This past week we started a new series of messages, Back to the Books. With schools up and running again, and with me being in Wilmore for the Beeson Pastor Program, I thought it might be a good idea for us as a church to "go back to the books," the Bible, that is. The word "Bible" comes from the Latin biblia sacra, meaning "holy books." We want to get back to the books so we can revisit who we are and what we are about as a church.
There are over six billion Bibles published and in print in the world. A good number of those are in English. The Bible is the most popular book in the world and the most popular book in North America. I wonder, sometimes, if it is among the least read? Then there's the problem of a lot of the people who do actually read it, read it through the distorted lens of religion and lord it over those who don't.
The Bible is the Word of God. It "is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12-13 ESV). We come before the Word to be examined and used by it, not vice versa. But if you're not reading it, or if you're reading it with a religious agenda, you will never benefit from it nor will you be a benefit to the Kingdom of God.
If you're reading this in Lexington, Kentucky, I invite you to a new Bible Study I will be leading beginning 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, September 16th at Christ Church, on the corner of Man 'O War and Harrodsburg Road. The study is called "Through the Bible," and in eleven weeks were going to get the eagle's eye vantage point, the big picture, of the whole story of the Scripture and how God's plan of redemption and restoration is working itself out in our world and how we can be a part of it.
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