Podcasts about bible now

The way we approach reading the Bible NOW is usually not how Jesus Himself approached the Word of God! Yes, a daily “quiet time” is a beautiful thing. But up until about 400 years ago, Christians did not have personal Bibles in their homes! What can we learn from them, and what can we learn from the ways Jesus  delighted in the Word? As a human, He took on all the limitations of flesh, which means when He  was memorizing Deuteronomy (when Satan tempts Him, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy three times!), He had to learn like every other human child does. In Scripture, we see that Jesus listened to, memorized, sang, spoke, and taught the Word.MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:My brand new book – Delighting in Jesus: Rhythms to Restore Joy When You Feel Burdened, Broken, or Burned-Out https://amzn.to/3Zb5HAiJohn 1:14Romans 6:23Simply Bible: https://www.simplybiblestudy.org/John 5:39John 15:26-27John 16:12-13Join the FREE Online Book Club with Asheritah and Hannah: https://www.delightinginjesus.com/bookclubNow through Christmas, we have thank-you gifts for everyone who orders Delighting in Jesus! Find out more and receive your gifts here: DelightingInJesus.comPatreon prayer partners: https://www.patreon.com/prayersofrestFREE RESOURCES:✅ JUMPSTART YOUR BIBLE STUDY HABITBible study doesn't have to be complicated or overwhelming. Become more confident in your Bible study skills with my FREE 3-DAY Bible Study Quickstart Guide: https://www.delightinginjesus.com/bible-study-quickstart-guide--e73ae

Susanna Annesley was born on January 20, 1669 and was the youngest of her 25 siblings! Her father was the Rev. Dr. Samuel Annesley and was later referred to as the St. Paul of the Nonconformists who stood against the unbiblical practices of slumbering national church.[1] To give you some sense of the kind of Christian home Susanna was born into, the Annesley home was visited by some of the spiritual giants of their day, such as Richard Baxter, John Owen, and Thomas Manton. Susanna said of her childhood: I will tell you what rule I observed when I was young and too much addicted to childish diversions, which was this never to spend more time in mere recreation in one day than I spent in private religious devotions.[2] It has been said of Susanna that her knowledge of the Bible was superior to that of many of the pastors of her day and her love for and devotion to God was reflected in her time in the Bible and prayer. On November 12, 1688, Susanna married Samuel Wesley who had become an Anglican priest. Together the Wesleys had at least 17 children (some believe they had 19 children), and of those children, only 10 survived infancy; one child was crippled, and another did not learn to speak until he was six years old. If 10 mouths to feed and children to clothe was not enough for both parents, Samuel Wesley was a poor steward and manager of money, not a very good husband to Susanna, and was frequently away from home for long periods. I read that during her lifetime as both a mother and a wife, Susanna was sick often, there was little money for food, and debt plagued their family and household because of Samuels poor management of money. Samuel was once thrown into debtors prison because their debt was so high. Twice the homes they lived in throughout their marriage were destroyed by fire along with much of what they owned. Someone slit their cows udders so they wouldnt have milk, killed their dog, and burned their flax field.[3] Susanna had little time between her duties as a mother, the need to work their gardens, milk their cows, educate their children, and manage their home, all with little help. However, she managed to spend about two hours a day praying because she believed in the God of Ephesians 3:20-21. Because it was nearly impossible to find a quiet place to pray, she used her apron and told her children that when they saw her head covered with her apron, they were not permitted to disturb her because she was praying. Of Samuel and Susannas ten surviving children, God would use John and Charles profoundly to reach the lost and impact the world they lived inmostly due to the foundation of the Word of God laid by their mother and the prayers prayed on their behalf. John Wesley would grow to become a great evangelist whom God used to preach to nearly one million people in his lifetime. Charles would be used by God to write over 9,000 hymns, of which many are still sung in our churches today.[4] One of those hymns is a favorite of mine: And Can It Be, That I Should Gain. Consider three of its five verses: And can it be that I should gainAn interest in the Savior's bloodDied He for me, who caused His painFor me, who Him to death pursued?Amazing love! How can it beThat Thou, my God, should die for me? He left His Father's throne aboveSo free, so infinite His graceEmptied Himself of all but loveAnd bled for Adam's helpless raceTic mercy all, immense and freeFor O my God, it found out me!Amazing love! How can it be, That Thou, my God, should die for me? No condemnation now I dreadJesus, and all in Him, is mineAlive in Him, my living HeadAnd clothed in righteousness divineBold I approach the eternal throneAnd claim the crown, through Christ my ownAmazing love! How can it beThat Thou my God, should die for me? Now, like a well-aged, perfectly seasoned steak cooked by a master chef, Ephesians 3:20-21 is before us, and every bit of these two verses is meant to be savored. So, lets savor one of the great doxological statements in the Bible: Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. This statement in Ephesians 3:20-21 is in response to what God has done, is doing, and will continue to do in the life of the one He has chosen, redeemed, and secured as His child. Paul has brought us to the threshold of where our understanding and imagination can go, that we who were once dead in our offences and sins (2:1), can know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that we may be filled to all the fullness of God (3:19). In his sermon on this same passage, James Montgomery Boice wrote in response: This is beyond comprehension; we cannot even begin to imagine how we can be filled with Gods own fullness. We stand on the edge of the infinite. And yet, Paul is still not satisfied. He has prayed that God will do something we cannot even imagine; and now, having exhausted his ability to speak and write along that line, he bursts out in praise to God who, he says, is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us (v. 20).[5] So, what are these verses teaching us? What hope do they provide you? I believe that the answer is profound yet simple. God is Working All Things Out for Our Good How is God working all things out for our good and how do we know He is working all things out for our good? Well, let me begin by answering how we know that He is working all things out for our good. For starters, our God can work all things out for our good! Paul begins verse 20 with six simple words: Now to Him who is able. God is able because He is not an idol. The Greek word used for do is poieō, which means to do, make, cause, or appoint. In other words, God is not like the stuff or gods that people worship; He can do what they cannot! He is not made with hands or created through any persons imagination. He is God! The God who is able is He who declares of Himself: Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, My plan will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure; calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of My purpose from a distant country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, I will certainly do it. Listen to Me, you stubborn-minded, who are far from righteousness. I bring near My righteousness, it is not far off; and My salvation will not delay. And I will grant salvation in Zion, and My glory for Israel. (Isaiah 46:913) God alone is able to choose, redeem, and keep any He wills for the purpose of lavishing His rich mercy, great love, and all-sufficient grace upon any that He grants salvation. God chooses, redeems, and keeps because He will accomplish all His good pleasure (Isa. 46:10b). Because God is able, He can do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think. God is not like the compromising parent in the grocery store that will offer or give whatever the child wants just so he/she can get the child to shut up. God gives His children what is good for them and what they need. Sometimes what we want lines up with what He knows that we need, but there are times that what we are convinced we need is not what we need at all because it ultimately may not even be good for us. However, if we are surrendering ourselves to Gods will (vv. 14-15), if we are desiring a dependance upon the Holy Spirit (vv. 16-17a), and we are walking in union with Christ (vv. 17-19), then what you think you need will begin to line up with what God knows you need. That is not all though, for the thing you do not know you need to ask for, God knows, and He is, able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think Listen, when your thinking begins to line up with the heart of what God wants for you, you will find yourself asking for the very thing God desires for you. This is what Jesus said would happen if you abide (remain) in Him: If you remain in Me, and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you (John 15:7). When you surrender to the will of God, when you are depending on the promised Holy Spirit to guide you, and when you are taking in the life of Jesus so that His life will be reflected through your life, what you ask or wish for will begin to line up with what God knows you really need, and what you need most is the thing that God has called you into. The power that is working within us, is what made your salvation, redemption, and regeneration possible. It is the power of the Holy Spirit who provides a resurrecting and miracle working power that Jesus promised to each of His follower. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit will be our Helper who will be with His people forever (John 14:16-31), will guide His people into all truth (16:5-15), and will empower His people to accomplish Christs mission to redeem the nations (Acts 1:8). The power that was responsible for the creation of the universe and resurrection of Jesus is the same power the indwells every true follower of Jesus to live and walk in the good works God prepared beforehand for His people to walk in (Eph. 2:10). God is Working All Things Out for His Glory Why is God working all things out for our good? Why did He choose you? Why did He redeem you through the blood of the Lamb? Why did He seal and empower you to live a life that honors Him? The answer is in the first five words of verse 21, To Him be the glory. The prophet Isaiah said of the glory of God: For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; for how can My name be profaned? And I will not give My glory to another (Isa. 48:11). In Romans 11:36, Gods glory is described in His worth: For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or Who has first given to Him, that it would be paid back to him? For from Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen (Rom. 11:3436). So, to Him be the glory in what or who, Paul? His answer is three-fold: in the church, in Christ Jesus, and to all generations forever and ever. Why on earth would we think that God would want to do anything through us? Because He is for His glory, and because He is for His glory, He is for your good. What is your good Christian? Your good is that you get God! The greatest and most loving thing God can give you is Himself! For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name shall be great among the nations, and in every place frankincense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name shall be great among the nations, says the Lord of armies. (Mal. 1:11) I, I alone, am the one who wipes out your wrongdoings for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins. (Isa. 43:25) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He favored us in the Beloved. (Eph. 1:36) In light of all that we have discovered and been reminded of throughout our time in Ephesians, maybe you have asked the question: Did God go too far? Did God go too far by choosing me of all people before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4)? Is God the victim of a poor investment because he chose me before the foundation of the world for good works He prepared beforehand? I dont know if you have ever asked questions like these, but if Ephesians 3:20-21 teaches us anything, it is this: God is not limited because He is infinitely sovereign, and because He is infinitely sovereign, He does not invest poorly. He has redeemed you who were once dead and now has made you alive for His glory and your good! And brothers and sisters, He is doing the same thing all over the world. He is being glorified in the Church by what He is doing in the Church and through the Church. He is glorified in and through the redemptive work of Christ who made our salvation possible! He is being glorified and forever will be glorified because of Who He Is! God is He who, is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us for His glory and our good! The more of Him you discover, the more you will trust Him to do what He alone is able to do in His time and according to His good will. I heard someone say it this way: The deeper our understanding of God goes, the more childlike our faith will become. I heard a song written by people I never heard before titled, Christ be All. I must have listened to it a dozen times or more this week because it is so good! There are two verses from that song I believe serve as a suitable way to conclude this sermon; I believe it echoes the spirit of Susanna Wesley and the longing of each of us in this room: How great is God?His grandeur endlessHow frail I come before His throneI am lost in love relentlessThat Christ be all, and I his own May Christ be all, and I be nothingHis glory shines in vessels weakMay Christ be all, and I be nothingThis is my hopeNot I, but Christ in me On golden shores of sure salvationI will run to meet my KingFree from shame and all accusationHe'll give HimselfNothing I'll bringHe'll give HimselfNothing I'll bring [1] Arthur Dicken Thomas, Jr., Knowing Doing: Profiles in Faith (C.S. Lewis Institute; 2003). [2] Ibid. [3] Sharon Glasgow, Susanna Wesleys Prayer Apron (Epworth Villa; May 9, 2019). [4] Ibid. [5] James Montgomery Boice, Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Ministry Resources Library, 1988), 113114.

