Bible Society remind us that ‘the value of the Bible lies in its use. We must use it or lose it.’  In our country we have free access to the Bible. We have a variety of different translations and can have the Bible in electronic versions as well as in book form. There are commentaries, guide books, devotional books and a variety of apps freely available to help us to understand the Bible and to make the most of this precious gift God has given to us.

Just as a banquet may look appetising and appealing and be nutritious but will do us no good unless we partake of it, however, the Bible cannot feed us and sustain us if we never open it!

Paul told the Thessalonians, ‘When you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe.’ (1 Thess 2:13) The Bible is a living word with power to change us and transform us… but only as we accept its authority over us and bow the knee to the God who speaks through it. David Kinnamann says, ‘A person with a biblical worldview experiences, interprets, and responds to reality in light of the Bible’s principles. What Scripture teaches is the primary grid for making decisions and interacting with the world.’ (David Kinamman, ‘Unchristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity… And Why It Matters’) We can only know what Scripture teaches as we read the Bible and as we allow what we learn there about God, about the world, about ourselves, about other people to have the final say in how we think, speak, act and live.

Paul says in Colossians 3:16 ‘Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.’ The Message version says ‘Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives.’ We can encourage one another as we share what God has said to us through His word; we can build each other up in faith as we focus more on His words than on our words. Let’s fit these pieces of the Bible together in our daily lives and eat from the banquet prepared for us by God so that we can grow and become conformed to the image of Jesus (Rom 8:29), growing up healthy and robust in love (Eph 4:13, The Message.) Song of Songs 2:4 says ‘Let him lead me to the banquet hall, and let his banner over me be love’; the whole book uses the imagery of the relationship between a bride and groom to give us glimpses into the relationship God wants to have with us. Let’s feast on God’s Word every day and allow Him to satisfy our every longing, desire, yearning and need.

We also had a birthday to celebrate tonight!

To celebrate Bible Sunday, we looked at how the pieces of the Bible jigsaw fit together. The first thing we need to realise is that the Bible is made up of 66 books, pieces which are divided into the Old and New Testaments. People worked at fitting these pieces together in order:

We learnt a song to help us remember the order of the books of the Bible and then also looked at the fact that the Bible can be said to be made up of different genres:

Genesis through to Esther are historical books,  with the first five books of the Bible known as the Pentateuch (from words which mean ‘five’ and ‘vessel’ or ‘book’),  and commonly referred to as the Law (or Torah), because as they explain how God chose people and taught them how to live, they also contain the 10 Commandments and rules or laws of God. All of these books have a number of different stories in them, showing how God worked with people and what happened to them over hundreds of years.

Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs are ‘Wisdom’ literature, being poetic in style and often using imagery to describe God’s reality, desire for relationships and rules. These books are not written in a narrative style like the history books; they’re more like songs or prayers or conversations between people.

Isaiah through to Malachi are prophecy, with Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Daniel known as the ‘Major Prophets’ and the others as ‘Minor Prophets’ (major and minor referring to the length of the books, not importance!) The Prophets are speaking forth the words of God, giving God’s people the chance to hear how He wants to restore their relationship and usually contain quite a lot of rebuke and correction and challenge in them as well as comfort and reassurance.

In the New Testament, the first five books (Matthew through to Acts) are historical narratives which talk about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and His work through the church. Most of the rest of the New Testament are letters, written to churches or individuals, acting as God’s guide book for the church, usually written to specific churches or people to give advice and guidance on how to live for Christ.

The last book of the Bible (Revelation) is prophetic, using vivid imagery and symbolism to describe the end times and God’s ultimate sovereignty and victory over evil.

Someone has used these genres in the form of the periodic table of elements to give us further information:

Though the Bible can be hard at times to understand, it helps to see how the different pieces of this jigsaw fit together and to understand that Scripture interprets Scripture, giving us all the information we need to know (not necessarily all we’d like to know!)

At tonight’s service, we heard about people’s favourite Bible verses and why they meant so much to them. The favourite passage overall was Psalm 23, with people finding comfort and strength from these verses.

Other favourite Scriptures included:

• Phil 4:8, as a reminder of how to think rightly
• Ps 73, a testimony of how God answers our questions about unfairness and injustice in the world and reassures us of His eternal purposes
• Gal 4:4, a reminder that God’s timing is perfect, even if we don’t understand it,
• Ps 56:8, which teaches that God knows our every tear and stores them, no sorrow being wasted
• Eph 1:11-14, which reminds us that we are included in God’s purposes and plans
• 1 John 5:5, which reminds us that our faith overcomes the world
• Num 6:23-24, which is a blessing and prayer that God will make His face shine on us
• John 3:16-17, a reminder of God’s great love for the whole world which includes us!
• Heb 13:5, which reminds us we are never alone
• John 1:5, because this shows us that evil will never prevail over good
• John 2:5, 10, verses from the first miracle Jesus performed at the wedding of Cana which stress the need for personal obedience and show us the blessings that result from such obedience,
• Job 19:25, a reminder that our Redeemer lives
• Eph 1:3, showing us that every spiritual blessing is our birthright in God
• 2 Tim 2:15, the verse God used to call Garry to preaching His word and reminding him that this word must be handled correctly (‘cut straight’)
• Ps 103:11-12, telling us of the scope of God’s forgiveness

Other favourite Scriptures include the life of Joseph (because  it shows how God interacts in everyday living). God’s Word comes to us at different times in different ways, but we are grateful for the encouragement and strength it provides for us all.

