Experience God’s ongoing inspiration

Everyone has an opinion on the Bible, whether they have read one or not. I heard that the average American household contains 3.2 Bibles. The Bible is the best selling book of all time and sales are better than ever.

Lots of Americans have Bibles and many of us do not read them, or if we do, we sure don’t read them as much as we would like. But, what exactly is the Bible and what can we expect from reading it?

We tend to think of the Bible as a book. The Bible certainly looks like a book. However, the Bible is closer to a library. There are 66 books within the Christian Bible. These books vary greatly in style from history to letters and poetry. More than 40 authors wrote the works collected in the Bible over a period of thousands of years.

Much of the Bible existed first as oral tradition, which was handed down from person to person and then later written down. An example is the Gospel of Mark, the earliest of the four Gospels to be written down. Mark was written sometime in the 60s, just before the Jewish War with Rome that left the Jewish Temple in ruins even to this day. An early Christian writer, Papias, tells us that Mark wrote the stories the Apostle Peter told in his preaching and teaching.

The letters Paul wrote to churches under his care, such as the church in Corinth and the church in Thessalonica, were just that. They started out as letters from a church leader to his church. Church leaders circulated the letters to be read in other churches as well. These letters came to take on the importance of other scripture (which for Christians at that time was what we now call the Old Testament).

The Bible then is not one book, but a collection of books. Christians around the world hold the Bible to be sacred, as we know it to contain God’s word for us. The words are not just a record of past people and events, but words inspired by God, which continue to speak to us.

I know that God’s inspiration breathes life into the words of scripture as it is read now as much as when they were written. To compare the Bible to some other great works, Shakespeare’s writings have been proven time and again to effect the emotions of audiences and readers. But Luke’s Gospel, for example, has done quite a bit more. The Gospel of Luke and the rest of our Bible have changed lives dramatically. This is not due merely to the inspiration at the time of authorship, but it is due to the ongoing inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

This is something I have experienced time and again. I remember so clearly when I arrived at a Sunday afternoon Bible Study in 1995 full of doubts and fears about pursuing the strong call I felt to ordained ministry. I was worried about whether I was being a responsible husband and father to leave our current work, take on the heavy costs of three years of seminary only to return to a low paying job as a priest in small town South Georgia.

I got to the church early, and only one other person was there. Lea Taylor and I stood on the steps and talked. She said I seemed anxious and I told her that I was struggling with a decision and I needed prayer. She said, “You need to read the Sermon on the Mount.” Frankly, it sounded like pat advice, and I did not much pay attention. I replied, “You mean in Matthew?” thinking of the beatitudes with the familiar, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth,” and all the rest. Lea said, “No, I was thinking of Luke.”

I told Lea that I would read it and then she startled me by handing me her Bible. She would not wait. Lea is a dear sweet soul, and is not usually so forceful. It got my attention. I took the Bible and read in Luke chapter 12 starting at verse 27 where she pointed me.

It reads, “Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith!”

I kept reading scarcely believing my eyes, “And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows you need them. Instead strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.”

I may be thickheaded, but I know enough to feel a 2x4 when it hits me between the eyes. God had taken away my final excuse. God inspired Lea in giving me the Scripture to read and inspired my reading of that Scripture. They were not the old, dead words of a sermon from long ago, but living words with a living promise.

God was faithful to that promise and we were able to go to seminary, even traveling to Africa and Israel during those years, without building up school loans or a heavy debt load to bring back to Georgia.

You can experience this ongoing inspiration for yourself as you read the Bible today. However, as it is a library and not just a book, you are not best served to pick it up to read from front to back. Instead, try beginning with the Gospel of Mark, the first and shortest record of Jesus’ life and ministry. Mark takes about an hour and a half to read.

Or you may prefer to start with the Gospel of John, the evocatively written account of Jesus’ life that many consider their favorite book of the Bible. Wherever you start, try to remain open to how the words of scripture speak to you where you are today. For the inspiration of God’s word continues each time it is read.

(The Rev. Frank Logue is pastor of King of Peace Church in Kingsland, Georgia.) 

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