Susanna Annesley was born on January 20, 1669 and was the youngest of her 25 siblings! Her father was the Rev. Dr. Samuel Annesley and was later referred to as the St. Paul of the Nonconformists who stood against the unbiblical practices of slumbering national church.[1] To give you some sense of the kind of Christian home Susanna was born into, the Annesley home was visited by some of the spiritual giants of their day, such as Richard Baxter, John Owen, and Thomas Manton. Susanna said of her childhood: I will tell you what rule I observed when I was young and too much addicted to childish diversions, which was this never to spend more time in mere recreation in one day than I spent in private religious devotions.[2] It has been said of Susanna that her knowledge of the Bible was superior to that of many of the pastors of her day and her love for and devotion to God was reflected in her time in the Bible and prayer. On November 12, 1688, Susanna married Samuel Wesley who had become an Anglican priest. Together the Wesleys had at least 17 children (some believe they had 19 children), and of those children, only 10 survived infancy; one child was crippled, and another did not learn to speak until he was six years old. If 10 mouths to feed and children to clothe was not enough for both parents, Samuel Wesley was a poor steward and manager of money, not a very good husband to Susanna, and was frequently away from home for long periods. I read that during her lifetime as both a mother and a wife, Susanna was sick often, there was little money for food, and debt plagued their family and household because of Samuels poor management of money. Samuel was once thrown into debtors prison because their debt was so high. Twice the homes they lived in throughout their marriage were destroyed by fire along with much of what they owned. Someone slit their cows udders so they wouldnt have milk, killed their dog, and burned their flax field.[3] Susanna had little time between her duties as a mother, the need to work their gardens, milk their cows, educate their children, and manage their home, all with little help. However, she managed to spend about two hours a day praying because she believed in the God of Ephesians 3:20-21. Because it was nearly impossible to find a quiet place to pray, she used her apron and told her children that when they saw her head covered with her apron, they were not permitted to disturb her because she was praying. Of Samuel and Susannas ten surviving children, God would use John and Charles profoundly to reach the lost and impact the world they lived inmostly due to the foundation of the Word of God laid by their mother and the prayers prayed on their behalf. John Wesley would grow to become a great evangelist whom God used to preach to nearly one million people in his lifetime. Charles would be used by God to write over 9,000 hymns, of which many are still sung in our churches today.[4] One of those hymns is a favorite of mine: And Can It Be, That I Should Gain. Consider three of its five verses: And can it be that I should gainAn interest in the Savior's bloodDied He for me, who caused His painFor me, who Him to death pursued?Amazing love! How can it beThat Thou, my God, should die for me? He left His Father's throne aboveSo free, so infinite His graceEmptied Himself of all but loveAnd bled for Adam's helpless raceTic mercy all, immense and freeFor O my God, it found out me!Amazing love! How can it be, That Thou, my God, should die for me? No condemnation now I dreadJesus, and all in Him, is mineAlive in Him, my living HeadAnd clothed in righteousness divineBold I approach the eternal throneAnd claim the crown, through Christ my ownAmazing love! How can it beThat Thou my God, should die for me? Now, like a well-aged, perfectly seasoned steak cooked by a master chef, Ephesians 3:20-21 is before us, and every bit of these two verses is meant to be savored. So, lets savor one of the great doxological statements in the Bible: Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. This statement in Ephesians 3:20-21 is in response to what God has done, is doing, and will continue to do in the life of the one He has chosen, redeemed, and secured as His child. Paul has brought us to the threshold of where our understanding and imagination can go, that we who were once dead in our offences and sins (2:1), can know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that we may be filled to all the fullness of God (3:19). In his sermon on this same passage, James Montgomery Boice wrote in response: This is beyond comprehension; we cannot even begin to imagine how we can be filled with Gods own fullness. We stand on the edge of the infinite. And yet, Paul is still not satisfied. He has prayed that God will do something we cannot even imagine; and now, having exhausted his ability to speak and write along that line, he bursts out in praise to God who, he says, is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us (v. 20).[5] So, what are these verses teaching us? What hope do they provide you? I believe that the answer is profound yet simple. God is Working All Things Out for Our Good How is God working all things out for our good and how do we know He is working all things out for our good? Well, let me begin by answering how we know that He is working all things out for our good. For starters, our God can work all things out for our good! Paul begins verse 20 with six simple words: Now to Him who is able. God is able because He is not an idol. The Greek word used for do is poieō, which means to do, make, cause, or appoint. In other words, God is not like the stuff or gods that people worship; He can do what they cannot! He is not made with hands or created through any persons imagination. He is God! The God who is able is He who declares of Himself: Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, My plan will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure; calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of My purpose from a distant country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, I will certainly do it. Listen to Me, you stubborn-minded, who are far from righteousness. I bring near My righteousness, it is not far off; and My salvation will not delay. And I will grant salvation in Zion, and My glory for Israel. (Isaiah 46:913) God alone is able to choose, redeem, and keep any He wills for the purpose of lavishing His rich mercy, great love, and all-sufficient grace upon any that He grants salvation. God chooses, redeems, and keeps because He will accomplish all His good pleasure (Isa. 46:10b). Because God is able, He can do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think. God is not like the compromising parent in the grocery store that will offer or give whatever the child wants just so he/she can get the child to shut up. God gives His children what is good for them and what they need. Sometimes what we want lines up with what He knows that we need, but there are times that what we are convinced we need is not what we need at all because it ultimately may not even be good for us. However, if we are surrendering ourselves to Gods will (vv. 14-15), if we are desiring a dependance upon the Holy Spirit (vv. 16-17a), and we are walking in union with Christ (vv. 17-19), then what you think you need will begin to line up with what God knows you need. That is not all though, for the thing you do not know you need to ask for, God knows, and He is, able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think Listen, when your thinking begins to line up with the heart of what God wants for you, you will find yourself asking for the very thing God desires for you. This is what Jesus said would happen if you abide (remain) in Him: If you remain in Me, and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you (John 15:7). When you surrender to the will of God, when you are depending on the promised Holy Spirit to guide you, and when you are taking in the life of Jesus so that His life will be reflected through your life, what you ask or wish for will begin to line up with what God knows you really need, and what you need most is the thing that God has called you into. The power that is working within us, is what made your salvation, redemption, and regeneration possible. It is the power of the Holy Spirit who provides a resurrecting and miracle working power that Jesus promised to each of His follower. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit will be our Helper who will be with His people forever (John 14:16-31), will guide His people into all truth (16:5-15), and will empower His people to accomplish Christs mission to redeem the nations (Acts 1:8). The power that was responsible for the creation of the universe and resurrection of Jesus is the same power the indwells every true follower of Jesus to live and walk in the good works God prepared beforehand for His people to walk in (Eph. 2:10). God is Working All Things Out for His Glory Why is God working all things out for our good? Why did He choose you? Why did He redeem you through the blood of the Lamb? Why did He seal and empower you to live a life that honors Him? The answer is in the first five words of verse 21, To Him be the glory. The prophet Isaiah said of the glory of God: For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; for how can My name be profaned? And I will not give My glory to another (Isa. 48:11). In Romans 11:36, Gods glory is described in His worth: For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or Who has first given to Him, that it would be paid back to him? For from Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen (Rom. 11:3436). So, to Him be the glory in what or who, Paul? His answer is three-fold: in the church, in Christ Jesus, and to all generations forever and ever. Why on earth would we think that God would want to do anything through us? Because He is for His glory, and because He is for His glory, He is for your good. What is your good Christian? Your good is that you get God! The greatest and most loving thing God can give you is Himself! For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name shall be great among the nations, and in every place frankincense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name shall be great among the nations, says the Lord of armies. (Mal. 1:11) I, I alone, am the one who wipes out your wrongdoings for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins. (Isa. 43:25) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He favored us in the Beloved. (Eph. 1:36) In light of all that we have discovered and been reminded of throughout our time in Ephesians, maybe you have asked the question: Did God go too far? Did God go too far by choosing me of all people before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4)? Is God the victim of a poor investment because he chose me before the foundation of the world for good works He prepared beforehand? I dont know if you have ever asked questions like these, but if Ephesians 3:20-21 teaches us anything, it is this: God is not limited because He is infinitely sovereign, and because He is infinitely sovereign, He does not invest poorly. He has redeemed you who were once dead and now has made you alive for His glory and your good! And brothers and sisters, He is doing the same thing all over the world. He is being glorified in the Church by what He is doing in the Church and through the Church. He is glorified in and through the redemptive work of Christ who made our salvation possible! He is being glorified and forever will be glorified because of Who He Is! God is He who, is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us for His glory and our good! The more of Him you discover, the more you will trust Him to do what He alone is able to do in His time and according to His good will. I heard someone say it this way: The deeper our understanding of God goes, the more childlike our faith will become. I heard a song written by people I never heard before titled, Christ be All. I must have listened to it a dozen times or more this week because it is so good! There are two verses from that song I believe serve as a suitable way to conclude this sermon; I believe it echoes the spirit of Susanna Wesley and the longing of each of us in this room: How great is God?His grandeur endlessHow frail I come before His throneI am lost in love relentlessThat Christ be all, and I his own May Christ be all, and I be nothingHis glory shines in vessels weakMay Christ be all, and I be nothingThis is my hopeNot I, but Christ in me On golden shores of sure salvationI will run to meet my KingFree from shame and all accusationHe'll give HimselfNothing I'll bringHe'll give HimselfNothing I'll bring [1] Arthur Dicken Thomas, Jr., Knowing Doing: Profiles in Faith (C.S. Lewis Institute; 2003). [2] Ibid. [3] Sharon Glasgow, Susanna Wesleys Prayer Apron (Epworth Villa; May 9, 2019). [4] Ibid. [5] James Montgomery Boice, Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Ministry Resources Library, 1988), 113114.

