The Bible is Prophetically Accurate

We officially started our NEW series this past Sunday "40 Days in the Word" with part 1" Is the Bible reliable and trustworthy? You can listen to the podcast at http://www.wyandottefamily.com/listen.html or you can download it from iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wyandotte-family-church/id478735158  

We talked about the Bible being historically accurate. In yesterdays blog we talked about the Bible being scientifically accurate. This morning we are going to look at the 3rd reason we can trust the Bible.

We know we can trust the Bible because it is prophetically accurate.

What in the world does that mean? What is prophetically accurate?  It simply means that the predictions in the Bible always come true. It means what the Bible said would happen have happened. It means what the Bible says will happen, will happen.

The Bible is filled with literally thousands and thousands of prophecies where God says, “This is going to happen at such and such a time, in such and such a way.”  Over all of the centuries thousands of these prophecies have already been fulfilled, every one of them exactly as God said.  And some of them are still yet to be fulfilled.

There are over three hundred prophecies in the Bible about Jesus, the Messiah, up to a thousand years before he was born.  And over a thousand year period, three hundred prophecies said things like, This is when he’ll be born, this is where he’ll be born, this is how he’ll be born.  You can’t control that if you’re trying to make yourself the Messiah.  You didn’t choose where you were born.  This is how he’ll die, the manner he’ll die and what he’ll die from.  Over three hundred prophecies.

What are the odds of me making three hundred predictions about you and every one of them coming true?  The odds are so astronomical you couldn’t write that number down.  It takes more faith to believe it was all just a coincidence than to believe that God planned it.  It takes enormous faith to believe it’s all just random, that it all just happened, without a designer, without a creator.  A thousand years before Jesus came and died on the cross, David in one of his psalms describes what death by crucifixion is like.  He didn’t use the word “crucifixion” because nobody knew that word.  But a thousand years before the Romans are even thinking of crucifixion, David describes what the death of crucifixion was like.  How did he know that?  Only God could have told him. 

Another big prophecy that came to past was Israel becoming a nation again. Israel had been judged by God because of their sin and taken captive by other nations. However, the Old Testament prophesied that they would become one nation again. Ezekiel 37:21-22, Ezekiel 37:10-14, Ezekiel 34:13, Amos 9:14-15. These prophecies were all fulfilled in 1948 when Israel became a nation again.

The Bible says in 2 Peter “No prophecy ever originated from humans. [In other words guys just didn’t sit around and say, “Let’s think this one up, and write it down.”] Instead, it was given by the Holy Spirit as humans spoke under God’s direction.” 

During Bible times nobody wanted to be a prophet.  You know why?  Because the law was this in Israel: A prophet of God had to be correct one hundred percent of the time.  If you were wrong just once, then you were considered a false prophet and you would be put to death.  So nobody wanted to be a prophet because you had to be accurate one hundred percent of the time.

There are a lot of people claiming to be prophets today.  There are prophets, false prophets, non-profits (LOL).  By the way, this summer we are going to discuss a Biblical perspective on psychics and palm readers in a NEW series titled “RAW.” This world is full of people who want to tell you the future. However, nothing has ever been as consistent or accurate over human history as the Bible.

The Bible is prophetically accurate. Jesus said this in Matthew 26, “But this is all happening to fulfill the words of the prophets as recorded in Scriptures.”  Jesus said it is all coming true just like God predicted.

Revelation 22, John said “The angel said to me, ‘These words are trustworthy [you can trust them] and they’re true. [why?  Because they’re from God] The Lord… sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place.”  It is prophetically accurate.  And the odds of all these prophecies happening just the way they did, over thousands of years, are astronomical.

this blog is adapted from thoughts from Rick Warren and the 40 Days in the Word Campaign

The Bible is Scientifically Accurate

We officially started our NEW series this past Sunday "40 Days in the Word" with part 1" Is the Bible reliable and trustworthy? You can listen to the podcast at http://www.wyandottefamily.com/listen.html or you can download it from iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wyandotte-family-church/id478735158

We talked about how the bible is historically accurate. There was a lot of great facts so even if you were there on Sunday, I would download the podcast and listen again.

