“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” (Psalm 33:12). As we think about our freedom, our nation, and our God, we realize what the scriptures say, that freedom does not come from man, but it only comes from God, himself. There is no true freedom anywhere at any time for a nation or individual apart from God. He’s the only One who can grant freedom.
2 Corinthians 3:17 NLT
“For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
Who carries the Spirit of the Lord in this day? We do – the Church of Jesus Christ who first experienced that freedom ourselves and then take it everywhere we go. The stakes have never been higher in our nation than they are right now in this generation. We will either raise up the Spirit of the Lord in freedom or shrink back and watch the opposite of freedom take root, destroying all that we love around us.
It’s our choice because we are the carriers of the Spirit of the Lord, “and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” What will determine our response and empower our deliverance as individuals and as a nation all comes back to the Bible, itself – the Word of God – the Revelation of Truth – the Love Letter from God to us, pursuing mankind – coming from the mouth of his Spirit down through millennia to us today. We live in a time where Bibles litter our homes, but it’s not in our hearts. At the very time of our nation’s greatest spiritual attack, we have a Church that is largely biblically illiterate – devoid of the ammunition that’s necessary to bring freedom wherever we go.
Do we, as Christians, believe that the Bible really matters?
“Of the many influences that have shaped the United States of America into a distinctive nation and people, none may be said to be more fundamental and enduring than the Bible. The Bible and its teachings helped form the basis for the Founding Fathers’ abiding belief in the inalienable rights of the individual; rights which they found implicit in the Bible’s teaching of the inherent worth and dignity of each individual.” – President Ronald Reagan
Apart from our God – Jehovah – and his Word, there was no basis in humanity for any concept or idea that the individual person had inherent value, dignity, and worth. That message came from God. Abraham Lincoln said, “The Bible is the best gift God has given to men. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this Book. But for it, we could not know right from wrong.”
God’s people and the historic Church have always held, through the ages, that the scriptures are inspired, true, perfect, infallible, and inerrant. They believed that this Bible is not a human book, but that it’s from another dimension – that it’s from a God who sits outside of time and sees everything before it ever happens – who wrote down what we needed to know about all of life and all we would ever need – and put it lovingly together for us as a roadmap for life so we would know how to live. This is what the Church believes – not what prevails in our culture today.
2 Timothy 3:16,17 NLT
“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.”
If the Bible is not in us, and we’re not in the Bible – not reading it and letting it read us – that inherently means that we’re unprepared, useless, unequipped, and wrong as we go out into battle.
“The Bible – banned, burned, beloved – more widely read, more frequently attacked than any other book in history. Generations of intellectuals have attempted to discredit it; dictators of every age have outlawed it and executed those who read it. Yet soldiers carry it into battle, believing it more powerful than their weapons. Fragments of it smuggled into solitary prison cells have transformed ruthless killers into gentle saints.” – Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship
Ephesians 6:17 NKJV
“And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God…”
The armor of God – all of it is defensive except for one piece – the Sword of the Spirit. It is our only offense – our only chance of victory – taking any ground in our own lives or the lives of others who need Jesus. It all comes down to the Sword. Have we drawn our Sword? – or are we armored-up with nothing to fight with and just playing defense against the attacks? Where are the people of God who have the Sword in their hands and coming out of their mouths, who speak with Truth, bringing freedom and the Spirit of the Living God with them wherever they go?
Hebrews 4:12,13 NKJV
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”
The Sword can cut us with one edge, and with the other, everything we face. We need both edges. First, we must get cut, and then we can bring the Sword to cut through lies, deception, fear, anxiety, and strongholds – everywhere we go – when this Word is in our heart because we’ve devoured it like our life depended on it. Like a sword coming out of our mouth, we’re able to clearly discern – telling what is right or wrong – where to go – what to do or not to do. All wisdom is ours because it’s in Christ and it’s in his Word.
Matthew 10:34 NKJV
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.”