Professor Shawna Dolansky takes an historical-geographical approach to the daughters of Zelophehad. Professor Dolansky is Associate Professor of Religion and Humanities at Carleton University, in Ottawa, Canada. She specialises in Biblical Studies, with a focus on the history and religions of Israel and the ancient Near East and the development of the Hebrew Bible.  Her research incorporates the tools of literary criticism, comparative religion, historical study, anthropology, archaeology, political science and classics in order to understand the worlds of the original authors and audiences of the biblical texts, and the subsequent development of Judaism and Christianity out of ancient Israelite religious beliefs and practices.Professor Dolansky is the author of Now You See It, Now You Don't: Biblical Perspectives on the Relationship Between Magic and Religion and co-author with Richard E. Friedman of The Bible Now.

Professor Shawna Dolansky explores the story of Jacob's return to Canaan and how it played a formative role in the identity of the people of Israel. In conversation with Simon Eder.--Professor Shawna Dolansky is Associate Professor of Religion and Humanities at Carleton University, in Ottawa, Canada. She specialises in Biblical Studies, with a focus on the history and religions of Israel and the ancient Near East and the development of the Hebrew Bible.  Her research incorporates the tools of literary criticism, comparative religion, historical study, anthropology, archaeology, political science and classics in order to understand the worlds of the original authors and audiences of the biblical texts, and the subsequent development of Judaism and Christianity out of ancient Israelite religious beliefs and practices.Professor Dolansky is the author of Now You See It, Now You Don't: Biblical Perspectives on the Relationship Between Magic and Religion and co-author with Richard E. Friedman of The Bible Now.

Global Warming. 9-11 and Terrorism. Covid 19. There are just so many pretenses for the development of the regulative state and the police state. Does wearing a mask invite more police state restrictions upon the nation---If liberty is still a value, where do you push back, and what is the best way to do it---Do you address the problem with Walmart, or would it be more prudent to address your concerns with the courts, the legislatures, and the executive arm of government---This program includes---1. The World View in 5 Minutes with Adam McManus -Religious Liberty Loses at US Supreme Court Again, Sweden Success Case for COVID-19, Bible Now in 700 Languages---2. Generations with Kevin Swanson

And I said “When I needed you most, you left me.” "My precious child, I love you and will never leave you. Never, ever, during your trials and testings. But When you saw only one set of footprints, it was because I jumped over your punk-ass and dunked on you from the half court line. Get your defense together, my child.” Zach advocates for Jeff Foxworthy’s editing skills, Jared makes a bad salt joke, and Adam compares the podcast to the Bible. Talking Points Include: Maybe Seals?, My Room Mate Would Love This, Pacing Sins, Creative Cloud: Your Forever Friend, Punch-Up the Jeff, Jesus is a Fox Main, Let the Lord Dunk on You, Digimon is Bible Now, No Aslan Jokes Here

