A Truth to Believe

 What Does It Mean that God Inspired the Bible?

The God of this universe wrote a book. The Bible is one big book made up of many smaller books written by numerous people over many years.

In the Bible, God reveals who he is through the words of human authors. But these authors were not writing on their own. God helped them in a special way by supernaturally influencing their writing. Authors wrote under the direction of the Holy Spirit while simultaneously writing in their own words and styles using their own intellect and skills. The Holy Spirit moved in and through them to declare God’s message exactly how God wanted it revealed.

God directed and breathed out every word in the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments. For God to inspire these words means they ultimately come from him. God used mortal and fallible men to write what is infallible and eternal.

Scripture then is from both God and man. Yet, when we read the Bible, we are ultimately hearing God speak.

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21).

Something about Living

Many significant achievements are not the result of one moment of effort. Big results often come from hard work, faithful effort, and consistent deposits one day at a time.

Hard work alone does not guarantee consistent and great results. Yet, it is hard to get consistent and great results without hard work.

The sum of it: work hard, focus on trajectory, and fight for small daily wins.

A Quote

Do you feel like you are languishing or slowing your pace to heaven?

John Flavel encourages us, "It is indeed for the saints' advantage to be weaned from love of, and delight in, ensnaring earthly vanities; to be quickened and urged forward with more haste to heaven; to have clearer discoveries of their own hearts; to be taught to pray more fervently, frequently, spiritually; to look and long for the rest to come more ardently."

Growth in godliness is often uncomfortable and unpleasant in the moment. Yet, it yields a more abundant harvest to come.

John Flavel - Keeping the Heart pg. 52

A Booklist

Jesus himself tells that the Bible is primarily about him.

Here are the most helpful books I have read on seeing and savoring Jesus in the Bible and particularly in the OT.