Knowing the Bible doesn’t make a person a Christian; knowing Jesus Christ makes a person a Christian.

14 For lack of guidance a nation falls, but victory is won through many advisers. We find many in the Bible.

My first question I would like to ask people who put a lot of emphasis on knowing the Bible is, “Do you use the Bible to have a conversation with the God of the Bible?” The Bible wasn’t written as a textbook, but as verification of the historicity of Jesus. The point is to know Jesus. If we don’t find Christ in the pages of Scripture, then we have missed the point of the Bible. Consider:

1. Much of the Old Testament is a history book.
2. A good portion of it is poetry.
3. A large part of it is prophecy, all pointing to the Messiah, who is Jesus.
4. The New Testament begins with four biographies of Jesus.
5. Acts is a history book.
6. The rest of it are letters to various churches of that time.

As we can see, there’s not anything that was written directly to us. We derive pertinent information from what was said to the audience of that day. Because it wasn’t written specifically to us, we need the Holy Spirit to help us interpret and apply what we read. Even then, the Spirit is not an means to an end; He IS our Endgame. The Spirit of Jesus lives in us and wants to communicate with us all the time! We use the Bible as our means to that end. Let’s read it for good (spiritual) health.

Abba, thank You for supplying us with written evidence of Your participation in our history. Thank You for those who wrote down the life and teachings of Jesus. May we use what we have at our disposal to learn more about You and to communicate with You. We live in an unprecedented age of knowledge; may we use it to our full advantage as Your Spirit guides us and teaches us along the way. Amen.