Christ, not the Bible, is the True Word of God; Tyranny

"It is Christ Himself, not the Bible, who is the true Word of God. The Bible, read in the right spirit, and with the guidance of good teachers, will bring us to Him. But we must not use the Bible (our fathers too often did) as a sort of Encyclopedia out of which texts (isolated from their context and read without attention to the whole nature and purport of the books in which they occur) can be taken for use as weapons." – C.S. Lewis. The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis.

"You diligently study the Scripture because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me." – John 5:39.

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock.

Verses That "Did Me"

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock" (Mt 7:24). [A Rock Solid Life.]

What are some of my "Hear and Do" verses? These are some of the verses that "did me" (1 Cor 8:3; Gal 4:9) and that led to self-discovery, enlightenment and transformation:

1. Gen 1:2. I discovered my true self: I was empty!
2. Gen 2:16-17. This led to my conversion.
3. Mt 6:33. This prioritized my life, along with Lk 9:23. Otherwise it is too easy to be driven by ego, selfish ambition, pleasures.
4. 1 Cor 15:36. In some peculiar way, this gave me the courage and conviction to marry.
5. Ex 20:5. This is my parenting verse. It helped me practice my two favorite pair of words: "fear and trembling" (Phil 2:12) and "humility and tears" (Ac 20:19).

My Top 100 Bible Verses

The first 20:

1. Rom 8:28, NIV: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
2. Gen 50:20, NLT: "You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people."
3. Ac 20:24, NIV: "However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task...the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God" (Ac 20:24, NLT).
4. Ac 20:27, ESV: "...for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God."
5. Mt 6:33, NLT: "Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need."
6. Prov 3:5-6, NLT: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take."

Assess Your Bible Reading and Your Thinking

1. How often do you read the Bible? Do you read the Bible daily? A few times a week? Not that often?
2. How much time do you spend reading (meditating on) the Bible? Reading books, blogs or magazines?
3. When you read the Bible how much of it do you usually read? A few verses at the time? A few chapters? 5-10 chapters?
4. What do you know about your Bible?

Study The Bible

1. Read the Bible: Read all of it (Dt 8:3; Ac 20:24). Read it regularly/daily (Ps 1:2; 119:97).
2. Read commentaries.
3. Read books (2 Tim 4:13).
4. Read blogs.
5. #1: Read relationally (Dt 6:5).
6. Read and sense that there is one who is reading you (1 Cor 8:3; Gal 4:9).
7. Read, discuss and share with others in community (Heb 10:25), not in isolation.
8. Read with meditation, reflection and contemplation because you love God with all your mind, thoughts, feelings and emotion (Dt 6:5).

Martin Luther said, "In truth you cannot read too much in Scripture; and what you read you cannot read too carefully, and what you read carefully you cannot understand too well, and what you understand well you cannot teach too well, and what you teach well you cannot live too well."

Loving the Bible is like a Husband Loving His Wife's Letters

I love receiving hand written cards from my wife, even if her handwriting is often quite hard to read and decipher. Strangely, I even delight in trying to figure out what exactly did she write to me! She wrote this to me after 32 years of marriage. I can thus relate to what John Stott writes when he equates loving the Bible with loving to read my wife's written words to me:

"A man who loves his wife will love her letters and her photographs because they speak to him of her. So if we love the Lord Jesus we shall love the Bible because it speaks to us of him. The hus­band is not so stupid as to prefer his wife's letters to her voice, or her pho­tographs to herself. He simply loves them because of her. So, too, we love the Bible because of Christ. It is his portrait. It is his love-letter."

We Christians Should Read the Bible Daily in 2011 BUT...

Many choose one of many Bible reading plans. But it’s not so important which Bible Reading Plan you select, but rather that you are reading your Bible.

BUT there are drawbacks and dangers of any Bible reading plan.

They are:

1. formality (in which Bible-reading degenerates into a lifeless duty);
   
2. self-righteousness (we pat ourselves on the back for doing the daily reading and ticking the box);


3. careless reading (we read fast to get it done and don’t tremble at the Word of God); and


4. having the Bible-reading plan become a yoke too heavy to bear.

Realizing this, I thought of a couple of verses to help us delight in God's Word (I'm sure you have your own favorite ones):

• "These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word" (Isa 66:2).


• "For you have exalted above all things your name and your word" (Ps 138:2).

Posted via email from benjamintoh's posterous

The Bible Stands Alone

In 1889 a schoolteacher told a ten-year-old boy, "You will never amount to very much." That boy was Albert Einstein. In 1954 a music manager told a young singer, "You ought to go back to driving a truck." That singer was Elvis Presley. In 1962 a record company told a group of singers, "We don’t like your sound. Groups with guitars are definitely on their way out." They said that to the Beatles. Man is prone to make mistakes. Those who reject the Bible should take the time to look at the evidence before they come to a verdict.

1. It is unique in its continuity. If just 10 people today were picked who were from the same place, born around the same time, spoke the same language, and made about the same amount of money, and were asked to write on just one controversial subject, they would have trouble agreeing with each other. But the Bible stands alone. It was written over a period of 1,600 years by more than 40 writers from all walks of life. Some were fishermen; some were politicians. Others were generals or kings, shepherds or historians. They were from three different continents, and wrote in three different languages. They wrote on hundreds of controversial subjects yet they wrote with agreement and harmony. They wrote in dungeons, in temples, on beaches, and on hillsides, during peacetime and during war. Yet their words sound like they came from the same source. So even though 10 people today couldn’t write on one controversial subject and agree, God picked 40 different people to write the Bible—and it stands the test of time.

2. It is unique in its circulation. The invention of the printing press in 1450 made it possible to print books in large quantities. The first book printed was the Bible. Since then, the Bible has been read by more people and printed more times than any other book in history. By 1930, over one billion Bibles had been distributed by Bible societies around the world. By 1977, Bible societies alone were printing over 200 million Bibles each year, and this doesn’t include the rest of the Bible publishing companies. No one who is interested in knowing the truth can ignore such an important book.

3. It is unique in its translation. The Bible has been translated into over 1,400 languages. No other book even comes close.

4. It is unique in its survival. In ancient times, books were copied by hand onto manuscripts which were made from parchment and would decay over time. Ancient books are available today only because someone made copies of the originals to preserve them. For example, the original writings of Julius Caesar are no longer around. We know what he wrote only by the copies we have. Only 10 copies still exist, and they were made 1,000 years after he died. Only 600 copies of Homer’s The Iliad exist, made 1,300 years after the originals were written. No other book has as many copies of the ancient manuscripts as the Bible. In fact, there are over 24,000 copies of New Testament manuscripts, some written within 35 years of the writer’s death.

5. It is unique in withstanding attack. No other book has been so attacked throughout history as the Bible. In A.D. 300 the Roman emperor Diocletian ordered every Bible burned because he thought that by destroying the Scriptures he could destroy Christianity. Anyone caught with a Bible would be executed. But just 25 years later, the Roman emperor Constantine ordered that 50 perfect copies of the Bible be made at government expense. The French philosopher Voltaire, a skeptic who destroyed the faith of many people, boasted that within 100 years of his death, the Bible would disappear from the face of the earth. Voltaire died in 1728, but the Bible lives on. The irony of history is that 50 years after his death, the Geneva Bible Society moved into his former house and used his printing presses to print thousands of Bibles.

The Bible has also survived criticism. No book has been more attacked for its accuracy. And yet archeologists are proving every year that the Bible’s detailed descriptions of historic events are correct.

http://www.livingwaters.com/witnessingtool/Biblestandsalone.shtml