Today through Saturday in my blog we will cover how the bible is scientifically accurate, prophetically accurate, thematically accurate, how Jesus validated the Bible and how it has transforming power.

There is a lot of misconception when it comes to the Bible and science. To be completely honest, most people who think the Bible is scientifically inaccurate probably have never truly studied the Bible and, they probably don’t know science.  Because the truth and reality is God always sets up the laws of science so that his Word does not contradict the laws of science.

The Bible was not given to be a scientific textbook, obviously.  You don’t study the Bible to build a rocket.  And the Bible doesn’t use scientific language. The goal of the Bible was to reveal God’s love for His children and to show the great cost He paid to restore a way for His children to have a genuine relationship with Him again.

 

However, rest assure; The Bible never, never, never gives bad science.  Not once in over sixteen hundred years in which this book was written, does it give bad science.  In fact it is always ahead of science.  There are things in the Bible, the Bible says were true, that we’ve just discovered a hundred years ago, two hundred years ago, three hundred years ago. 

Johannes Kepler, the famous mathematian, the famous astronomer said, “Science is simply thinking God’s thoughts after him.”  In other words, God established the laws of physics and then we discover them.  God established the laws of biology and we discover them.  God established the laws of mathematics and we discover them.  One of the reasons why we know the Bible can be trusted is because it’s scientifically accurate.  And the reason it’s accurate is because the laws of the universe were invented by God.  So he obviously understands them even in years past when we didn’t.  For thousands of years we’ve misunderstood different things.

One thing about truth is it never changes.  But one thing about science is it constantly changes. There’s nothing more worthless than an obsolete science book.  I guarantee you that the science book you had in the third grade is not being used in the third grade today.  A lot of things in that book are no longer believed or even taught.  Nothing is more worthless than a five-year-old computer book.  You can find them in any garage sale and nobody wants them, because things get out of date so fast.  Things that we once scientifically believed, we now know more about it.  In fact in medical science it happens all the time.

How many procedures, medcines or practices do we not do anymore? What is the main reason? We’ve learned more about the drug or about the procedure and have changed the way we do things in order to be more safe and effective. How many articles have you read that now say that something you thought was good for you now causes you cancer?  Or stuff that they said is fine for a pregnant woman to take and then ten years later they go it’s not fine.

Science constantly changes.  If you’ve ever been to Paris, you’ve probably gone to the Louvre, the famous art museum and library, world class library.  In the Louvre library there’s one section that has three and a half miles of obsolete science books.  Three and a half miles!

Because stuff they thought was scientifically fact fifteen hundred years ago was disproven a thousand years ago.  What we thought a thousand years ago was disproven seven hundred fifty years ago.  And what we’ve thought for twenty-five years is disproven ten years ago.  And what we thought ten years ago is now changed to today. 

If you had been reading the Bible a thousand years ago or seven hundred years ago or five hundred years ago, what the Bible says would not have matched the science of that day because it wasn’t up to date. But here is an encouraging and fresh perspective.

God understands stuff even when we don’t and his rules don’t change.

The Bible says this in Psalm 148 “Let every created thing [that is the whole universe] give praise to the Lord, for he issued his command, [God set these rules in motion, the laws of thermodynamics, the laws of psychics] and they came into being. He established them forever and ever.  And his orders will never be revoked.”

The second law of thermodynamics doesn’t work today and not work tomorrow.  It always works because it was true and it was made by God.  Truth doesn’t change.

In 1861 here was a very famous book that came out called Fifty-one Incontrovertible Proofs that the Bible is Scientifically Inaccurate.  It’s a very famous book.  Fifty-one incontrovertible scientific facts that we know, this is in 1861, that the Bible does not agree with and we know that the Bible is scientifically inaccurate.  The only problem is today, a hundred fifty year later, you can’t find a single scientist on the planet who would agree with any one of those incontrovertible facts.  They have all been disproven by science.  Truth does not change.

