Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Right. Well, good morning, everybody.
[00:00:07] Morning.
[00:00:09] If you'd like to retake your seats and let's continue our worship this morning as we come to think about the Bible. And it's my great pleasure this morning to continue. Phil's allowed me to continue part of his manage your life series. We've had manage your mouth, we've had manage your mind, manage your marriage, manage your money. It's been a great practical series of how we apply biblical principles to our life. And straight from the get go, I'm going to mess it up because we're going to look at manage your bibles, which doesn't begin with M. So I'm sorry about that, Phil, but that's okay. So let's pray together as we come to study God's word. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the treasures that we find in your word. We thank you that you are the living word, that when you speak, things happen. And so, father, I pray you would guide my mind, my words and our hearts together this morning so we discover the treasures that we can find as we apply ourselves to reading your word and applying it to our lives. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. So is that okay this morning? Fantastic. I came across this summary on the Internet. I typed in summary of the Bible and I came across this one from a child who was asked to write a summary of the Bible. So I'll read it to you and see if you can spot the bits that are true and the bits that are not true.
[00:01:35] In the beginning, which occurred near the start, there was nothing but God, darkness and some gas. The Bible says the Lord thy God is one, but I think he must be a bit older than that.
[00:01:47] Then God made the world. He split the Adam and made Eve. Adam and Eve, very good. Adam and Eve were naked, but they weren't embarrassed because mirrors had not been invented.
[00:02:02] Adam and Eve disobeyed God, so they were driven from the garden of Eden. I'm not sure what they were driven in as cars were not around.
[00:02:10] One of the next important people was Noah. He built a large boat and put his family and some animals on it. Another important Bible guy is Moses, whose real name was Charlton Heston.
[00:02:22] It's an older one.
[00:02:24] Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. He gave them his top ten commandments. These include don't lie, cheat, smoke, dance or cover your neighbor's stuff. Oh, yeah, one more. Humour thy father and mother.
[00:02:39] David. He got to be king by killing a giant with a slingshot. He had a son named Solomon who had about 300 wives and 500 porcupines.
[00:02:49] My teacher says he was wise, but that doesn't sound very wise to me. After the Old Testament came the New Testament. Jesus is the star of the New Testament. During his life, Jesus had many arguments with sinners like the Pharisees and the Republicans.
[00:03:05] Jesus also had twelve opossums. The worst one was Judas asparagus.
[00:03:11] Judas was so evil they named a terrible vegetable after him.
[00:03:16] Jesus was a great man. He healed many leopards and even preached to some Germans on the mount.
[00:03:23] Anyways, Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life again. He went up to heaven, but will be back at the end of the aluminium.
[00:03:31] His return is foretold in the book of revolution.
[00:03:35] Now, we will laugh at that, and we'll smile at that. And for many of us, we'll know which bits of those are true, which bits are accurate and which bits are not true, and which bits are misrepresented. But we live in a world where the Bible is misunderstood and misrepresented. And it's really important for our faith that we know what we know. And the reason we know what we know is because we find God's word revealed to us. Scripture. And if we want to manage our lives, if we want to manage the things that are important to us in our lives, in our time, part of that is reading the Bible. Part of that is understanding the Bible and getting to grips with it. And so this morning, I want us to have a really practical exploration of what it means to manage the Bible, to have the Bible central in our rhythms and our routines. How do we avoid having a partial understanding of scripture? And so I'd want to invite us to think about four questions this morning. And I'd encourage you to think about them for your own personal setting, wherever you are on your journey of faith, which is what I do. One is, what does the Bible mean to me? Number two, where do I start in understanding the Bible, particularly if I'm new to faith? Where do I begin to understand it? Number three, how does it fit? How does the reading of the Bible fit into my rhythm of life, into my routines? And how do I get the most out of reading the Bible? Does that sound okay? So you can tick them off four things so you'll know how we're getting on. So, first of all, what does the Bible mean to me? What does it signify to me? There are lots of different views of the Bible. Some people will have a Bible, it will sit on their shelf, and it will be a bookend or a doorstop and that's it. They'll never even open it. For some people, it might be a collection of sayings and wise words. For some people, they may say it's a manual for how to live life. Other people will say it's how to become a Christian. It tells us the story of Jesus and those things are all true. Those things are right. But I think it also goes beyond those things as well. So let me suggest four things to us this morning. First of all, the Bible points us to Jesus. The Bible points us to Jesus. Jesus himself said in John 539, the scriptures point to me, don't look for eternal life. Sorry. Don't look for eternal life in the scriptures. He says, you will find it in me. So we don't worship the Bible. We worship the Jesus that the Bible points to, but we will find jesus in the Bible.
