The PCF Blog

Notes on “The Big Issue” 28 June 2011
How Can I get more out of the Bible?

Often speakers are urging people to spend more time in the word of God, rightly telling them of all the benefits that will happen in their lives if they do. But how? Tonight’s session is geared at helping us practically to get into the Bible. We will answer three questions:
1. Why Bother?

2. How Can I intake the Word?

3. How Can the word make a difference in my life?

1. Why Bother?
Do the following exercise from Psalm 19.
The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple.
The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes.
The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever.
The decrees of the LORD are firm, and all of them are righteous.
They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb.
By them your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward.

a. What Does God say here about His Word?

b. What Benefits will the word bring to your life?

2. How Can I intake the word
Note the following ways of getting the word into your life

Hearing: week by week we have the opportunity to hear God’s word preached. In addition there are countless opportunities to hear tapes, dvds and now there are thousands of sermons available on the internet. We are not short of opportunities to hear God’s word.

Reading: we have 66 books of the Bible that most of us could easily read cover to cover in less than a year. It is perfectly true that we won’t understand all of it. We are separated from it by distance, by time, by culture and by language. But there are so many helps to enable us to understand what we read. David Pawson’s “Unlocking the Bible” is highly recommended – enabling us to understand the culture behind each book before we read it

Studying: This is the means by which we consider a specific topic that we want to get to grips with. For example, if I am getting married, I want to understand what the Bible says about marriage. There are helps to enable me to do this, concordances, lexicons etc Bible dictionaries. But most Christian books are written so that we can have this done for us without too much pain.

Memorising: an invaluable way of making the word of God real every moment of the day. This is an exacting and demanding exercise, to memorise portions of the word of God. But the rewards are boundless.

Meditating: This is the practice that enables us to get a firm grip of the word. Without meditating upon it, it is hard to retain what God has put in our hearts. But meditation gives us the firm grip on the word that will change our lives. Hence our third question…

3. How Can the Word make a difference in my life?

Meditation upon the word – spiritually “chewing the cud” – enables the word of God to go deep into our lives.

If we are to be serious about this here are a number of things to consider:

Quiet – meditating on the word is not something that can be done sitting in front of the tv listening to music and having a phone conversation

Time – if I am serious about meditating on the word I must give time to it. Putting the teo together, it means that there must be a time that I set aside to be with God, to pray, worship and to spend time meditating on the word. The quiet time is a non-neogtiable ina believers life

Routine – continuing on the same theme, we need to have the routine of a time each day that we go to the same place to meditate

Program – a great help to systematic meditating on the word is to have a program whereby, for instance, we go through a book. Bible reading notes, Explore, Daily Bread etc are excellent for this. They are a help I giving structure to our intake of the word. They can not do ti for us, but they are able to help.

Technique

Below are two exercises to help us learn how to meditate on God’s word:

Exercise One:
Take a verse from the Bible:
 Eg “The Lord is my shepherd”
 Spend time on it emphasising each word in turn
 Write down what God says to you
 Try it with Psalm 23 v.2:
 “He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside quiet waters”

Exercise Two:

 Questions:
 What does this passage say in my own words?
 Is there something I can learn about God?
 Is there a promise or a warning here for me?
 Is there a command here for me to obey?

Now try the exercise on these verses from Psalm One:

Psalm 1 – v 1-3
1 Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the LORD,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.

Finally note what the Lord said to Joshua as he stood on the verge of the Promised Land:

8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

John MacDiarmid
28 June 2011

Poole Christian Fellowship – “The Big Issue” Series

Readings: 2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Peter 1:16-21, 3:14-16.
The Bible has the power to change (Heb. 4:12) and direct (Ps. 119:105) our lives

Listen to this podcast (or download – right click here and ‘Save as’):

What is your mindset?

Modernism only treats as ‘true’ whatever can be proved by investigation and reason. It is sceptical of the spiritual and supernatural. Such humanism regards the mind as the final authority. It is philosophy of pride.
Postmodernism assumes that there is no mega-narrative – that life has no plan or purpose, there is no absolute truth or morality, words have no ultimate meaning, and history is a matter of interpretation rather than fact. It is a philosophy of pessimism and doubt.
Christianity affirms that the Bible is the Word of God, and the sole and final authority for belief and behaviour. It is true, and produces faith and hope.

What is your doctrine?

Our trust in the Bible needs to be based on a coherent doctrine of Scripture itself, not just on finding answers to difficult questions (‘Where did Cain get his wife from?’).

