Thursday, January 12, 2012

God's Word

Let me begin my entry with the first verse and chorus of a song that spoke to me about God's word. The song is from Casting Crowns and is called "The Word is Alive". The word is alive and it cuts like a sword through the darkness with a message of light to the hopeless and afraid, breathing Life into all who believe.

This best describes how I felt when my eyes were opened and I started following God and reading his word.I felt alive again with a hope that I cannot put into words. The word to me is the most timeless piece of literature I have ever read. As the years go by and I continue to read it, there are timeless truths that I am learning to apply to my life. Some people will say times have changed and therefore the culture and world have changed. People will say the bible is antiquated and not useful for the present.

The word speaks to every area of my life: Love,work,children,wisdom,character,being a good citizen,helping the needy,relationships,money, etc.

Isaiah 40:8 says the grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever. I agree the times, culture and the world have changed. But God's word has not. He is also the same yesterday, today and forever. It can be trusted and it is true.

Interestingly enough the bible remains to be one of the most powerful, controversial and famous books in history. It also remains to be one of the best sellers of all time.

Let us focus on the New Testament writings for a moment. There are roughly 5,600 copies of New Testament Greek manuscripts that were penned in less than 100 years. They are said to be 99.5% textually accurate. This compared with just 643 copies of Homers Iliad which was written 500 years after the original. This is merely one example where there are thousands more manuscripts than any other ancient writing.

It is agreed by mostly all biblical scholars that the New Testament Documents were all written within 70 years of Jesus's crucifixion in 30A.D. This is a crucial factor in the fact that there were enough people around at that time to challenge the writings. People would have been available to point out the mistakes. This leads me to my final point being that there have never been any early documents contemporary with the first century that contest these texts.

In closing Psalm 119:105 says Thy word is a Lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. I consider Gods word my road map, GPS in this life. For me without it I would be lost.There are times in my life where I can veer off the path, but God always brings me back and I owe him my life for it.