God is an amazing God. A loving God. But there's a side to Him that we don't like to think too much about. It's the angry God. The God of judgement and wrath. But if we don't get our mind around that side of Him, then the good news of Jesus – well there's nothing good about the news.   Why Sin is a Four Letter Word Now, something that strikes me as I look around the world in which we live, is that we live in a world where just about anything goes. Even in my short life time – just on half a century, which, in the overall scheme of history, is like a drop in the ocean – things have changed radically. Let me give you just one example. When I was a young man, a woman falling pregnant outside marriage was a great matter of shame. Today it's a life style choice that many women make. Many, many couples choose to live together without making the commitment of marriage. And just in case you think I am plucking that out of the air, the statistics tells us that, in Australia at least, co-habitation before marriage has increased – wait for this – from eighteen percent of couples in 1975 to almost sixty percent today. It's gone from being the exception, to being more the norm. Just the way things are these days. You know, sometimes you hear people thumping the table, telling us how bad things are these days, "Now like the good old days when I was young." The implication is that this younger generation is, well, you know, they have no discipline or standards and if only things were like they were back in the "good old days". The problem is, the "good old days" weren't really that good. Husbands still beat their wives back in the "good old days". Children were still abused back in the "good old days". Bad things still happened back in the "good old days" too – let's be honest. So the last thing under the sun that I want to be doing is suggesting that we somehow turn the clock back, so that things will be fine again – just like they were in the "good old days" - because we can't turn the clock back and even if we could, things weren't necessarily so grand back in the "good old days". And there is a reason for that because from the moment that Adam and Eve took their first bite of that "apple" from that one tree … the "one" tree in that beautiful, abundant, peaceful garden, of which God said, “Don't eat the fruit of that tree,” from that moment there has been this thing in the world called “sin”. Let's go to the story – Genesis chapter 3, beginning at verse 1 – if you have a Bible: Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden'?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.' But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.” Now, you see things have changed in this world. We live in a world where anything goes, right? Well, just about anything! Many a moral standard of yesteryear seems old fashioned and irrelevant and, to many, downright offensive. We are a whole bunch more relaxed about things these days, compared with the rigid old rules of the past century. So this notion of sin; this rebelling against God; this Adam and Eve thing, well, it seems like an outdated throwback from the 1950s. It feels, well, completely irrelevant in the enlightened age in which we live, doesn't it? And there are some things from the past, the way women were treated like chattels almost, for instance, that were terrible. Still happens in places around the world today. Or treating people differently because of their skin colour or their nationality. So many flaws and faults in these rigid rules from the past, to be sure and that … that's why the short, three letter word, "sin" is something of a four letter word these days – a dirty word, a nasty word, a word that implies moral judgement against the standards of the rigid and flawed rules of our childhood. But I'm not so much talking about that; about man-made rules. The thing … the thing that ushered pain and suffering into this world was our rebellion against God, starting with Adam and Eve in the garden. Read on to chapter 3 of that Book of Genesis and we find that there were some serious consequences to their actions, beyond what we just read. So whilst "sin" is a word that seems to carry, well, a lot of baggage around with it, it speaks of our rebellion against God and that word ‘sin' as it's used in the Bible, means literally "to miss the mark; to miss the whole point; to miss out on your share". And that's the consequence of our rebellion against God. It's not this thing that there are a whole bunch of rigid religious rules that you and I have to follow in order to make it into heaven. That's not it at all. The point is that God is a God who loves us. He loves you, He loves me beyond anything we can imagine love to be. Writes the Apostle Paul to his friends, in Ephesians chapter 3, beginning at verse 18: I pray that you may have the power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. He loves you so much, more than words can ever say – beyond understanding – and when we turn our backs on Him; when you and I decide to live our lives our way; when we adopt this "anything goes" attitude; when we decide we can eat the fruit off any tree, there are consequences. I mean these: eat too much of the wrong thing and it will ruin your health; work too hard for too long, without rest and it will ruin your life; play too hard; drink too hard, it will ruin your health and your relationships. Cause and effect! Come on! It's not rocket science – it's as plain as the nose on your face and mine. And with Adam and Eve, there was cause and effect – there are consequences. As much as we try and kid ourselves; as much as we try to tell ourselves that we can have anything and be anything and do anything – "It'll be okay" – we know it's a lie and we know there are always consequences. You and I, we've been duped into thinking that "sin" is some old fashioned, irrelevant, religious word from the past, when all along it's the greatest malady of our lives. When all along that rebellion is robbing us of the fruit of a good and healthy relationship with God; a God who loves us so much that He sent us His only Son that whoever believes in Him wouldn't perish but instead, would have eternal life.   Sowing and Reaping Now, this word "righteousness", well, it's not a word that we use so much these days, in common, day to day language. Self-righteousness maybe, is the only time that we really hear the word. So what is it, why does it matter and why does it produce a harvest? Well, it turns out that this whole "righteousness" thing is a matter of cause and effect. I guess we pretty much understand the word "right", telling right from wrong. At least, we think we do. If it's right, it's right; if it's wrong, it's wrong. Not so much black and white these days; lots of shades of grey there between what people consider to be right and wrong, particularly the wealthier nations and their peoples become, the more focused we become on ourselves rather than on other people around us, that line between right and wrong, well, it's a bit like the shifting sands. Nevertheless, I guess we all have a sense of right and wrong. But the word "righteousness" is something of a legal term – it has to do with the law and in the sense of God's righteousness, it has to do with God's law, which we find in the Old Testament. Best way I have found to understand it is in terms of our law today. Let's say someone does something wrong, whether it's a minor traffic infringement or a murder. Once we have done that and it's proven, we stand condemned by the law. By and large, so long as justice is done, we don't have a problem with that – we understand that we have to stop people from speeding their cars, right through to murdering other people. So, we do something wrong and as the saying goes, we find ourselves on "the wrong side of the law". And then there is a debt to be paid – whether it's a hundred dollar speeding fine or twenty five years in prison for murdering. The law demands justice. That justice acts both as a penalty and, hopefully, as a deterrent but it also gives society justice. If a loved one of ours is killed by a drunk driver, let's say, and that drunk driver is tried and convicted and given a fifty dollar fine, then we don't experience a sense of justice. On the other hand, if that drunk driver is locked up for some number of years - whilst that doesn't bring our loved one back - our sense of justice is satisfied. But here's the thing: once the penalty or the debt has been paid by the transgressor, whatever you and I may think of them, they are free because they now have a right standing according to the law. A murderer, after serving that term in prison, walks out of that gate a free man or a free woman with precisely the same standing according to the law that you and I have. They have served their time; they have paid their debt to society and they are now back on the right side of the law. In a legal sense, they stand justified and here it is; here's the word "righteousness" – they are back in a right standing with the law that makes them "righteousness". That's what righteousness means – to be in the right standing with the law. So, if we do something wrong, it causes us pain, let alone the pain it causes other people because we find ourselves on the wrong side of the law. Once we take our punishment and serve our dues, we are then righteous again in the eyes of the law. Cause and effect. And it's like that with our relationship with God and in life generally. And it's something that the Apostle Paul talks about with his friends at the church in Galatia, back in the First Century AD. Have a look with me at Galatians chapter 6, beginning at verse 7. He says this: Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you will reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up. In other words, stop kidding yourself; stop trying to get around God. Whatever you sow, you are going to reap. Cause and effect! Sow rubbish, you will reap rubbish; sow goodness, you will reap goodness. So even though things can be tough; even though sometimes if feels as though the world is against us; even though it feels sometimes that nothing … absolutely nothing is going our way – sow goodness; don't grow tired in doing that – sow goodness. Sow in God's direction; sow in God's way and just at the right time, you will reap a harvest; the harvest of righteousness. Sowing and reaping. Now there is more to this whole "righteousness" thing than what we do. There is some bad news about righteousness and some good news; great news; fantastic news and we are going to be checking those out next week on the programme. But right now I guess, in a world where the maxim of our day is that pretty much anything goes, I just felt today that we need to debunk that lie; it's a patent lie. "Do what feels good! Anything goes, it'll be fine!" No it won't, because there's cause and effect. Get drunk, hop in your car, knock over a pedestrian – there are consequences – cause and effect. “And as you sow, so shall you reap”. Sow goodness and will reap the harvest; the abundant blessing of righteousness; the right standing with God – a God who loves us beyond anything that we can say in words – a God who wants to bless our socks off. The thing that I want to encourage you with today is this: that doing "good" doesn't always feel good. Let me say that again, it's important: doing "good" doesn't always feel good; loving the unlovable, turning the other cheek, putting others before ourselves. In fact, often it's tough and it hurts and we want to give up – it's all too hard. But we reap what we sow: that the universal, godly principle. As you sow, so shall you reap. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right for we will reap at harvest-time if we do not give up. And that harvest is the abundant harvest of righteousness – a blessing from God that is absolutely, beyond anything we can imagine right now.   The Wrath of God Now, in the coming weeks we are going to be talking quite a bit about the harvest that Paul is talking about and we have been talking about today – the harvest of righteousness. But today there is something else that we need to chat about first: it's the alternative to this wonderful harvest of righteousness. It's one hell of a subject, but if I didn't talk about it, then I wouldn't be doing my job. The word "wrath" appears through the Bible some 266 times and most of the times it is used, it's talking about the wrath of God. Now, I know that pretty much, we don't want to hear about God's anger and God's wrath towards those who have rebelled against Him. I know that and I know that first instincts are to reach for the dial and turn this guy off or change stations – I know that too. But I want to encourage you not to do that because this short bit about the wrath of God may be the most important thing that you will ever, ever hear. So stick with me, even though it feels a little bit uncomfortable right now. God is really, really clear about His impending wrath and that word "wrath" means this: anger which will manifest itself in the form of punishment. And He is also really clear about what things kindle His wrath. Come with me to Colossians chapter 3, beginning a verse 5: Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life. But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, vengeance, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. Here's the amazing thing: I used to think that God was just one big long list of religious rules – do this, don't do that. And to be sure, I grew up in a religious tradition that was very much rule based. But the more I read of what God has to say in His Word; the more I go to the source and find exactly what He has to say, the thing I discover is that there are actually very, very few things that God says to us, “Don't do.” Very few! Look at the list that Paul gives us here: You must get rid of such things - anger, vengeance, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another … There are a few others too but actually not many and they are all things that are blatantly wrong. And they are all things that obviously have painful consequences in our lives – right? Why is it we kid ourselves and say, "Well, you know, being a Christian is hard – all these things I'm not allowed to do and I'm not allowed to have any fun?" That's not what it says! The only things about which God says, “Don't do them", are the ones that are going to hurt us and hurt others. And – listen to this – if you and I persist in doing them, then eventually - even though God is slow to anger; even though He is merciful; even though He is a God of grace - eventually His wrath is going to fall on us. It's a simple message and it's a message I feel God wants us to hear today. Galatians chapter 5, beginning at verse 19: Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. These are blindingly, glimpsingly obvious! Hello!! Do you get it? Keep doing these things in stiff necked opposition to what I am telling you and you will not inherit the Kingdom of God. It's that simple! And this alternative to the harvest of righteousness; this not inheriting the Kingdom of God is a frightening prospect because the alternative is living the rest of eternity in the wrath of God – God's anger and God's punishment. Listen to the contrast … the sharp, stark contrast between the eternities reserved for those who worship - in effect – the devil, or the beast, as he is called in this passage I am about to read to you, through their rebellion against God, verses those who worship God, through His Son, Jesus Christ. It's written in kind of picture language, so let God's Word paint for you the picture. Revelation chapter 14, verses 9 to 13: Then another angel, a third, followed them, crying with a loud voice, “Those who worship the beast and its image, and receive a mark on their foreheads or on their hands, they will also drink the wine of God's wrath, poured unmixed into the cup of his anger, and they will be tormented with fire and sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image and for anyone who receives the mark of its name.” Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to the faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labours, for their deeds will follow them.” John Lennon in his famous song “Imagine” sang these words: Imagine there's no Heaven, It's easy if you try, No hell below us, above us only sky, Imagine all the people, living for today … Well, there are many people imagining that. There are many people living just for today. But one day … one day they will be greatly disappointed – Jesus made that abundantly clear: Matthew chapter 10, verse 28: Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Friend, God is a wonderful God, He has a fantastic plan for your life. It's a plan for us to live in His blessing from this point on and for all eternity. That's why He sent Jesus, His Son, to pay for our sin so that when we put our trust in Him, we can be forgiven and have this new life; this eternal life. But listen to me; please listen carefully: if we reject Jesus; if we reject God; if we reject the One whom He sent to suffer for you and me, that our sin would be paid for in full – if we reject Him, there is an alternative. That alternative is an eternal separation from God; it is an eternal torment. It goes on for ever and ever. I can't state it anymore plainly than that. I implore you, don't reject Jesus. God sent Him in His great love to save you and to save me.

