Hebrews 4:11-13
I haven’t blogged for a long while, and I've had some pretty big thoughts going around my head. But today I just want to share a discussion we had as a family last night that meant a lot to- well, all of us I think.
As usual, putting the kids in bed was taking ages, and as usual the kids, especially Miles used the opportunity to talk about everything that came to his head. I had just told him “I wish you would be quiet” when he made a statement.
“God puts more and more stuff in the bible all the time, so it’s always new and we can learn more”
“Well, no, everything we need to know is already in the Bible, Miles”
“So the bible is full then? What about when you know it all?”
Miles has recently learnt the value of “learning” as opposed to “knowing” and how it’s good for our brains and I guess the same thought processes were carrying through to learning about God. How can one keep “learning” or in a spiritual way “growing” once you “know” it all.
Miles has recently learnt the value of “learning” as opposed to “knowing” and how it’s good for our brains and I guess the same thought processes were carrying through to learning about God. How can one keep “learning” or in a spiritual way “growing” once you “know” it all.
Obviously this seems like quite an arrogant question- It is quite a big and pretty much impossible job to “know” it all even just intellectually, but at the same time I know I’m guilty of often coming to the bible with very little expectation of learning something new from it.
But the answer Miles really needed to hear was the spiritual answer. “Yes theoretically you could intellectually “know it all” but the Bible is different from other books, the bible is ‘living’”
For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
1 Peter 1:22-24
1 Peter 1:22-24
“The words, content and message of God’s word always stay the same, but the way the Holy Spirit works in us and in our lives means that we can always learn more.”
Not surprisingly this answer didn't mean much to Miles. “But if you know it all, how can you learn more?”
“Let me think of an example…I know… look at this verse: “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow”. When we lived in Adelaide I thought this just meant God makes us clean by taking our sin away, but when we moved to Dunedin and I saw snow, and I looked at this verse again, I realized that God doesn't just make us clean- he makes us beautiful, just like the snow. The verse was the same, but God helped me to learn something new from it”
You should have seen his eyes, he practically jumped up in bed from the realization. “So God gives us the same bible, and makes new things happen in real life, and shows us how they fit together, and then we can learn more!!!”
When was the last time I stood in awe and amazement at the work God does in our lives and the way he teaches and grows us though his word and his world?
How often do I read the words in the Bible as living words expecting to grow and change from them?
How often do I read the words in the Bible as living words expecting to grow and change from them?
When was the last time I stopped, looked around me, read his word and listened to what new precious truth the Holy Spirit had to show me?
And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe.
1 Thessalonians 2:12-14
1 Thessalonians 2:12-14
