Welcome To The Bible

By Steven L. Pogue

The Bible is not just for learning; it’s for living. – Lawrence O. Richards

Would you like to know what God really thinks about you? Or how you should think about God? You can find out… in the Bible!

The Bible is the very personal message of the One who created the universe. Because it is God’s living Word, it does more than grab your attention. It speaks to you. In a manner that’s almost uncanny, the verses you read today may apply directly to your problems.

For the Word that God speaks is alive and active; it cuts more keenly than any two-edged sword: it strikes through to the place where soul and spirit meet, to the innermost intimacies of a man’s being: it examines the very thoughts and motives of a man’s heart (Hebrews 4:12).

The Bible explains how it was written

“For no prophecy recorded in Scripture was ever thought up by the prophet himself. It was the Holy Spirit within these godly men who gave them true messaged from God” (2 Peter 1:20,21). Those verses apply specifically to the Old Testament prophecies, but the entire Bible is inspired: “All Scripture is God-breathed…” (2 Timothy 3:16).
The word inspiration literally means “God-breathed.” From God’s very life, His breath, came the words of the Bible. You may find other books inspiring to read because they are intellectually or emotionally moving, but they are not the very words of God. Only the Bible is.

The Bible reveals what God wants you to know about Him and about life. It contains promises: things that God says He will do for you. Here are just a few of God’s promises to you:

• God will use everything in your life for good, conforming you into the image of Christ (Romans 8:28,29)

• He will always be with you (Matthew 28:20)

• He will generously give wisdom if you ask (James 1:5)

• He will supply every need in your life (Philippians 4:19)

• He already knows your needs before you ask Him (Matthew 6:32)

• His peace will superintend you through life as you pray with thankfulness (Philippians 4:4-7).

With most books, you learn best by beginning at page one. You would think that the best place to start your study of the Bible would be on page one of Genesis. After all, Genesis means “beginnings.” But the Bible is not arranged in chronological order. The books of the Bible are placed in categories. You may want to follow the recommended order for reading the Bible at the end of this article. This order is designed to give you a good understanding of the major themes of Scripture and to acquaint you with much of its history.

The key to understanding the Bible is Christ

The Old Testament looks forward to His coming. The Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) reveal Christ’s identity and mission, and the rest of the New Testament explains the implications of that new life in Christ. To understand the Old Testament, you have to begin with the New Testament.
Jesus said He came to give us life more abundantly and part of experiencing that is by knowing and following His Word. Jesus said, “If you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (John 8:31)

It was as someone shared God’s Word with us that we became Christians. “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” (1 Peter 1:23) And we continue to grow the same way, through His word, which He refers to as our nourishment. “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” (1 Peter 2:2,3)

All of Psalms 119 talks about the value of studying God’s Word. Here are just a couple of reasons from it: “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against you.” (v11) “O how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever mine. I have more insight than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation.” (v97-99) “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (v105)

Bible reading is an intellectual exercise, involving your mind. But to understand the spiritual teaching and apply it, you need the Holy Spirit’s leading. As you read the Bible, pray, asking God the Holy Spirit to make plain to you what He wants you to know: “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). Develop a spirit of expectancy – God wants to teach you through His Word. But don’t rely on feelings. I’ve had some of the best times of Bible study when I decided that I would continue reading for fifteen more minutes even though the previous fifteen minutes were “boring.”

If your Bible study is regular and daily, it will become a habit in your life. Find a place free from distraction. Be creative, and pick the time of day when you are most alert and able to spend time with God. Remember, you are pursuing a relationship with God and you want to be able to converse with Him. Keep a journal to record what God teaches you. Writing helps organize your thoughts, as well as giving you something you can return to several months later.

God will honor the time you spend with Him, and you’ll find yourself growing in your faith. It will be time well spent.

Recommended order of Bible reading:
• John
• 1 John
• Romans
• Galatians
• Ephesians
• Philippians
• Colossians
• Luke
• Acts
• 1 Thessalonians
• 2 Thessalonians
• 1 Timothy
• 2 Timothy
• James
• Mark
• 1 Corinthians
• 2 Corinthians
• Genesis
• Exodus
• Joshua
• Proverbs
• 1 Samuel
• 2 Samuel

This article is an excerpt from Steven L. Pogue's book, The First Year of Your Christian Life . If you would like to purchase a copy of this book, you may do so here: www.campuscrusade.com.