1. INSPIRATION

God has revealed Himself in various ways – by general revelation through creation (Ps. 19:1-4, Acts 14:17, Rom. 1:20), conscience (Rom. 2:12-16),and providence/history; and by special revelation directly to individuals (e.g. the prophets) and finally in Jesus Christ, the Word (John 1:14, 14:9, Heb. 1:1-2).

The Scriptures are fundamental to God’s revelation of Himself; without them we would not know about His revelation through historical events, to people or about Christ Himself.
Inspiration is the means by which God, through the Holy Spirit, enabled chosen individuals to communicate this revelation in writing.

There are several views of inspiration: 1. All God – mechanical writing. 2. All human – inspired in the same way as secular music, poetry etc. 3. Mainly human – but with some high spots of revelation. 4. Mainly divine – but with human errors (‘what it teaches is more important than what it touches’). It is better to see it as (5) Fully human and fully divine – that God used the writers’ personalities and abilities to write exactly what He intended.

The Bible writers often claimed to be the mouthpiece of God. There are 359 ‘Thus says the Lord’ statements; Moses obtained the Law directly from God; David received instruction ‘in writing from the hand of the Lord’ (1 Chron.28:19) and Jesus declared that David spoke by the Holy Spirit’ (Matt. 12:36). The prophets spoke ‘by the Spirit of Christ’ (1 Pet. 1:11). The NT relies upon the inspiration of the OT to confirm the Gospel (e.g. 1 Cor. 15:3). Note Augustine’s dictum: ‘What the Bible says God says’.

The Bible’s claims about itself do not, of course, prove its divine inspiration but they do lead us to a point of decision about whether we will accept and trust it as the Word of God. It is ultimately, therefore, a matter of ‘reasonable faith’ (see Acts 26:25).

2. INFALLIBILITY and INERRANCY

Critics have always been quick to find ‘mistakes’ in the Bible and as Christians we too can be puzzled by passages that we do not understand or that seem contradictory.

There are different approaches to this matter:
1. Obscurantism: ‘God said it, I believe it, that’s it’. Such refusal to consider the possibility of problems is a form of intellectual dishonesty and can, in fact, destroy faith.
2. Liberalism: This questions the historicity of the biblical record and sees the Bible not as given by God, but as a human book about God that contains some truth.
3. A ‘faithful’ approach: This starts with faith – ‘I believe so that I can understand’ – and looks at questions and problems from that perspective. It seeks to ‘give a reason for the hope you have’ (1 Peter 3:15).

Issues to be faced – and some answers

1. Manuscript and translation: We do not have the original writings, and there are differences in translation and some scribal errors. However, only 1/1000th of the NT is doubtful and no doctrine is dependent on such passages; there is better manuscript evidence for the biblical text than for any other work of antiquity.
2. Literary form and culture: The Bible uses metaphor and pictorial language, so some things are not meant to be taken literally.
3. Historicity: There are a number of ‘contradictions’ – some can be explained, others remain problematic. We should recognise that ‘when total precision of a particular kind was not expected or aimed at, it is no error not to have achieved it’ (The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, 1978). But its accuracy has often been proved by archaeological discoveries.
4. Science: The biblical writers used the language of phenomena (what they saw), not the technical language of the 21st century scientist. However, miracles – supernatural events – are an essential element of the biblical record, and faith requires that we believe the inexplicable (especially the resurrection).
5. Morality: While Christians readily embrace the Ten Commandments, the morality of war (especially in the OT) and the NT doctrine of hell are less easily accepted. How could a God of love be so cruel? We have to work towards a rounded view of God’s nature that includes both His wrath and His mercy, believing that sin always results in judgement.

We need to affirm…

THAT the Bible is historically reliable and its message intellectually credible.
THAT it is not confusing book. There is a remarkable unity, consistency and clarity in its message, especially regarding salvation.
THAT the human mind is limited and corrupt and, on its own, will deliver false conclusions about God. We need, therefore, to approach the Bible with humility and a dependence on the Holy Spirit for illumination.
THAT the main issue is one of authority and submission, not scholarship. We should be more concerned about obeying it rather than dissecting, it; and in using it for spiritual growth.

Andrew Parfitt – June 2011

Recommended reading: ‘Nothing but the truth’, Brian Edwards (Evangelical Press)
‘Why Trust the Bible? Answers to 10 tough questions’, Amy Orr-Ewing (IVP),
For up-to-date apologetics material – Ravi Zacharias International Ministries: www.rzim.eu.