to live with us (see John 14:23, 26). The Spirit of God will live within us and teach us. We once saw the Bible as superstition and confusing Confucius sayings because we were cut off from God by our sin. Try reading God’s Word as a child of Christ. You will find yourself saying, “I never noticed that before. Wow! This stuff is starting to make sense.” Discerning God’s Word is probably the least awe inspiring task the Holy Spirit helps us with, but I personally believe it to be the most important. The Holy Spirit will advise us, protect us, comfort us, and give us the power to perform miracles for God. I’ll talk more about the Holy Spirit later, but for now I want you to see how the Holy Spirit helps you to have your newfound friendship with our Creator. We were originally created for the purpose of fellowship with God and became separated by the original sin. Someone asked me once why God would cause himself so much trouble by letting us have choices? My reasoning was that God could not truly have an intimate relationship with someone who was forced to worship him. God chose to love us and he wants his love to be returned by choice, because in his infinite wisdom he knows real love can’t be forced. Now we can come to have peace and fellowship with our Creator as it was intended. He gave himself in the most heart wrenching sacrifice of love to redeem us from the darkness that is separation from him. We should seek our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ constantly and not take our eyes off of him, because that is what it means to be a Christian.
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