One of the proofs that we know that this book is not simply manmade, that this book came from God, that God directed men and women to talk and speak and write things down (like we talked about this past Sunday), and we know it’s the Word of God is what’s not in it.  What’s not in it?  Because if this were a human book, you would expect it to be filled with scientific facts of the prevailing day.  But they’re not here.  They’re not in the book.

For instance, for thousands and thousands of years, people believed that the earth was flat.  It wasn’t until Copernicus and Galileo and Columbus that people realized the world’s not flat, it is actually round.  It’s a sphere.  It’s a ball.  So you would expect the Bible to say the earth is flat because it was in existence and being written during those thousands of years when everybody thought the earth was flat. 

Not a single verse in the Bible says the earth is flat.  Not at all.  In fact it says the exact opposite.  Two thousand six hundred years ago, God said this in the book of Isaiah 40:22 “God is enthroned above the sphere on the earth.”  Two thousand six hundred years ago the Bible says the earth is round, the earth is a sphere, the earth is a globe.  Long before anybody knew it.  When that was written nobody believed it.  But God said it and it was true, whether anybody believed it or not.

 For thousands of years, people believed that the earth had to be held up by something.  Depending on the culture you were in, you got certain different beliefs on what held it up.

For instance if you were Greek, in Greek culture you believed that the world was held up by a giant name Atlas.  And we all know who Atlas is.  Atlas held up the world.  Part of the Bible is written in Greek.  Atlas isn’t in the Bible.  Why?  Because it’s not true.  So it’s not in the Bible.  You would expect that during that time it would have somehow found its way into the Bible but it’s not there.

For thousands of years, the Hindus believed that the earth sat on the back of giant elephants.  And that when the elephants moved, that’s what caused earthquakes.  What did the elephants stand on?  I’m not making this up.  You can find this in any encyclopedia.  They believed that the giant elephants stood on the back of a giant sea turtle.  And the giant sea turtle stood on the back of a giant sea serpent who swam through a cosmic sea.  That was the prevailing attitude in the world for hundreds if not thousands of years.  It’s not in the Bible, even though the Bible was being written during this time.  Why?  Because the Bible leaves out the lies. 

The Bible tells us that Moses was skilled and schooled in all of the wisdom of the ancient Egyptians.  Because Moses was adopted as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.  So he went to the best schools in ancient Egypt and was taught what was the prevailing science of that day. 

The Egyptians were flat out brilliant.  They built the pyramids; they were masters at architecture, at engineering, at astronomy.  But the ancient Egyptians were dead wrong on what held up the earth.  Because ancient Egypt believed that the earth was held up by five pillars.  Certainly Moses was schooled in that science because he went to the best schools of the land as Pharaoh’s grandson.  Yet not once in Scripture do you find that the earth is held up by five pillars.  Why?  Because it’s not true.  So it didn’t make it into the Bible.  The prevailing science of the day didn’t make it there.

In fact, the oldest known writing to man is likely the book of Job.  It’s the oldest literature in existence today that we know about.  Job was the first book written in the Bible.  (The books of the Bible are not in chronological order).  Job is the oldest book.  In Job 26:7 the oldest known literature in the human race says this “God stretches the sky over empty space and hangs the earth on nothing.”   Who told Job?  How did he know that?  Everybody knows the earth is flat and it’s on the back of pillars.  Why?  Because the Bible only, always tells the truth.

In all reality, people who flippantly say that the Bible is scientifically inaccurate simple don’t know the Bible very well. If you find yourself in that category I would encourage you to spend time reading the Bible with an open heart and mind. I think you would be surprised.

For instance, for years it was the accepted science that there were about a thousand stars in the universe.  And that they could be counted.  That the number of stars were finite.  In fact a hundred fifty years B.C. a man named Hipparchus counted them and he wrote a very famous dissertation saying that there were one thousand twenty-two stars in the universe.  That’s it.  It was accepted for a long, long time there were only a thousand twenty-two stars in the universe. 

But it doesn’t say that in the Bible.  Three hundred years later, a hundred fifty years AD, a guy named Ptolemy does it again.  And he comes out and says that guy Hipparchus is a nut.  There are a thousand twenty-six.  He found four more stars. 