There is much for us to model and learn within the chapter, but first, I’d like to situate the chapter: 1 Corinthians 12 outlines the spiritual gifts and the need for unity. In this chapter we find the significance of the unity of the spirit in vs. 4-7 and then a listing of the gifts:The word of wisdom, the word of knowledge,faith, healing, miracles,prophecy, discernment, tongues andinterpretation of tongues.We find in vs. 12 the importance of understanding that although we are each members of the Body of Christ, "For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many are one body, so also is Christ." Chapter 14 is about the operationalizing of the gifts and the order of the church in its conduct.Chapter 13, then, is the bridgebetween receiving Spiritual gifts and using them.In other words, Spiritual gifts used without loveare not useful to us and don’t edify God.Perhaps this is why Paul begins the chapter with such a strong voice. “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.”He goes on to mention prophecy, faith, knowledge, and by implication the rest of the gifts, and even socially responsible good deeds like “bestow all my goods to feed the poor,” but “have not love, it profits me nothing.”To say we belong to Christ and yet act without love is to act outside,or better said, in contradiction to the way God acts.Thus, we cannot use the gifts of the spirit and do so outside of love.Love is the bridge we need to put our gifts in motion in the world and not have our efforts sound like a clanging cymbal;in other words, if we want to make love, not noise, act out of love!!!Love is what God wants from us.To love Him and to love one another.So, in this time of COVID-19 let us remember some of the hallmarks of1 Corinthians 13.Love is patient.Love is kind.Love “does not rejoice in inequity but rejoices in truth.” Love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.LOVE NEVER FAILS!!!Let us remember that as we find our footing in this current moment that we have much to believe in and hope for. And yes, we must endure this change, but in doing so we have an opportunity to give God glory and honor by being love…by being kind to those we are cooped up in the house with!!By reaching out often to family and friends.By being patient with others and ourselves. The chapter ends with one of the most powerful axioms of the Bible:“Now abide faith, hope, love these three;but the greatest of these is love.” With the love of God in our heartsWith the words of God on our lipsWith the wisdom of God in our actsWe shine forth in the love that endures all things andbrings light to a shattered, darkened world. Let your love shine!!!

Today's Bible Readings in the RMM Bible Reading Plan are from Genesis 3, Ezra 3, Matthew 3 and Acts 3. Our focus passage is Genesis 3, which is all about the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden. Encouraging Quote of the Day from Tim Keller, " In the beginning of history, it was a disaster. Adam and Eve, garden of Eden … What happens? Sin, Serpent … you know the story. Everything is horrible. Death, destruction, evil. Everything is horrible, except there's a glimmer of hope. Do you know what it is? It's a promise. In Genesis 3:15, God says, “I promise that one descendant of Eve is someday going to bruise the head of the Serpent and destroy evil. I promise.” Scroll forward to centuries later. God starts talking to Abraham. He says, “I'm going to save the world through your descendants.” One night Abraham says, “But how can I be sure?” In Genesis 15, God shocks Abraham (and anybody who understands what he's doing in Genesis 15) when he appears and passes between the pieces of a dead animal and says, “I will save the world through one of your descendants, even if it means I have to die.” A second promise. Then, years and years later, Jesus Christ comes into the world, and he's a man of complete integrity. He always means what he says, always says what he means. Absolute integrity. At the very end, in the ultimate act of integrity, he sets his face like a flint to go to Jerusalem, and he goes to the cross. Why? He's fulfilling his promise. He's fulfilling the promise of God, and everything is before him. Everything comes down. Everything opposes him. Hell itself comes down, and he says, “No, I've made a promise,” and he goes to the cross and dies for us. You've been saved by the integrity of Jesus. You've been saved by the promise keeping of Jesus Christ. That should humble us away from ever using truth against people, but, on the other hand, it convinces us there is a truth. We can't be relativists at all. It destroys our fear of telling the truth. Therefore, O friends, look at the integrity of Jesus. Look at what he did for you on the cross, and become people of integrity." Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013). Question of the day: What is the Protoevangelium (A.K.A. Protoevangelion/Protoeuangelion? The word protoevangelium (or protevangelion) simply means "first good news," or "first gospel." Genesis 3 is the worst news in the Bible, really. Up until the Fall in the Garden, things were going pretty great. There was no sickness, death, depression, strife, anxiety, body image issues, or anything like that. Adam and Eve were naked and unashamed - which means they had a level of transparency with each other that went far beyond whether or not they wore clothing. Everything changed, however, when Eve was tempted by the serpent Satan, and Adam stood idly by doing nothing. They both disobeyed God and sin, death, anxiety, fear, and more entered the world. Prior to this, God walked in the garden face to face with humans, but after this, there was a large gulf of separation between God and man. Bad, bad news - almost the entire chapter...except for one tiny glimmer of hope. We see it in Genesis 3:15: I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel. - Genesis 3:15, CSB In that one little passage, where God is pronouncing divine punishment on the serpent Satan, there is a promise: Somebody is coming to crush the head of the enemy. Who was the offspring of the woman Eve? Ultimately, this passage is looking forward to the coming of Jesus, the savior. Why did Jesus come? 1 John 3:8 tells us that Jesus came to "destroy the work of the devil." How did he accomplish this? The answer is in Hebrews 2 (and many other places in the Bible): " Now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through his death he might destroy the one holding the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death. " The sinless Jesus - Himself innocent, but dying on the cross to pay the price of sin, crushed the head of Satan - the devil - by this act of self-sacrifice. He utterly defeated Satan - the one holding the power of death- by His resurrection, which was a tremendous triumph. Because of Jesus' victory here - all who look to Him in wholehearted believing faith will be saved and set free from all fear of death, because death and Satan no longer have any hold on them. The is the Protoevangelion - the first good news.

Today's Bible Readings in the RMM Bible Reading Plan are from Genesis 3, Ezra 3, Matthew 3 and Acts 3. Our focus passage is Genesis 3, which is all about the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden. Encouraging Quote of the Day from Tim Keller, " In the beginning of history, it was a disaster. Adam and Eve, garden of Eden … What happens? Sin, Serpent … you know the story. Everything is horrible. Death, destruction, evil. Everything is horrible, except there's a glimmer of hope. Do you know what it is? It's a promise. In Genesis 3:15, God says, “I promise that one descendant of Eve is someday going to bruise the head of the Serpent and destroy evil. I promise.” Scroll forward to centuries later. God starts talking to Abraham. He says, “I'm going to save the world through your descendants.” One night Abraham says, “But how can I be sure?” In Genesis 15, God shocks Abraham (and anybody who understands what he's doing in Genesis 15) when he appears and passes between the pieces of a dead animal and says, “I will save the world through one of your descendants, even if it means I have to die.” A second promise. Then, years and years later, Jesus Christ comes into the world, and he's a man of complete integrity. He always means what he says, always says what he means. Absolute integrity. At the very end, in the ultimate act of integrity, he sets his face like a flint to go to Jerusalem, and he goes to the cross. Why? He's fulfilling his promise. He's fulfilling the promise of God, and everything is before him. Everything comes down. Everything opposes him. Hell itself comes down, and he says, “No, I've made a promise,” and he goes to the cross and dies for us. You've been saved by the integrity of Jesus. You've been saved by the promise keeping of Jesus Christ. That should humble us away from ever using truth against people, but, on the other hand, it convinces us there is a truth. We can't be relativists at all. It destroys our fear of telling the truth. Therefore, O friends, look at the integrity of Jesus. Look at what he did for you on the cross, and become people of integrity." Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013). Question of the day: What is the Protoevangelium (A.K.A. Protoevangelion/Protoeuangelion? The word protoevangelium (or protevangelion) simply means "first good news," or "first gospel." Genesis 3 is the worst news in the Bible, really. Up until the Fall in the Garden, things were going pretty great. There was no sickness, death, depression, strife, anxiety, body image issues, or anything like that. Adam and Eve were naked and unashamed - which means they had a level of transparency with each other that went far beyond whether or not they wore clothing. Everything changed, however, when Eve was tempted by the serpent Satan, and Adam stood idly by doing nothing. They both disobeyed God and sin, death, anxiety, fear, and more entered the world. Prior to this, God walked in the garden face to face with humans, but after this, there was a large gulf of separation between God and man. Bad, bad news - almost the entire chapter...except for one tiny glimmer of hope. We see it in Genesis 3:15: I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel. - Genesis 3:15, CSB In that one little passage, where God is pronouncing divine punishment on the serpent Satan, there is a promise: Somebody is coming to crush the head of the enemy. Who was the offspring of the woman Eve? Ultimately, this passage is looking forward to the coming of Jesus, the savior. Why did Jesus come? 1 John 3:8 tells us that Jesus came to "destroy the work of the devil." How did he accomplish this? The answer is in Hebrews 2 (and many other places in the Bible): " Now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through his death he might destroy the one holding the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death. " The sinless Jesus - Himself innocent, but dying on the cross to pay the price of sin, crushed the head of Satan - the devil - by this act of self-sacrifice. He utterly defeated Satan - the one holding the power of death- by His resurrection, which was a tremendous triumph. Because of Jesus' victory here - all who look to Him in wholehearted believing faith will be saved and set free from all fear of death, because death and Satan no longer have any hold on them. The is the Protoevangelion - the first good news.

6 practical steps to start studying the Bible NOW.