The Sword is the Word – the words of God to people – that cut through everything to get to the heart of the matter – that will discern between our soul and our spirit – the thoughts and intentions of our heart – through all the mess – and get down to the truth. He came to bring a Sword and to give it to us. But the Sword has to slay us first. If we haven’t been cut by this Book and bowed at the Word and to the One who spoke it, and let it divide us – there is no hope that we’ll be able to take the Sword and draw our Sword when we go out there.
Colossians 3:2-4 NKJV
“Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”
How did we die? By the Truth of his Word. We let it cut us down to our core and destroy everything we thought we knew about right and wrong – about up and down – and let God show us. We died to our old self – put it off like an old garment – and we put on Christ and Truth, and his Word. Once the Sword slays us, then it becomes ours – and every spiritual enemy is slayed, and every battle is won – and can be won in our life.
The amount of scriptural depth of many in the Church today is just enough to keep them floating down the lazy river, as long as their walk with God resembles a luxury vacation, and many have limp, weak, wimpy, intangible, ineffective, and uncompelling, convenience-oriented sunshine faith based on the reasonings of men, rather than on the eternal Word of God. If cross-examined or squeezed, they would perform worse than the recent presidential debate. We can be easily confused and deceived if the Word of God is not abiding in our hearts.
John 1:1,10,14 NKJV
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 10] He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 14] And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
The Word is not a thing – it’s a Person – Jesus. There is no separation or difference between Jesus, himself, and his Word. He is the Word made flesh and the Word reveals him. One illuminates the other. This Word will illuminate who Jesus actually is to us, and if we have a real relationship with Jesus, it will drive us to his Word because it will show us more about him. It’s impossible to have a relationship with Jesus apart from the Bible, and it’s impossible for the Bible to have any meaning in our lives without a relationship with Jesus.
Acts 20:32 NKJV
“So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace [power], which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”
Hebrews 1:3 NKJV
“[Jesus] who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high…” – The same words that are in this Book.
Many believers love their relationship with Jesus, but they don’t read their Bible, and they’ll end up worshipping a counterfeit Jesus – with only the appearance of Jesus. They’ll call him Jesus, but it won’t be him. The only way we can know the real Jesus is from the Bible, and his Word illuminates it for us, so we can worship the True and Living God.
Ninety-six percent of the decisions we make come from our subconscious, so we had better put the right things into it – the Word of Truth from the Bible. An in-depth study by the Center for Bible Engagement, conducted from over 40,000 Christians aged eight to eighty revealed:
52% never read the Bible
8% read the Bible a few times a year with negligible practical effects
6% read the Bible once a month with negligible practical effects
8% read the Bible once a week with negligible practical effects
13% read the Bible three times a week with a blip on the radar as minor improvements 14% read the Bible four times a week with a massive spike in results including feelings of loneliness dropped 30%; anger issues dropped 32%; bitterness in relationships decreased 40%; alcoholism dropped 57%; feeling spiritually stagnant decreased 60%; viewing pornography decreased 61%; divorce decreased 62%; sex outside of marriage decreased 68%; gambling decreased 75%; sharing their faith increased 200%; discipling others increased 230%.
“A Bible that is falling apart usually belongs to someone whose life is not.” – Charles Spurgeon
The Bible is our instruction manual. If we ignore it, we’ll fail to see any measurable difference in improving our lives. There are land mines in the world, and the Bible is the only map showing where they all are and how we can navigate around them. How foolish is it to not study it every day? The longest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 119. Every one of the 176 verses in it is about the importance of the Word of God. Examples in Psalm 119 ESV:
verse 11] “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” verse 16] “I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.”
verse 20] “My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times.” verse 24] “Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors.”
verse 71] “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.” verse 72] “The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.” verse 89] “Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens.”
verse 92] “If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.” verse 93] “I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life.” verse 97-100] “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts.”
Can we trust the Bible?
Is the Bible reliable? Is it really God’s Word? The Bible consists of sixty-six books written over 1500 years by over forty different authors from three different continents in three different languages (Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew), and those forty authors came from vastly different backgrounds with no similarities between them. Some wrote from prison and some from palaces, and most were unaware of the others and what they wrote.