It is widely accepted today that there are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on the planet earth.  They cannot be counted.

We didn’t know that.  Everybody accepted there were a thousand twenty-six stars.  But two thousand six hundred years ago in the Bible God had said this in Jeremiah 33:22, “The number of stars are infinite.”

I could go into so many different areas.  Into biology and show you what the Bible says about biology.  Into chemistry and show you what the Bible says about chemistry.  Into medicine…

For many years people believed that too much blood in your body made you sick.  For thousands of years this was the accepted custom and they did what was called bloodletting.  Doctors would cut a sick person and bleed them thinking that was going to make them healthy.  That was accepted science.  Everybody knew that was true.  It wasn’t, but everybody knew that was true science.  It was because of Hypocrites; and for 2000 years since Hypocrites they believed that all illness came from four bodily fluids – yellow bile, black bile, red blood or blue phlegm.  Those four fluids also controlled your temperament.

Nobody believes that anymore.  But for two thousand years that was scientific proof.  So people thought you had to bleed people to get the bad stuff out.  Many people don’t know that our first president George Washington was killed by doctors bleeding him to death.  That’s how he died.  George Washington had a heart problem.  Doctors didn’t know what to do so they did the common science of the day and they bled George Washington.  He didn’t get well so a few days later they bled him again, cut and bled him.  He didn’t get well so a few days later they bled him a third time and he died from blood loss.

Today we know you give people blood when they’re sick.  We do the exact opposite of what they did for thousands of years.  You give people blood because we know the life source is in the blood.  And good blood makes people feel better.  That that’s where the life comes from.  It’s called a transfusion.  We give people blood today.  But they didn’t know that for thousands of years. 

But the Bible knew it.  In fact back in Leviticus 17, thousands and thousands of years ago, Leviticus 17:11, God said this “The life of every creature is in its blood.” 

How did Moses know that?  We didn’t even know that blood circulates until around 1650.  It wasn’t until the seventeenth century when William Harvey discovered that blood circulates.  For thousands of years nobody even thought it circulated.  Everybody bought into Galen who was a Greek doctor.  For two thousand years they accepted his idea basically that the heart was the source of heat.  But nobody knew it actually pumped blood.  Yet thousands of years ago the Bible says, “The life of every creature is in its blood.”  They should have just read the Bible!

During the Middle Ages there was the bubonic plague.  The bubonic plague killed one fourth of Europe.  One out of every four people died during the black plague.  Because we didn’t understand germs.  We didn’t understand contagion.  And we didn’t understand infection.  And we didn’t understand quarantining people.  So they had sick people with the bubonic plague who were contagious sleeping right next to healthy people; and people just kept dying because we didn’t know about germs and contagion.  So it became an epidemic and then a pandemic.  They should have read the Bible.

Because thousands and thousands of years before the bubonic plague God had said in Leviticus 13:4 “Put an infected person in quarantine for seven days.”  That’s thousands of years before we even knew what germs were.  God was saying here’s how you take care of people who get infected with an illness.  You put them outside the camp for seven days.  If they’re still sick, he says in the next verse, keep them out there for another seven days.  Nobody understood quarantine because nobody understood germs.  But God was right.

I could go on and on.  The Bible is always scientifically accurate.  It is always ahead of science.

The Bible says this in Proverbs 30:5 “Every word of God is flawless.”  Mine aren’t, yours aren’t, human beings’ aren’t.  But every word of God is flawless.  It’s not only flawless, Psalm 12:6 says “The words of the Lord are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay and purified seven times!”

We know we can trust the Bible because it is historically accurate, archeology confirms it.  And it is scientifically accurate.

 

As I mentioned on Sunday during my message, if the Bible is historically accurate and scientifically accurate then it becomes harder for us to dismiss that it is theologically accurate. I pray that you learn to not only trust the Bible in what it says in the various fields of our world but that you come to trust the ONE WHO SPOKE IT and had it written down. I pray that you learn to trust God's word in every area of your life and that God's Word becomes the ROCK that you build your life on..

