Turn - Max Lucado [7]
MILLIONS OF TESTIMONIES CONVERGE TO ANNOUNCE:
THE BIBLE IS THE MOST INCREDIBLE BOOK EVER WRITTEN.
What does the Bible mean to my relationship with God? It’s a lot like my father’s final correspondence—it gives me a glimpse of his face. I can see his letter from where I write. I keep it framed and hung in my office. When my dad was diagnosed with ALS, a disease that eventually took his life, I offered to abandon my work and move home. He penned a letter telling me not to do so. “I am not afraid of death or eternity,” he wrote. “Continue your work for God.”
I display the letter because it reveals the heart of my father. Want to know what kind of dad I had? Read his words.
WANT TO KNOW WHAT KIND OF FATHER WE HAVE? READ HIS WORD. GOD INVITES US TO KNOW HIM. HE DOES NOT HIDE HIS FACE; QUITE THE CONTRARY, HE UNVEILS IT.
“If you seek him. you will find him.” (I Chronicles 28:9, NLT)
HE AWAITS OUR DISCOVERY.
“Seek the LORD while you can find him,” Isaiah invites. “Call on him now while he is near” (Isaiah 55:6, NLT).
“The LORD is wonderfully good to those who wait for him and seek him” (Lamentations 3:25. NLT).
“Happy are those who…search for him with all their hearts” (Psalm 119:2, NLT).
Bottom-line these passages with one sentence:
GOD BLESSES GOD-SEEKERS.
“If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me.”
(Jeremiah 29:13, NLT)
God’s face awaits our study. What makes Him smile? What furrows His brow or sparkles His eyes? When do His lips purse or eyes water? He wants you to know. And to those who seek to know, He gives this promise: “If my people…seek my face… then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14, italics mine).
But how do we do that? How do we seek the face of an invisible God? We read His letter. We read the Bible because “the Scriptures point to me!” (John 5:39, NLT). Those who want to seek His face will read His word. We can seek His face through many venues: worship, fellowship, meditation. But all will include the Bible.
Suppose a museum of art commissions one painting to be painted by forty different artists. They work in their respective studios, knowing nothing of each others’ efforts. And yet, when these many canvases are assembled on one wall, they combine to create the perfect landscape. What are the odds?
Or consider this. Forty architects set out to design one building. Some know what others are doing—others are unaware anyone else is doing anything at all. When they gather to compile notes, the result is a magnificent blueprint. Could it happen?
It did with the Bible. No human publisher commissioned the book. No committee outlined it. No earthly editor oversaw the project. Yet, against these incredible odds, the Bible is a marvel of consistency from cover to cover. Though separated by sixteen centuries…though penned by an unlikely assortment of kings, soldiers, shepherds, farmers, and fishermen—from Moses in the lonely desert of Arabia to John on the windswept island of Patmos—one theme threads the Bible together. That theme is salvation through Jesus Christ.
James Hefley notes: “The sixty-six books are a perfect whole, a purposeful revelation and a progressive proof that the Bible is more than the work of fallible men.” The Bible’s composition elevates its credibility.
No wonder the Bible has endured like it has. Voltaire, the French skeptic, once wrote these words from his Paris office: “I will go through the forest of Scripture and girdle all the trees so that in one hundred years Christianity will be but a vanishing memory.” Not only did he fail, but in a twist of divine irony, the very room in which he penned those words was later purchased by the British and Foreign Bible Society…and packed from floor to ceiling with Bibles.
Every passing day, every turn of the centuries validates the prophecy of Peter: “The word of the Lord will live forever” (I Peter 1:25, NIT).
What rivals the durability of the Bible?