Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Wednesdays in the Word: An Introduction

Starting today, Wednesday's blog posts will be about the Word.  The phrase “word of God” is often used to describe the Bible. The phrase is accurate, because the Bible is the word of God. Yes, these blog posts will be Bible studies. However, the Bible itself, in the Gospel of John talks about another “word”, and He is the Word that should always be the focus of our study.

“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. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:1-5

Who is The Word? Jesus of course! That in itself will be a great study, but its a little deep.

So who am I to write Bible studies?

Nobody. Just some one who loves the word of God, and wants to share what I learn.

I grew up in the Independent Christian Church/Church of Christ. My grandfather was a preacher whose focus was the wrath of God. To be fair to him, I think the fear that he might miss someone that he was supposed to tell, that person would be lost, and God would hold him accountable, was the driving force behind everything he said and did. He was not fun to be around.

Mom (his oldest daughter) got pregnant with me in her first year of Bible college. That pretty much ended her college career. She married my dad and the marriage lasted about four years. I spent a lot of time with Mom's maternal grandmother. She was Lutheran, and didn't get to church much, but her focus was on the love of God. 

My mom remarried when I was about eight years old, and the true nightmare began. My second stepfather was a  cruel man. He was a mean drunk, and a child molester.

I”m telling you this so you can understand what I bring with me to our studies. Please understand that I am not making any inferences about any denomination, just these individuals who happened to be members of them

One thing I have learned in my fifty years is that I should not ever take the word of anyone else about what the Bible says, and I am asking your to do the same thing. We need to be like the Bereans.

“Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” Acts 17:11

One other thing that is probably my “pet peeve” when it comes to studying the Bible, and hearing/reading what others have said/written, is taking verses out of context. You can make the Bible say anything you want, if you take what is written out of it's context. Did you know that the Bible says there is no God? It sure does. However a closer examination of the the context (like the whole sentence) shows what it actually says is 

“The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'” Psalm 53:1

Yes, I know this is silly,  but people do it. We have to be on guard. That is why it is so important that we know for ourselves what the Bible says.

So I am going to do Bible study posts on Wednesdays. I am going to study the word so that I can know the Word.

Are you coming with me?

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