How to have Victory when your bible doesn’t seem to work - Part 1
“How to have Victory when your bible
doesn’t
seem to work”
The bible
was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by over 40 different
authors from all walks of life: Shepherds,
farmers, tent-makers, physicians, fishermen, priests, philosophers and kings. Despite these differences in occupation and
the span of years it took to write it, the Bible is an extremely cohesive and unified
book.
It was
believed to be written in the course of over 1500 years. With the oldest book being Job and then the first
5 books called the Pentateuch shortly after believed it was written by Moses.
· 66 individual books in all
· 39 Old Testament
· 27 New Testament
· With the key work “Testament” meaning
Covenant or Contract
Earliest NT
book believed written was James around 45 A.D then the Gospel of John Mark
following.
There are
about 7000 spoken languages in the world and about 300 writing systems in the
world today. The Bible has been translated to 3,283 and is in 167 Countries. The Bible continues to be the best selling
book in the world today and has been since the beginning of the printing press
in 1454 A.D. by Johannes Guttenberg. He invented
the “type mold” for the printing press, and chose to print the bible. So the Bible is the first ever book printing
for mass production.
The Bible
is:
· The most sold book of all time- estimated
5 Billion
· The most read book of all time- The
bible
The oldest bible in the world today is the Ethiopian Bible also known as
the Gorima Gospel, estimated to have been written in the 4th century
A.D. by Ethiopian Monks.
French philosopher Voltaire
(1694-1778) predicted in 1776, “One hundred years from my day,
there will not be a Bible on earth except one that is looked upon by an
antiquarian curiosity-seeker.” within
fifty years after his death, in an ironic twist of Providence, the very house
in which he once lived and wrote was used by the Evangelical Society of Geneva
as a storehouse for Bibles and Gospel tracts and the printing presses he used
to print his irreverent works was used to print Bibles.
“A though
knowledge of the bible is worth more then a college education” – Theodore Roosevelt
“The bible is a great source of wisdom and consolation and should be read
frequently” – Albert Einstein
Barna Research: September 13, 2011
Obstacle 1: Commitment
On the one hand, four out of five self-identified Christian adults (81%) say
they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in
their life today. More than three out of four self-identified Christians (78%)
strongly agreed that spirituality is very important to them. Yet, less than one
out of every five self-identified Christians (18%) claims to be totally
committed to investing in their own spiritual development. About the same
proportion of self-identified Christians (22%) claims to be “completely
dependent upon God.” Those figures help explain why a majority of
self-identified Christian adults (52%) believe that there is much more to the
Christian life than what they have experienced. Without a full determination to
live like Christ and for Him, the path to complete transformation is blocked.
Obstacle 2: Repentance
Most of the self-identified Christians in the U.S. (64%) state that they have
confessed their sins to God and asked for His forgiveness. But the evidence is
quite clear that relatively few self-identified Christians are serious about
abandoning the lure of sin and handing total control of their life to God. In
fact, the Maximum Faith research found that only one out of every eight
self-identified Christians (12%) admitted that recognizing and grasping the
significance of their sins had been so personally devastating that it caused
them to crash emotionally. In fact, only about 3% of all self-identified
Christians in America have come to the final stops on the transformational
journey – the places where they have surrendered control of their life to God,
submitted to His will for their life, and devoted themselves to loving and
serving God and other people.
Obstacle 3: Activity
Mired in a culture that rewards hard work and busyness, it’s not surprising
that tens of millions of self-identified Christians have confused religious
activity with spiritual significance and depth. For instance, four out of ten
self-identified Christian adults (39%) have participated in a combination of
three “normal” religious activities in the past week (i.e., attending church
services, praying, reading the Bible). But far fewer have engaged in another
trio of deeper faith expressions: less than one out of ten have talked about
their faith with a non-Christian, fasted for religious purposes, and had an
extended time of spiritual reflection during the past week. Various spiritual
disciplines – including solitude, sacrifice, acts of service, silence, and
scriptural meditation – are also infrequently practiced.