Rapp Report Daily 466 Why Should We Believe the Bible? Why should we believe the Bible? Now there are many who are going to argue that we should not believe the Bible. There are those who try to argue that the Bible is full of errors. It's been corrupted and changed, and we don't really know what the Bible is. We could deal with those on later podcasts. But the question, why should we believe the Bible? Many will say that the reason Christians believe the Bible is because the Bible tells them to believe the Bible, and that's circular logic and therefore bad logic. And we shouldn't believe the Bible because it's based on circular logic. Is that why we should believe the Bible? No. Now, circular logic is not always bad. It depends on whether it is a vicious circular cycle or not. But that aside, we're actually not dealing with that question. Why should we believe the Bible for a very simple reason? The Author of the Bible cannot lie. The Author of the Bible is always good. These are the reasons we believe in the Bible. It is not because what the Bible says about Itself, that we believe the Bible. It is because of Who the Author is of the Bible. God is the Author! God cannot lie. God is good. God is omniscient. Therefore we can trust what God says because God who cannot lie and knows all things wrote this book. Therefore, it is going to be without error in its original writing and trustworthy. Enter the Christian Podcast Community contest This podcast is a ministry of Striving for Eternity and all our resources strivingforeternity.org Listen to other podcasts on the Christian Podcast Community: ChristianPodcastCommunity.org Support Striving for Eternity at http://StrivingForEternity.org/donate Please review us on iTunes http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/rapp-report/id1353293537 Give us your feedback, email us info@StrivingForEternity.org Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/StrivingForEternity Join the conversation in our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/326999827369497 Watch subscribe to us on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/StrivingForEternity Get the book What Do They Believe at http://WhatDoTheyBelieve.com Get the book What Do We Believe at http://WhatDoWeBelieveBook.com

We've been asking and exploring questions like "why does the culture need the Bible?" and "why does the church need the Bible?" Now, as we wrap up our concept series, “Why the Bible” (and prepare for the Journey 2020!), let’s take a look at why you/we personally need the Bible. Chad’s got 10 great reasons for you this week.

We've been asking and exploring questions like "why does the culture need the Bible?" and "why does the church need the Bible?" Now, as we wrap up our concept series, “Why the Bible” (and prepare for the Journey 2020!), let’s take a look at why you/we personally need the Bible. Chad’s got 10 great reasons for you this week.

A PRIEST and an INMATE to take down SECRET SOCIETY started with rejected pages from THE BIBLE Now a changed man behind bars, and about to meet his maker a DEATH ROW INMATE works with a PRIEST, and THE GHOST, to expose the leader of a SECRET SOCIETY started years ago, with the original writings that were rejected for THE BIBLE upon its creation, information the VATICAN has been searching for, for years.

Respected Biblical scholar Shawna Dolansky discusses the most controversial aspects of the Bible and her new book The Bible Now (with Richard Elliot Friedman).