The Nature of Faith

By Dave Lowe

Everyday we continually exercise faith. Ninety-nine percent of every belief or value we have is held by faith. Faith is central to all of life. For example, let’s say you get sick. You go to a doctor whose name you can’t pronounce and whose degrees you’ve never verified. He gives you a prescription you can’t read. You take it to a pharmacist whom you’ve never personally met, and he gives you a chemical compound that you can’t understand. Then you go home and take the pills according to the instructions on the bottle. All the while you are trusting in sincere faith. Faith is also central to the Christian life. The word faith appears 232 times in the Bible.

WHAT IS FAITH?

First, I think it would be helpful to tell you what faith isn’t.

• Faith is not an emotion, ie. feeling good about God.

• Faith is not a blind leap in the dark, in spite of the facts.

• Faith is not a universal force that you wield that allows you to get the things you want in life. (i.e. the force in Star Wars…Luke use the force!)

Unfortunately, these ideas of faith are even being taught today in some churches.

Hank Haanegraff in his book Christianity in Crisis tells the story of Larry and Lucky Parker who withheld insulin from their diabetic son, because they were told that if they merely had faith (if they merely used the force) then he would be healed. Tragically, their son lapsed into a diabetic coma and died. Rather than conducting a funeral, they held a resurrection service, believing that if they had enough faith, that is, if they said the right things and simply believed hard enough without showing any signs of doubt, then the force of faith would bring their son back from the dead. Larry and Lucky Parker were later tried and convicted of manslaughter and child abuse. Why? Because they had the wrong idea of faith.

The gospels in the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) show that the disciples were also often confused about faith. However they were wise enough to ask Jesus about it. In Luke, chapter 17, you see the disciples asking Jesus to increase their faith. And here was Jesus’ response to them:

"If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and be planted in the sea'; and it would obey you.” Jesus’ response is interesting. Notice He doesn’t say some of the things that we’ve become accustomed to saying in the church. Jesus didn’t say, “You just need to try harder.” Nor did Jesus say, “You just gotta believe.” Jesus’ response reveals an important truth about the nature of faith. The mustard seed is the smallest of seeds. Jesus used that fact to illustrate that it isn’t the size of your faith that’s important. Rather…the power of faith rests in the reliability of its object, not in how confident you may be.

Let me illustrate what I mean. Suppose I’m standing on the edge of a lake during the first cold weeks of winter in the Northeastern part of America. The lake is frozen over with a very thin sheet of ice. Being filled with faith and confidence I take a step to walk across the newly formed layer of ice. Unfortunately, even though I am extremely confident and “full of faith” the result would be a cold, wet shock. As long as the ice is thin, it doesn’t matter how much faith I have. The ice is not reliable.

Now imagine a few months later, after the cold winter has taken effect. The ice is now several feet thick as I stand at the edge of the lake. Because of my past experience, I’m extremely cautious as I think about walking across the ice. I’m not sure whether the ice will hold me. After all, it didn’t before. Even though I’m frightened and have “less faith” than I did before, the smallest most hesitating step will be rewarded by the feeling of a firm footing. What’s the difference? The object is more reliable.

It’s true that the power of faith rests in the reliability of the object. However…

The degree of faith one places in an object is directly proportional to the knowledge of the object.

For example, consider a man terrified of flying. When he first arrives at the airport he buys insurance at one of those coin-operated insurance policy machines. He has his seat belt buckled twenty minutes before take-off and is sure to listen carefully to the routine “emergency instructions.” He has no faith in the ability of the plane to get him to his destination. But, as the journey progresses, the passenger begins to change. He first unbuckles his seat belt, then has some lunch, and pretty soon he’s talking to the person next to him and joking. Why the change? What happened? Is there more faith at 36,000 feet? Of course not. The more he learned about the object of faith, the plane, the more faith he exercised in that object.