Obstacle 4: Spiritual Community
Most self-identified Christians note that they feel comfortable and connected
within their church. However, various measures show that there is not much
vulnerability and accountability occurring within the context of those
faith-based connections. Many self-identified Christians do not take their
faith community seriously, whatever type it may be, as a place to which they
should be open and held to biblical principles. Only one out of every five
self-identified Christians (21%) believes that spiritual maturity requires a
vital connection to a community of faith. Further, only one-third (35%) claims
to have confessed their sins verbally to another believer at some point during
the past quarter.
Other interesting
articles about the Bible in America according to Barna Research:
You
searched for Christians reading their bible - Barna Group
A 2005 poll for Newsweek magazine found that despite average sales of
more than $1 Billion annually, only 20 percent of Americans read their bible
daily – making the Bible the most owned, least read book in history. (May 9,2010)
So here
is most of our problem….
A mother
named Monica who’s love was so great for her son, was only matched by her love
for her God. She would sing hymns and
songs to him when he was just a young child nursing and also as he grew up. Her faith was very well known in the community
as was also her son’s visible intelligence and brilliance. But as he grew older his brilliance grew
along with his hostility to God and his immorality in life. He became a professor and gave himself to his
career, drunkenness, sexual immorality, and his hobby. To turn people away from there faith in God. While all this time Monica was heart broken
over the condition of his soul, as she would plead with God over her son. One day when her son was 19 years old she had
a dream, that her and her son was walking hand and hand in Heaven. This gave her hope and she continued to pray
and plead for his heart to be turned.
Years continued to go by, and no change.
He seemed to grow more and more hostile to his mothers faith and her
God. A very famous preacher should up in
town and she begged him to please come and speak to her son privately. The preacher refused and Monica wept bitterly
at his response to her. She said, “then
how will my son repent from his hardened heart, how will my son be saved?” The preacher said, “Women, it is impossible
for the son of those tears to perish”.
Monica was encouraged by his words, and continued to pray and plead for
her son’s heart to be changed. Now 9
years after the dream she had about them walking in heaven, one day as her son
was walking still as an unbeliever, heard an audible voice say, “Take it and
read, take it and read…” over and over
again. At first he thought it was a children’s
song, but he didn’t recognize it. For whatever
reason he felt there was more meaning to the saying he had heard. So for the first time he decided to open the
bible and Romans 13:13-14 caught his attention:
Romans 13:13-14 NKJV
13 Let us walk properly,
as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and
lust, not in strife and envy. 14 But put
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill
its lusts.
His heart was instantly convicted and fell to sorrow and
repentance. From that moment on, St.
Agustine dedicated his life to the Lord and the Word of God and became one of
the most influential writers in Church History.
The Power of the Bible:
The bible and the scriptures was incredibly important in
the story, but lets look at what happened to truly get the whole picture of how
God these truly came to be. First of all,
in the 4th century God was still using dreams, prophetic words, his
audible voice, and the words of scripture.
The Power of God’s written word is God’s commitment to us
to use-
Matthew 5:18 NKJV
18 For assuredly, I say to
you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will
by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.
If you ignore the scriptures, you are inviting deception,
and disaster.
Benefits from the Bible:
The most common way the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus and
speaks to us today is through the bible.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 NKJV
16 All Scripture is given
by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for [a]instruction
in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be
complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Lets look at how the bible outlines its own importance:
Luke
24:13-16 & 25-32 NKJV
13 Now behold, two of them were traveling that same
day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 And they talked together
of all these things which had happened. 15 So it was, while they
conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. 16 But their eyes were
restrained, so that they did not know Him…
25 Then He
said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that
the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ
to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” 27 And
beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in
all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
28 Then
they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated
that He would have gone farther. 29 But they
constrained Him, saying, “Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the
day is far spent.” And He went in to stay with them.
30 Now it
came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread,
blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then
their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.
32 And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”
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