I. Introduction: The Bible Triumphs Over all Challenges Please turn in your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 3. We're going to be looking at Verses 14-17. It's hard to tell you the joy I have in my heart this morning as I get to preach, not just from the Bible, but about the Bible today, because these four verses contain some of the most incredible truths in all of scripture about the origin and the purpose and effectiveness of the Word of God, which I love so much. And so it's going to be a privilege and I've come at it a lot of different ways. When I first looked through this sermon, my sermon is about 55 minutes long, so I've worked on it and we've got it down a little shorter. There's an awful lot that the scripture says about this. And as I look with an eye of a trained church historian, over the last 2000 years, remember last week, we discussed that we are now, presently, in the last days, in the final days now, and that through that 2000 years of development, there has been a struggle, the advance of the Gospel powerfully, but also a resistance against the Gospel, powerfully. And we've seen that that advance of the Gospel has been irresistible. Nothing can stop it, but one of the main battle grounds in that advance has been this book, which we call the Bible. Is this book a human book, a book written by people about their experiences about God, their feelings about God, or is this what scripture says it is, the God-breathed scripture, the word of God, which comes down to challenge and to test and to strengthen us and to give us eternal life? Well, you already know what I believe. But it's fascinating to see how Satan has opposed this book and how vigorously, like a lion, he has sought to destroy it. But he's broken his fangs against this rock and there's nothing he can do about it. In the mid 1700s, Voltaire, who was a French atheist, rationalist, felt that we had come so far in our understanding of truth, in our ability to reason things out that we would no longer need religion, and we would no longer need the Bible. And he said, within 100 years, no one will read the Bible. It will be obsolete. That means by 1850 or so, the Bible should have been obsolete, and yet here we are, reading the Scripture, wanting to know what it has to say. The irony of the whole thing is that God sovereignly orchestrated it that a group called the Geneva Bible Society bought Voltaire's house 50 years after he died. And do you know what they did from his house? They published the Scriptures in the French language and distributed them. Isn't that marvelous? God has an amazing sense of humor about those kind of thing, to establish His word powerfully. Voltaire is in his grave and the Word of God lives. If it had been the first time it ever happened in history, we would just dismiss it perhaps as an anomaly. But in the year 303 AD, an emperor, Diocletian, issued a similar kind of attitude, only he had power to put behind it. He said, "What we need to do is we've got to stop the spread of Christianity. It's just too powerful. It's advancing too quickly. We've got to destroy the churches and we've got to burn their scriptures." And so, that's what Diocletian sought to do. The irony about that is 25 years later, another emperor, Constantine, gave an edict that the Scripture should be published at the expense of the Roman government, and distributed to people, 25 years later. Diocletian in his grave, the Word of God continues to live. But in the 20th Century, there's been a battle over the Scripture, and that battle has had its effect. 100 years ago, the strongest denominations in our country were the Baptists, the Presbyterians, and the Methodists. All of them growing about at the same rate, in different levels of vigorousness, but all of them preaching the Gospel and growing. Today, that's really only true with the Baptist denomination. Presbyterians and Methodists have seen a tremendous decline in numbers. They all say it. They don't know why, but I think we do. It's because they turn their back on the authority of Scripture. And in this 20th century, those churches have continued to shrink, they continued to diminish. Any church, any denomination which turns its back on the authority of the Word of God, turns its back on its own future. There is no future for a group that says that this is a human document, because God has said in Psalm 138:2, "I have exalted above all things my name and my word." And a church, like First Baptist, which exalts God's name and exalts His Word will continue to flourish and grow so it's a joy and a privilege to be able to do just that today. Now, we've looked at 2 Timothy and we've seen how Paul was trying to get young Timothy ready for a position of leadership and authority in the Gospel ministry. Getting him ready, telling him, "Timothy, fan up that gift, that flame that's in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but a spirit of courage, of boldness, of advance, of power through the Holy Spirit." So don't be ashamed. Don't be ashamed of the Gospel. Don't be ashamed of Jesus, but preach it boldly. And then in Chapter 2, we saw that God has a structure, an organization. He's going to give us a multiplying ministry. He's going to show us that if we take new Christians and train them up in the faith, bring them to faith in Christ, train them up and send them out as evangelists, the church is going to accelerate and grow, and that's the very thing that's happened. So, in 2:15 he told him to give himself to becoming proficient at the scripture. That was a theme, a topic that he opened up but didn't fully develop. He develops it now in Chapter 3, Verses 14-17. So listen as I read these words. "But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it 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 man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." II. Charge to Timothy: Continue in the Faith (vs. 14-15) It's just four verses. How in the world can you come up with 55 minutes worth of things to say in four verses? Well, you'd be amazed at what we can do. The marvel of these verses is it shows the divine origin and the purpose and the effectiveness of Scripture in such a short list of words. He begins by saying in Verse 13, "Evil men and impostors are going to go from bad to worse. Deceiving and being deceived." So the kind of a sinful evil progress being made by those who are false teachers, they're going to go from bad to worse. "But you, Timothy, you also have to make a progress in the other direction. You need to continue in what you have learned and become convinced of." Continue on. The Christian life is a life of continuing, it's not a life of a static nature, where we come into a faith in Christ, and just stay where we are. It's not like that at all. When I was in high school, I ran cross-country. We used to go down to the New England sand and gravel pits. It was a place full of mounds of sand and stones, and we used to run up the sand hills, maybe 50 or 60 feet high. It was a great workout, very exhausting. You go up to the top and back down three or four times and you're done, you're finished, because of the energy it would take. But one thing we found is that if you didn't continue to keep your momentum up, if you slowed down or even stopped, you'd slide back down the hill. You had to keep moving up until you reached your goal. That's the way the Christian life is. You have to keep moving ahead. You have to keep making progress. You don't stay the same. If you stop, you slide back. You have to keep making progress. "Timothy, continue in what you've learned." And why should he continue? It's because "you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you've known the Holy Scripture." So he brings up the issue of godly doctrine, which he got from the Scripture, and godly teachers, both. The Christian life is a joining together of lives of people who have learned the doctrine, pouring it out into the lives of others who haven't yet. "Timothy, you can trust your teachers. Not like these false teachers that we've seen, but trusted teachers, teachers you know well." Well, he says, "How from infancy, you have known the scripture." So who are the first teachers for Timothy? Timothy’s First teachers: His Mother and Grandmother Well, we already met them in Chapter one. If you look at 1:5, we are introduced to Lois and Eunice. Do you remember Lois and Eunice? They were Timothy's grandmother and mother. And so from infancy, Lois and Eunice trained Timothy in the Hebrew Scriptures. Well, where was Timothy's father? Why did he abdicate his position of training and responsibility? Well, he wasn't a believer. He turned his back on his family. He was in Greek, he wasn't even a Jew. And so he didn't take the scripture and teach Timothy, but Lois and Eunice, they did. They were faithful and they taught Timothy the Scripture, from infancy. Isn't that a marvelous thing? I heard an illustration of this once, which is so powerful. It's the illustration of a young boy who saw a mystery on his grandfather's mantle above his fireplace. And you know what it was? It was a bottle with a narrow neck and a full grown apple inside of it. And that boy used to pick up that apple, or that bottle, and he'd look around. You know what he's looking for? A kind of a seam or something where the apple, or the bottle had been cut, and then rejoined. But he didn't find it. It was a perfect bottle with a full grown apple inside. There's no way the apple could have fit through that narrow neck. The grandfather would just look and smile and as he puzzled over it and he couldn't figure out how the apple got inside that bottle. He said, "Well, granddad, I don't know how. How did you do it?" He said, "Come with me." So he brought him out to an orchard nearby. And on the tree, it was early in the season, on the tree, there was a bottle with a twig stuck up inside the bottle. And the sunlight would come through that glass and the apple would grow up inside the bottom. That's the way it was with Timothy. At an early age, he was trained in the Scripture. It's the best way to do it. You get your children at an early age and you teach them the Bible. And that's what happened with Timothy. But then, at just the right time, along comes the Apostle Paul and he completes the young man's training. Timothy had been trained in Scripture, but He didn't know yet about the Messiah Jesus. And it was Paul, we believe, who led him to Christ. And it was Paul who placed his hands on him and gave him the gift of the Holy Spirit. It was Paul who nurtured and trained him and he said, "Come along with me and watch, and I'll train you." And it was Paul who completed that young man's training. He said, "You know those from whom you learned this doctrine. You know it. You know you can trust us. They are false teachers, but we are true." But better than that is the security that comes from knowing the fact that this doctrine comes from the sacred Scriptures. It says in Verse 15, "How from infancy, you have known the Holy Scriptures." It's a sacred writing, this a good way to translate it. It's referring to the Old Testament Scripture. III. The Origin of Scripture And that brings us right to the heart of the matter, the doctrine of Scripture. And Paul launches in, in Verse 16, and he says, "All Scripture is God-breathed." This is the origin of Scripture. Where does it come from? Where do we get this? Where's it come from? Don't you ever wonder that? And so, when you're a little child, you're always asking, "Where does that come from? What's this, Mommy?" Etcetera. You have a questioning heart and you want to know where something comes from. When you grow up, you know everything already. Well, no, you don't. That's when you stop learning, when you think you know everything. The question is, where does this come from, this Bible? Well, according to Paul, all Scripture is God-breathed, it comes from God. But we have to go back to the origin of the written Word of God. Do you know what the first written Scripture was? Think about it. What's the first written Scripture? It was the 10 Commandments. Do you remember? And we believe Moses wrote Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, but when did he write it? He wrote it while I think he had time, while they're wandering in the desert. He had all this time on his hands, and he started writing Genesis. So the first Scripture happened before that, at Mount Sinai. You know who wrote it down? It was God himself who wrote it down. Exodus 31:18 says, "When the Lord had finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, He gave him the two tablets of the testimony." That's the 10 Commandments. "The tablets of stone, inscribed by the finger of God." Do you ever wonder what God's autograph would look like? How God made his letters? Well, there it was. The first written Scripture is written by the finger of God, The 10 Commandments. Do you remember what happened to that? Do we still have it as in a museum we can go see? Do you remember what happened? Moses took it and destroyed it, threw it down. Why? Because Israel was in idolatry. And just out of rage, he threw the tablets down. So God told Moses, make two more tables and you write it this time. And that right there, in a little picture, is what all the Scripture was about. God telling Moses what to write, Moses writing it down. And it went on from there. The prophets came along later. Jeremiah 1:9, Jeremiah was one of those prophets. Jeremiah 1:9, it says, "The Lord reached out His hand and touched my mouth, and said to me, 'Now, I have put my words in your mouth.'" That's what a prophet is, somebody whose words are put, God's words are put into his mouth and he speaks them. Well then, in Jeremiah 36:2, God gave him a job to do. He said, "Now, take a scroll and write down on the scroll all the words that I have spoken to you…" Jeremiah 36:2. All the words. It wasn't just that the word of God came, it was that the words of God came. God told Jeremiah everything to say. And Jeremiah said it, and he wrote it down. That's where we get the book of Jeremiah. And so, book by book, the Scripture got put together. All Scripture is God-breathed, it says. Two Key Questions for 2 Timothy 3:16 Now, we have to ask two key questions about 2 Timothy 3:16, one of the most important verses in all the Bible about Scripture. First of all, what scripture are we talking about? And second of all, what is being said about it? What was scripture to Timothy? Well, you would think that there wouldn't be any question about what Scripture. It says all Scripture. But some of the versions have re-translated this verse. The Revised Standard Version, for example, gives you a little footnote and gives you an alternate translation. It says, "Every Scripture inspired by God is useful for teaching." Do you see the change in word order? English is a word order language. And if you change the word order a little bit, all of a sudden, you've changed the meaning. Every Scripture that is inspired or every inspired Scripture, is useful. Do you know what that implies? Some of this isn't inspired. Well, how do we know? What are we going to do? Are we going to go through and try to find out which ones are the inspired ones? The ones in red. Now, those are Jesus' words, for those of you with the red letter edition. But the inspired ones, how do we find it? How are we going to tell? What mechanism, what... Is there an institution that can tell us which ones are inspired and which ones aren't? It's what I call the supermarket view of the Scripture. You get your cart, and you wander down through the aisles and you take some of this, and a little of that, some Psalm 23, maybe Psalm 51 when you need it, some other verses, and you just fill your cart and then you go out and you buy it and you leave. That's the supermarket view of Scripture. Some of it's useful, helpful, inspired, some of it isn't. We just kind of pick and choose. Is that what Paul is saying here? Absolutely not. It's a bad translation from the Greek