Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus
We all know the Bible. If the Bible needs any introduction, then this might be how it can be said -
The only book that continues to the world best-seller, throughout the ages. Total number of Bibles printed has crossed 6,001,500,000 and it has been translated and is being translated to 2000+ languages. But what intrigues me and saddens me most is that even though the Bible as a book is a best seller, it is most probably the most neglected book.
Many people buy it, but it is then placed in some corner of the house, never to be read and understood. Even in some churches we find that the knowledge of the Bible is abysmal. We are neither saying our prayers, nor reading the Bible except when we are in some terrifying emergency. We neither enter our churches on a weekly basis, except for a baptism, marriage or a funeral or for some feasts. Few parents read the Bible to their children, let alone teach them out of it. Few church members make a practice of daily Bible meditation.
Where have we lost the importance of the Bible? Why is the Bible lost its importance? In the earlier ages, people were ready to die for spreading the Bible. Where has the zeal to know about God lost? Is it because we do not know whether the Bible is an authentic book? Is it because we do not know how to authenticate the Bible? In this current series, I would like to put some light on the theological aspect on how the Bible corroborates with the thoughts of God, Jesus & Holy Spirit. I will share the historical validity of the Bible in another series.
Hope you would love to know more about the Bible and I hope and pray that this neglected book changes your life with the person names Jesus Christ, whom it testifies to.
My thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
For so as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
For as the rain and snow come down from heaven,
and return not thither but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
-Isaiah 55:8-11
We might question sometimes, why should the God who created the whole universe reveal Himself? How can He do so? I would like to answer this by stating an example. Most people in every age have felt baffled by the mysteries of the human life and human experience. So most people have admitted that they need wisdom from outside themselves if they are ever to fathom the meaning of their own being. Hence, the evident necessity of divine revelation makes the notion eminently reasonable.
Without revelation, without divine instruction and direction, we human beings feel ourselves to be like a boat drifting rudderless on the high seas, like a leaf that is being tossed helplessly by the wind, like a blind person groping in the darkness. How can we find our way? More importantly, how can we find God's way without His direction? Just as Isaiah 55:8-9 says, there is a great gulf between God's mind and human minds. There is a great chasm between the our ways and thoughts and between the ways and thoughts of God. The thoughts of God are as high as the heavens than the earth: that means infinity.
How can we discover God's thoughts or read His mind? We can't even read each other's minds. We try to. We look into each other's faces to see if they are smiling or frowning, we peer into each other's eyes. But in the end it is a risky business. Then how much more impossible is it for us to know and penetrate the thoughts of the Almighty God? His mind is infinite. His thoughts are tower above our thoughts just as the heavens tower over the earth. There is no ladder by which our little minds could climb to His infinite mind. There is no bridge that we can throw across this chasm of infinity. There is no way to reach or fathom God.
It is then only reasonable to say that unless God takes the initiative to disclose what is on His mind we shall never be able to find out. Unless God makes himself known to us, we can never know Him, and all the world's altars - like the one Paul saw in Athens - will bear the tragic expression "To an unknown god" (Acts 17:23).
This is the place to begin our study. It is the place of humility before the infinite God. It is also the place of wisdom, as we perceive the reasonableness of the idea of revelation.
Dear brethren in Christ Jesus, hope you would start knowing the infinite God through the Bible. May the Lord Almighty bless you and keep you in all your views.
Your brother in Christ Jesus
Jobin George
P.S. You may contact me with your queries on jobin.george2012@gmail.com
Sources:
The Bible, Book for Today - John R W Stott
Bible Statistics: http://www.statisticbrain.com/bibles-printed/
No comments:
Post a Comment