[00:05:58] In Luke 24, there's a story, you may be familiar with it, where Jesus is walking with his friends to Emmaus, his friends, there's two of them. They think he's died. They don't know he's come back to life. And he's walking with them and he asks them how things are going. And then he sits down with them. And then it says this in 24 27. Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the scriptures the things concerning himself. So they pointed, he pointed his friends to himself. He took scripture and he said, this is what it says about me. So we read the Bible to point to Jesus. Pete Gregg, in his book how to hear God says it's important to have experience of God. It's important to have encounter with God, but it's also important to have exposition or explanation about God. And that's what we find in the scriptures. So it points to Jesus. It also plays a key role in our transformation. The Holy Spirit uses the scriptures to change us. Some of the most famous verses about scripture in the Bible are one, Timothy 316. All scripture is inspired by goddess and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. And hebrews 412. The word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two edged sword. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Do you believe that this morning? Do you believe that the scriptures can have the Holy Spirit can transform us as we read the scriptures? It was so encouraging those of us who were at the baptisms yesterday with here Scott talking about the fact that he carries a Bible around with him. He has to think that was right. He said, for three years he's carried this Bible around and it's transformed. God has used that to transform his life as he reads it and submits to God through it. And then thirdly, it's the story of God.
[00:07:47] It's the story of God from creation to recreation. The Bible doesn't begin with the fall and end with Jesus resurrection and ascension. It begins with creation and it ends in new creation. It's a fantastic story about the people of God.
[00:08:03] I was having a walk recently, and I was reflecting on psalm one, verse one, which says, blessed is the one whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditates on it day and night. And I was thinking to myself, for a psalmist, for that psalmist, what did that mean? I delight in the law of the Lord because they didn't have the whole Bible in those days. He would have had a part of it. He would have had maybe what we know of as Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus and numbers, deuteronomy. What was the law of the Lord that he was interested in? And I think it was the whole story of creation and exodus and all of those things, not just the individual ten commandments and things like that. So reflecting and delighting on the whole story of God is a really important thing to be able to do. And then fourthly, the Bible remains. And Pete Greg says in his book, the Bible remains the primary arbiter of truth for christians, whether we feel it or not. And it's the main way we hear God speak. If you want to hear God speak to you this morning, if you want to know what God's heart towards you and towards your life and towards the world is, the number one way you can find that out is through scriptures.