 

adapted from Rick Warren's thoughts from the "40 Days in the Word Campaign."

Building my life on God's Word part 5 (Actions)

We kicked off our NEW series this past Sunday "40 Days in the Word." You can listen to the podcast at http://www.wyandottefamily.com/listen.html or you can download it from iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wyandotte-family-church/id478735158We talked about using our five senses to build our lives on the Bible. We spent the morning going over “hearing God’s Word or receiving it with our ears.” 

The previous 3 BLOGS were about receiving God's word through our “Sight, Hands; Mouth and Mind” TODAY lets take a look at responding to God's word through our actions.

I respond to the Word with my actions.

This is the fifth thing that James tells us to do with the Bible.  I respond to it with my actions.

James 1:22 “Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves.  Do what it says!”  Turn it into actions. 

It says, do not deceive yourself.  How do we deceive ourselves?  We think if we’ve heard something we’ve got it. We think if we listen to a sermon then we’ve applied the message to our lives. If we skimmed through a chapter of the Bible, that we have been transformed. That actually is not how it works.  I could talk to you about how to be a good father but if you don’t do it, the information doesn’t help.  You’re just deceiving yourself.

I could talk to you about how to build a balanced budget based on scriptural principles, but if you don’t do it, you’re jut deceiving yourself.  You don’t really know it. A great quote from a friend of mine is, “It is not he who has the most information that wins but he who applies it.” –Konan Stephens

Here is the hard but true reality for all of us… “We only believe the parts of the Bible we actually do.” I only believe the part of the Bible I actually do.  We are to be doers of the Word. 

That’s why I always have one overarching slogan or theme in my messages. We have one main focus each Sunday for us to focus on, pray about, meditate on, discuss in home groups and apply to our lives. Instead of dumping tons of information or trying to change several things, we focus on one thing. Why?  “Don’t merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says!”

Let’s go back to that story that I started with where Jesus ends the Sermon on the Mount.  Matthew 24.  Look at this verse.  “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice [underline that – puts them into practice.  In other words you are a doer of the Word, you’re an applier of the Word, you respond to it] is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against the house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.  But everyone who hears these words of mine… [you come to church, you listen to them but you don’t put them into practice] is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” 

I don’t want that to happen to you.  I’ll say it again: We don’t know the storms that are going to come into your life or into our nation in 2014 or 15.  But I do know this.  You’ll crumble if you don’t have solid foundation for your life.  And the solid foundation for your life in not the opinions of others, it’s not what’s popular on tv, it’s not prevailing culture.  Because that changes like shifting sand.  We need to build our lives on the unchanging Word of God. When you build your life on truth, if it was true a thousand years ago it’ll be true a thousand years from today because truth does not change.  It’s a rock.  And we need a rock to build our lives on.

How do we know if our lives are not build upon a rock (THE ROCK).  You’ll have stress.  You’re stressed out.  Because the sands are shifting and the house is tilting and you feel stressed and worried and anxious about that, because your house isn’t solid and steady because it’s not built on something that doesn’t change.

Prayer:

Dear God I want to build my life on the rock, not on sand.  I want a solid foundation of truth.  I want to build my life on the Bible.  So I commit the next forty days to learning how to do these things.  I want to receive your Word with my ears.  I want to hear God speak to me.  I want to read your Word with my eyes.  I want to begin a regular habit of Bible reading.  I want to research your Word with a home group where I write it down and we discuss it and we talk it out.  I want to study your Word.  I want to learn to do that.  I want to learn to mediate, to remember and review your Word throughout my day.  So when I’m starting to get upset you can bring that verse to mind.  I want to respond to your Word and do what it says.  In Jesus Name Amen.


Adapted from thoughts from Rick Warren and the 40 Days in the Word Campagin

Building my life on Gods Word Part 4 (Mind)

We kicked off our NEW series this past Sunday "40 Days in the Word." You can listen to the podcast at http://www.wyandottefamily.com/listen.html or you can download it from iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wyandotte-family-church/id478735158We talked about using our five senses to build our lives on the Bible. We spent the morning going over “hearing God’s Word or receiving it with our ears.” 