language, because it omits the word "kai" which we translate "and". There are two things being said about Scripture here, not just one, two things. All Scripture is inspired, or God-breathed is a better translation, and useful or profitable. Two things being said, not just one. All Scripture. Alright. Well then, you say, "Okay well, let's be historical here." The New Testament wasn't even written yet, so Paul couldn't have been talking about the New Testament. Just the Old Testament. Well, Paul was talking about the Old Testament, but he knew that the doctrine that he was giving was straight from God, didn't he? Galatians 1, he said, "I want you to know, that the gospel I preach is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it. Rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ." And he knew that what he was teaching was the Word of God. 1 Thessalonians 2:13, he says, "We also thank God continually because when you receive the Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of man, but as it actually is, the Word of God which is at work in you who believe." In other words, Paul's saying, in all those words, "Thessalonians, the things I taught you are the word of God." How much more when they were written down. New Testament, Old Testament, all Scripture is God-breathed. Now, what does God-breathed mean? Inspired or Breathed-out by God? Some of you have the word inspired, I actually prefer God-breathed. Inspired gives the sense that something's being breathed into. For example, in Genesis 2, that God formed Adam's body out of the dust of the earth and breathed into him the breath of life. That's actually, I think, a faulty view of Scripture, as though the words are there and then God breathes into them and gives meaning to them. That's not the way it is at all. It says all Scripture is actually exhaled by God, breathed out. Paul coined a new word, and never been invented before, theopneustos. I'm not used to pronouncing Greek words to you but I'm going to give you this one. Theo is the word we get theology from. It means God. The pneustos, PN, is where we get pneumonia and all that, has to do with breathing, God breathed. All the words of Scripture are breathed out, exhaled by God. Exhaled. Isn't that powerful? It's a picture of God's creative activity. Well, how did it work? When a prophet like Paul would sit down to write, how would the Scripture work? How would it be exhaled by God? On 2 Peter Chapter 1, Peter gives a very good illustration of this. Turn, if you would, to 2 Peter 1:20 and 21. In 2 Peter 1, whereas, 2 Timothy 3:16 does not tell us the mechanism whereby we get the scripture, 2 Peter 1 does. And this is a fascinating verse, as Peter has the same attitude as Paul. And he says, "First of all, you must understand that no prophecy of scripture ever came about by the prophet's own interpretation, for prophesy never had its origin in the will of man. But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." If you're the kind of person who writes in your Bible, you should underline the word "carried along." If it's a pew Bible, don't do it. But if it's your own Bible, you can go ahead and do it. Carried along. The same Greek word is used in the Book of Acts by Luke, the historian. And he's talking about a shipwreck, in which Paul's ship was tossed and turned by a storm. And it says the same Greek word that the wind was too powerful and they struck the sails, they pulled up the sea anchor, and they let the ship be carried along by the wind. It was just too powerful. It's moving in one direction. They couldn't fight it. That's the way it was with the inspiration of the prophets as they wrote Scripture. The wind of the Spirit was carrying them along, moving them in a direction exactly where God wanted them to go. Mysterious process, but every word exhaled by God. Christ’s Attitude Toward Scripture Now, as I said, this has been a battle ground. People have battled over views of inspiration and all that sort of thing. I think the simplest thing is just to get to the heart of the matter. We're Christians, aren't we? We believe in Jesus Christ. We're disciples of Jesus. Let's just have the same attitude towards Scripture that Jesus does. So we agreed to do that. Let's come together as Christians. We're going to have the same attitude toward the Bible that Jesus does. Now, what attitude does Jesus have toward the Scripture? Well, in the Sermon on the Mount, he says, "Do not think that I've come to abolish the Law and the Prophets. I've not come to abolish them... " But to what? "Fulfill them." "I tell you the truth, until Heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen…" That's jot and tittle, for those of you with the King James. "Not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished." Very high view of Scripture Jesus had. We should have the same, don't you think? Now you say, is that just Law and Prophets, Old Testament? No. He said the same thing about his own words. "Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words... " Plural. "My words will never disappear." Where are his words recorded? Right here, New Testament. It's still going to be here when heaven and earth disappear, still be here. Isn't that powerful? We need to have the same attitude of Scripture, the origin of Scripture that Jesus did. Jesus was tempted out in the desert. Do you remember? The tempter came to him, and had been fasting 40 days and 40 nights. And what did he say? The temper came to him and said, "If you're the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." And Jesus, what did he do? He said, "No, I'm not going to do that." No, he didn't say that. He answered with what? With Scripture. He was teaching us how to deal with temptation. And he said, "It is written, 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God." Do you see how in concert Paul and Jesus are? Let's have the same attitude as Paul and Jesus. Every word of Scripture comes out of the mouth of God. This is not the word of man. This is the Word of God, written down for us to read. That is the origin of Scripture. IV. The Purpose of Scripture But what is the purpose of scripture? In verses 15-17, we see clearly the purpose. Now, what is Timothy's purpose? You remember Paul is committing to Timothy a ministry, isn't he? He's giving him a job to do. And what is that job? It is to make disciples for Jesus Chris. To take people who are lost, bring them into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, and build them up to spiritual maturity. That is the exact same purpose of Scripture. That's why the Scripture was given. Look at verse 15. "How from infancy you've known the Holy Scriptures... " Which are what? "Able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." The scriptures are given to make us wise for salvation. No one comes to faith in Christ, apart from the written word of God. The Scripture produces disciples for Christ. Wise for Salvation…Through Faith in Jesus Christ Now, what does it mean, wise for salvation? What it means or it implies that we are naturally what? Fools. And we really are. Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, the Proverbs says. Any of you who have children, you know what I mean. It's the Scripture that trains us out of our foolishness and brings us to a saving knowledge of Christ. It teaches us wisdom about God. Proverbs 1:7, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." It teaches us to fear the Lord, the Scripture does. It teaches us also wisdom about ourselves. We come to know ourselves through the Scripture. Psalm 51, that great confession psalm by King David. After he committed adultery with that Bathsheba, do you remember what he said? "Surely, I was sinful at birth. I was sinful from the time my mother conceived me." And listen to this, "Surely, you desire truth in the inner parts, you teach me wisdom in the inner place." Where does that wisdom come from about our sinfulness? It comes from Scripture. It teaches us also about the future. Well, what is the future? The future is an end, judgment. The wrath of God is coming, it says in Ephesians 5:5. Don't believe me, look it up. Ephesians 5:5, "Because of these things [the sinfulness of humanity] the wrath of God is coming." Well, the scripture teaches us wisdom about that wrath. Get ready. Prepare. Listen to this. Proverbs 22:3. I just found this one. This is great. "The wise man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple or the fool keeps going and suffers for it." The Scripture warns us that a judgment day is coming, and it gives us a refuge. And that's the ultimate wisdom of all. What is the refuge from the wrath of God? There's only one. There's only one Ark when the flood comes. There's only one place of safety. It's Jesus Christ. That is the wisdom of God. 1 Corinthians 1 says so. "We preach Christ crucified, Christ nailed to the cross, a stumbling block to Jews, foolishness to the Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God." The Scriptures are able to make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Well, what does that last phrase mean, "Through faith in Christ Jesus"? What it means is, if you don't have faith in Christ, you can't understand this message. There's millions of Bibles up on shelves today that have never been read. And if they were, they wouldn't be understood. And why? Because you need faith in Christ to understand the message. It's a faith and only the Holy Spirit can give. Perfect example of that, it was Jesus' enemies, the Pharisees. He said, "You diligently study the Scriptures, because you think that by the Scriptures, you possess eternal life." Just because you have the Scripture, you think have eternal life. "These scriptures that testify about me." Said Jesus. "The Bible is about me." You're going to get to know Jesus when you read the Bible, and he's going to save your soul if you have faith in Him. We could say that the purpose of Scripture is the salvation of souls. I was at a Baptist convention recently and a speaker got up, did a great job, but he said one thing that I wondered about. And he said, "The greatest tool for evangelism is love." That's not true. It isn't. There's lots of people who can be loving. A Hindu can be loving, a Muslim can be loving. I think it's important that Christians be loving to one another. They'll know we are Christians by our love. This is the greatest tool for evangelism. This is the sword that's sharp enough to cut away our sin, living and active. This is the tool for evangelism. That's what produces souls for Christ. But the purpose of Scripture is not just to make converts, but to make mature disciples. It says in verse 17, "That the man of God may be complete, or thoroughly equipped for every good work." The idea is maturity. We're not supposed to be babes. We're supposed to know the Bible. We're supposed to know it well. We're supposed to be mature, keep growing, like that sand pit. You're supposed to keep going higher and higher. If you don't, you slide back. It's the Scripture that's given to accomplish that maturity. You might be very old in years, but immature because you don't know the Scripture. You might be young in years, but more mature because you do. It all has to do with the knowledge of the Scripture. It's just that simple. It's not a matter of chronological years. It's a matter of knowing the Bible. V. The Effectiveness of the Bible Now, how does this discipleship, this completion project, how does it work? Well, the Scripture is profitable or useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. That's how. It tells us how it works. Four things. Two of them positive, we could say, and two of them negative. The positive are the first and fourth. Teaching and training in righteousness. The middle two are what we would call negative. Rebuking, and correcting. But all of it is necessary for maturity. The teaching part is how the Scripture gives us what to think about every topic. About prayer, about God, about salvation, heaven and hell, about time, about everything. That's the doctrine. The training and righteousness is a whole lifetime of training that brings us up from immaturity, to full maturity in Christ. It's a beautiful word. Well, what about those negative ones? I think it's hard for us sometimes to receive a rebuke. It really is, but the Scripture has rebuked me more times than I can count. It's the Scripture that comes in and causes that sting. "You're living wrong, Andy. You're doing something wrong." I like what Lewis Sperry Chafer said. He said, "The Bible is not such a book that man would write, if he could, or could write, if he would." In other words, we wouldn't write a Bible like this because it rebukes us too much. It's too honest about our sin. Well, what happens when that rebuke comes? Then comes the correction. I brought a little prop up here with me. I asked my son if I could borrow this. You know what this is, this little thing? If I spin it around, maybe you'll know. This is a gyroscope. Have you ever played with a gyroscope? I love these things. You pull them and then it goes up on a string and it just balances there. Well, when I went to MIT, I learned why. I'm not going to trouble you with all that but it has to do with rotational inertia. But the fact is, the neat thing about a gyroscope is it spins on its axis and it stays true to the axis no matter what's going on around it. And it turns out that this man, Elmer Sperry, you probably never heard of Elmer Sperry, have you? But you probably heard of the Sperry Rand Corporation. Well, he started Sperry Company and it was a gyroscope company. And what he said is, you can use a gyroscope for lots of things. Navigation, you can use it like a compass. But one thing I like, as I was reading through what gyroscopes can do, is that big ships use this. And they are arranged in such a way that if the ship leans too much, the gyroscope tells a computer and it sticks out these fins which right the ship back up. That's what Scripture does in a healthy Christian life. If you're leaning too much in one direction, the Scripture comes and corrects you back up. Isn't that beautiful? That's what it does for a church too. If a church is starting to lean in the wrong way, it's the Scripture that gets it back right up again. If the Scripture is not there at the heart of the church, though, it'll capsize and it'll sink because it all has to do with obedience to the Word of God. Well, so far, we've looked at the origin of Scripture, it's God-breathed, from the very mouth of God. We've looked at the purpose of Scripture. It's to make disciples and to bring them to maturity, through teaching, rebuking, correcting, training in righteousness. Is it effective? Does the Bible work? Does it produce what it seeks to produce? Absolutely. Yes, it does. Verse 15, it says that the Scripture is powerful, or able to make us wise for salvation, would be a good translation. Verse 16 says that the Scripture is profitable. It produces the outcome it seeks. I found in all Scripture, no better verse for this than Isaiah 55. "As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word which goes out from my mouth." Isn't that powerful? It goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish the purpose for which I sent it forth. The scripture is effective. It produces changes in lives. It's my prayer and my hope that there's someone here today who's never given their life to Jesus. The Scripture comes and warns you of a wrath that's coming and a judgment. Don't stand on Judgment Day with sin, but flee to Christ and trust in him. Let the Scripture today make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ. That maybe that there are some others who already believed in Jesus, but you've neglected your Bibles. You haven't given yourself to careful study of them, and so you haven't continued to make progress in your Christian life. Come back to the Scripture. Immerse your mind in it. Read it every day. These are not idle words for you, these are your life. Give yourself to study the Scripture.