My All Sufficient Guide

 

This book is my all sufficient guide for faith and conduct.

 

Those are the words inscribed in the cover of practically every Bible I own.  They were uttered by my Bible Study professor in Bible College more than 20 years ago, and I've never forgotten them.  Though I never thought any other way, I immediately took those words to heart and have based my life and ministry on that statement.

 

This book is my all sufficient guide for faith and conduct.

 

A stranger on a plane asked me once, "Why do you keep reading that book?  Isn't once enough?"  My response was, "This book has more to say than any other book.  I find something new every time I read it."  All I got in return was a blank stare from an individual who had no idea what I was talking about.  They did not understand the declaration that All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God, and is profitable... 

 

When we speak of the Scriptures being inspired by God, we don't mean He was the muse.  God wasn't a good idea upon which men based their writings.  God wasn't the subject matter.  God was the Author.  Peter says, Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.  Jesus went so far as to say not one jot nor one tittle shall pass away, meaning He placed authority on the smallest stroke of the pen.  To say that the Scriptures are inspired is to say that God breathed life into the Word, making it more than a collection of writings.  It is alive and powerful and sharper than a double-edged sword; it divides soul from spirit; it divides bone from marrow; it reveals the deepest intentions of a person's heart.  I can understand why some don't like it; they don't like what it says to them about themselves.

 

In this simple, easy to read text--and it is easy to read, regardless of what you've been told--God has revealed Himself to fallen humanity in order to reconcile them to Himself.  He has recorded the history of his dealings with mankind, the good, the bad, and the ugly.  He has presented Himself as Almighty Creator, Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End, First and Last, the Ancient of Days, the Great I AM.  He has shown Himself to be everything we need Him to be whenever we need Him to be that.  He is Savior and Lord, Master of the Universe.  He started it and He will finish it.  In between beginning and end, He has done everything necessary to bring us to Himself.  He provided the means of salvation, they way to obtain it, and the guide to get us there.  It's all in the Bible!

 

The Bible contains everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.  Everything I need to know about God, everything I need to know about life, everything I need to know about God's will for my life, is contained in that all sufficient book.  It teaches me what to believe about the God who wants me to believe; it leaves nothing out that I need to know.  It tells me how to live; what to do and what not to do.  It is a tutor that leads me to Christ; it is a guardian that keeps me in Christ; it is the words of a loving Father to an ever needy son.  And I love that it is so.

 

God didn't leave my salvation up to my own devices or devising.  He didn't want me to figure it out by myself.  He didn't want to leave it up to my own reasoning or understanding.  He didn't write some mysterious ancient text that I cannot understand, that I have to struggle to make sense of.  He didn't write in secret code that is indecipherable.  He gave me a book of life, a book of hope, a book of wisdom.  He gave me the history of mankind, particularly that branch of the family tree that delivered Jesus into the world so that He could save it.  He gave me His prophecy and His poetry, His wisdom and His Instructions.  He wrote me love songs, He wrote me letters, He wrote me visions about the end.  And He explains Himself.  He wants us to know Him and understand Him; His word does not conceal, it reveals.  All I have to do is read the book and believe it.

 

This book is my all sufficient guide for faith and conduct.

 

There is apparently a new breed of people calling themselves Christian who have decided they may disregard the Bible.  For various reasons.  It's an ancient book; we're a modern culture.  It's religious; we are scientific.  It demands blind obedience; we have abilities of higher reasoning.  It constrains; I'm liberated.  It was for then; I am for now.  Somehow, some have deluded themselves into thinking that they know better than God, or at least the Bible.  They have declared that the Bible isn't true, it isn't accurate, it isn't complete, it isn't for us.  They have shrugged off the burden of the Word and its authority.  They have decided for themselves which of it they will believe, and which of it they will discard.  But I have news for you.  If you're even reading.

 

Your disbelief doesn't make the Bible untrue.  Your independence does not negate the authority of the Word of God.  And all of your reasoning and wrangling of the Word does not change what it is--the inspired, infallible, inerrant, authoritative Living Word of the Living God.  You're not progressive.  You're not enlightened.  You're just lost.  And you need a guide to help you find the way back to God. 

 

For you see your calling, brethren,

that not many wise according to the flesh,

not many mighty, not many noble, are called.

But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise,

and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame

the things which are mighty;

and the base things of the world and the things which are despised

God has chosen,

and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,

that no flesh should glory in His presence.

1 Corinthians 1:25-29, NKJV