September 1 - Reposting

On Tuesday, September 7 I begin an extraordinary journey. After 25 years I am finally returning to school ... to seminary.  


One of the courses I will begin with is an Inductive Bible Study of the book of Matthew.  We're going to take an entire semester to study one book of the Bible.  Wow ... this might get a little intense.  The professor insists that by the end of the semester we will fully understand the book and be able to move through it, knowing exactly what comes next and where to find anything that happens there.  I can hardly wait!


I expect to be able to take you on this journey with me.  One of the best ways for me to learn is to teach.  In the time period between now and the start of this course, I want to repeat a few of my favorite posts from the last few years.  We'll begin with a blog post I wrote exactly a year ago - the Bible is my passion - that will never change:

September 1, 2009 - The Book of the Ages

If you know me at all, you know that one of the greatest passions of my life is the Bible. I can't imagine not having access to the incredible storehouse of knowledge, hope, truth and so much more from God. I believe that it is the inspired word of the God of Creation.

It never occurred to me to question whether it would be available to me after I died. I guess I assumed that I wouldn't need it once I was in heaven because once I was in the presence of God, all things would be made clear to me.

That may actually be, but the Bible itself tells us that these words will always be here. I'm not sure what to do with that little bit of information. Will the written word still exist for me when I stand before God or will I FINALLY have the entire scripture committed to memory!

Psalm 119:89 says "Your word, O Lord is eternal, it stands firm in the heavens."

Isaiah 40:8 says "The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever."

Now, I've talked quite a bit about how Jesus Christ is the Word of God (John 1:1-5) in past blog studies, so at any given moment, I'm not sure how to interpret all of these passages. Maybe standing in the throne room before the Lamb who was slain (Rev. 5:6), it will be very clear to me that in Jesus Christ I will find every single word that has been handed down from generation to generation in the form of the Bible. I think that could be very cool.

In Matthew 5:18, Jesus is telling the crowds that He has come to fulfill the Law, not to abolish it or the Prophets. "I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, nor the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished."

But, in Matthew 24:35, He says, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away."

There we have it. Jesus is the Word of God. The Law will finally disappear when everything that God has planned for this earth is accomplished, but Jesus Christ's words ... Jesus Christ - the Word of God ... will never pass away.

Peter affirms this in 1 Peter 1:25, "but the word of the Lord stands forever." And this is the word that was preached to you.

We face eternity with the Sword of the Spirit ... the Word of God ... the Lamb who was slain ... Jesus Christ by our side, standing between us and judgment. The more that we reach into scripture to learn about who He is and how we can have an amazing relationship with the God of Creation, the more we feel confident to approach eternity. We will go forward with a familiarity, a sense of closeness, when we spend time with The Book of the Ages.