[00:09:11] Is that okay? Yeah. Is that all right? Okay. So first of all, ask that question to yourself, what does scripture mean to me? How do I view scripture? Secondly, where do I start in understanding the Bible, particularly if you're relatively new to faith and you get this. Imagine somebody came and landed 66 books on a table in front of you and said, there you go. Read that. That's what the BIble is. It's 66 different books. And for people new to it, they may go, well, where do I start? How do I begin? Are these different random books? I'm supposed, and I believe that the BIble has an ordained, spiritual, scriptural narrative to it. It has a flow to it, that God has put every part of the Bible in place in order to be able to help us understand the story of God. So what I'd like to try and do in the next 90 seconds or so is explain the story of God. Is that okay? All right, so here we go. So if you're new to the BIBle, particularly all of the 66 books of the BIBLE, into this narrative you begin. If we have the slide there with the key on it, you have the story of creation and covenant. So that's where God creates the world. And he says to his people, Abraham, Isaac, JaCob, he says, you are my people. I want you to follow my ways, and I will look after you, and you will be blessed if you follow my ways. And he creates them and he sends them out, and then eventually they end up in slavery after the time of Joseph, and they're in Egypt and they're in slavery. And God says, I will rescue you. I will bring you out. And he takes Moses and he brings them out into the promised land. And he says, here is the promised land. He gives them commands. He gives them laws. He says, if you follow these commands and these laws, you will be distinctive. You will be my people. You will be people after my own heart, and you will be different to the people around you. And everyone goes, yes, amen, I'll do that. And then they go and do something else. They say, yes, amen, I'll follow you, Lord. And then they go and do their own thing. And then you get into this, where they do the wrong thing, and they get into trouble. And they say, God, will you rescue us? And God says, yes, I will. And he sends judges to the people, and they rescue. They are rescued. And God says, now, will you follow me? And they go, yes, amen, we will. And then they go and get it wrong again. And you have this cycle of getting it wrong and being rescued and getting it wrong and being rescued. They think to themselves, well, tell you what, if we had a king, everything would be okay. So they have a king, and it's not okay. Things still go wrong. And eventually they end up dividing this promised land into two. Two kingdoms. A northern kingdom and a southern kingdom. There's division. It's not good. And so God sends some prophets, and he says to the prophets, tell the people they need to follow me. Tell the people it's important to do what I say. So the prophets come and say, you need to do what God says. And people goes, yes, amen, we'll do that. And then they don't, and they become even more imperfect. And eventually God says, okay, enough's enough. I'm going to take you out of the promised land. And I'm going to move you into a place of excitement. I'm going to take you away from Israel and Jerusalem. I'm going to move you into Babylon, and you are going to be in exile. And everyone goes, oh, no, that's terrible. Which it was. They were far away from where they were supposed to be. And they said, God, where are you? Why have you departed us? Why have you deserted us? What's going on? And God says, you couldn't be perfect. You couldn't be the kind of person, people that I wanted you to be. But one day, I will send you someone who will be. One day I will send you someone who will rescue you and who will be the perfect person that you have never been able to be. And 400 years they waited. They went back to the. They went back to the land. God let them go back. They rebuilt Jerusalem, still waiting for this perfect person to come along. And then 400 years later, Jesus arrives.
[00:12:43] Just checking you're still there. 400 later, he said, jesus arrives, and he is. Then he brings the gospel and he says, I am bringing the kingdom of God into the here and the now. I am that person. I am the perfect person. All those people who couldn't get it right, I am the one who will get it right. And what happens? He gets crucified, he gets killed. He comes back to life, he raises up to heaven. And then the Holy Spirit comes onto the earth and empowers people like you and me to go and be the sort of people that Jesus wants us to be and to do the sorts of things that God wants us to be. And that's where we're living at the moment. We're in that time of acts and the church. And one day, God promises there will be a new creation. There will be a time when Jesus returns, when sickness is dealt with, when death is dealt with, when problems are dealt with, when injustice is dealt with, where everything that is wrong is put right. And we will have bodies that are perfect and live lives that are perfect, and everything will be just as God intended it to be. And that is the story of the Bible.
[00:13:41] And everything we read and in scripture will fit within that, within that narrative. So it's important, as you, as you get your 66 books, recognize that they fit within that kind, within that narrative. But also you will find that there is different literary styles. If you pick up these 66 books, you will find different literary styles. You'll find narrative, you'll find poetry. You'll find pithy wisdom sayings like the proverbs. You'll find letters, you'll find stories, you'll find teaching. You'll find what's called apocalyptic literature, which is very visionary, and lots of images. You'll find autobiographical stuff. And it's important that we know that we read these things differently in real life, don't we? You know, if you pick up a newspaper, for example, you would expect, and this is true for many newspapers, if you pick them up, you would expect them to report accurately on something that has happened, wouldn't you, generally? So, for example, you would pick it up and it would say, England lost.
[00:14:44] Not being prophetic for this afternoon, by the way, England lost. It would be something that's factual. But then you may turn a few pages on, and then you might get an opinion. You might get somebody who says, this is what I think. It's not factual. It's what I think. And then you might go further on, and you might get to a cartoon. There's one that I just found just online there. A moment ago, you pick up a cartoon called british weather.
