You came with a manual.
When you buy an appliance, it comes
with a manual. It usually has safety directions, operational directions, often
trouble shooting tips and at the end warranty conditions.
The good news is that when God made
us, we came with a manual – it’s called The Bible.
It's a manual and 'so much more', but the term manual gives
an insight into the wealth of guidance, wisdom and moral and ethical guidelines
it contains. Follow the instructions and things will work out for good. Don’t
follow them and you will see your life head in a negative direction.
As for the warranty – follow God’s
instructions and you get a lifetime warranty.
It's the 'so much more' that is important and I want to go over.
The Bible is called The Word of God. It was written by 40 men over a period of 1500 years through the inspiration of The Holy Spirit.
You could say it has 40 authors with a divine editor - God
It’s is also described as a ‘Living Word’
because it is not just words on a page.
It comes to life as we allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us and give us insight into the
meaning behind biblical verses and how we can apply them to our lives
personally.
It’s a history book from the
beginning of time (His-story) until the end of time.
How God created the universe, planet
earth, the animals and plants and us His children and goes on to describe His
desired destination for us – that we would one day live with Him for an
eternity.
And it’s a love story. It describes
how much God loves us and how He will never leave us or give up on us. No
matter what we do, when we turn back to him with regret for our actions, He is
always there to greet us with open arms.
Most importantly He loved us so
much that He allowed Jesus to go through the agony and shame of the crucifixion
for our sin – something that I will elaborate in detail further into
this blog, because it is the whole essence of what we believe to be called a
‘Christian’.
It reveals the character of God. His goodness, loving kindness, mercy,
faithfulness, compassion, forgiveness, generosity and the list goes on.
He is a Holy God – full of righteousness, justice and wisdom.
It reveals the qualities of God. He is Omnipotent (all powerful),
Omniscient (all knowing), Omnipresent (everywhere present).
He also transcends time as we know
it, in that he can simultaneously be in the past present and future. Many of His qualities go beyond our
human understanding.
It tells us who we are. The Bible says we are comprised of Body Soul and Spirit.
Our spirit being that part of us with a divine connection to God.
Our soul comprises our mind will and emotions that make us unique personally.
It also says we are made in God’s
image. Not physically, but that He has ingrained His character into us
spiritually and to a large degree in our soul.
As we spend more time in relationship with Him, we grow to be more like Him.
When we see what is available in and through God's Word, I'm now just amazed that the whole of mankind aren't reading it continually. I was guilty as anyone else.
For more information on the various Bible translations you may like to look at my follow up blog thetruelifegiver2.blogspot.com
