W3D3 Hearing

READ THE BIBLE

2 Timothy 3:15

And how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

James 1:21

Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

REFLECT ON WHAT IT MEANS

In 1898 and a young man called Ben was standing on a railway station waiting to meet someone. Eight years earlier he had left the city and moved out into the country to start up a farm and make a better living. His bold move paid off and he had raised up animals and crops with enough profit to think about getting married. Since there were no young women around, he paid for an ad in a newspaper back in his home city.

It said, "Wanted: A good woman willing to be a pen-pal. Marriage is a possibility for the right woman."

Soon after, a young woman called Molly got in touch. They kept writing and their letters soon turned into love-letters. So, she agreed to come and meet him for the first time. Ben waited for her train to arrive but when it pulled in, lots of women got off. Suddenly, he called out, “Molly, over here.” Molly came over to him, smiled and held out her hand. “How did you know it was me?” she asked.

He took out a pocketful of her letters. “From these,” he said.

“But there are no pictures in them, “ she said.

“Oh yes there are! There are lots of pictures - in your words,” he replied.

Ben had spent hours reading and re-reading Molly’s letters, going over every detail, forming a clear sense, a ‘picture,’ of who she was just from the words she had written to him. He got it right!

It’s just like this with the Bible. It gives us a clear picture of who God is, what he is like. It touches our hearts and makes us feel connected to God in a very real and loving way.

The verse we read today tell us some important things about the Bible. It is “God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16).

That means it’s not just people writing down their own thoughts and ideas about God, but that God, by his Spirit, is inspiring and guiding the writers to say what he wants them to. Think of a drone being flown around the sky - it is following the path the person in control is sending it on. That’s how it is with the Bible and the Holy Spirit. He oversees and directs the way the person writes.

Because of this, we can understand that the Bible is not just a “good book” but a God-sent, God-directed, “love-letter” to every person. It can have these incredible effects on our lives: make us wise, or ‘switched-on’ about being saved from our sin through believing in Jesus, (verse 15). It can help us with “teaching” to show us on the right way to live with God, it can “rebuke” us - let us know when we go off God’s right path in life. Then, it’s good for “correction,” which is turning us back onto God’s tpath, and “training in righteousness,” which means keeping us on the right path or on track with God.

If we spend time in reading and following God’s word, it will change us and make us able to follow God. We will begin to “hear” God speaking to us as we read his word, the Bible. Not necessarily in a voice, but in impressions inside us, feelings that this word is getting to me, stirring me up, making me feel that I need to respond, feelings and thoughts I just can’t shake. It’s a bit like our conscience speaking to us. Sometimes a verse or even part of a verse will “come alive” and almost seem to leap out of the page and grab our attention.

For this to happen to us reliably, we need to do certain things that our second Bible Read the Bible tells us.

First, we have to get rid of any morally unclean habits and lifestyles, otherwise the Bible can’t really speak to us. Our sin in this area will make our hearts “hard” towards God in the whole of our life. Next we have to “lay aside” something. (The word means to take off clothes and lay them down - like you are in a changing room). We have to “take off” all the old “clothes” of sin and bad behaviour, including the feeling that, “I want to do this my own way, not God’s.” After this we have to be willing to let the Bible teach us.

To do this we have to to see the word of God as our friend, almost like a person who helps us to be more like Jesus. Otherwise, we can see the Bible in the wrong way, as our ‘enemy,’ out to stop us and to rob us of our enjoyment and fun. If we allow God’s word into our lives , it will change us and transform our lives for the better. God’s word, the Bible, is the number 1 way we get to hear God speaking to our hearts and minds.

RELATE IT TO YOUR LIFE

Share with your Life Class guide this week, something that has really spoken to you from your reading of the Bible. It can be anything at all. Send them a text or give them a call - get in touch and they'll be expecting it and happy to talk.

How willing am I to do what the Bible says? How much do I really follow what it says?

RESPOND WITH A DECLARATION

“The Bible is no ordinary book. It is God’s word because it is God-breathed.”