God Gave Us a Book

God gave mankind a book. Not a pamphlet or a paragraph... not a brochure or a manual. It isn't just filled with stories. or poems, or instructions, or legal information only. The Book is filled with so many things. It is long but not so lengthy that a man or woman can't read it cover to cover in a years time.

For one thing... what a loving gesture that is.

I have thought that all of creation is, in a way, god's 'illustration' for His divine masterpiece. All the people, animals, stars, tastes and sounds each person sees and manifold sights that no man has ever seen... all the distant sights around distant stars and microscopic sights are sights we just get glimpses of...

"Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away." Luke 21:33; Matthew 24:35; Mark 13:31 KJV

They can't be illustrations like we think of them. They are not printed in-between the covers as a permanent part of the book. The words will stay and these pictures will fade. The words will last and last and last. So will the the people who are made of the book. They also will last.

"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." 1 Peter 1:23 KJV

"You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart." 2 Corinthians 3:2-3 NKJV

Jesus is called the Word (see John 1) an He Is life. The Trinity is the author of our lives and Christ is the author of our faith and yet we are no dry characters in two dimensions. We are participants that God breathed His very life into. Amazing.

Last night. I was thinking about the things the Book is good for and what it is not good for. The list of what it is good for is long and varied.

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." Timothy 3:16-17 ESV

Here is a good exhortation for us:

"I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching." 2 Timothy 4:1-2 ESV

Here is a good warning about the book:

"I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book." Revelation 22:18-19 ESV

Why? Because it is God's message and He doesn't want it tampered with or changed. He wants the instruments to retain their shape.

"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." Hebrews 4:12-13 NKJV

Grace reveals the Bible to be a scalpel and a sword. Grace shows us the smile on God's face. It reveals that the sword is for us and not against us.

"He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD." Isaiah 2:4-5 ESV

"Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." Matthew 10:16 KJV

The Book makes me a lover and a fighter. The Book is a sword of Life.