Scripture Matters

‘O, if only I could have been a fly on the wall …

If only I had been there to hear what was said, how it went down …’

Perhaps you have heard or uttered the words yourself, wishing you could have witnessed some meaningful exchange.  In this case, I was fortunate enough to be there and hear it all, and I didn’t have to resemble a fly!

The scene was a company conference room; the attendees included three of my corporate brothers, one of whom was brand new to our Bible study meetings.  I had gotten the message: ‘He is nervous, he has never been to Bible study—so don’t call on him, and don’t put him on the spot.’  Okay, okay, I get it; I will be careful not to make anyone squirm. 

But as it happened, in this meeting, I did a lot of listening--especially at the start.  One of the guys looked at our new brother and opened our discussion with, ‘You see, here’s kinda’ how it happened with me...  I knew about God, guess I believed in him, but I just wasn’t too sure about the whole thing or how into it I wanted to be.  That is until my friend took me to hear Lee Strobel,’ he said. ‘And this guy Lee, well he explained his own investigation into the claims of Scripture from his skeptical, atheistic mind using his skills as an investigative law writer for the Chicago Tribune.’  Strobel wanted to extinguish the fire of his wife’s newfound faith and conversion to Christianity.  Turns out, his in-depth, detailed investigation led him to fully believe not only the Bible but Jesus Christ!

‘That was just the start,’ he continued, ‘but after that, I found I had more trust in the Bible.  Then some time after that, our company was experiencing some very rough times—oh, not just financial ones, everybody has those—but things that made me question whether or not we were doing things right for God.  (See that was important to me and my business partner.)  So I asked Christine to meet with me, and it was then that she was able to listen and discern that while we might be making some great plans for God, we just didn’t have enough of a spiritual foundation. 

‘That was when she started writing daily Bible studies and sending them through e-mail every day—at first, just to the two of us—so that we could get into the Word, and get the Word into us. That was the starting point of our having a corporate pastor.  It was a year or so later that we began having weekly conference-call prayer meetings—every Wednesday.  Man, the things God has brought us through!’

‘You kinda see what I mean?’  New guy nodded.

‘I’ve learned that there are no contradictions in this Bible of ours, even though it was written by so many different people!  There’s the Old Testament, and the New Testament, which is mostly about Jesus...’  He shocked me with how much detail he could tell our brother about the Word of God.

Then another brother chimed in and said, ‘you know, sometimes we discuss the Scripture our briefing is about … and other times, we discuss how to find other answers for our lives from God, and what he taught us in here,’ and he tapped his Bible—‘things about work, things about our home life… how to get answers to tough questions that other people ask us.’  The new brother listened and nodded, still not sure what was going to happen—especially once I was to start talking.

That is the power of Story … the story of one man’s experience with the Word of God, influenced by another man’s experience, both willing to share with someone else.  The conference room discussion shows the value of coming together to talk about the truths of God’s Word, and how they apply to our lives, and that the Scripture is true and it is defensible.  How I love the Word of God!  I concur with the psalmist who sang, ‘Your Word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.’¹   Your Word guides us in the way we should live, dear God, and how grateful I am for that.  ‘How I love your teaching!  It is my meditation all the day long.’²  ‘When I discovered your words, I devoured them.
They are my joy and my heart’s delight,
for I bear your name,
 O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies.³

Please join me tomorrow as we look again at Paul’s words to young Timothy, gleaning that which will point you and me to victorious Christian living . . . because Scripture matters. 

^Christine

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