[00:15:09] Okay?
[00:15:11] If you can't see it, it's got little anvils falling from heaven, which say interest rates, recession, energy bills, inflation, and so on. Typical british weather. Now, I don't know about you, but I've never been out in the weather, and it's been like that. I've never had anvils falling down on them from me. It's not a realistic picture, but we know what it means. We understand what that's telling us about the situation that we are living in, the times that we're living in, but it's not actually real. It doesn't actually happen like that. And that was true for the Bible. There are things in the Bible that weren't necessarily real, but people at the time would understand what it meant. So, for example, sometimes they would read about beasts and monsters and things like that. And it wasn't that there were necessarily real monsters walking around, but people would look at it and go, oh, that's Rome. That represents the powers that stand against God. And so it's helpful to understand sometimes where these things are coming from.
[00:16:07] Are we still okay? Are you still okay? Coming on to number three.
[00:16:11] Okay, stand to the person next to you and say, we're on number three. We're on number three. Hooray. So where does the Bible fit into my rhythm? There are various terms for this. Some people have what's called a rule of life, some it a rhythm of life. Other might call it just a routine. Every single person has a routine, has a rule of life, whether you know it or not, you have a rhythm or a routine. Think about what time you get up in the morning as a standard. What do you have a breakfast? What do you do in the evenings? What time do you go to bed? What's your bedtime routine? How do you have exercise? All of those sorts of things are part of our rule of life, part of our rhythm. So the question is, how does Bible reading fit into my rule of where does it fit into my rhythm? Just think about that for the moment, and I just hesitate a little bit because I do appreciate there are other important spiritual practices. There's prayer, there's fasting, there's giving, there's service, there's joining together as community. So Bible reading isn't the only practice that we need to be thinking about this for. But this morning, so that we're not here for another 5 hours, I'm just going to restrict ourselves to Bible reading.
[00:17:17] There's a corporate rhythm that we have, so if you come here on a regular basis, it's really good. That's a corporate reading. One Timothy 413 says, until I get there, focus on reading the scriptures to the church. It was something that they would do. It's really brilliant that we're going to do 30 days of reading scripture together. I hope. I really encourage you to do that. Even if you don't read all 30 verses. Just join with us as we read scripture together. It's a corporate thing. We come here Sunday, by Sunday, and we open up the scriptures, and we read together, and we learn together. So there's a corporate rhythm that we already have, but there's also an individual rhythm. Psalm one, verse, one. Meditating on it day and night suggests a daily rhythm, doesn't it? Deuteronomy 1719 says, a king should keep the laws within with him on a scroll and read it daily as long as he lives. So the king was told to read the scriptures daily. George Gallup, the pollster, said this. We revere the Bible, but we don't read it. It's the best selling, least read book in America. It's the best selling, least read book in America. Now, I don't know if this is true or not. This is Google, but the average amount of time spent on social media is.
[00:18:31] How's it a guess? 3 hours a day. 3 hours a day. Very good.
[00:18:36] Social media is 143 minutes a day. So that's just over 2 hours, 20 minutes. If you extend it to the time on the phone, as a whole, it was 4 hours and 49 minutes.
[00:18:48] So I don't know if that's true or not. I certainly wouldn't want to say that's true for you as individuals, but that's what Google said, 4 hours, 49 minutes spent on it. So it's almost a new psalm there, isn't it? We could write a psalm. I delight in the screen on my phone. I scroll on it day and night.
[00:19:05] But I guess the question is, what's the rhythm that you have? What's the routine that you have? Screen versus scripture or scripture on screen or however you do it? The center of Bible engagement did a survey in 2000. This is fascinating. 2000, 940 thousand people aged from eight to 80 and they looked at the impact of reading the Bible on their well being and their overall well being. And it said this, that if they read the Bible once a week, there was negligible impact. If they read it twice a week, it was negligible. If they read it three times a week, there was a slight bump and improvement in well being. If they read it four times a week, there was significant impact on their well being. They said it had a significant impact on feelings of loneliness that improved them. Anger, bitterness, sexual issues, reversing spiritual stagnation, enhancing evangelism and improving discipleship. Four times a week. So have a think about your rhythm. Think about your rhythm. Now, I can't stand here and tell you what your rhythm should be. I can't. There's no right answer. There's nothing that says it has to be in the morning or it has to be in the evening or any of those things or how long it has to be for. It will vary on your life situation. It will change as your life goes on.