The previous 2 BLOGS were about receiving God's word through our “Sight, Hands & Mouth” TODAY lets take a look at receiving Gods word with our mind.

The fourth way to build my life on the Bible is I review and remember with my mind.

I review the Word of God and I remember the Word of God with my mind.

The Bible says this in James 1:25 “The man who looks intently [that’s reading] into the perfect law and continues to do this, [that’s reviewing] not forgetting what he’s heard… [that’s remembering] he will be blessed in what he does.”

If you’re going to be blessed in what you do you’ve got to learn how to review and remember with your mind. 

Review – you continually do this, you’re pondering, you’re thinking about it over and over and you’re remembering, not forgetting.

If you’re serious about being spiritually strong and mature, you don’t want to be a spiritual baby any more.  You don’t want to be a spiritual wimp.  You don’t want to still be on the bottle ten years from now and dependent on others feeding you.  If You want to be a godly man, you want to be a godly woman.  If You want to be spiritually and emotionally strong.  The single greatest habit you can develop is the habit of memorizing Scripture.  By hiding the Word in your heart.  By putting it in your mind.

Why?  Because when you need the Bible, it’s never around.  When you’re tempted you don’t have a Bible open or by your side. Even if you have the YOUVERSION app on your phone or tablet, it probably won’t get open quick enough.  When you’re talking to others about Jesus and sharing your faith, when you’re under stress, when you need comfort, when you have a crisis there’s often not a Bible open. However, if you have it in your mind, you can remember it, review it, pray it and speak it right then.

What if you say,” But I have a terrible memory.  I can’t remember anything.”  The reality (which I hate by the way) is that we often remember what’s important to us and what we work hard for.  We remember the phone numbers that are important to us.  We remember the dates that are important to us.  Somebody says, “I can’t remember anything!”  But you can quote me songs from the 1970s, 1980’s or 1990’s.  Or you know a baseball statistics on your favorite player.  Or you know stock quotes. We often remember what’s important.

Memory is a skill that you can get good at.  We’re going to teach you some simple ways to improve your memory during the 40 Days in the Word Home Groups.  Memory is like a muscle and you can actually get better at it.  You may have a terrible memory but you can improve your memory.  Actually memorizing Scripture will cause your brain to have a stronger memory in other areas.  Study after study has shown this.  That if you will learn to memorize Scripture it actually develops your memory.  You’ll have a better memory in other areas too.

During 40 Days in the Word we’re going to memorize one simple verse a week on the weekends together so that you know these.  Because when you need them then God can call them to mind. 

You can’t review it unless you remember it.  In other words, if I get in bed at night I can think about it because I’ve remembered that verse.  If I’m driving to an appointment I can think about it because I remember that verse.  But if I haven’t memorized any verse then I can’t remember and review it.

In the Bible there’s a word for what we’re talking about here.  The skill of remembering and reviewing is called “meditation.”  That’s all mediation is.  Meditation is simply remembering and reviewing the Scripture in your mind.  That’s all it means.

This word is so misunderstood.  Many people don’t understand meditation.  They’re scared of it.  Like it’s some New Age thing.  No.  No!  Even some well-meaning Christians have said we shouldn’t meditate.  They’re talking about a time when you sit in a lotus position and put your mind in neutral and contemplate the lint in your navel and go ommm.  That’s not going to get you where you want to go.  But if you learn to remember and review the Bible then you can do it anywhere.

Why this is so important? 

Joshua 1:8 “Do not let this Book of the Law [that’s the Bible – God’s law, God’s Word] depart from your mouth;[that means talk about it all the time] meditate on it [how often?]  day and night, [circle the word “meditate.”  God tells you, God commands you to mediate on the Bible day and night, in other words when you’re eating, when you’re sleeping, when you’re drinking, when you’re playing, when you’re running...] so that you will be careful to do everything written in it.  Then you will be [underline these] prosperous and successful.”

The only promise of prosperity and success in the Bible is this verse.  And God says if you do what I tell you to do in this verse you will be prosperous.  You will be successful.

