Bible Study

A lot of people have issues with the Bible. A lot of these people even belong to churches. It's a big book, full of challenging and life-changing words. Some people like to look through it, and while they have a very easy time accepting parts like loving our neighbour, they aren't as willing to accept other parts of the very same work.

But if one considers the Bible untrustworthy in some places, why is there any basis to believe that any part of it at all is trustworthy?

That's kind of how I see the issue. I kind of think that the Bible is take-it-or-leave it, with no "create your own" option. Personally, I've decided to take it, but that doesn't mean that I automatically understand everything written in it. It just means that I'm trying.

I compare Bible study to something I learned in horseback riding. In riding, there is a saying that goes as follows:

"If your horse says no, you either asked the question wrong, or asked the wrong question." (Referring to moments when your horse may not do exactly as you think you've asked him or her)

Bible study is similar, because I've found that every time I felt I had found error, the error was not in the text itself, but in the way I was framing things. In Bible study, we need to learn to ask the right questions, the right way, and be humble.

Attitudes

This world makes me sad sometimes. It's a rough place to live. There is an overwhelming atmosphere of despair, rooted in everything people say and do. It's a sense of despair that comes from the belief that this is all there is to life; you just get through it. The doctrine of today is that people are just animals, this is all just a big rat race, we are here because of random chance, and we are nothing more than a bunch of molecules. Emotions are simply chemical reactions in the brain. There is nothing deeper, there is nothing higher. What is love? Oxytocin. That's it.

When I look at the world, here are the products I notice, the products of this reductionist worldview: In a world where there is no purpose, life is not sacred. Suicide is no big deal, it's just a person's choice. In a world where we are all just animals, brutal and violent behaviour is justified, because after all, don't we all just operate by "instinct?" In this worldview, nothing really matters. Nothing is all that valuable in the end. People certainly aren't.

Based on the bible, I reject this worldview. I firmly believe that we were meant for more, and I think that if people truly understood their worth, then they would stop settling for the bare minimum, just existing. I believe that we were intentionally created by an all-powerful, awesome God, a God who is by very definition Love. This God wants everything for us. He has created us with purpose, and for relationship with Him. How incredible a purpose is that? We are meant for relationship with the Most High, the God of EVERYTHING.

This God loves us so much, that we are worth dying for. This is the love story of the ages; that the Lover would stop at nothing, not even the brutal death of the Cross, to free his beloved. It's at the very core of Christiany; of humanity: we are worth dying for.

I trip over this all the time. Puny little me, who can't do anything right, one of billions of people on a tiny blue ball floating through space. Not only does God know me, but He LOVES me.

How would this change the world, if people truly knew the worth they have that comes from their Creator? What would that look like?

I think people wouldn't settle for anything. I think that our day-to-day interactions would change, if we understood that we are on the same bus, in the same office, living amongst beautiful people for whom the Creator of all gave everything. I think that we would have no choice but to be joyful! I think that we would defend each other and carry each other, and that people would know true love. True love, the kind that only comes from God, would change everything.