It’s the same in the Christian life. The more we learn of the Lord, the more faith we can place in him. Learn to live by the facts of God’s Word rather than your feelings. Spend time in the Bible just observing, asking God to show you more of who He is. There are many places where you could start. Psalms 145, 146 and 147 are three wonderful chapters describing who God is. In all of the Bible, ask God to teach you more of Himself and notice specifically how He wants you to trust Him. In any given situation, ask God, “What about You would be helpful for me to know, as I trust You in this situation?” Go to the Bible and become a student of God and His relationship with you.

D.L. Moody once said, “I used to pray daily for the Lord to give me faith. Then one day I read Romans 10:17, which says ‘faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of God.’ So, I began to read my Bible, and faith has been growing ever since.”

Motivating Reasons To Pray

By Dan Hayes

I know prayer is important. All the godly people I've ever met testify to the crucial nature of prayer in their lives. So I understand I should pray, but . . .

Well, let me be honest. It can seem that our motivation for prayer is results-oriented, simply to get answers. Prayer can feel like a grocery list: "Our Father, who art in heaven . . . Gimme, gimme, gimme!" This is sort of a "shop 'til you drop" way of praying. But somehow I cannot see that as the prime (and certainly not the most satisfying) reason to pray.

So I began to study how and why Jesus prayed, and discovered five very motivating reasons to pray.

• Prayer builds my relationship with Jesus
• Prayer helps us overcome temptation
• Prayer is crucial in determining God's will
• Prayer accomplishes God's work
• Prayer is a weapon of spiritual warfare

Prayer Builds My Relationship with Jesus

I am first called to prayer because it is a key vehicle to building my love relationship with Jesus Christ. Hear me now -this is important. Christianity is not primarily rules. It is relationship.

Certainly Christ has standards, but we don't become Christians because we receive standards. We become Christians because we receive Christ, who loves us, died for us, lives in us daily.

What I need, then, is to build my love relationship with Him. I have to learn to allow Him to embrace me, to care for me, to point out my needs to me (and how He fills them). I need to listen to Him, and I desperately need to talk to Him.

In Ephesians 3:14-19, Paul prays, "that you may be able to comprehend . . . what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge . . ." "Know" in this passage is the same word used for the intimate closeness of a husband and wife in sexual embrace. Paul is praying that you and I will experience that kind of love with Christ - not sexual, but intimate, deep, close, unfettered. It is so deep that Paul later says it "surpasses knowledge."

One place we can experience this is in prayer. When we "get down and get honest" before God, we are on His turf in a unique way. Seldom do we get closer to Him than in prayer. When we pray, we can pray to experience this love, to be bathed in it, to learn how to give it back, to learn how to let it seep into the dry cracks and crevices of our lives.

I think that the chief reason for the gift of prayer is that we learn to receive, experience, and return His love in genuine relationship. Prayer is one place when God can get at us (and we think prayer is for getting at Him!) and speak to and minister to us. That is why David prays in Psalms 18:1, “I love you, O Lord, my strength.”

Prayer Helps Us Overcome Temptation

Prayer is an important instrument in our overcoming sin and temptation. Perhaps no experience in the earthly life of Christ is more instructive on prayer than in Luke 22:39-41. Luke sets the scene. It is the night before Jesus’ death. Jesus and His apostles have left the upper room and have navigated the winding path they knew well, up the Mount of Olives to Gethsemane. Jesus knows that great temptations are soon before them - His capture, His trials, His scourging, His mockery, the lure of their denial, His Crucifixion.

Mindful of their need for fortitude, He addresses them: "He says, "pray [in order] that you may not enter into temptation." What did He mean? Simply that their antidote to yielding to the temptations that fear, discouragement, and horror would soon present, was prayer. Prayer would fortify their trembling faith and courage. How could He know this? Because He, too, faced His own darkness. Looming in the next few hours were insults, torturous beatings, being nailed to a cross. Beyond that, He would bear all the sins of humanity, including the sins of all the child molesters and mass murderers and the Adolph Hitlers of all the ages. Can you imagine the terror that must have clutched at His throat? We are naive if we think it did not occur to the humanness of Jesus, to abort His mission, to look for another way.

