We move on now to address the question that this begs. How can we know what God’s will is for this world, this suburb, this church? The Decisive answer is this – by heeding God’s word – the Bible…
At the very foundation of what we will do when we start to meet together as a new church is God’s word – the Bible. The answer as to why is simple, but very important. We as Christians believe that the way our God speaks to us and to his world, the way he reveals who he is and what he is like, is through the Bible – God’s word.
Over the course of a series of blogs we will outline two reasons why heeding the Bible is going to be at the foundation of our life together as a church. We will look at one briefly in this first blog and one then in more detail over the coming days.
1 – Because it is God’s word
In 2 Timothy 3:16 we read that “All Scripture is God-breathed…”. The passage shows us the origin of the book that you find in our church seats, and hopefully in our homes, and carried with us to our workplaces etc. God has breathed these words into existence.
Out of the idea that scripture is ‘God breathed’ comes the Christian belief that the Bible is inspired by God. But it is important to be clear on what we mean by this:
o Not in existence and the then subsequently breathed upon (like fairy dust)
o Rather, its very existence is brought about by the breath of God. The words of this book…are words from the very mouth of God…formed by the breath of God. He is the speaker.
As 2 Peter 1:20-21 says…“Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
Therefore when we say that hearing and heeding this book is at the foundation of this new church, we are saying that because we know that this is God’s word, we believe that God himself, by his Spirit has brought these very words to our ears, eyes, hearts, minds and souls. It is a word he speaks as our creator and King. A word that has authority in all matters of life and salvation…