I didn’t say that!  God said it.  You will be prosperous and successful. And what does he say?  If you meditate on my Word day and night.  In other words you remember it and you review it.  If you remember it and review it, you will be successful in all you do.

This is so important.  In our home groups we are going to teach you the six ways to meditate on Scripture.  So you’re going to want to be in a home group to get that.  Because that’s the key to being prosperous and successful – meditating on the Word of God so then you can do it, so you think about it constantly.

This blog was adapted from Rick Warren’s thoughts from the 40 Days in the Word Campaign

Building my life on God's Word part 3 (Hands & Mouth)

We kicked off our NEW series this past Sunday "40 Days in the Word." You can listen to the podcast at http://www.wyandottefamily.com/listen.html or you can download it from iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wyandotte-family-church/id478735158

We talked about using our five senses to build our lives on the Bible. We spent the morning going over “hearing God’s Word or receiving it with our ears.” Yesterday's BLOG was about the 2^nd sense “Sight.” TODAY lets take a look at a few more senses.

I research Gods Word with my hands and my mouth.

Let me explain.  I research the Word of God with my hands and my mouth.  This is Bible study.  Researching is Bible study. 

Is there a difference between Bible reading and Bible study?  Yes.  How do you know if you are studying the Bible? It becomes study when you have a pen or pencil and you’re writing it down.

In fact, there are two components of study: writing it down and talking about it with somebody else.  That turns reading into study.  When I write something down and I talk about it with somebody else, now I am studying the Scripture. Now I am doing more than reading and I am meditating on it. I am being intentional. 

 

That’s why we believe in connection groups.  Why we over 15 different connection groups here at Wyandotte Family.  Because the way you study the Bible best is actually in a group.  You listen and you write and you read and you talk.  You use your hands and you use your mouth to study the Word of God.  I write down what I learn, I talk about what I learn.

In our home group studies during 40 Days in the Word we are going to teach you how to do this. We are launching 7 NEW home based connection groups the week of January 19th. You can sign up at the welcome center on Sundays or on the back of your communication card.

 

In Acts 17 Luke talks about a group of people in a city called Berea.  Berea was a little city in Greece.  He says “The people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, [Thessalonica was another city in Greece.  He said those Bereans were more open minded than those who lived in the city of Thessalonica.]  and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message.  They searched the Scriptures [circle that word  searched.  They searched the Scriptures.  That’s study.  Not just reading it] day after day to check up on Paul and Silas, to see if they were really teaching the truth.”

These guys are searching the Scriptures.  They’re reading and not just reading, they’re studying, they’re writing it down.  They’re having a group discussion.  That’s what’s going on here.  These people are listening to Paul preach and then they’re going over and having a group discussion about it, which is what we do in our home groups. 

 

We forget around 90% of what we hear. But when we write it down and discuss it, we increase the chances of God's Word becoming a part of our lives. We increase the chances of integration and application. Once again that is why home based connection groups are so important. They provide community, potential for relationships and an environment for the Word of God to truly bring life change.

Building my life on the Bible Part 2 (eyes)

We kicked off our NEW series this past Sunday "40 Days in the Word." You can listen to the podcast at http://www.wyandottefamily.com/listen.html or you can download it from iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wyandotte-family-church/id478735158

We talked about using our five senses to build our lives on the Bible. We spent the morning going over “hearing God’s Word or receiving it with our ears.” Let’s take a look at the 2^nd sense “Sight.”

The second way to build my life on the Bible is to read it with my eyes.

I receive it with my ears but I read it with my eyes.  I read the Bible.  You cannot grow without reading the Bible. It is like trying to grow stronger without exercising or working out. It is like trying to become healthier but not eating your fruits or veggies.

James 1:22-25 says this “Don’t merely listen to the Word, [in other words you ought to listen but don’t merely listen to the Word] and so deceive yourselves [because you’re going forget it] do what it says.  Anyone who listens to the Word [of God] but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror [notice this mirror analogy.  He says he looks at his face, his reflection in a mirror] and, after looking at himself he goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like! [That’s what happens a lot of times on Sunday.  You hear a message and by the time you get to the parking lot you’ve already forgotten it.  He looks in a mirror, looks at himself, but then he goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.]  But [here’s the opposite] the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, [the Bible sets us free] and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it - he will be blessed in what he does.”