So what did He do? He modeled exactly what He had told His disciples: He prayed so that He could defeat temptation. We are told by Luke that His prayers were so heartfelt, His struggles so intense, that His sweat was bloody, pre-figuring the flow that would come tomorrow. He began His prayers with, “Father if there is any way that this cup can pass from Me...”At the end of that hour, He rose from prayer, having settled with His Father, "not My will but Thine be done." Prayer had been the means of His victory. He returned to His men to find them . . . asleep! He had told them to pray. Instead, they followed the college students' motto: "When in doubt; sack out!" He confronts their tiredness, their crankiness at being awakened, and says again (verse 46), "pray that you may not enter into temptation."

Notice that He commanded this in the beginning of this passage, then He demonstrated it in the body of this passage, and He reiterated it at the end of this passage. When you face temptation, PRAY! That is what will see you through. But instead, usually we pray only after we have yielded. What about seeing prayer as our first option so that God can give us courage and strength prior to our temptations? If we would pray more, we would yield less!

Prayer Is Crucial in Determining God's Will

We pray because prayer is crucial in determining God's will. "Now you're talking," you say. Here’s something you might hear from Christians: "I pray about my choices, and when I have 'peace' about one of the options, then I go with it." Yet, how askew is that from God's Word. Prayer certainly is vital in determining His will, but not because it gives us peace. Let me show you how faulty such thinking is.

I asked a group of Christians once, “How many of you have ever shared your faith, witnessed to another person about Jesus? Well, right before you shared your faith, which was almost certainly God's will, how many of you felt this warm, calm sense of 'peace?' Hold up your hands. Hmmm. No hands! Weren't you rather scared, nervous? Perhaps your palms sweated. Shoot, your hair sweated. No great feeling of peace there, but you did it anyway because it was God's will, right?” God's real will often produced scary feelings, not warm fuzzy ones. So wait. How does prayer help determine His will then? Jesus again gives us a demonstration in Luke's gospel. Read Luke 6:12-16. Here, He prays all night about choosing from the hundreds who followed Him, a special group of disciples whom we now know as the Apostles.

How did prayer help? It helped in the way John Wesley described. "I find," he said, "that the chief purpose of prayer in seeking God's will is that prayer gets my will into an unbiased state. Once my will is unprejudiced about the matter, I find God suggests reasons to my mind why I should or should not pursue a course."

The chief purpose of prayer, then, is to get our wills unbiased! The purpose is not to give us an ethereal sense of comfort. Thus, we pray to God about His will in some area, knowing that we probably are already leaning in a certain direction. We implore Him first to help our wills to move back to the center -that is, willing to do whatever is His will. Once we arrive there (and it may take some time), He shows us through our minds why one alternative is better than another and therefore is His will for us.

This is conjecture, but Jesus must have had a long talk with the Father regarding individuals and who to select for His closest followers. Jesus talked to the Father all night about this. Maybe Jesus had preferences for His followers. He probably had a list - at least a mental one. Perhaps Peter was already on it, but perhaps Andrew was not. Thomas certainly wouldn't have been on mine, and neither would Simon the Zealot. Maybe they weren't at the top of Jesus', either. Yet, through the work of His Father and His own yielded nature in intercession, the reasons came clear to Him why all three of these men plus nine others should be tapped.

Our searching out of God's will can be the same. We pray so that our wills (not our emotions) can be yielded to the Divine "whatever." Then II Timothy 1:7 becomes alive: "For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and sound judgment." As we spend time with God in prayer, He will guide us to ideas, thoughts, reasons, Scripture, which will reveal His will to us. It might be over days, weeks or sometimes months...but to know God’s will requires talking to Him about it.

Prayer Accomplishes God's Work

Here is a major accelerator to my motivation to pray, and it stems from one of the most amazing statements Jesus ever made. It is found in John 14:12-14. It would be good to open your Bible there because you've got to see it to believe it.

It is the night of the Last Supper, and Judas has left to betray Jesus. His leaving allows Christ to pass on some of the most sublime of His earthly teachings to the remaining faithful. In the context, He is discussing His deity, His union with the Father, and the works of God in the world. Suddenly, He makes this statement: "Truly, truly . . . he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he shall do; because I go to the Father."