[00:20:25] And it's about working out what's right for you. When I was working in education, I got to the point where I realized that I wasn't, because I had very long days. I wasn't reading the Bible at all outside of a Sunday morning. And I thought, I need to change that. But I can't create extra minutes in the day, so how am I going to do it? So what I decided to do was my rhythm at the time was to get up, make a cup of coffee, check my work emails, get in the car and drive, drive to school. And so what I decided to do was I got up, made a cup of coffee and just read the Bible for ten minutes. And I made a decision at that point, this is quite a few years ago that the first thing that I wanted to read in the morning was the word of God. The first printed thing that I read in the morning was the word of God. And that has stayed with me even though life situations have changed. That is still something I tried as part of my rule. The first written thing that I read is the word of God.
[00:21:15] And then as I got in the car, instead of listening to the news, I would listen to a podcast or I would listen to the Bible, you app, or something like that, and I would have half an hour of listening to the Bible. And so without doing anything massively different in terms of getting up earlier or any of those things, I was able to find ways to get more of the Bible into my life. But could I also just remind you, just warn you, because I don't know if there's anybody else like me here, but I'm a kind of like a person who likes a tick box. Does anyone like tick boxes, like lists and things like that? I love having a list. So give me something like every day with Jesus, give me a Bible plan, give me something like that. And I love it. I like ticking it off and all of those sorts of things, but very quickly it becomes more about have I ticked off my allotted version for today than have I engaged with scripture? Have I actually read the scriptures? And sometimes, and please don't judge me for this sometimes. Sometimes I would even miss the Bible passage to read the bible notes because I thought, I'm getting so far behind, I need to read the notes. And then I know the Bible passage. I read that, I'll just read the notes. That's not a good thing to do. Don't do that.
[00:22:22] Read the Bible passage. Stay with scripture. So, number four, are we nearly there? Is that okay? We're still there. Number four, how can I read the Bible more effectively? These are things that people have taught me, things that I've learned through experience. They're not the right answer. They're just things that I find helpful. And so we'll just rattle through these as we come into land. First of all, try and create a regular time and a space for it. It doesn't matter how long it is, but try and find a regular time and space. Allow yourself the freedom. Don't feel guilty. None of this should be here to make us feel guilty. Discern when and where this works best for you. If you currently don't read the bible at all, 1 minute is better than no minutes. One verse is better than no verses. So start where you are and build upwards. Find a translation that you like. A translation that's accurate and that's helpful, and that connects with you. Sometimes reading more than one translation can help illuminate passages and throw new light on it. Maybe have an introductory prayer, something along the laws of, lord, I love your word, and I would want you to show me. I want you to show me your purposes for my life and the world as I read it this morning or this afternoon or this evening, just offer yourself. Position yourself under God's authority as you read the word. Try different approaches. See what works for you. Sometimes you could read it aloud. Sometimes you could read it quietly. Sometimes it's good to read a long passage. Some of the. Some of the narratives, like Exodus and so on, are really good stories, and so you just read lots of it in one go. Sometimes it's better to read a shorter passage and just allow yourself to meditate and think upon one or two verses. There's no right or wrong answer. If you're thinking on scripture, memorize it. I'm hopeless at memorizing scripture. I'm hopeless at it. But it's a good thing to do. Meditating on it is a really good thing to do, just allowing it to go over your mind. I was on a walk recently up on Dartmoor. I thought I'd take psalm 23 with me, and I thought, I'll have a look around and see. And every time I see something that reminds me of psalm 23 and pray and say thank you to God, which sounded like a really good idea. So I was walking along. The Lord is my shepherd. Oh, there's a sheep. Oh, thank you, Lord. That's what I carry on. Oh, the Lord's my shepherd. Those are sheep. And there are so many sheep on Dartmoor that I never got much further than the Lord is my shepherd.
