Walking with God: The Bible is Alive!

March 13, 2022 

We’re in the second week of our message series, Walking with God. We’re learning spiritual practices that help us walk with God and talk with him. Last week we learned what it is to be a true worshipper. False worship keeps God at a distance. True worship is when you desire to enter into God’s loving presence. God wants you to open the door to your heart and invite him in. 

Next week we’ll hear about serving, after that giving, then sharing the good news. On Palm Sunday we’ll see how Jesus modelled these practices on the cross. 

Today we’re talking about the Bible. I think we’d all like to be encouraged. We’d like some help finding the right way to go. We’d always like to know that someone cares. All that help is available from God. God loves us and offers a peace beyond understanding. So, we’d all like to hear from God. You know, God speaks to us in various ways. God speaks in prayer, maybe God speaks through answering prayer, or God speaks through giving us peace, even in our prayer is not answered. We might get a sense God is speaking in prayer. Another way God speaks to us is through circumstances. Maybe you experience a disappointment: you didn’t get what you wanted, but you can see though, that God worked things out for the best. God showed you what was more important. Or God can speak to you through other people. Someone at church or in your family can speak encouragement to you, and you feel like God is speaking through them. 

A BIG way God speaks to us is through the Bible. What is the Bible? It is made up of two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is the story of the people of Israel and their relationship with God. It was written by people who were inspired by God. The Old Testament was written over a period of about 1200 years. The New Testament is the story of Jesus, who is God’s son and our Savior. Jesus came to show us who God is and who God calls us to be, and to be our salvation. The four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, tell the story of Jesus’ life. Then there are books called the Epistles, many of these were written to churches. In these epistles Christians wrote about who Jesus is and what it means to follow him. The last book in the Bible is the book or Revelation, which calls Christian to faithfulness when they are in danger of giving up their faith. It tells of a day when evil will be destroyed and death defeated, and we all will live with God. 

If we want to walk with God and follow Jesus, we need to know how Jesus related to the Bible. When Jesus lived, the Old Testament was his Bible because the New Testament was not written yet. Jesus read, studied and memorized the Bible. One of the ways he heard God speaking to him was through the Bible. His life and ministry was shaped by it. But he also challenged some interpretations of Scripture. He read all the Bible through two commandments: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. The second commandment was, love your neighbor as yourself. 

After Jesus resurrection, Jesus’ followers, the Apostles, also heard God speak to them through the Bible. They were willing to debate Scripture as Jesus did. The Scripture guided and taught them as they sought to walk with God. 

Hebrews 4:12 says, “The word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword…dividing soul and spirit…it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” The verse says that as we hear God speak to us in the Bible, sometimes it is rough!  We may read Scripture that says, “Pray for those who persecute you.” But we sure don’t want to! Or we read, “Do not judge others.” And it’s really hard. We read “Blessed are the poor” and “Woe to you rich,” and we wonder which we are. If we are blessed with a home and food and the basics of life, we can feel defensive. 

As God speaks to us through the Bible, we are called to account. We are challenged. Do we love our neighbor as ourself? Are we living out what God is teaching us?  

But Hebrews 4 also speaks of God’s incredible grace and forgiveness. Jesus was human and he understands our weakness. He was tempted, too. So, we can approach God with confidence and receive his mercy and grace. Sometimes we sin. But God helps us in our time of need. 

We hear from God: we receive God’s comfort, peace, strength and encouragement from the Bible. God says, “Be not afraid” and we learn to listen more to God than to our fears. 

The word of God is alive & active, with the power to change us into who God calls us to be. It doesn’t change us into perfect people, just followers, on the journey with God. 

If a few minutes each day you read the Bible and ask, “How can I apply this in my life today?” that allows God to speak to you and transform you. 

But life is busy, and how do you find time for reading the Bible? 

Bobby Grunewald was in an airport one day, in a very long TSA line. But Bobby was thinking while he waited, “I wonder if there’s a way to use technology to help me read the Bible more consistently?” Bobby felt like he was a below average Bible reader, that he didn’t read it regularly. And he thought there were probably a lot of people like him that wanted to read the Bible more but struggled to. Before he got on his plane that day he came up with the name for a digital Bible: YouVersion. 

But that was all he had. He had no budget and no help. But God helped. Next month Bobby was at a conference where he saw his friend Terry and told him about YouVersion. His friend got more excited than he expected. And within a month his friend Terry and his wife moved to Oklahoma to help with this YouVersion Bible. 

A big obstacle they faced was they actually had to have a license to put the Bible online. Bobby hadn’t realized it. But it makes sense, people spend millions of dollars translating the Bible, and to sustain their ministry or business, they receive royalties. But Bobby didn’t have a license. He had no idea who to call to get a license. He planned to make this online Bible free. And when he called publishers saying, “Hey, we’ve got this idea, we’d like to have a free license to be able to give your Bible away for free to everyone else,” you don’t get your calls returned. But God helped. A guy named Matt Green called and said, “I heard you’re working on a Bible project. Can you tell me more about it?” Bobby explained it. And Matt didn’t really understand. But he understood the idea was to connect people with Scripture. Matt said, “I have a chain of Christian bookstores, and we sell lots of Bibles, and I actually know some of these publishers. So could I introduce you to them?” So, he did, he reached out to lots of publishers, and some had meetings with Bobby. And no publisher said yes, except one. And that was all they needed.   

So, they launched a website for the YouVersion Bible. Which failed. But then they put it on a Blackberry, which is a smartphone, and that worked! Then Steve Jobs announced Apple would make apps for the iPhone. There would be an App Store. And Bobby thought, what if we build a Bible app, and put it in the App Store? They had two months to do it before the App Store started. No one on the YouVersion team knew how to build an app. But they found a 19-year-old that loved Apple. He built the app and they submitted it. The Bible App was one of the first 200 apps that were available the day the App Store launched. In the first three days, 83,000 people installed the Bible App on their phones, and they were using it, multiple times a day. God got them through all the hurdles to make this Bible: there were donors as well who generously helped it happen!  

Today the YouVersion Bible App is available in 1800 languages, all for free. It has made it to North Korea, Antarctica, and even to the International Space Station. Since it began, half a billion people have downloaded the YouVersion Bible App. 

So not only is the Bible alive and active able to transform us through the power of God. 

The Bible is also alive and active, being read daily by people all over the world! 

My homework for you this week is to read the Bible. Read the paper Bible, or check out the Bible app. There are all sorts of plans, for all ages. If you carry your phone, the Bible is accessible wherever you are. 

If you wish you could hear from God, you’re in luck. Because you can. The Bible is the word of God, God speaks through it. When we read it and listen for how we can apply it in our lives, we find more and more, that the word of God is active and alive, leading and guiding us. Amen.