One of the main reasons we are doing the 40 Days in the Word is so we cultivate a spiritual hunger and disciple of reading God’s Word every single day. To take God’s Word from being Sunday morning only to a part of our daily lives. In other words, we want you to be blessed.  We want you to be blessed in every area of your life.  We want God’s blessing on your family, on your work, on your finances, on your health.  The Bible says if you will do these five things you will be blessed. 

So let’s go back and re-read James 1-22-25 and circle them.  We talked about the first one.  He said listen but here he says don’t merely listen.  He said “the man who looks intently.”  Circle “looks intently”.  That’s one of the ways you get blessed.  That’s reading the Bible. Taking and making time to look into the heart and will of God for your life. 

Then he says and “continues to do this.”  Circle “continues.”  That’s reviewing the Bible.

Then he says “not forgetting what he’s heard,” That’s remembering the Bible.  Circle that one.  Not forgetting, “but doing it…”  That’s responding to the Bible. “he will be blessed in what he does.”

As we build our lives on the Bible to this capacity, we will be blessed. We will experience a fruitfulness and strength like never before. Let’s break each one of those down.

First it says, the person who looks intently… What’s he talking about here?  He’s talking about reading the Bible.  But when I read it I don’t speed read it.  When I read the Bible I read it and I reflect on it.  I think about it.  I ponder it.  I look intently.  It says that the person who does this, it’s like looking in a mirror.  Many times the Bible is compared to a mirror in Scripture.  The Bible compares itself to a mirror. 

What’s the purpose of a mirror?  The purpose of a mirror is to evaluate ourselves.  The Bible helps us do that.  It’s the mirror of God’s Word that helps us evaluate ourselves.

Every one of you did it sometime today.  When you got up this morning, at some point most likely before you walked out the door, you paused and looked at a mirror to see how awesome you looked (or not so much lol).  Then you evaluated what needed to be changed before you walked out that door. You fixed those few hairs out of place, used dental floss to get that black thing out of your tooth or fixed your shirt collar.  Or you said I don’t have time to do that and put on a ball cap.   

And by the way, did you know that the first Queen Elizabeth, during Shakespeare time, that as she got older that she lost her beauty, she had all of the mirrors removed from Buckingham Palace.  Because she did not want to see the fact that she was growing older.

There are two ways to look in a mirror.  You can glance in mirror or you can gaze in a mirror. 

Glance in a mirror...  Remember Happy Days, the show Happy Days?  Remember Fonzi?  He’d walk past a mirror and he’d stopped and he’d go Hey!  He didn’t do anything because he was pure perfection.  He didn’t have to comb his hair or anything.  He would glance.

We don’t want to do that with this mirror.  We can’t just glance at the Word of God.  That’s a quick, rushed, Lord, I’ve got two minutes.  I’m going to look at it real quick and then leave.  No.  Glancing at the mirror of God’s Word isn’t going to help us change. 

We’ve got to gaze at it.  We’ve got to gaze intently.  We look at the details.  God wants us not to glance at his Word but to gaze at his Word.  To look intently.

During 40 Days in the Word were going to give you some Bible reading plans.  There are lots of good ones.  It doesn’t really matter.  Just find one that fits you, fits your style.  So you are systematically reading through portions of the Bible on a regular basis.  You’re not doing this dip and skip method where you go, Lord what do you want me to know?  And you put your finger down.  That one doesn’t give you good results.  We’ll talk about that in the home group studies.  But you want to have a Bible reading plan because I want to receive God’s Word with my ear and I want to read God’s Word with my eyes

The third way to build your life on the Bible is will be gone over in my blog tomorrow (Wed.).

 

PS. Sign up for one of our special 6 week groups or join a full 12 week semester home group. You can sign up by filling out a Communication Card and/or at the welcome center.

PSS. These blogs are adapted from Rick Warren from the 40 Days in the Word Campaign