[00:24:34] But it was a good thing to do. You lead me by still waters. Every time you see a river, I see a footpath sign. You lead me in paths of righteousness. So meditating upon it, things like Lectio Divina, a habit of reading slowly. Scripture are really good. Read with your head and your heart. Allow yourself to relate to it, as in thinking about it, but also responding to it and sensing what God is saying through it. Use Bible reading notes if that's helpful. Commentaries Lectio 365 is a brilliant app that takes you through a little bit of scripture every day. Really good. If you're not a reader, listen to it on audio or the Bible project as well. Have got fantastic videos. If you have ever come across the Bible project, I would really recommend them as a way of explaining the background of some of the books and the themes of the Bible in very bite sized chunks. Keep a journal, write down what you're thinking about. Make notes in your Bible, highlight bits and so on. Do something to engage with it. And then finally reflect. Reflect on what you're learning. I'm just going to share with you. Finish five questions that I ask myself with a short example for each. And then we'll, then we'll pray together.
[00:25:45] Because God wants you to engage with the Bible. He doesn't just want you to look at it. He doesn't just want you to go, oh, that's interesting. He wants to use it to transform us and to change us and to teach us and to point us to Jesus. Would we agree with that?
[00:26:00] So how can we do that? We engage our minds. We engage our imaginations and our thoughts. So here are five questions that over the years, I've found helpful to me. I don't ask all of these questions all of the time. Sometimes I'll ask one and others, but these are ones that help me. First of all, in this passage, what can I see and what can I hear? Just change the senses around a little bit. What can I see? What can I hear? There's a passage in Matthew, chapter nine, verse 23, where Jesus is invited into a house by a ruler. His daughter has died, and Jesus has come to heal her. And as he arrives at the house, it says that there are trumpeters and there are mourners, and there are crowds, and they're in the house, and they're mourning the death of this child. And Jesus says to them, this child is not dead. She's asleep. And then there's laughter. And Jesus gets the crowd out, and he goes to the girl. He lifts her up and says, arise. And I was reading that the other day, and I was thinking, what can I hear? I can hear trumpets. I can hear music. I can hear wailing. I can hear loud. I can hear loud stuff. And then Jesus says, she's only asleep. And I thought, well, of course she's not asleep. You wouldn't be asleep if all that noise was going on, would you? But he gets the crowd out, and then he reaches down, and in the calmness of the room, she arises.
[00:27:17] And that prayer comes up in my heart. Lord, sometimes my life can be so noisy, so busy, so clamoring, so, so much going on, but you just want to move that to one side, and you want to take my hand and restore me to fullness and life.
[00:27:31] Please come, Lord Jesus, what can you see? What can you hear? Secondly, what time is it? What time is it? If you remember that timeline we talked about earlier, from creation to new creation, where does this particular passage fit in that story? And does that help us understand it? One of my favorite verses, and I'm sure many of you like it, is Jeremiah 29, verse eleven. For I know the plans I have for you, plans to give you a hope and a future. It's a great fridge magnet verse.
[00:27:56] We give it to people when they're facing decisions to make. But in the timeline, it's when the people are in exile. It's when they are at their lowest point and they're saying to God, where are you? Will you rescue us? Will you bring us out of this horrible place? And God says, I know the plans I have for you, but I want you to stay where you are.
