Read this ... for courage, truth, wisdom - nothing compares

Read this . . . well worth your time!

The Bible – not another book like it.

Listen along here:  https://www.pastorwoman.net/podcast/episode/2d2948f5/read-this-noth...

I am just back from the Footsteps of Paul tour, where the greatest missionary and church planter made his mark in Greece, Turkey and Rome. While I did not need convincing of the worth of the Bible before the trip, I definitely saw even more evidence shoring up the truth of Scripture. And here's the thing, Friends--confidence in the veracity and value of Scripture ought prompt us daily to pick up our Bibles and read!

O, there have been so many situations I can describe for you - from the local beach to San Clemente High School... from gymnasiums to backyards to a boat on the Sea of Galilee…

Ah, there was the hillside where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount and now a riverbank outside of Philippi, Greece, where Paul shared the gospel with Lydia and she became the first European convert to Christianity--and take note, a business woman at that! There have been living rooms, chapels, mortuaries, sanctuaries and then of course, the back of a white Ford truck in a SoCal parking lot during Covid. There was the Garden of Gethsemane where Christ uttered his final agonizing prayer, the shadows of excavated ancient Ephesus, reading from Acts 19 this last week… I remember the wind whipping my hair as I read from Luke 2 above the Shepherd’s Fields in Bethlehem with Jerusalem just across on the opposite hillside … I could go on recalling each setting filled with memories of the eyes, faces, and expressions of listeners … where I have had the privilege of reading life-giving TRUTH from the precious Word of God. 

There. is. no. other. book. like. the. Bible. With its fulfilled prophecy, sixty specific prophecies about the Messiah alone, fulfilled in one Jesus Christ of Nazareth. [Click to read: https://conta.cc/3SjSP7J]

Then, there is the archaeology - [Click to read: [https://conta.cc/3Svan0Q]. The archaeology piece is especially fascinating because as more excavation is done, the greater the corroboration of Scripture! Indeed in the past 150 years, archaeologists have been verifying the exact truthfulness of the Bible’s detailed records of various events, customs, persons, cities, nations and geographical locations.² Visiting Magdala for the first time in February 2018, I found the live dig riveting--the unearthing of a first century synagogue discovered in 2009. Prior to that, Bible skeptics scoffed because there was no evidence to support the gospel accounts of Jesus teaching on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. And then in December, 2021, a second synagogue unearthed in Magadala--yes on the western shore of the Galilee. Amazing!

The Bible alone addresses the BIG questions of life, the very most important questions of life: How did I get here? Why am I here? What happens when I die? Is there an after life--a Heaven or Hell? If there is a Heaven, how do I get there? The Bible handles these questions consistently in the 66 different documents, written by 40 different authors in three different languages, and three different continents. The Bible is internally consistent.

Then there are the extra biblical writings - dozens of them - that verify people, places, events and details that are discussed in the Bible. Thirty nine sources outside of the Bible within 150 years of Jesus’ life that reveal to us more than a hundred facts about Jesus’ life, teachings, death and resurrection. First century Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, is one such source, then there is the Jewish Talmud, (Jewish teachings passed down from generation to generation, organized between AD 70 and 200).

More evidence for the veracity of Scripture is the manuscript evidence; a manuscript is any surviving hand-written copy of an ancient document that predates the invention of the printing press in 1455. There are 25,000 partial and complete, ancient handwritten manuscripts of the New Testament, as well as thousands of copies of the Old Testament--many of them predating the time of Christ. Many of those recovered Old Testament manuscripts that were written before Jesus were unearthed in the Qumran caves in 1947 … the Dead Sea Scrolls. (miraculously preserved)

How about the ‘realness’ factor of Scripture? The Bible includes the bad, evil and the ugly along with the good, such as good King David falling to the temptation of adultery, and then following it up with murder! How could God’s words then call him a ‘man after his [God’s] own heart’? The Bible tells it like it was, even though it seems like it would read better if its characters would have been righteous, holy, paragons of virtue. 

Finally, we will conclude our support for the validity of the written Word of God by stating the fact that no other book in the world has transformed the hearts, minds and lives of people as has Scripture. The writer of Hebrews describes it as living and active;³ oh yes it is! Hmmm, I remember this psalm from my youth, set to a simple melody: “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.”⁴

^{I pray that God will give you a voracious love for his Word, such that you will want to read and understand it, memorize it and even pray it.}

A little Alan Jackson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YQXiQfEjqs

With love from my heart and mind to yours,

Christine

PastorWoman.net

^{1 – Pastorwoman Corp, my website, www.pastorwoman.net, archives hundreds of Bible studies , written and podcast form, that can be accessed. Click on Morning Briefings, then Archives, then Bible Teaching.} 

^{2 – “Evidence for the Bible” – www.alwaysbeready.com, Charlie Campbell,} https://alwaysbeready.com/bible-can-it-be-trusted/

^{3 – Hebrews 4.15}

^{4 – Psalm 19.7--10}