On Friday 30th October from 12 noon until 3 p.m., the hOurbank Launch will take place in the community room at church. This local charity seeks to match volunteers to tasks needing to be done in the local community; you can offer time and talents to help local people (gardening, walking a dog, craft skills, ironing…. whatever you’re good at and however much time you have available) and can also ask for tasks in return. Come along to find out more and learn new skills!

There will be free refreshments at the event and a chance to learn crafts and get to know local people.

Garry spoke from Ps 119:129-136 this morning on the pre-eminence of God’s Word. Every word from God is a miracle word, something to marvel and wonder at; we stand in awe at all God says. Luke 4:22 shows us that people were constantly amazed by the things Jesus said – to the extent that when the temple guards were sent to arrest Him (John 7:46-47), they came back empty-handed, as it were, because ‘no man ever spoke the way this man does.’ God’s words are truly astounding.

God’s words are powerful words. He spoke and creation came into being (Gen 1), light overwhelming darkness. Moreover, the whole universe is sustained by His powerful word (Heb 1:3). God’s word is living and active (Heb 4:12). When Jesus spoke words of healing, people were healed; when He called forth the dead, they were raised to life. God’s word is God-breathed (2 Tim 3:16), carrying with it revelation and bringing wisdom to all who live by it.

God’s word needs to enter our lives and become part of the very fabric of the way we live. (Ps 40:7-8) We should not let it go in one ear and out the other, but should allow it to dwell within us, taking up residence, having the run of the house (see Col 3:15-16). It has authority over us.

When Jesus told Peter to let down the nets in a certain place, that made no sense to Peter all, but he responded in faith and obedience (Luke 5:4-5). We need to remember that God’s foolishness is wiser than man’s wisdom, and therefore we have to obey God’s word whether it makes sense to us or not!

Ps 119:136 reminds us that people have always ignored God’s word, a fact which causes us distress. Ps 51:9-13 reflects how David learned from his sin and wanted to teach others God’s word after he was restored. We all need to share what we have received from God’s word, allowing the streams of life to flow out from us. We do this by living according to the word (2 Cor 3:2) and speaking God’s word to all who ask us to give a reason for the hope we have (1 Pet 3:15). This should be done with gentleness and respect, with the utmost courtesy and meekness (we’re not to be pushy salesmen for God!) There is both a great ignorance of and animosity towards God’s word in today’s society, but as we prayerfully ask the Holy Spirit to help us to sow the seed of God’s word in people’s lives, we can be confident that God will water that seed and make it grow, bringing forth a harvest in due time.

Words and names are incredibly important. They define objects for us; they help us to distinguish one thing from another. As someone who has spent many years learning other languages, I have a deep respect for and love of words. I simply cannot imagine a world without words. I adore learning new words; I love discovering the etymology of words; I relish using my knowledge of language and languages to infer meaning, to work out from context and gist what is being meant. One of my greatest joys involves games and puzzles that use words: Scrabble, Boggle, Upwords are all games I love. It thrills me to the core that God actually spoke creation into being and that Jesus is described as ‘the Word’ (John 1:1).

One of the ways that we are lured into sin by the enemy is by a redefinition of words, however. This happens gradually, so slowly that we do not notice what is happening. C. S. Lewis wrote about how a negative term replaces a positive one in people’s views (‘unselfishness’ being named as the highest of virtues rather than ‘love’, for example, which seems initially innocuous); he also wrote about how jargon can be very effective in deceiving us from the true meaning of what we are told (see ‘The Screwtape Letters’).

When it comes to sexual immorality, by and large the English language no longer uses words which for centuries have described sexual sin: fornication, adultery, homosexual practice, for example. Think of how these things are described nowadays: ‘sex outside of marriage’, ‘extramarital sex,’ ‘gay sex’. For many, this shift in language is simply a sign that language evolves; words change meaning regularly and that’s all there is to it. The new words still describe the same thing, so what’s the problem?

I think sometimes we change the words we use because we don’t like other words and want to distance ourselves from the stigma those words carry. Eugene Peterson says “We cannot be too careful about the words we use; we start out using them and they end up using us.” (Eugene Peterson, ‘Christ Plays In Ten Thousand Places’) Certainly, there is a sense in which we always have to be careful with our definition of words: what you understand by ‘love’ may well not be what I understand by it, let alone what God means by the word! But I think that when we change the words we use to sound less severe, sometimes that is the first step on a slippery slope to acceptance not only of the word but of the practice. If something sounds less offensive, maybe we find it easier to justify behaviour that we would otherwise repudiate? If we want to shock and offend people, we choose more pejorative language to describe the same thing. Words have an emotive power we often do not acknowledge.

One thing is clear. Actions are the end product, not the start. Jesus said ‘out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander’ (Matt 18:15) – the thoughts coming before the actions. We need to be careful what we watch, listen to, think and say, for all these things will have a powerful effect on what we do. Paul urges us to ‘flee from sexual immorality.’ (1 Cor 6:18) That means being ruthless with ourselves and never underestimating our capacity to deceive ourselves (Jer 17:9-10), recognising that if we think we’re standing firm, we need to be careful that we don’t fall! (1 Cor 10:12) That ‘harmless attraction’, that ‘casual flirting’, may not be as harmless or casual as we like to pretend. As Casting Crowns sing in their haunting song ‘Slow Fade,’ ‘The journey from your mind to your hands is shorter than you’re thinking.’ Because of this we need to be careful, for thoughts invade, choices are made, but a price will always have to be paid when we give ourselves away…