[00:28:14] It's not a verse of moving. It's a verse of remaining and serving in the city in the place that God had placed them. What time is it? What does this remind me of? Does this passage help me think of something else in scripture? In our house group, life group on Tuesday, we were following on from Esther's speaking about revelation, chapter seven last week, and it was about the nations and the tribes and all the different languages and so on. And we were saying, what does that remind us of? And so we were talking about the tower of Babel and how God split up all the languages and then Pentecost when he brought them back all together again. And then revelation, where all of these people are before the throne. It was a helpful way of expanding our understanding of the passage. One of my favourites. Is there a choice to be made? Am I being challenged to follow? Jesus? Above? Alternatives, proverbs one to eight. The wisdom literature is very much about which path are you going to follow? You're going to follow the path of wisdom or the path of folly. Which path are you going to follow? The Bible very often will present us with a choice. And so pausing before that and saying, what choice are you offering me today, Lord? Which way am I going to go? Am I going to build my house on the rock or on the sand? And so on. And then what cultural clues can I investigate? What cultural clues can I investigate? One of my favorite ones for these. I was looking at this a few years ago, Matthew 1618. This is the last thing Jesus says to his friends, who do you? People say that I am? And they say, you are. Or people say, you're Elijah. And so on and so forth. And then he says, who do you say I am? And Simon says, well, you're the Lord, you're the messiah. And he says, yes, that's absolutely right, well done. And I'm going to build my church on you and against you. The gates of Hades will not prevail.
[00:29:54] And I never quite understood that bit about the gates of Hades. I thought, that's a really strange thing to say. I don't understand it. And I was preparing a message a couple of years ago and I was looking into it and I don't know if you knew this, and I'm not saying this is the right interpretation, but it's one that resonated with me, was that in Caesarea Philippi where Jesus was standing, there was a cliff, and in the cliff there was a gap, and into gap went a river, and into the river flow. Sorry, into the river flowed through the. Through the gap. And the people believed that river went to hell. That's what they believed at that time. They believed the souls of the dead went into that river and it flowed through. Into the cliff. And so around this cave built, there were lots of shrines and temples and booths and all sorts of things celebrating the dead. It was not very nice.
[00:30:41] And the locals called this place where the river went into the rock, the gates of Hades. That's what it was known as. That's what it was called. And so what Jesus was doing was saying to peter, over here, you, I'm going to build my church on you. You are going to do great things in the power of goddess. You are going to represent me on earth, you are going to be the foundation of the church. And against you, all of this flummery over here at the gates of Hades doesn't stand a chance. Doesn't stand a chance. And when I worked that out, that made a whole lot more sense to me. So what cultural clues can you investigate?
[00:31:21] Shall we spend a moment just praying? Shall we spend a moment prayer? I'll just invite you, if you feel comfortable, to close your eyes and to just think about some of the things we've been said. We haven't taken a passage this morning and we haven't gone through a passage. We've tried to just explore the role of the Bible in our lives.
[00:31:41] And it's a moment before we move on to the next thing, before we move on into the rest of our days. It's a chance just to come before God, say, Lord, thank you for your word.
[00:31:52] Just meditate on those four things for a minute. Four, five words. All scripture is. God breathed all scripture. Everything that is written down for us in the Bible is breathed by God. It's inspired by God. It's living. It's active. It's transformational.
[00:32:12] It may be that you're new to the Bible and your prayer may be, Lord, show me the right bits to read. Help me to maybe meet up with someone, to just read through stuff and chat it through it. Maybe you've read the Bible for years and you want to make your prayer lord. I want to see something fresh. I want to see something new.
[00:32:33] Maybe you find it difficult to fit Bible reading into your lives and your schedules. Maybe you just want to say to Lord, help me. Maybe one verse more than I am at the moment. One verse is better than no verse.
[00:32:49] All scripture is God breathed. It may be that you're struggling with an ethical, a moral dilemma and you want to know what God thinks about it. Turn to the scriptures because it is the power to show us what is right and wrong.
[00:33:05] It may be that you're not sure what's right and true in life. Turn to the scriptures and seek the Jesus who says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
[00:33:15] It may be that you're someone who feels that hope is ebbing away from you and you're not sure about the future. Turn to the scriptures and the Lord and he will say, I will give you a hope. I will give you a future, and I will be your God and I will be. You will be my people. And there will be a day when there is no more sickness and no more pain and no more death.
[00:33:38] All scripture is God breathed. So, Father, help us as we come to these 30 days of reading scripture together, that you may reveal your word to us, that you may reveal your purpose to us. You may reveal your love to us. You may reveal your kindness towards us. And we submit to reading your word in Jesus name. Oh, Mandy.
