Letters from God: Scripture for Head, Heart, Hands

``I may not always like everything that I read. I may not always feel it. I may not think that it always suits me, and I may not always be ready for it, but I will tell you it's something that I should always follow. Francis Chan wrote this quote. There are things in this book referring to the Bible. He said that I don't naturally think or feel or agree with all the time. Have you ever been there? Oh, I have plenty of times. There's a lot of times I read something, and I know God's speaking to me specifically, and I go, I don't like that. Right? I really don't wanna hear that today. I don't wanna be challenged in that way. He goes on to say, but I surrender to it. When I disagree with this book, I assume every time that God is right and that I'm wrong. [00:48:22] (57 seconds)  #SurrenderToGodsWord

We are reading the word and the word is investing into us, and it's beginning to challenge those things that we think about. And it should. It should make you ask yourself, is what I'm believing and what I'm following, is it truth? And where do we have as our reference and our litmus test for that? And to make sure that it is as we have God's word. If it matches up with that, then we're in a good place. It should change and challenge how we think and how we live. Romans twelve two says, don't conform any longer to the pattern of the world, but what? Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. It starts up here. Then you will be able to know what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. [00:47:37] (45 seconds)  #RenewYourMind

In fact, that it can even read me. You hear me say that frequently. But god's word does read us, and it wants us to move to the point that we get this change of heart. One of the ways that I know that the Bible has been used in my life and I see it used in people's lives around me is as a lifeline. It's one of those things that we reach to when we need something, when we need direction, when we need comfort, when we need to know how to handle a problem or a challenge that's come our way. We engage in it with expectancy, knowing that God knows us, and we look even into the past of other people and how he handled things, and we grow from those experiences. [00:50:05] (48 seconds)  #BibleIsMyLifeline

Our goal in this series is not that you know the Bible or a period in your life that you've got it 100% memorized. I think you know every little detail about it. The goal is that you have a relationship with Christ as a result of spending time in that word and getting to know it. God's gonna keep revealing more to you, and I'm gonna tell you, you're gonna love it once you do learn more. When you learn the context of the scriptures and why certain things were written the way they were or what was going on in those people's lives, the letter that's written there that tells about the details of the people that are in in going on and what God is speaking to them about, all of that makes it more alive. [00:42:02] (48 seconds)  #KnowChristNotJustFacts

One of the things that we look at in the in probably one of the hardest things to read is the Old Testament. Right? I mean, I think it's pretty cool the beginning of it. You get it through creation and and god choosing people to be his people and then we read through Exodus. Of course, that's a lot of action, a lot of cool things happening. This is stuff movies are made of. We get excited about that. And then we start to get into other parts and it gets a little bit more challenging, right? Judges and numbers and all of those, and we just kind of scratch our heads and go, I'm not really sure why all of this is in here, but it all has a purpose. [00:29:21] (44 seconds)  #OldTestamentHasPurpose

And it's gonna begin to guide you and speak to you so that you don't feel that way. Then in Romans 10, it says, how then can they call on the one whom they haven't believed, and how can they believe in the one whom they haven't heard? How can they preach unless they've been sent? How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news? What is the good news? It's God's word. And so you and I need to know this. We need to know it because it's the life saving line for every person. It was for you, and it needs to be for them. [00:52:38] (37 seconds)  #ShareTheGoodNews

But here's a question for you. Alright? For us to to kind of evaluate, how have you been challenged by the scriptures lately? What's God been teaching you about himself? Even better, what has he been teaching you about you? Because these scriptures are God breathed and they're living and they're active, then this is a living document that we hold. It's not just old words and old stories. It's something that should be active and should be a daily part of your life. And many of you that are strong believers that you're sitting here today, you're like going, I know all of this. I know you do, but that's why I asked that question. How is God challenging you in the word today? [00:45:11] (55 seconds)  #HowIsGodChallengingYou

Right? God is love. And so you can almost even change love is and put Christ in there. Christ is patient. Christ is not self seeking. Christ is not rude. He lived out those things. And so just like what we did in the Old Testament, kind of looking at the the precept, the principle, and the person, you can do that same thing in the New Testament. When you begin to dive into it and you begin to look at scriptures, you can begin to see these are commands. I'm supposed to love others as who? As Christ loved the church. That was a new command that Jesus gave us. And so as I do that and I begin to look at that in first Corinthians 13 and I begin to live that out, I realize those are action steps for me. [00:44:20] (51 seconds)  #LoveLikeChrist