Yet, when put together, their writings all formed a perfectly harmonized Book that declares Jesus, his message, and purpose from cover to cover. No other religious text can compare to it. There are far and away more ancient copies of the Bible than any other historical text, whether religious or secular. Of just the New Testament, we have over 24,000 ancient copies with a 99.5% agreement with each other in all of them. God preserves his Word.
By every standard used to authenticate ancient documents, the Bible blows away every one. It’s been scrutinized from every angle to every degree for all of time, and it stands firm because it’s God’s Word, not man’s. The Old Testament is made up of thirty-nine books written over a span of eleven hundred years, the last book of which was written four hundred years before Jesus was born, and we have ancient copies of it. Throughout the Old Testament, there are over three hundred predictions and prophecies about the coming Messiah, and Jesus fulfilled all three hundred of them four hundred years after the last one was penned.
What are the chances one man could fulfill these eight prophecies over 2,000 years?
1] Born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2)
2] Preceded by a messenger (Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 3:1)
3] Enter Jerusalem on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9)
4] Betrayed by a friend (Psalm 41:9; 55:12-14)
5] Sold for thirty pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12)
6] Silver thrown to the potter in God’s house (Zechariah 11:13)
7] He would be silent before his accusers (Isaiah 53:7)
8] He would be executed by crucifixion as a thief (Psalm 22:16; Zechariah 12:10; Isaiah 53:5)
“The chance that any one man might have lived up to the present time and fulfilled all eight prophesies is one in ten to the seventeenth power. The chance that any one man might have fulfilled sixteen of the three hundred prophesies is one in ten to the forty-fifth power. – Dr. Peter Stoner (1888-1980) – Expert in probability – Chairman of Mathematics and Science at Pasadena City College and Westmont College.
Isaiah prophesied in 800 B.C. (Isaiah chapters 44-45) that a future king named Cyrus would help rebuild Israel (200 years before Cyrus was born). In 1 Kings 13:1-3, the prophet of the Lord declared that in the future, a king named Josiah would destroy an altar built to a pagan god and bring revival to the land (300 years before Josiah existed) and we have ancient copies of this. He knew that God had spoken to him.
2 Peter 1:20,21 NLT
“Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God.”
Joshua 1:8 NLT
“Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.”
Psalm 118:8 NKJV
“It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in people.”
Over 23,000 archaeological discoveries have been made using the Bible as the primary source. “It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever contradicted a biblical reference.” – Rabbi Nelson Glueck, Ph.D. from the University of Jena, Germany
Proverbs 30:5 NLT
“Every word of God proves true.”
Josh McDowell spent seven years of his life attempting to disprove Christianity and the Bible, but instead, was converted and became a Christian, and he wrote a book titled Evidence that Demands a Verdict because he had become so convinced of the Bible. Lee Strobel was an investigative journalist for the Chicago Tribune and a devout atheist who attempted to disprove Christianity and the Bible, but he too converted and wrote the book The Case for Christ, because when anyone honestly seeks God, he reveals himself – because he is True and his Word is True.
John 12:48 NKJV
“ He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him – the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.”
Would we like to have a cheat sheet for Judgement Day? We will be judged based on the words in the Bible – God’s Word. It’s time to get in the Book …it’s time to bring out the Book!
Prayer
Father, in Jesus’ name, we repent today for not valuing Your Word. And, today, we commit to bringing out the Book in our lives. We commit to being like the Psalmist in Psalm 119 in desiring Your Word above silver and gold, and we pray that You would make it a lamp unto our feet and a light to our path as we seek You, God. Help us to commit – to follow through – to get in Your Word. We’re asking in Jesus’ name. Amen
4 for 4 Draw Your Sword Challenge
Read 4 chapters of the Bible 4 times per week for 30 days –
1 Psalm chapter, 1 Proverbs chapter, 1 Gospel chapter, 1 chapter of your choice Time commitment = 15-20 minutes per day (1% of your day)
Something happens in our life when we hit the 4x per week level (or more) as we seek the Lord with our whole heart.
Written by Pastor Brian Mandel
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on The Bridge
Featured Image by Célio Silveira from Pixabay
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