Look at that statement. Savor it. Regard it. Study it. "He shall do." Jesus did not say, "they shall do." He did not say, "the corporate body all combined together will do." He used a singular pronoun meaning one person. "The very works that I do and greater than these" is His statement.

What works did our Lord do on earth? Oh, just a few: cleansed the lepers, healed the sick, proclaimed release to the captives, taught tens of thousands, led thousands to salvation, raised the dead, healed those born blind. Piece of cake! Yet the plain fact of Jesus' statement is that the only qualifier to doing such works is "[the one] who believes in ME." How?

Verses 13 and 14 relate directly to verse 12. "And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." And, since He knew they wouldn't get it the first time (and neither would we), He repeats it: "If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it."

Prayer is the way His greater works get done! Most of us will not be worldwide evangelists, though a few will be. Most of us will not be gifted in healing, though some will be. Most of us will not be great preachers and teachers, though some will be. But every one of us can kneel down and pray. We can pray, asking Jesus to touch the lost masses of earth and help snatch them from eternal darkness to eternal life. Through prayer, we can participate in Christ's healing power spreading both medically and miraculously across the earth. Every one of us can pray, asking Jesus to stop the forces of moral degeneracy that threatens to engulf the depth of the human spirit. Every one of us can do these things through our prayers!

Today, if I will, I can spend 15 minutes on peoples’ behalf, influencing them for God and for good. Today, I can spend 20 minutes touching the entrenched Muslim minds of the Mullah's of Saudi Arabia or the ascetic Buddhist Monks of Nepal. Today, I can stand against pornography and rape and incest and child abuse in the far-flung towns of this country. Because, when I talk to God in my living room, or office, or church, He is the same God who reaches into families, into Nepal, into Arabia, into the Kremlin, into homes. I participate with Him, not only through my efforts and works in my geographic location, but also throughout the world in accomplishing His works through my prayers. It matters not what type of gifts, talent, or personality I have; it matters only that I take this time to cooperate with Him in my prayers. And that is all that matters for you, too. May we "get it" before much more time passes. Jesus said, “...greater works than these he shall do; because I go to the Father.” Anything that brings the Father glory, Jesus said, “ask Me...I will do it.”

Prayer is a Weapon of Spiritual Warfare

Prayer is a major weapon in fighting the spiritual battle. Ephesians 6:10-20 reminds us that ultimately our struggles are not against humans, but against powerful spiritual beings and forces. The picture here is that of a war. Life as a Christian is not a playground; it's a battlefield.

We are instructed by Paul, an experienced soldier in this combat, to be appropriately prepared for our struggle. Modeling a Roman warrior, we put on the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, loins girded with truth, feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel, shield of faith, sword of the Spirit (the Word of God).

Now, it seems we have a complete set of armor and weaponry. And if I were writing this passage, I would say, "Now get out there and fight the battle!" But interestingly, Paul does not say that. In fact, he waits until verse eighteen to get to the heavy artillery of this arsenal of God... persistent prayer. Notice what he says: "With all prayer and petition pray . . . with all perseverance and prayer . . . and pray . . . ."

In two verses, we are commanded to pray five different times. Do you think he (and God) are trying to make a point? He is attempting to seize our attention concerning prayer's power in the defeat of Satan and his tactics. Parallel to this text is 2 Corinthians 10:3,4: "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses."

The weapon of prayer softens up Satan's fortress. It is the cannon, reducing the wall to rubble so that the troops can go through. Too often, the gospel moves slowly because the softening-up process of prayer has been neglected. When practiced, however, prayer "puts the wind at the back" of Christ's soldiers.

For example, a few years ago, at a prestigious American university, one powerful administrator was blocking the placement of additional full-time Christian workers on campus because of his own disbelief in the gospel. The Christian students on campus resorted first to prayer. Feeling that no one had the right to keep students from hearing about Christ, they prayed that God would either change this man's heart or remove him from his position. For six months they prayed faithfully.

Suddenly, for no "apparent" reason, he was transferred to a different position and a replacement named. Among the first questions the replacement asked was this: "Why aren't there more Christian workers on campus?" The workers came, and the gospel flourished. Prayer is key to fighting this spiritual battle.

Reprinted by permission Dan Hayes